From Politico’s “Morning Energy”:
TOTAL RECALL – If environmentalists are going to get results in their push for clean energy, they need to pipe down about climate change and speak up about national security and job creation, Arnold Schwarzenegger told college energy clubs on a recent conference call [with Energy Secretary Steven Chu].
Er, that’s not even selective memory. More like amnesia. I understand the part about running from your Plan A — after all, this very marching order first came from pollster Stanley Greenberg and led to John Kerry saying of his cap-and-trade bill “This is not an environment bill” (oddly, it amended the Clean Air Act, granted power to EPA, mentions ‘environment’ 97 times, ‘climate’ 220 times, ‘greenhouse’ 650 more times…but, hey, the pollster said say something else!).
But the Secretary and Governator are also forgetting that the damage these policies wreak has been specifically, thoroughly and professionally exposed as regards the very countries Obama used to tell us to look because they were his models (Spain, Denmark, Germany; the sole exception not receiving the full review is Japan).
He no longer cites them, obviously due to said exposés, but he still pushes the costly schemes (he knows, and cares not. That is disturbing).
Now they’re going to say ‘China!’. Which was not their first choice, but fifth, for a reason: to compare us with them is absurd.
And so about that ‘security’ thing.
Recall the recent ‘gathering storm’ (yes, Germans actually wrote that) and ‘it gets dark in Germany’ headlines. Now those headlines are popping up here, and for the same reason. Consider Climate Wire today (subscription required):
“RENEWABLE ENERGY: Fickle winds, intermittent sunshine start to stress U.S. power system”.
Keep that one handy for in the event O repeats his German example, which he seems to be holding on to in reserve, having whipped it out when he though no one was listening (in a Saturday radio address in December), but has otherwise avoided after Spain, Denmark and Germany were exposed. Such praise went the way praise for transport model, China, may now go (thanks to WaPo!)…though, as with renewables, the rail agenda itself will surely hang on, with only the rhetorical hints about where to look for how the story ends abandoned.
More on the importance of WaPo debunking the ‘China’s doing it!’ TP on high-speed rail later. But do bear in mind the relevance of one story to the other. The truth is that the president, like the movement he represents, opposes automobility and abundant energy because both liberate you. Just as George Will wrote about why liberals love trains, freedom of movement like abundant energy is “subversive of the deference on which progressivism depends [and . . .] encourages people in delusions of adequacy, which make them resistant to government by experts who know what choices people should make.”
As regards their ‘say anything’ approach to create the world they seek to create, just remember as Mr. Alinsky taught them, the issue isn’t the issue. The reason (excuse) for doing what they demand is always changing, and this is because ere is no good reason for doing it. But if they told you what they really longed for it would be a non-starter. Which, in itself, is reason enough to stop this madness now.
