Wednesday Morning Rant

Of all the things this midterm election was about, "climate change" - remember that? - wasn't one of them. Middle-aged or older lefties still care, and a lot the youth still care (or say they do), but virtually nobody was voting climate change this year. It was not an electoral issue and practically nobody even mentioned it on the campaign trail. The Democrats weren't trumpeting how important "fighting climate change" is and the the Republicans weren't even bothering with their typical limp-wristed "sure it's a problem, but won't someone please think of the share prices" response because they didn't have to. It never came up.

Despite being muted this year, however, "climate change" remains a powerful weapon and with the communists surging into commanding majorities next year, it absolutely will be a legislative pursuit. It won't be as big as the headline-grabbers like "impeach everyone" or "turn USAID back on" or "open the border" or the virtually inevitable "government shutdown" will be, and that might be helpful to the cause. They can - and will - move on it even if they don't talk much while dismantling everything they can in the name of Mother Gaia. The Party used the increasingly-ghoulish John Kerry to telegraph is intent. At a UN climate change junket in Turkey, he made the preposterous assertion that the recent election demonstrates that the American public sees "climate change" as a "voting issue." It was an election where the issue basically didn't exist, but whatever. Any port in a storm.

So expect more destruction in the name of "climate change" and less opposition to insanity that is already in the works. Reuters provides us with examples of both. First up is a UN-mandated - through the back door, so nobody has to actually pass it or sign a treaty - international wealth transfer scheme wearing the familiar vestments of the Church of Climate: the humble carbon credit. All members of the UN's International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) are on the hook for it, since it's an ICAO rule and applies to its members. Spoiler alert: everyone's a member. Like most agencies, the ICAO was invented for reasonable purposes like ensuring consistent navigation rules, airport names, aircraft and airport classification, maintenance standards, etc. Also like most agencies, it is a tool of revolutionaries to impose their will. The scheme imposed by the ICAO - called the "Carbon Offsetting and Reduction ​Scheme for International Aviation" (CORSIA) - becomes mandatory next year and is expected to cost the commercial aviation industry at least 5% of its total annual profits. Dollars extracted from airlines will be transferred to those selling carbon credits. The carbon credit sellers are usually poor countries with jungles. Carbon credits are also usually naked fraud, but no matter.

That'll be fun. While I would like to expect domestic airlines - with the full support of the administration - to just ignore this stupid scheme and dare the ICAO to levy unenforceable fines, I don't think that will happen. I just expect to see a "carbon offset" fee on the receipt the next I fly internationally, if that ever happens. The one upside to the way the ICAO snuck this through is that it applies only to international flights. The average European passenger will get corn-holed by this much more than the average American passenger - at least until our domestic communists impose a national version of the same. You can be sure that it is on their list, and that they won't talk about it too much.

What will hit harder and worse will be the broader degradation of the domestic power situation. For a vision of the future, one needs only to look at Europe and specifically at Germany. Germany, one of the more retarded European countries when it comes to energy, is now reaping the consequences of its energy policy and the policies it has helped impose on the rest of the continent through the EU. Electricity prices there are surging as the "decarbonization" chickens come home to roost. The wind isn't blowing much, and Germany needs the wind to blow. The rest of Europe is also struggling, as hydroelectric production is down and most "renewables" aren't producing enough. Germany's generation capacity - and to a lesser but still significant extent, the rest of Europe's - is increasingly dependent on its increasingly strained natural gas infrastructure. Europe is stuck. They've built too much expensive, unreliable infrastructure. But it's okay, comrade - your chocolate ration will still be increased:

While renewables continue to displace fossil fuels, lower emissions and provide growing volumes of low-cost electricity, the latest market ​turmoil highlights that utilities still ⁠have work to do to ensure power systems remain fit for purpose.

Expect the assault on gas, coal and nuclear to be reinvigorated next year. While they are loudly impeaching everyone and bleating about whatever comes up when they spin the wheel from day to day, expect the congressional committees to quietly advance as much energy destruction as possible. American energy must be destroyed, and it doesn't matter that "climate change" wasn't an election issue. The communists sweeping into office will treat it as a mandate to undo as much energy progress as possible. John Kerry just made that perfectly clear. He may be a wizened and largely disfavored old husk with a face stuffed full of cheap mattress batting by a plastic surgeon who clearly hates him, but that may be intentional. "Climate change" is not going to be front and center over the next two years, but it will be a continuous - and probably quiet - pursuit.

Whether Secretary Wright can stymie them for a year or two is an open question, but they will work manfully to accomplish their goals.

posted by Joe Mannix at 11:00 AM

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