As President Joe Biden approaches his third year in office, consumer prices have risen more than 17% on his watch, largely due to a 32% jump in energy costs.
U.S. energy security is vulnerable to unstable power grids and bellicose moves by Russia and Iran, which seek soaring oil prices to finance their wars. (Related: JD FOSTER: Biden administration's antitrust push against airlines is pointless)
Still, U.S. energy production has only recently returned to pre-pandemic levels. The culprit, of course, is the president's major multitrillion-dollar legislative achievement, the ironically titled Inflation Control Act (IRA). Instead of deterring Russia and Iran, Biden administration apparatchiks are using IRA subsidies and tax credits to block reliable and affordable energy investment, thereby undermining our national security. is making the crisis even worse.
Last month, for example, the Treasury Department announced a long-awaited policy. Eligibility criteria For the IRA electric vehicle tax credit. China emits more than twice as much carbon as the U.S., but Treasury standards will lead to Swiss IRA provisions aimed at preventing tax credit subsidies for Chinese miners and mineral refiners. Applied.
The Treasury's approach is so crooked that Sen. Joe Manchin, whose vote on the climate bill was critical, said: committed “We support any legal action” against it.
A similar disruption to energy security unfolded in the wake of the recent COP 28 climate change conference signed by the Biden administration. written oath Triple nuclear energy capacity by 2050, aiming for net-zero emissions.But then, less than a month later, federal bureaucrats We're screwed Deploying the IRA Hydrogen Tax Credit.
Existing nuclear facilities are being denied this lucrative IRA scheme, despite producing around 46% of the energy reliably, in favor of easy-to-build industries like wind and solar power. . american carbon free electricity.
In the dizzying rush to funnel tax dollars to the regime's favored industries, the hard work of developing predictable safety regulations that are the basis for the success of any energy technology has been sidelined. While the pipeline transports hydrogen within Texas and Louisiana; There are no clear rules to permit interstate hydrogen pipelines;
Carbon capture technologies face similar challenges. The IRA has significantly increased subsidies for capturing and storing carbon emissions.
In 2022, the Department of Transportation recognized the need to update carbon pipeline safety regulations, but the challenge remains unresolved. put off Federal bureaucrats must prioritize their most important regulatory responsibilities, rather than sitting back and serving as central fiscal planners.
The IRA suffers from the same arrogance as all socialist master plans. The federal government lacks the information, incentives, and ability to realize the utopian dreams of progressives.
A top-down command-and-control model won't work for Obamacare, and it won't work for reliable and affordable energy.
Instead, we should embrace free market capitalism, which unleashes the abundant energy this country is blessed with. We will completely repeal the IRA's energy and environmental provisions and create a fiscally responsible, “all of the above,” America-first energy policy that promotes competition and consumer choice, not distortive tax credits. Must be reintroduced.
This strategy promotes efficient use of America's diverse natural resources while abolishing the current one-size-fits-all environmental focus in regions as diverse as Alaska and Florida.
oil and gas drilling, nuclear power, hydrogen, carbon capture, and yes, electric vehicles all have a potential role to play in the U.S. energy and transportation sectors, and they should all be subjected to free market testing. Under the direction of our colleague, then-Secretary David Bernhardt, the Department of the Interior pursued this “America First, all of the above approach” in his May 2020 initiative. it was allowed At the time, it was the largest solar power project in American history.
As an act of central planning, IRAs are both coercive and inefficient. Manipulate consumer choices, pick winners and losers, and foot the tab on future generations.
To achieve true energy security, revitalize the economy, and lower prices, the incoming America First administration will implement the IRA's Energy and Environmental Policy, along with fair competition and the return of the federal government's “all of the above.” provisions should be completely abolished within the first 100 days. energy strategy.
Dr. Volkender is Chief Economist at the America First Institute for Policy Studies and Professor of Finance at the University of Maryland. From 2019 to 2021, he served as Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy.
Dr. McPherson-Smith is Director of the Center on Energy and Environment at the America First Institute for Policy Studies and a Fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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