The recent European Parliament elections saw sweeping losses for Green parties across the continent as voters rejected harmful policies sold under the false guise of environmentalism. [emphasis, links added]
The left-leaning Greens lost 18 seats of their previous 71-member bloc, a 25% drop — and the United States, where President Biden has prioritized green giveaways since the first day of his administration, could be headed for a similar reckoning in November.
While the exact set of circumstances differ, the commonality on either side of the Atlantic is clear: Extreme environmental policies have weakened Western nations, economically and geopolitically.
Voters understand this concept inherently — and are beginning to reject it electorally.
Consider the European impact of the Biden administration’s ban on future export permits for US liquefied natural gas (LNG).
Zero new permits for LNG exports have been issued since January when the administration capitulated to environmentalists’ demands and froze them.
Green activists on both sides of the Atlantic cheered this move as some sort of victory for the environment.
But for European countries whose energy supplies have been stressed by Russian President Vladimir Putin as part of his war in Ukraine, it poses a major national security risk.
In 2021, the EU got nearly half of its imported LNG from Russia. But in 2022, the year Putin launched his war against Ukraine, American producers increased LNG shipments to Europe by 119%.
By December 2023, the United States had become the world leader in LNG exports, surpassing Qatar — and more than 61% of those LNG exports went to EU member nations.
But, just as Biden refuses to celebrate America’s taking the lead in world oil production, you won’t hear a peep of praise from him about how our innovators have made us a world leader in LNG.
Instead, his permit freeze holds us back.
Less American LNG means more LNG production in Russia — and more cash in Putin’s pockets.
So what could be fueling Biden’s ban?
Money and politics, of course.
In the aftermath of his January “pause,” left-wing environmental groups like the League of Conservation Voters announced a $2 million ad buy praising Biden for “combatting climate change.”
There’s plenty more green where that came from: In 2020, the LCV boasted about its “historic $115 million investment” to “elect climate and environmental justice champions at all levels.”
The LCV is just one of many green groups spending serious cash for Biden.
A “strategic communications” entity known as Climate Power has amassed an $80 million election war chest, and last week forecasted a major spend in the battleground states.
With his half-century in Washington, Biden fancies himself as a global statesman and a steady hand at the wheel. He has decried Republicans for “walking away from the threat of Russia.”
Yet when push came to shove, Biden chose environmentalists over Europeans. He was willing to enrich Putin to appease the greens.
The political irony would be delicious if the geopolitical consequences weren’t so dire.
The same Democratic Party that has spent years shrieking about Russia is led by a man whose anti-energy policies are playing into the hands of Vladimir Putin.
While the pundits litigate the wreckage of the EU elections, some things are not up for debate.
European voters are rejecting a green agenda that has made them poorer and more vulnerable to Russian aggression, and that turns a blind eye to polluting India and China while it punishes their economies.
If the results of the EU elections are any indicator, green policies are now an electoral loser; ordinary people want a return to prosperous economies and a stable world.
Biden’s executive actions can be reversed by the next president.
Voters are making it clear which direction they want to go.
Source: Climatechangedispatch.com
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