When radical environmental groups denounce the United States’ use of fossil fuels, they often romanticize countries attempting to wean themselves from coal, oil and natural gas as models for us to follow.
But the reality is that these resources remain vital to America’s national and economic security, and the only ones more eager than green groups to end our country’s energy development are geopolitical rivals like Russia and China.
For a world power like the United States, policies that restrict the production and use of our God-given natural resources would hand a strategic and economic advantage to authoritarian regimes. Unfortunately, environmental zealots don’t seem to understand this inherent problem with their agenda. Or worse, they simply don’t care.
Take, for example, Greenpeace, which was recently ordered to pay $667 million to the developer of the Dakota Access Pipeline following its campaign of deception and destruction.
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What Greenpeace and other extremist groups don’t grasp is that their efforts to stop oil and natural gas development would weaken the United States, embolden rogue nations, hurt our economy and have very little, if any, impact on the environment.
Making the United States more dependent on renewable energy would make the U.S. electricity grid less reliable and threaten the nation’s economy. Spain is a pertinent example.
In April, the country bragged that for the first time, it was running on 100% renewable energy. Later that month, a grid failure created a nationwide blackout that risked lives and cost the country nearly a half-billion dollars.
Generating electricity solely through renewables makes electric grids more prone to collapse, and requires incredibly expensive upgrades to energy infrastructure that leads to higher electricity prices for consumers.
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The International Energy Agency found that for every 10% increase in the portion of electricity generated by renewables, costs go up by more than 4 cents per kilowatt hour. As a result, countries like Germany pay more than 2.5 times the average electricity rate than the United States, and over four times higher than China.
When countries like China or Russia can generate electricity more cheaply than their democratic rivals, they gain an important economic advantage. China’s coal consumption reached record highs last year, and its buildout of new coal power plants reached the highest level of construction in the last 10 years. Russia is the world’s second-largest exporter of natural gas and holds natural gas reserves that rival the U.S.
When it comes to the environment, these countries are not extracting or using fossil fuels with the same care as American companies. In fact, the largest carbon emitter in the world by a long shot is China. In 2020, China’s emissions exceeded those of all other developed nations combined. As China and Russia continue to develop their fossil fuel resources, it will be essential that the United States do the same.
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Groups like Greenpeace may continue their efforts to derail American fossil fuel projects, but policymakers should recognize that this agenda would have little impact on the environment and a lasting and damaging impact on both U.S. national security and economic competitiveness.
To protect the environment and preserve our democratic values, the United States must pursue an energy policy rooted in realism, not ideology. While environmental activism has a place in shaping a sustainable future, radical efforts to dismantle fossil fuel development ignore a critical truth – energy security is national security.
Abandoning domestic oil and gas production would not reduce global emissions, it would only hand a strategic advantage to those who pollute more, care less and gain power when democracies self-sabotage.
Groups like Greenpeace may cloak themselves in the language of environmental justice, but their actions serve to undermine the very stability and environmental stewardship they claim to champion.
America must remain energy-independent, competitive and strong because the world’s most polluting regimes won’t sacrifice their energy dominance no matter what we decide to do.