The Gas Is Always Greener on the Other Side
It’s the whole picture of radical Green policy and regulation — not just a number of drilling leases — that matters.
“I know a lot of people are struggling,” Pastor Steven Allman said. “I understand the desperation,” he admitted. But Allman, who heads up the Leeds Community Church in Maine, was still shocked that his parish’s outside fuel container — which can hold about 200 gallons — had been completely drained and stolen. A member of the congregation made the discovery when people arrived to a “freezing cold” sanctuary Sunday morning. These are difficult times, Allman shook his head. And until Joe Biden changes course, there’s no end in sight.
From Chicago to Los Angeles, police are getting calls around the clock. Residents like Marcela Mena will be out running errands, only to get back to their cars, turn the ignition, and see a low fuel alert. “It’s hard,” she admitted. “Gas prices are high… [It’s] heartbreaking.” Other families have had the gas siphoned right out of the cars sitting in their driveways. At gas stations themselves, workers talk about the lengths thieves will go to. “There have been reports of people siphoning gas directly out of the tanks putting a hose down into the gas tank, sucking [it] out,” Emery Shen told CBS. “We are also hearing reports of people drilling right in the gas tanks, taking gas out of cars directly.”
This is the kind of nationwide madness that Joe Biden’s backwards energy policy has created. But instead of acknowledging the crisis and confronting it, this president is stuck in the same gear: blaming someone else. As recently as Monday, Biden tried to convince voters that the “big reason for inflation is Vladimir Putin and gas prices.” “Not a joke,” he added — as if realizing that most Americans would see it as one. The war in Ukraine added some instability to the global market, to be sure. But as everyone with half a brain knows, prices in America skyrocketed long before Putin put a single tank on the border.
To suggest that the $1.10 spike in gas “just happened” is “absurd,” Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-Wisc.) argued on “Washington Watch.” “People have been [seeing] inflation go through the roof for the last year and a half… That’s what happens when you keep printing money on the printing press, when the Federal Reserve is financing all this new spending. The price of gas was up dramatically already a month ago. The price of metals, the price of food, the price of cars, the price of housing — everything was up a month ago.”
One look at this inflation graph from Heritage Foundation’s Andy Puzder, and it’s obvious: “This is Biden, not Putin.” Russia’s war may have come at a convenient time for the president, who’s desperate for a lightning rod other than the Democratic Party, but facts are facts. And unfortunately for this White House, Americans are living the reality — not the spin.
Of course, the New York Times and other outlets are doing their best to deflect some of the blame being lobbed at the administration. They pinned the rap for low oil production on the pandemic (which is partially true, since most of the country was locked down), but bucked the claim that America became energy independent under Donald Trump or that Biden’s crackdown on drilling and the Keystone Pipeline helped put us in this mess. “The claims about oil and gas leases are even more incorrect,” Linda Qiu wrote, repeating the president’s line that Biden has approved more of these permits than Trump.
Dan Eberhart, a chief executive officer at Canary, an oilfield drilling company, insists that the White House and its apologists are missing the point. It’s the whole picture of radical Green policy and regulation — not just a number of drilling leases — that matters. “I think that’s just some kind of Washington-speak,” he said. “… [T]he permits have been coming out of the Biden administration slower than they were coming out during Trump by a lot,” Eberhart said. “Second of all, the industry is facing… problems other companies have all across the U.S. We don’t have enough labor. We can’t buy pickup trucks. I can’t get studs, nuts, bolts. Stuff from China is six weeks instead of three weeks. We have all the same kinds of issues facing us. And thirdly, the [Biden] administration’s got a moratorium on drilling on federal land. They’re not allowing pipelines — which, given what’s going on with some clearing rules — makes it harder to drill in certain places… They keep throwing wet blankets at us, but now, expect us to stand up and do more.”
As for where we were under Donald Trump, “The United States in 2020 was the biggest oil producer in the world and also the biggest consumer,” the Energy Information Administration confirms. By 2021, America had slipped to third place in oil production — behind Russia and Saudi Arabia. That’s an eight percent drop (or 12 million barrels) from 2019. The Left would have us believe that’s a coincidence. It’s not, and neither is our sudden reliance on Russian and outside oil.
Two years ago, the U.S. imported about 1.3 percent of its crude oil from Putin. Under Biden, we imported eight percent. In other words, we’re producing less and consuming and importing more. And two-thirds of that equation is the direct result of decisions made by this administration to put fanatical environmentalists above everyday Americans. Just this week, the president promised to use his executive powers — not to free up and de-regulate American oil production — but to take “aggressive action” on climate change. Not surprisingly, Breitbart notes, “the president did not talk about how his climate change policies could raise costs further for Americans suffering the punishing inflation rates and a spike in energy prices.”
Meanwhile, in Leeds, Maine, the community has rallied — donating hundreds of dollars to refill the church’s tank. Pastor Allman says he’s overwhelmed by the outpouring of support. In times like these, he went on, “we’re seeing the best and worst of people.” And that’s true of our nation’s leadership too. Let’s hope the Biden administration rallies to refill America’s tanks — before it’s too late.
Originally published here.
Turning Regret into Empowerment: The Detrans Stories
“It’s in the schools. It’s online. It’s in cartoons and media. It’s in the medical system. There is a coordinated attack on our children… And I would just say, you just cannot be too careful.” —Brenton Netz, father of a gender-indoctrinated son
He said that he’s the only adult in his son’s life who is not affirming his “delusion.” For Brenton Netz, dad of Miles, that’s meant a painful last two years. “[T]he schools are calling him Miley. … Everybody in the medical establishment treats him as a girl, calls him Miley,” he explained. “If anybody met my son, within the first five minutes, you would realize that… he’s incapable of coming to those conclusions.” And yet, Netz warned, “If they can do it to my son, they can do it to any child.”
For parents like Brenton, this past weekend’s Detrans Awareness Day hits especially close to home. At 12, Miles hasn’t undergone any radical gender surgeries or taken the dangerous cross-sex hormones, but that’s only because Netz won a court order to keep therapists from taking him further down this destructive path with “gender-affirming” treatment. But when he reads the stories of teenagers who’ve walked down this agonizing path or mutilated their bodies, it feels personal. “If I had to do it all over again, there would be a lot of things I would do differently. I would not have my son interact with these institutions. I would homeschool him. I’d be very careful with everyone, any adult that has influence in his life, because [this ideology] just seems to be everywhere.”
On Saturday, when a flood of detransitioners posted their testimonies and pictures on social media, people couldn’t help but be moved at what this ideology is doing to our children. As a trauma therapist, FRC’s Dr. Jennifer Bauwens believes that the simple act of bringing awareness to this nightmare could make all the difference. In a special column about the significance of March 12, she explains:
“These individuals have been repeatedly silenced and ignored, particularly by the medical and psychological professions. Before altering their bodies, many who have struggled with gender dysphoria reported that their peers, as well as their transgender advocacy, medical, and psychological groups, rallied around them and encouraged them to hormonally and surgically change their bodies to appear more like the opposite sex. Over time, many have come to regret their physiological alterations…”
Bauwens walks readers through the shocking research — that many patients felt pressured to change their identity; that men and women who identify as transgender have higher rates of childhood physical, sexual, and emotional abuse than the general population; that transitioning didn’t necessarily improve people’s mental health. But, as she points out, there’s been a suppression of that research — and any research — that doesn’t toe the transgender line. “So I’m excited to see that there are people who are saying, ‘We’re going to stand up for this population,’” she said on “Washington Watch.”
For parents like Brenton, it’s reassuring that Americans are finally starting to see — through girls’ sports and other attacks on gender — that this isn’t a compassionate agenda. That President Joe Biden, with his extremist transgender fixation, doesn’t have kids’ backs. “I feel like a lot of people are waking up,” Netz says, encouraged. “I have been fighting this for over two years now, and I can tell you that we’ve made a lot of progress. There [are] a lot more people that I’ve seen in my own life paying attention to this issue… And I think we’re gaining ground… People [who] just a year or two ago [had] never even heard [what] a transgender is and [what] a trans kid is — now they’re beginning to understand the subject, and they’re usually not for it.”
But, as Jennifer points out, there’s still a lot of work to do. Support the SAFE Acts and sports bills moving in your state. Encourage your elected representatives to hold these professional organizations and gender clinics accountable for their promotion of harmful practices. Together, “let’s call mental health and health practitioners back to their roots of truly helping those without a voice.”
Originally published here.
This is a publication of the Family Research Council. Mr. Perkins is president of FRC.
