Speaking of working at cross-purposes, the editors of the Wall Street Journal remark on how the Biden Administration’s economic and environmental strategies are working against each other:
On Tuesday the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers revoked a Clean Water Act permit granted by the Trump Administration for the NewRange copper and nickel mine in Minnesota’s Duluth Complex. The area isn’t virgin land. The Duluth site is part of the fabled Iron Range, which provided 70% of the iron ore that America used during World War II.
“Minnesota’s Iron Range has played a vital role in helping build America,†candidate Biden proclaimed in September 2020. “U.S. manufacturing and mining was the Arsenal of Democracy in World War II. It must be part of the Arsenal of American Prosperity today, helping power an economic recovery for working families.†Apparently not.
His Administration picked the anniversary of D-Day to deep-six the NewRange mine, which would provide minerals to power electric vehicles and his green-energy transition. The U.S. will have to import the minerals from arsenals of autocracy like Russia and China.
In other acts of economic masochism, the Interior Department last month delayed a decision on whether to let Alaska build a 211-mile road to a critical minerals mining area. The project was initially approved by Trump regulators, but Biden officials agreed to conduct a second review after green groups sued. The Administration also recently put on ice a copper mine in Arizona.
And last Friday Interior removed from oil and gas development hundreds of thousands of acres of public land in New Mexico within 10 miles of the Chaco Culture National Historical Park. The Administration sided with green lobbyists over the Navajo Nation, which opposed the land withdrawal and stood to reap tens of millions of dollars in oil and gas royalties.
If coming up with good policies were easy, anybody could do it.
Can there be any doubt that Russia and China have much better governments than the US and EU. Their rise to world domination, and our reduction to Second World status is guaranteed.
Go over to Briggs blog and read the latest guest posting. It is the openly stated goal of the EU masters to collapse the EU economy, to force the greatest depression in history. Not openly stated is the plan for a massive depopulation.
These plans are so blatantly insane that normal people cannot believe our leaders intend to do it. But anyone with any awareness of the environmental literature knows it to be true.
The reason the Administrations policies conflict is that they are not policies, but compromises.
Nations need leaders, but they must have a plan, a rallying point.
Biden’s compromises are for sale, have been for 50 years.
Like a mob leader, he passes out privileges and access to power for loyalty.
This will not end well.
The problem when you use the right wing WSJ is you get cherry picked information. They “forget” that new mines are being opened. The failure to approve every mine does not necessarily mean they are not approving all mines and there might be good reasons to not approve some. People actually do need water.
Also, just pick a nit, the issue with the Arizona coper mine is due to the local Apache tribe claiming it would impinge upon their religious beliefs. Since we know that conservatives value religious freedom the project would have delayed regardless of which party was in office.
https://www.ft.com/content/561232f9-adf2-4ec3-a28e-e449dfb6dcce
Steve
Steve
“The problem when you use the right wing WSJ is you get cherry picked information. They “forget†that new mines are being opened.”
That’s pretty simple minded, steve. All analyses I’ve seen indicate that the projected demand exceeds the ability of new mines to provide it, necessitating expensive recycling efforts or Al Cu substitution. Further, the time from a new mine to normalized full production is lengthy, over a decade, and makes the EV adoption goals simply all the more absurd and unattainable. We need all the mines we can get on line. And the Indians were put up to objections in MN by the enviros.
See what happens when you get a no-nothing lefties cherry picking little issues like, oh, demand. Or the real driving forces behind water quality objections?
Nice to hear from the approve everything and dont do any analysis crowd.
Steve
I know you disagree with this, steve, but I don’t believe that the WSJ editorial policy is particularly right-wing. I think it’s pro-business. They support Republican policies when they see the policies as pro-business and oppose them when they see the policies as anti-business. They support Democratic policies when they see the policies as pro-business and oppose them when they see the policies as anti-business. What you’re interpreting as being right-wing is the increasingly anti-business stance of Democratic policies.
EV transition targets, copper mining approvals, political prosecutions, do the Chinese have better governance?
Sounds like we’ve abandoned the idea of limited government and adopted China’s top down approach.
When they take over we may not notice the difference.
Yes I do disagree. The editorial page is very right wing. It is probably more right wing with libertarian overtones, but they will give up any pretense towards libertarian thought if they need to support important Republicans or their issues. Probably the best you can say is that they tend to avoid a bit of the culture war stuff. Wealthier conservatives are less likely to want to kill the gays than the rest of the party.
Steve