Red-state Republicans embrace the Green New Deal

Here’s a case study in Republicans being the archetypical controlled opposition. Our country is bitterly divided, with the redder half never willingly embracing Democratic Party policies. Red states also hold most of the land, which is where the battleground for our nation’s energy — and by extension, our freedom and prosperity — will be fought.

While in the minority, Republicans voted unanimously against the Green New Deal to create the appearance of opposition, which prevents a legitimate opposition from arising. Then, once they return to the majority, they work to implement the Green New Deal in the red states and oppose full repeal at the federal level, ultimately achieving for Democrats what they could not accomplish on their own.

There is no middle ground when it comes to fake green energy — either you believe the truth, or you buy into the global warming lie.

They did this with Obamacare. Now they are doing it with the Green New Deal.

Last week, 18 House Republicans sent a letter to Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) demanding that Republicans not repeal “the energy tax regime,” which includes massive subsidies for unworkable sources of energy. Like their approach with Obamacare, where they focused solely on the funding mechanism without addressing the core issues of the law, the 18 signatories limited their opposition to the Inflation Reduction Act to the flawed process of its passing and the revenue from increased IRS tax compliance. Meanwhile, they never mentioned that the entire bill is built on the global warming myth they refuse to confront.

Short-term thinking

Why should we be funding a massive transition from workable to unworkable energy, forms of energy that are bad for red-state land usage and the environment, simply because it temporarily creates fake jobs in their districts?

These same Republicans wax poetic about inflation but then support endless deficit spending that harms consumers to produce products like solar, wind, and EVs, which further burden consumers with expensive, unworkable projects. On one hand, they decry the loss of “jobs” if the subsidies are repealed, but they couldn’t care less about the inflationary effects and the unnatural creation of unsafe, costly products. As a result, the cost of replacing damaged electric vehicles has driven up auto insurance rates, even for normal cars, making auto insurance one of the most inflationary items in the CPI over the past few years.

The green grift is a classic example of illusory job creation. When you misallocate resources to subsidize projects the market would never sustain, you drive up prices and debt in the long run, causing a long-term loss of durable jobs. If you're going to incur debt to subsidize jobs, at least reallocate those subsidies to building more oil refineries and nuclear power plants, which would benefit consumers and the economy’s long-term viability. But Republicans seem to care only about short-term benefits and donor cash.

The GOP clamor for fake “green” jobs was recently chronicled by Bloomberg, which observed that “the lion’s share of IRA investment has gone to red and swing states — especially in the South and Midwest — where land, labor and energy are cheaper.”

South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp have turned their states into meccas for foreign companies building electric vehicle plants. Buddy Carter, a Georgia representative with a massive government-sponsored venture socialist EV plant, declared, “I’m going to discourage [the new administration] from making a sudden change.”

Sure, we can print $1.2 trillion for the IRA subsidies out of thin air, make the American people pay for it, jack up car insurance rates, and create a ubiquitous safety hazard of electric car fires, but then congratulate ourselves that at least some temporary jobs were created.

What’s shocking is that even with so many tailwinds behind the EV industry, the subsidized players still cannot make their absurd, venture-socialist business model solvent — even with the support of consumers and taxpayers.

Ford is losing nearly $50,000 on each electric vehicle this year, accelerating its gross losses from $4.5 billion last year and $2.1 billion in 2022. Stellantis and Nissan are facing bad earnings and slow sales growth. Mercedes is experiencing a freefall in its EV fleet, and Volkswagen is walking back its entire electric vehicle production strategy. Even with the most favorable environment created by global governments, EVs still can’t achieve profitability.

Trillions and trillions for a lie

Republicans demanding the continuation of subsidies for an insolvent industry are being dishonest. There is no middle ground when it comes to fake green energy — either you believe the truth, or you buy into the global warming lie. Once you buy into the lie, you place taxpayers and consumers on the hook for infinitely more subsidies, mandates, and pain to make the “transition” to unworkable energy.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen already conceded that the green energy sector will require $3 trillion a year through 2050 to make the transition, with $1 trillion of the annual subsidies coming from the U.S. alone. That amount is more than we spend on the military.

If we don’t pull the plug on these subsidies now, we will be committed to an infinite level of subsidization. The GOP’s plan to maintain the current level without expanding it is equivalent to trying to hold a boulder midway down a steep cliff.

GOP governors and legislatures must reject these projects before they get off the ground. At the national level, President Trump and GOP congressional leaders must promise to repeal 100% of the Green New Deal subsidies.

The current strategy from the GOP is a classic maneuver of controlled opposition and illustrates why nothing ever changes when Republicans win elections. These Republicans claim to oppose mandates and bans on fossil fuels, but by supporting subsidies for fake energy, they are acting as the frog carrying the scorpion across the water. They are facilitating the transition to unworkable energy.

The only purpose in spending trillions to prop up a product that could never work on its own is to permanently end the use of effective, natural fuels.

Green energy is a euphemism for no energy. Subsidizing this grift is not funding job creation, it’s funding our demise.