President Joe Biden, like millions of Democrats, is into imagery big-time. Imagery, emotion and idealism often are at the root of liberal and progressive thinking, and our new president appears to fit the mold perfectly.
Sleepy Joe made a big show of signing a stack of executive orders on his first day in office, and one of them -- halting construction on the Keystone XL pipeline -- is receiving surprising blowback. Labor unions lambasted the president for destroying thousands of jobs. Even liberal Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau let Biden know he was "disappointed" with the president's decision to revoke the project's construction permit.
The 1,700-mile pipeline was being constructed to carry roughly 800,000 barrels of oil a day from Alberta to the Texas Gulf Coast. The premier of oil-rich Alberta, Jason Kenney, warned Biden's move would be harmful to U.S.-Canadian relations.
Regardless of whether the completed portion will be used to pump oil, the bottom line is that trucks and trains will need to pick up where the pipeline left off. These forms of oil transport will continue to emit CO2 into the atmosphere, and represent a much greater risk of contaminating the environment (accidents are likely to happen; terror attacks on oil transport vehicles cannot be ruled out).
Halting the pipeline will raise gasoline prices for the people who can least afford it, and will make us more dependent on pariah nations such as Iran for oil. (Maybe that's by design!) In short, it's largely symbolic, but don't expect the corrupt media to ever report that (or even be aware of it).
While we're on the subject of clean, green naiveté, how about ethanol mandates? They've been around for more than a decade, and have served to raise food prices as not just grain-based products, but meat, too, have been impacted by smaller supplies of corn, wheat and other grains.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the U.S. ethanol industry consumed about 40 percent of the U.S. corn production in 2018. The acreage required to produce corn for ethanol equals 48,500 square miles -- equal to Delaware, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, Massachusetts and New Hampshire combined. Think about it: A whole lot of CO2 is emitted by those farm implements producing, harvesting and transporting that grain.
There is also growing evidence that ethanol damages engines, including fuel lines and pumps and emission control components. Oh, but don't let that kill your green buzz!
Although government subsidies have been phased out, the industry probably could not survive without government-imposed mandates that force-feed ethanol into the fuel supply chain. That's not wise.
But back to executive orders... Another one the president signed mandates that everyone on federal property must wear a mask and maintain social distancing guidelines. Workers still in offices undoubtedly already have been wearing masks, but huge numbers of federal employees have been working at home for 10 months.
This smacks of useless preening and moralizing. Let's face it, Democrats have a horrendous track record for adhering to mask mandates and practicing social distancing. The number of high profile politicians who have been caught not practicing what they preach is considerable. Therefore, compliance may not be what Biden hopes for.
Millions of Americans are also getting fed up with the mask fascists and may not cooperate -- especially when outdoors at national parks or monuments. This looks like a largely unenforceable rule, and its effect on reducing COVID-19 deaths probably will be negligible.
And then there's the EO on Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation.
This really opens a can of worms, and promises to be troublesome in the years to come. I have no doubt many Biden voters may have buyer's remorse when they realize their daughters will have to deal with males using their locker rooms and restrooms, and / or may try out for a girls' varsity team only to have a male who identifies as a female beat her out for that spot on the roster.
There are other decisions Biden has made, including rejoining the China-loving World Health Organization and contributing to its operations, that bode ill for the future. This is just one of many policies this administration will undoubtedly take to kowtow to China.
I'm betting millions of Americans will pay the price for these actions, and I'll be sure to follow up with this prediction. But no matter how bad the consequences and repercussions may be, I can promise you one thing: Our garbage media will ignore and/or downplay the bad results.
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