Murray reacts to Sri Lanka crisis: Climate change activists moving 'too far too fast'
Fox News contributor Douglas Murray joined 'Fox & Friends' to discuss the ongoing crisis in Sri Lanka and the impact of green activists pushing their agenda before the world is ready.
The Wall Street Journal editorial board published a piece Sunday that criticized President Biden and leaders of other Western nations for enacting climate policies that have left their nations vulnerable to Russia, Saudi Arabia, and other dictators for oil.
"Soaring oil and natural gas prices. Electricity grids on the brink of failure. Energy shortages in Europe, with worse to come. The free world’s growing strategic vulnerability to Vladimir Putin and other dictators," the editorial began.
"These are some of the unfolding results in the last year caused by the West’s utopian dream to punish fossil fuels and sprint to a world driven solely by renewable energy," it continued.
"It’s time for political leaders to recognize this manifest debacle and admit that, short of a technological breakthrough, the world will need an ample supply of carbon fuel for decades to remain prosperous and free," the editorial board wrote.
CARBIS BAY, CORNWALL - JUNE 11 2021: (L-R) Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, President of the European Council Charles Michel, US President Joe Biden, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, French President Emmanuel Macron, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, pose for the Leaders official welcome and family photo during the G7 Summit In Carbis Bay, on June 11, 2021 in Carbis Bay, Cornwall. (Photo by Leon Neal - WPA Pool/Getty Images)
Much of the Biden administration's climate agenda has been met with stiff opposition from both Republicans and even some Democrats, such as Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va. Critics of his regulations say they limit American energy production, damage the economy and weaken national security.
The board listed "the costly consequences of misguided climate regulations, subsidies, and mandates."
The first is that countries like the United States "can no longer take reliable electric power for granted." With a recent warning "that two-thirds of the U.S. could experience blackouts this summer," the WSJ blames "shrinking baseload power generation, which has been replaced by unreliable renewable energy" - after all, "Regulators can’t command the sun to shine or wind to blow."
Furthermore, "A third of the nation’s coal power and 10% of its nuclear capacity has shut down over the past decade owing to stricter environmental regulation and competition from cheap natural gas as well as heavily subsidized renewables. Natural gas generators have picked up some of the slack. But they are under stress from having to ramp up and down to balance intermittent renewables."
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President Joe Biden departs after speaking at a news conference after attending the G-7 summit, Sunday, June 13, 2021, at Cornwall Airport in Newquay, England. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
The list continued, "The rushed green transition is driving up energy prices across the board. Peak-time electricity wholesale prices this summer are projected to more than double in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and Midwest, according to the Energy Information Administration. Blame the left’s war on pipelines, which has constrained natural gas production even as demand grows."
The editorial board also listed energy "Supply shortages" as "Failed climate policies are becoming an excuse for more government control of energy production."
The final item was "Empowering dictators."
"Europe’s climate obsession made itself vulnerable to the Kremlin, but Mr. Putin isn’t the only dictator smiling at the West’s energy woes," the editorial board wrote. "President Biden had to beg the Saudis for more oil production, and his Administration may ease sanctions on Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro for more barrels of production. Iran may be liberated to export oil next."
FILE - President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin, arrive to meet at the 'Villa la Grange', in Geneva, Switzerland, June 16, 2021. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File Pool)
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"Do Western leaders recognize or care that their climate monomania is endangering living standards in democracies and empowering authoritarians?" the board asked.
"Historian Arnold Toynbee argued that civilizations die from suicide, not murder. The West’s climate self-destruction may prove him right," the Wall Street Journal editorial concluded.