"Our national security is at stake [because] extreme weather has already been damaging our military installations here in the states, and our economy is at risk; so we have to act," said Biden. "As president, I have a responsibility to act with urgency and resolve when our nation faces clear and present danger, and that's what climate change is about. It is literally, not figuratively, a clear and present danger."
Unsurprisingly, not everyone agrees with the president's assessment.
"There wasn't much in it," Myron Ebell of the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) said of the speech. "He went to what looked like an empty field where there used to be a coal-fired power plant and said that climate change was a 'clear and present danger' and if Congress would not act, he would."
While Senator Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia) is a big reason why Biden's "Build Back Better" plan has yet to become reality, Biden said Republicans are to blame for lack of action.
The president may think that way, but only 1% of voters in a recent New York Times/Sienna College poll named climate change as the most important issue facing the nation. More people are concerned about issues including rising energy prices.
"The actions that he may take unilaterally without Congress enacting these policies are going to lead to higher energy prices, not lower," says Ebell. "So, he's playing to his base and he's against the interests of the American people which are for affordable and abundant energy, not climate policies that make energy more expensive and Americans poorer."
Biden's 'green dreams' would create nightmares
The president stopped short of announcing a national emergency declaration to address what his administration considers to be a climate crisis.
"But that might be ahead," warns H. Sterling Burnett, Ph.D. of The Heartland Institute. "Such a policy would be a national disaster for people already struggling under the burden of high energy prices, inflation, and empty shelves at the grocery store."
Burnett says Biden cannot get his facts straight on either climate or the virtues of the solutions he is proposing. "… With a straight face, [he] lied to the American people about climate change making extreme weather events worse," Burnett explains.
"Data and reports from the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and various agencies in the federal government refute claims that hurricanes and tornados have set records, or increased in number or frequency."
Burnett also dismisses concerns that droughts and wildfires are more frequent or prolonged today: "In addition, there is no evidence whatsoever that a temperature rise of 1.5 degrees centigrade is a tipping point at which 'we lose it all.'"
Since the president "can't get the facts straight" on extreme weather events, Burnett says it's not surprising his climate agenda is all wrong for the country.
"While it is certainly true [that] massive subsidies and mandates for offshore wind can create 'good-paying jobs,' what it can't do is sustain grid reliability or produce cheap electricity [whereas] coal did that in spades," says Burnett.
"Offshore wind is among the most costly forms of energy generations, meaning people already paying high electric bills created by the government shutdown of fossil fuel power, will be paying even more, much more, in the future, even as the ready supply of on-demand power wanes, as the grid buckles when higher electric power demand meets less reliable electric power supply – and, of course, to make Biden's green dreams come true we are destroying the wild ocean, whale and fish habitat, and commercial fisheries."
Bottomline, Burnett says Biden's climate policies are not win/win for people and the economy; instead, "they are lose/lose," he adds.
Editor's note: Myron Ebell made his comments on the "Washington Watch with Tony Perkins" program Wednesday.
