Biden's Thanksgiving Bird Could Be Crow 2.0

Thanksgiving is one of the American people's most important days of the year. Family and friends come together to share the 4 Fs of family, friends, food, and football. This year by the time Thanksgiving rolls around, the midterm elections will have been over about three weeks. A different bird will be served in many politically Left homes, and the bird will be Crow 2.0.

We just finished perhaps the most crucial election in the history of our country. Many midterms and general elections over the last few decades have been characterized as mostly between the beliefs of Republicans and Democrats. The Democrats have a socialist agenda, and the Republicans believe in individual freedoms and less government.

Here is one example of the differences between the parties. The leadership of the Democratic Party believes we must eliminate all fossil fuels and convert to green, wind, and solar power generation to save the world. Within hours of taking the oath of office as president, Biden signed an executive order stopping the Keystone XL pipeline, and he put other restrictions on developing oil and natural gas resources within the United States.

All of us who own or operate automobiles, trucks, buses, and trains have seen the impact of escalating fuel costs on our personal or business budgets. Those who heat our homes with natural gas or heating oil have also seen what is happening to our monthly budgets. According to EIA, a government agency, the price of Natural gas stood at $2.71 in January 2021 when Joe Biden took office. It hit its near-term peak in August 2022 at $8.81 per unit. The price moderated to as low as $5.66 in September 2022 and was just under $7 a unit as of this writing. The price is up over 250% since Joe Biden signed his executive order shutting down America's energy policy.

The chart below shows the impact temperature will have on the cost of heating fuels from October 2022 to the end of March 2023. 

Source: United States Energy Information Agency - 11-8-22

I wrote in a previous commentary about the restrictions on the flow of oil and natural gas from Russia to Europe and the impact it would have on energy prices. The effect will mean dramatically higher energy prices in Europe and, in turn, the United States.

According to the EIA, fossil fuels currently account for 61% of the electricity generated, while renewable energy accounts for 19.8%. Right behind renewable is nuclear at 18.9%. President Biden said at a campaign stop for the mid-term elections he wants to close all fossil fuel plants and replace them with wind and solar. The Federal government Department of energy reposts that it spends $45 Billion on alternative energy programs each year. Currently, solar accounts for 2.6% of energy generation.

Academic literature such as Lancet finds that almost 600,000 people die globally each year from heat but 4.5 million from cold. This is nearly 8 times the death rate is significant because about 50% of the heat for homes and small businesses in Europe comes from natural gas. A disrupted supply of natural gas during the cold winter months in Europe could have dire consequences in terms of the number of people that die from the cold. 

I want to finish this article by going back to the potential of both natural gas and diesel fuel shortages on the East Coast and New England in the United States. The scarcity may start on the East Coast but quickly will spread across the country. The Biden administration desires to make more trucks, trains, and buses to convert to electrical power. In that previous article, I suggested that the Biden administration has demonstrated consistently poor planning in determining the near-term and long-term ramifications of decisions. The president is standing before voters in Maryland and telling them we're going to shut down fossil fuel power plants as the source of electrical power generation. And at the same time, the press is talking about diesel and natural gas shortages on the East Coast and the New England region with only 25 days of inventory left.

The inability of the Biden administration to make decisions based on an understanding of the big picture and the outcome of the decision puts all of us at risk. If President Biden is forced to eat some Crow 2.0 for his Thanksgiving dinner, he might change how he makes his decisions.