Joe Biden preached against the “evils” of fossil fuels and fracking … until he didn’t after it became politically damaging to do so. In the final presidential debate, President Donald Trump effectively got Biden to admit that he still planned to eventually eliminate the oil industry. It was clearly an uh-oh moment that a more mentally fit Biden would have likely avoided, but the admission exposed Americans to the truth of the Democrats’ plan for the country.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal serves as the blueprint for Biden’s energy plan and it’s so bad that it should have everyone shaking their heads in bewilderment. Using the specter of climate change as justification, Biden proposes to transition the entire country away from inexpensive, reliable, and increasingly cleaner fossil-fuel technology to the wildly unreliable “renewable” energy tech of wind and solar.

Biden would have all greenhouse-gas-emitting power plants shuttered in 15 years and have all greenhouse emissions eliminated from the nation in 30 years. It sounds like a fairytale, but it’s an impossible goal that promises only massive negative economic consequences that would propel the country into a depression. Furthermore, it would have almost no impact on global greenhouse emissions or the climate, thanks in large part to China and India.

Let California serve as a warning against Biden’s nonsensical “green energy” plan. The Golden State’s residents suffer through regular rolling blackouts due entirely to leftist politicians’ “clean energy” agenda. Not only are Californians forced to endure intermittent and unreliable power, but the price of inferior green energy has only increased.

As The Wall Street Journal editorial board observes, “Since 2010 electric rates in California have jumped 30% for homes and 37% for manufacturers while decreasing 3% and 17%, respectively, in Nevada where about three-quarters of power comes from natural gas.” Furthermore, “Higher electric costs in California have reduced job growth in power-hungry industries, especially manufacturing. Between January 2010 and January 2020, manufacturing employment has increased 6% in California versus 55% in Nevada. Many tech companies have located data centers in the Silver State because of its cheap, reliable power.”

Biden’s plan would essentially nationalize California’s energy problems, driving down quality while at the same time driving up energy costs for everyone, which would disproportionally impact poor Americans. Biden’s promise to churn out millions of new “green energy” jobs rings just as hollow as Barack Obama’s bogus claim that the average family would save $2,000 on health insurance under ObamaCare. One look at Obama’s Solyndra boondoggle reveals Biden’s claim to be ridiculous.

America’s technological innovations have always come via free-market competition, not heavy-handed and ill-conceived government mandates originating from the hubris of the bureaucratic state. Finally, the great irony of Biden’s anti-fossil-fuel energy plan is the fact that the reason America’s emissions rates have declined so significantly is primarily thanks to … drumroll please … the fracking boom.