Don Ritter
Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman doesn’t think energy will be a top consideration in voters’ decisions this year. But he didn't account for the difference between 2020 and 2024, or the obvious correlation between energy costs, employment and inflation.
Inflation, illegal immigration and crime are major issues of concern to voters in the 2024 elections.
While energy may have had a marginal effect in Pennsylvania's 2020 election cycle, its importance has risen because of its direct (and immutable) link to higher prices for nearly all products and services, and because of Biden's -Harris’ nearly four-year war on fossil fuels — leasing, drilling, mining and fracking — is driving up inflation.
A recent survey of 800 Pennsylvania registered voters found that more than two-thirds believe inflation is an obstacle to maintaining their standard of living.
However, the Biden-Harris administration has made the controversial “climate emergency” a priority, making energy production more difficult and expensive, while pouring $400 billion into wind, solar, batteries and other “renewable” energy technologies Borrowed Green New Deal funds. Add to that the (so-called) inflation-cutting bill and its billions of dollars in new spending on “green” infrastructure. Finally, strict regulation of the energy industry adds fuel to the fire.
These actions result in higher prices for everything we make, grow, transport, drive, eat, wear… the list of products derived from fossil fuels is almost endless.
Donald Trump will make the opposite argument to Pennsylvania voters. Republican Senate candidate Dave McCormick will also attack incumbent Sen. Bob Casey for his support of massive Green New Deal spending and anti-fossil fuel Biden-Harris energy policies that have driven up inflation .
Perhaps most importantly, while Bob Casey has not been outspoken on almost everything, he has provided the decisive vote for a small Senate Democratic majority that wholeheartedly supports inflationary green across the board New Deal, anti-fossil fuel regulation and spending.
A statement from his office – without even a vote – expressed support for Casey's tepid, politically expedient approach to his administration's multi-trillion-dollar energy agenda to eliminate fossil fuels. Den-Harris bans new LNG exports over concerns. That's it.
The McCormick campaign noted that natural gas production in Pennsylvania has been inhibited by federal policies that hinder pipeline construction. McCormick noted that “under Biden’s energy policy, Bob Casey’s rubber stamp, we don’t have access to clean natural gas” because pipelines are critical to getting fracked natural gas to end users. McCormick stressed that Casey “supports policies that cost us jobs and further drive up energy prices.”
Democratic presidential candidate Kamela Harris, contrary to what her campaign has told the media, has passionately opposed fracking and repeatedly voted for inflationary Green New Deal spending.
Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro’s support for so-called “green” energy has exacerbated the Casey-Biden-Harris effect in the Keystone State. His proposed $499 million carbon tax and expansion of expensive, weather-dependent, unreliable part-time wind and solar would add an already considerable burden to households and businesses.
The argument that wind and solar costs are falling steadily ignores the huge cost (perhaps trillions of dollars) of supporting their intermittent generation with expensive coal or natural gas power plants (or lots of extremely expensive batteries) every time wind and solar generate electricity , these power plants will start up.
David Taylor, executive director of the Pennsylvania Manufacturers Association, said what Shapiro proposed was “not just a disastrous energy policy,” but a “costly and disastrous energy policy.” 550,000 workers in the five largest manufacturing states educate and lobby.
In fact, both state and federal policies are to blame for the closure of many coal-fired power plants and for coal's share of Pennsylvania's electricity generation to decline from more than half to less than a fifth over the past decade. The largest such generator in Homer, Pa., shut down a year ago, and two other generators announced early retirement within a few years. Plans for a natural gas power plant have been put on hold.
Natural gas currently provides more than half of Pennsylvania’s electricity, but natural gas generation and electricity affordability are also threatened by costly government regulations and more regulation in the future.
All of this can adversely affect manufacturing costs, employment, and the price of goods and services.
Boilermakers union business agent Shawn Steffee reports that $14 billion worth of gas plants were built in the state in the decade before the carbon tax was first proposed in 2019. However, the project has since never been built, and two proposals costing $1 billion have been scrapped.
“It’s unlikely we’ll build another one,” Steffee said.
Whether it's the suspension of natural gas power plants or the closure of coal-fired power plants, jobs and grid reliability will take a hit. The threat of recurring blackouts is rising and we're closer than ever to having power When it happens to be available, not when we need it.
Indeed, governments and industry regulators of high-voltage transmission systems have warned of energy shortages caused by untimely closures of fossil fuel power plants that augment the share of far less reliable wind and solar power. Large-scale regional outages across much of the Atlantic coast are not out of the question. They can be deadly during heat waves and freezing temperatures.
This is sure to dim the electoral prospects of politicians who support green energy. More important, however, is what impact it will have on jobs, factories, hospitals, schools and families.
As for the impact of job losses, one need only read the Washington Examiner's coverage of meetings between federal officials and Homer citizens affected by last year's plant closures.
“The vast divide between the government's understanding of the needs of the people it serves and the people themselves was most unbearably apparent at this meeting,” the article begins. It then addresses those whose lives are “left forever.” “Hometown” furloughed workers told harrowing personal stories of unfulfilled promises and pointed to slides from the conference praising the “good intentions” of federal agencies.
This seems to be a constant refrain from politicians and bureaucrats. Good intentions can lead to ill-advised policies that produce the opposite of what the authors claim.
Donald Trump and Dave McCormick will explain how to shift federal policy and funding away from a life-changing “green” energy and economic agenda toward traditional abundant, reliable, and affordable energy.
On Nov. 5, the House, Senate and president are all at stake, and the decisive vote will likely come from Pennsylvania's energy consumers.
Don Ritter is a former Republican congressman from Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley.
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