I just filled up our SUV last Thursday, June 16, 2022; $5.80 per gallon, seems like twice the cost since President Trump left office! When we go to the grocery store, we are paying 25%-to-50% and often much more. Many of the products or brands we purchased in the past are no longer available, with many shelves empty.
The Government’s computed inflation rate is NOW 8.6%... how can this be!?! Are they cooking the books… maybe? The American Institute for Economic Research’s Everyday Price Index has the inflationary rate at 20.6% annualized through the first 5 months of this year; 12.8% compared to the last 12 months through May 31.
The pain at the pump, much higher prices for everything we buy or do, and shortages of many products and services were foreseeable consequences by Austrian economists based on Joe Biden’s first day in office, January 19, 2021, when he signed 17 executive orders; followed by 13 more or 30 executive orders signed in his first three days in office! Revoking the Keystone XL pipeline, stopping oil and pausing gas leases at the Artic Refuge, no more leases allowed on public lands and offshore waters, along with the authorization of increased regulatory actions to implement the Biden Administration’s climate change agenda and war on fossil fuels, have contributed significantly to the inflation we have today.
Our grandchildren, ages 12 and 9, are currently reading Leonard Read’s, “I, Pencil” (I, Pencil by Leonard E. Read - Foundation for Economic Education (fee.org)). Read’s “main point—economies can hardly be “planned” when not one soul possesses all the know-how and skills to produce a simple pencil. No one person—repeat, no one, no matter how smart or how many degrees follow his name—could create from scratch a small, everyday pencil, let alone a car or an airplane. This is a message that [should] humble the high and mighty. It pricks the inflated egos of those who think they know how to mind everybody else’s business. It explains in plain language why central planning is an exercise in arrogance and futility, or what Nobel laureate and Austrian economist F. A. Hayek aptly termed ‘the pretense of knowledge’.”
I implore you to read “I, Pencil” to understand why the Biden Administration will fail. Unfortunately, until removed from office, they will continue to destroy many American lives in their quest to remake society.
Here is why the Biden Administration’s war on fossil fuels has contributed significantly to inflation and will ultimately implode. Biden wants everyone to give up their gasoline-powered cars and purchase an electric vehicle. Yet, Wind (9.2%) and Solar (2.8%) account for only 12% of our energy/electricity needs, Hydropower another 6.3%, while Natural Gas (38%), Coal (22%) and Nuclear (19%) are predominantly needed to generate electricity to heat or cool our homes and power electric vehicles.
By shutting down the production of fossil fuels, there will not be enough energy or electricity available to heat or cool our homes and power electric vehicles. Because of excess demand and limited supply, as we have seen, the cost of gasoline continues to rise excessively.
Furthermore, there are 250 million cars, SUVs, and light-duty trucks in the United States and less than 1% are electric. Even the most optimistic estimate is that 13 years from now in 2035, electric vehicles will only account for 13% of ALL vehicles on the road.
Also, commercial trucks that transport everything we need and want use diesel fuel; excessive transportation costs (diesel fuel) increase the price of everything we purchase. And, if the war on fossil fuels continues, we will likely have shortages of gasoline and diesel, no matter how high the price at the pump.
Finally, like the “I, Pencil” story, the so-called experts in the Biden Administration have no clue how the Oil & Gas Industry works, including the impact it has on other industries and other people throughout the entire world. For example, Steve Pryor, an energy consultant, made a partial list of products made from Petroleum listing 6,000 items. According to Pryor, the major use of petroleum is as a fuel (gasoline, jet fuel, heating oil), and petroleum and natural gas are often used to generate electricity, one 42-gallon barrel of oil creates 19.4 gallons of gasoline, while the rest (over half) is used to make other things.
All plastic is made from petroleum and plastic is used almost everywhere, e.g., cars, houses, toys, computers, and clothing; Asphalt used in road construction is a petroleum product as is synthetic rubber in tires, even tires for electric vehicles; Paraffin wax comes from petroleum, as does fertilizer, pesticides, herbicides, detergents, furniture, packaging materials, surfboards, paints, and artificial fibers used in clothing, upholstery, and carpet backing.
You get the point, whatever you are wearing or using or driving each, and every day, has been made possible because of fossil fuels! According to clueless Joe Biden, we now have a chance to convert to electric vehicles and do away with fossil fuels. But, unknown to Joe, fossil fuels or petroleum is required to make the tires and most of the components necessary to build electric vehicles. In addition, fossil fuels are required to generate the electricity to keep the electric vehicles running!
We now have people with government power who believe “they [can] pick tomorrow’s winners and losers in the marketplace, set prices or rents where they ought to be, decide which forms of energy should power our homes and cars, and choose which industries should survive and which should die. . . Call them what you will—socialists, interventionists, collectivists, statists—history is littered with their presumptuous plans for rearranging society to fit their vision of the common good, plans that always fail as they kill or impoverish other people in the process. . . They should stop for a few moments and learn a little humility from a lowly writing implement,” “I, Pencil.” Lawrence W. Reed, President of the Foundation for Economic Education
Dum Spiro Spero—While I breathe, I hope.
Slainte mhath,
Robert G. (Mike) Beard Jr., C.P.A., C.G.M.A., J.D., LL.M.