Oligarchy and Pestilence | RealClearEnergy
I have ordered immediately the end of all new fracking and coastal energy exploration, the new President tells the teleprompter. Our entire economic system will be reshaped to reduce carbon emissions. The war on climate change is a war we must win.
Before the Covid-19 pandemic, such an approach might have seemed far-fetched, particularly coming from a supposedly moderate political figure. But the mass shutdowns we now experience likely necessary in a pandemic could provide a model for imposing harsh actions to curb carbon emissions that activists consider as great or greater threats than the virus itself.
Unlike in the Covid-19 pandemic, the pain will be felt not so much on Main Street shops but more on vast industries such as aerospace, fossil fuel energy, the production of gasoline-powered automobiles and suburban home-building. This is no science fiction fantasy. These are industries designated as targets in the Green New Deal and more or less embraced in its broad strokes by virtually all leading national Democrats, including Joe Biden.
We have the models.