2020 Democratic presidential hopeful former Vice President Joe Biden moved to the left during Tuesday’s debate. He did this despite having a decent lead over Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT).
Biden may have damaged his chances in key swing states by going after the energy sector.
Americans have longed desired to end our dependence on Saudi Arabia and others on oil.
The country has become a net exporter in oil. Investopedia.com defines a net exporter as “a country or territory whose value of exported goods is higher than its value of imported goods over a given period of time.”
How did this happen? Financial Times explained in November:
The top oil producer and consumer exported 89,000 more barrels of crude oil and refined petroleum products a day than it imported in September, the first full month of a positive oil trade balance since the 1940s, the Energy Information Administration said Friday. Imports exceeded exports by 12m barrels a day a decade ago.A variety of factors contributed to the shift: surging production from shale oilfields, the end of a crude oil export ban in 2015 and fuel economy improvements for cars that limited petrol demand even as highway travel rebounded from a recession.Along with rises in natural gas output and renewable electricity generation, the oil shipments have pushed the US towards a long-invoked goal of energy independence, according to Rystad Energy, a consultancy.A US petroleum trade deficit of $62bn in 2018 — 10 per cent of the country’s trade balance — is on track to become a surplus of hundreds of billions of dollars “thanks primarily to the gargantuan rise of output from the US shale sector”, the consultancy said this week.
The energy sector is huge for America. It drives the economy of some states, including Oklahoma. I live in Oklahoma and know that without the industry the state would suffer. It’s one reason why I don’t enjoy low gas prices.
Anyway, Biden went far-left on the energy sector during Sunday’s debate:
“No more subsidies for fossil fuel industry, no more drilling on federal lands, no more drilling including offshore, no ability for the oil industry to continue to drill,” Biden said. “Period. Ends.”“No new fracking and, by the way, on the Recovery Act, I was able to make sure we invested $90 billion in making sure we brought down the price of solar and wind that is lower than the price of coal, that’s why not another new coal plant will be built,” Biden continued.
This is the first time Biden has called for a complete ban on drilling. In other words, he has no problem putting people out of jobs:
“The answer is yes,” Biden said. “We should, in fact, be making sure right now that every new building built is energy contained, that it doesn’t leak energy, that in fact we should be providing tax credits for people to be able to make their homes turn to solar power. They’re all kinds of folks — right here in California, we’re now on the verge of having batteries that are about the size of the top of this podium that you can store energy when in fact the wind isn’t blowing and the sun isn’t shining. We have enormous opportunities.”
I’m all for ending all subsidies, but it looks like Biden is picking favorites. It also looks like he wants to follow in President Barack Obama’s footsteps. Does anyone remember Solyndra?
Thing is, if you want to increase our dependence on different energy sources, you have to accept the fact that it will not happen overnight. It will take a while.
Sure Oklahoma will once again be pure red in a presidential election, but what about swing states?
It does not help that Biden also embraced the far-left Green New Deal proposed by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
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