Breaking down vituperations

Former Environmental Protection Agency chief Carol Browner’s recent vituperations about the rescinding of the Clean Power Plan demonstrate why a growing number of Americans do not assign credibility to the Democrats’ talking points on U.S. climate and energy policy. In addition to ignoring or not understanding that 1) U.S. adherence to the Paris climate accord would have an extremely tiny impact on atmospheric CO2 concentration and 2) that the accord is much more favorable to China than to the U.S., Ms. Browner conflates U.S. CO2 policy with recent weather events. Further regarding CO2, key Democrats — among them President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton — played either a negative or reluctantly passive role in the fracking revolution. Fracking and its enabling of low-cost domestic oil and gas production is the dominant reason for our country’s major reduction in CO2 emissions in the past 10-12 years. And with their very positive impact on personal disposable income and industry competitiveness, these low-energy costs are a primary reason that U.S. economic growth since 2008 — anemic as it has been — can be charitably termed a marginal recovery. In all respects, it’s another demonstration of the Democrats’ desire to promote “feel-good” climate and energy policies rather than those that can be shown by objective measurement to have accomplished useful goals in a cost-effective manner.

This story was originally published November 7, 2017 at 11:22 PM with the headline "Breaking down vituperations."