Note from Norm: All of the above Vs. Only
According to AAA the average price for a gallon of gas in the United States is around $4.43 a gallon.
A year ago, the average price of a gallon of gas was about $3.33 a gallon.
This same time, in 2020, it was barely $2.00 a gallon.
If you want to see what the average price of a gallon of gas is in your state, I invite you to check out this link: https://gasprices.aaa.com/state-gas-price-averages/
Last week it was announced that the rate of inflation “slowed” from 8.5% to 8.3% as though it was a miracle from Heaven.
What wasn’t mentioned so much was that it was still at a 40-year high the week before.
Does this reduction in the rate of inflation suggest that it’s rapid increase has peaked? Maybe. Maybe not.
Does that blip of a reduction manifest itself in any meaningful way in the day-to-day lives of hard-working Americans? Absolutely not.
From shortages of baby formula to the cost of nearly everything we buy (except for Bitcoin!) the price to simply get by in America has become so intense that economist Mohamed El-Erian recently said on CNBC that the United States is nearing a ‘cost-of-living crisis.’
Yet, the Biden Administration remains absolutely tone-deaf to all of it.
Case in point is the Biden administration’s decision to cancel the sale of oil and gas drilling leases for an area in Alaska of more than one million acres.
Despite the President’s pledge to do everything in his power to address the cost-of-living crisis in America, his actions speak much louder than his words.
Opposition from the Administration killed the Keystone XL pipeline project not only cost Americans thousands of jobs, the 1,200-mile pipeline would have moved nearly 830,000 barrels of crude oil daily to refineries in the United States.
Seeking to appease its extreme left flank that opposes any energy production in America that involves fossil fuels the Administration once again froze oil and gas leases. This follows a much-touted announcement in February that it was reopening leases on some public lands. Left unsaid was that was 80% of the land under review was still closed off- and royalty rates were raised 50%.
And the price of gas hit an all-time high last week!
The disconnect between the President’s rhetoric and his actions are creating more than just misery for more and more Americans. As fast as prices are rising in America, the President’s poll numbers are dropping. Yet, he, and his Democratic enablers, keep doubling down.
Because of the Democratic Party’s adherence to the radical dogma of its extreme political left the United States is increasingly keeping its economy tied with one hand behind its back. The false notion that we can simply stop using oil and natural gas, and continue to dismantle nuclear energy operations, because wind and solar energy are present-day solutions to our energy needs is a fantasy that is being told every single day by what now represents the leading edge of the Democratic Party.
There is an absolute need for an “all of the above” approach to energy production in the United States. From renewable energy sources like ethanol, to nuclear energy, to wind and solar power, we need them all.
But we also need oil, gas, and coal – and nuclear — today. And, because we need it today, our present requirements cannot simply be dismissed because special interest groups opposing them demand we stop using them.
If we want to end our reliance on foreign energy, and we should absolutely want to do that, then we need to stop playing games with America’s economy and our national security. Putting our national economy, and the jobs and quality of life that comes with it, at risk because people who have no concept of the real world want us all riding bicycles to work in blizzards, cooling ourselves with windmills when the wind doesn’t blow and cooking our food with solar energy when the sun doesn’t shine is absurd.
Equally absurd is refusing to use the vast energy resources we have at our disposal today and weakening our capacity to protect our national security by remaining dependent on nations which may, at a moment’s notice, simply refuse to provide us with the energy resources we need now, or in the future.
Today, the President and Democrats approach to our nation’s energy needs is an “only’ approach. Only energy sources that aren’t oil, gas and coal will be acceptable options for energy production in America.
What we need, what all Americans need, is an “all of the above approach” that includes greater investments in oil, gas, and coal production now as well as investments in solar, wind and nuclear energy for the future.
If not, then the United States faces and “either/or” future.
Either we create an energy independent future for America or our economy and national security will be at even greater risk now and in the future.