The Washington Free
Beacon recently reported that the Biden administration’s stunningly unjust
Department of Justice “quietly weighed in on litigation pending before the
Supreme Court this week, siding with liberal cities and states that are seeking
to force the nation's largest oil companies to pay billions of dollars in
damages for global warming.”
Biden’s Solicitor General, Elizabeth
Prelogar, is pushing the Supreme Court to give its imprimatur to the
notion that states can make laws mandating that oil companies pay “the costs of
global climate change." Prelogar is also urging SCOTUS to “allow
Democratic states to pursue their individual lawsuits against the various
companies.”
The outgoing Biden administration also
just placed more than 625 million acres of U.S. coastal and offshore
waters off limits for further oil and natural gas exploration and development. What
a kick in the teeth of the incoming Trump administration—and the American
people.
The Beacon also noted that the
lawsuits against the big oil companies “are being assisted by the California
law firm Sher Edling, which was founded in 2016 to wage war on oil companies
via novel legal methods,” and has “received nearly $14 million in
donations wired through the so-called Collective Action Fund for
Accountability, a shadowy pass-through group that isn't required to publicly
disclose its donors.
Mandating that companies that provide
the vast majority of the world’s energy pay for any possible harm that energy
production has caused the planet is the worst idea in the history of the world.
And that may be an understatement. First off, ‘global warming’ is unproven,
impossible to separate from normal planetary processes. Second, we don’t even
know if it is occurring. Third, we have no idea if it is ‘man-caused,’ let
alone caused by fossil fuel companies. Fourth, there are numerous ‘experts’ who
believe that, if it is occurring, it would be a net benefit to
the planet. Which seems logical.
And all of those previous
statements/reasons are utterly moot. Huh?
Any current government, whether state
or national, that wishes to levy fines against companies in the extraction
industry—or sue them into oblivion—is an existential threat to those it is
(hopefully) sworn to protect and defend…and therefore invalid, illegitimate.
Let me explain. Any possible ‘damage’
these companies have done to the earth is more than counteracted by the
literally incalculable good they have done. Global warming? Petroleum, coal,
and natural gas-based energy has prevented countless millions from dying of
extreme cold over the past century or more via various, relatively inexpensive,
heating systems. Global cooling? Petroleum, coal, and natural gas-based energy
has prevented countless millions from dying of excessive heat via the relatively
recent miracle of air-conditioning.
What else? Let’s see. How many lives
have been immeasurably improved because of the internal combustion engine? The
freedom to get in one’s car and drive to work, or to travel across the country
to see the sights, historical, environmental, or otherwise, is a
blessing—though too often taken for granted now—beyond compare. The same goes
for air travel. Not to mention that, prior to gasoline-powered vehicles, things
were a tad more difficult. Who wants to ride a horse to work in heavy snow and
40-below windchills? Walk? Bicycle? What about the elderly, infirm, and
handicapped? Would that be fair, inclusive, tolerant, and kind? And the
ubiquitous horse poop—filling the streets and thoroughfares of that era was an
ever-present health threat on several levels.
More? Before petroleum-based oils came
into existence, many people lit their homes with lamps fueled by whale oil.
Sperm—and other—whales were also benefactors of the switch to oil, coal, and
natural gas.
Instead of seeking to punish those who
have brought the world real ‘progress,’ dramatically improving lives and
preventing countless deaths, we should be falling to our knees and thanking
almighty God that they did so.
Fines and reparations? In a more just
world, those would be levied against the governments that try to punish the
very entities that have done us the most good.
[For edification—and enjoyment—I’ll
end with a clip from the new Paramount+ show Landman.
You’re welcome.]
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