Veronique de Rugy: Inconsistency: The Most Consistent Thing About Politics

Nobody has ever accused Grover Ohio of being principled and even consistent since his presidency. Every year, Republicans claim they care about fiscal prudence, but when in power, they spend like Democrats. Democrats, on the other hand, insist that they want to create a transition to green-energy economies. However, their actions are contrary to this goal.

These contradictions would be missed if one only looked at the amount of effort Democrats put into green-energy subsidies distribution. Inflation Reduction Act and the infrastructure bill of 2021 included huge subsidies for green energy. The $1.7 trillion Omnibus bill was then passed by Congress at the close of 2022. This bill contains large funding increases to clean energy and other climate programs, including the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy of the Department of Energy, biofuel development and research, and other agencies’ agendas for climate research.

You could easily believe that Democrats would use the government to force green energy if you only looked at the subsidies. This is too narrow.

First, it is likely that most innovative solutions capable of addressing climate change will not be found by the private sector. Betting that the few options picked and heavily favored by government officials — namely solar and wind — will prove to be the best options is risky. In fact, government incentives may be counterproductive. They can direct investment to politically attractive but economically or scientifically unpromising options while leaving open the possibility of funding promising alternatives. This was the case with the Section 1705 green-energy program. DOE funding attracted private investors to the now-defunct Solyndra, Abound solar.

The Democrats’ approach to green-energy is also tangled up in the fact that they want to dramatically increase income taxes and capital gains to pay for subsidies. This is counterproductive as heavily taxing capital gains and private sector innovation will decrease investment, including in green energy projects, and increase taxes on income and capital gains. Subsidies and taxes on income and wealth don’t do much to reduce energy consumption. User fees that are applied to energy would be a better solution. Democrats continue to be more concerned about income and capital gains than they are in soaking the riches.

To increase our reliance upon green energy, we need to see a dramatic rise in the mining of minerals. Even if the world was unquestionably rich in the minerals required for the global energy transition envisioned by President Joe Biden; Democrats are actually enemies of mining. The U.S. Mining Association estimates there is $6.2 trillion in recoverable mineral resources, including copper and zinc. These can be mined on millions upon millions of acres of federal and private lands. Our labor, climate, and health regulations make it difficult to mine profitably. These precious resources remain in the ground. This is why the United States has gone from being the No. In 1990, the United States was the No. 1 producer of minerals. Today, it is seventh.

Democrats who are committed to a green-energy transformation should make it a priority for them to reform counterproductive regulations such as the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), and implement other permitting reforms. But they aren’t doing it for most of the time, as was evident when they helped scrap the last year permitting agreement between Senator Joe Manchin and Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer. This is particularly frustrating because the environmental protections provided by the permitting burden have been proven to be inadequate.

Even worse, Democrats will take the initiative to block access to undeveloped mineral-rich resources, limiting any future growth. This is exactly what Interior Secretary Deb Haaland did just by declaring Minnesota’s Superior National Forest off limits to mining. It’s home to a wealth of materials needed for electric vehicle parts.

If Democrats were to be consistent, they would not hesitate to abandon certain climate goals in return for keeping minerals in the ground. They won’t. Therefore, the United States relies on unsavory countries, many of whom use slave labor, for the minerals that it needs to generate green electricity. Let’s not forget, our dependence on foreign mineral mining is happening even though the administration insists on cumbersome. “made in America” Other parts of the economy may also require these services.

No one has ever accused politicians, as I stated, of being paragons for consistency.

Veronique de Rugy holds the George Gibbs chair in Political Economy at George Mason University and is a senior researcher at the Mercatus Center. You can learn more about Veronique and see cartoons and features from other Creators Syndicate writers at www.creators.com.

Photo credit: andreas160578 Pixabay