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Catchy Slogans Are Not A Good Excuse To Threaten The American Way Of Life
Angry teenagers are the left’s thought leaders when it comes to energy and environment policy, hence the breathless (but empty) slogans about “climate action” and the thoughtless policies that follow suit. But America’s energy policy should not be dictated by angry teenagers from Sweden. Catchy slogans make the uneducated feel intellectually superior, but that doesn’t change basic energy physics or math. Here are the facts: we cannot rely on wind and solar for baseload power. We are already experiencing significant grid reliability issues and cost increases as reliable power (like natural gas) is displaced by renewables. And yet, Biden’s EPA has been trying to suffocate America’s ability to produce oil and gas through regulatory strangulation. Most recently, Biden’s EPA is proposing aggressive carbon dioxide reduction rules for power plants —demanding that coal and natural gas plants immediately upend their entire operations with unproven technology to make these plants “cleaner.” The EPA says their goal with this rule is to reduce emissions, but in reality they know this rule will just reduce investment in building new natural gas plants, and rapidly transition the United States to a grid powered only with wind and solar. That is bad for everyone, especially considering American energy demand will increase by about 30% over the next 20 years. Americans deserve to have reliable energy — they deserve to have heat in the winter and AC in the summer. And Americans deserve the mature, honest truth when it comes to this issue—we can provide cheap, dependable energy *while also* reducing emissions here at home with proven solutions like nuclear energy and American-made natural gas that we can then export to the rest of the world.
The Fentanyl Epidemic Is A Supply-Driven Problem
Former White House drug czar and current president of the Hudson Institute John Walters joined me to give a comprehensive overview of the origins of the fentanyl epidemic. More than 70,000 Americans died from fentanyl overdoses in 2021. It is the #1 cause of death for adults ages 18 – 49. Almost everyone reading this knows someone who has died from a fentanyl overdose or is afflicted by addiction to this poison. No healthy person ever woke up and just decided to become a fentanyl addict. Dealers create the addiction by pushing the drug on vulnerable users or sneaking it into the other drugs they’re taking. It’s a supply-driven problem, and one which we can solve with effective policies. Walters cites one example when the George W. Bush administration, working in cooperation with the Colombian government, was able to bring cocaine use in the United States down 60% by targeting the suppliers. House Republicans are taking the fentanyl epidemic seriously by creating a new cartel task force in Congress that I will lead. This task force will be the focal point for all legislation to target these transnational criminal organizations and cut off the supply of fentanyl entering the United States. Watch the full episode where we dive into the root causes of the fentanyl crisis and what policies we can implement to stop this deadly epidemic.
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