The Patriot Post® · Joe Biden's Low Energy Plan

In these merciless last four years, Biden regime decisions have been made with an eye on controlling the earth’s climate — something no man or government can do. First of all, do we even know what a “normal” climate is? Has anyone defined what is normal long term? Humans haven’t kept records long enough to establish that.

On his way out the door, the minions who truly run the nation while “Joe Biden” is the titular head are coming up with more ways to handicap Donald Trump and his agenda, with collateral damage to the American people not even being considered.

For example, on the day after Christmas, in a document dump with no fanfare, the EPA announced new regulations that could cost the average homeowner about $450 when he or she decides to replace the gas water heater. By eliminating non-condensing tankless gas water heaters via regulated specifications they cannot attain, the EPA has once again arbitrarily created a rule that will cost American jobs. As The Washington Free Beacon reports:

Rinnai America, which is the nation’s only major manufacturer of tankless water heaters, stands to suffer from the regulations — the company recently constructed a $70 million 360,000-square-foot factory in Georgia to manufacture non-condensing gas water heaters for the American market. That facility employs hundreds of locals.

According to [Rinnai America President Frank] Windsor, the company unveiled its plans for the facility in 2020 after Trump’s efforts to boost American manufacturing. “When the rule goes into effect, all that manufacturing will basically be irrelevant,” he added. “A lot of the major equipment that we’ve invested in will basically have to be scrapped.”

Unless Congress or the Trump administration repeals the rules, they will take effect by the end of 2029. However, if the government does not take action, Rinnai will likely close its plant earlier.

That significant loss of jobs, however, is small potatoes compared to the other job killer conjured up by the Biden regime. On Monday, as the government fixated on the certification of the Electoral College vote and Washington, DC, braced for a major snowstorm and cold snap that will require plenty of heating for affected residents, Biden threw a wrench into Trump’s “drill, baby, drill” agenda. Using the 1953 Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, Biden placed 625 million acres of ocean off-limits to fossil fuel exploration. “Drilling off these coasts could cause irreversible damage to places we hold dear and is unnecessary to meet our nation’s energy needs,” said Biden. “It is not worth the risks.” As if building thousand-foot-tall wind turbines and the cables to connect them to the mainland wouldn’t also cause “irreversible damage”?

The outgoing administration justified its action by noting most of those acres — a staggering swath of ocean totaling nearly one million square miles — hadn’t drawn much interest from oil companies in the past. “In the past” are the keywords there. Energy companies have improved not only their technologies but also their exploration methods to the point where extracting oil and natural gas offshore is a more viable option, bringing with it the creation of thousands of jobs in the energy field. All that has gone by the boards with this decision. As the editors of National Review note, “That Biden is seeking to undermine the nation’s energy independence with a last-minute executive action is bad enough. That we don’t even know whether Biden himself made the decision in good health, or whether it’s being done in his name by a group of left-wing activists in the administration, makes it even worse.” Knowing Biden’s mental state these days, we lean toward the latter.

These are just two more hurdles the new Congress and incoming Trump administration must overcome. Regarding the water heater regulations, Congress can take advantage of the 1996 Congressional Review Act to overturn them (and many other rules) since they were adopted in the last 60 legislative days of the previous Congress.

Unfortunately, the blockade on oil drilling will be more difficult to eliminate. Even if curative legislation could be enacted quickly, the ensuing court battle against well-heeled, deep-pocketed environmental groups trying to stymie it might be long enough to outlast this edition of Congress and maybe Trump’s entire term. Trump has a Supreme Court that generally rules in his favor, but there are many unfriendly judges the Left can run to in order to stop congressional actions they don’t like.

With DOGE and the Trump agenda, though, Americans should have a fighting chance at energy independence and job creation. That is something for which the climate activists who hate human flourishing cannot boast.