A letter was recently leaked that had been distributed among the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and 10 other member countries of the OPEC+ coalition — all of which are attending the annual meeting of climate change alarmists otherwise known as COP28.

The letter calls on OPEC members to resist signing on to any deal at COP28 that calls for the eventual phaseout of fossil fuels.

Predictably, the letter triggered outrage among the conference’s climate zealots, who see using fossil fuels as the “sin” that is threatening to destroy the planet. “OPEC’s letter is outrageous,” complained Massachusetts Democrat Senator Ed Markey, who is attending the conference being held in oil-rich Dubai. “OPEC wants to talk about emissions, but not the source of the emissions.”

“It would be like the tobacco industry saying you can talk about lung cancer, but you can’t talk about cigarettes,” he huffed. “It’s outrageous. It’s preposterous.”

The nerve of oil-rich countries. Can you believe that when national economic stability relies on selling oil, those countries don’t want to go belly up by adhering to the pipe dream demands of a bunch of hypocritical climate cultists preaching dubious scientific claims as unassailable dogma?

The truth is that the only way for the phaseout of fossil fuels to be achieved both fairly and equitably is via the free market. The climate cultists have little genuine concern for the state of the planet, much less the state of humanity. Their vacuous claims don’t justify ending the use of fossil fuels because doing so would result in devastating consequences not only for first-world economies but especially for the developing world.

To put it simply, there is no climate “emergency” that justifies the type of “stop oil now” nonsense being pushed by global leftist elites at COP28.

If renewables were a legitimate new step up for energy production on a global scale that could supplant the oil industry in both energy output as well as being more economical, then there would be no need for COP28 countries to continuously trot out climate change agreements. There would be no need to virtue signal about “saving the planet.”

The reason whales still swim in the world’s oceans is not because of Greenpeace but because of the discovery of crude oil — black gold. The whaling industry died because crude oil was an abundant and cost-effective resource that allowed for the burgeoning of a new and cheaper energy-based economy.

When it comes to renewables, however, what they offer is much less than what the fossil fuel industry is already providing. Thus, in order to get the world off of fossil fuels, the climate cultists have to push alarmism and fearmongering about carbon emissions killing planet earth if we don’t transition now.

And when it comes to costs, the Left does yeoman’s work in trying to spin the claim that renewables are “actually” more cost-efficient than fossil fuels. A recent example of this comes from the International Energy Agency, which predicts that the expansion of solar and wind power will lead to falling energy prices when compared to maintaining existing coal-fired power plants.

Well, if their economic predictions are as accurate as their climate change modeling predictions, then we’ll stick with the cost of fossil fuel-powered energy, thank you. Furthermore, much of this predicted cost reduction is dependent on government tax credits. In other words, electricity bills will still go up, but perhaps less so because taxpayers are on the hook for the difference.

Finally, back to the first observation. In a free market economy, the energy technology that wins is what offers customers the most bang for their buck. The effort to demonize fossil fuels is all about creating the perception that fossil fuel-based reliable energy production should be jettisoned for a new “clean” energy that just doesn’t have the capacity to measure up. Yet it’s being sold as the “solution” to a climate change “problem” that has always existed and will continue to exist irrespective of any actions taken.