Politico: Populist Backlash Against Climate Policy is Here

“The forced ‘energy transition’ is in trouble despite huge government commitments to wind, solar, batteries, and EVs. Each of the three fossil fuels is experiencing a global boom, and as Politico reports, politicians are backing away from energy taxes in favor of the cheaper, reliable, convenient mass energies consumers demand.”

Uncompetitive energies need government, studies, and ceaseless PR. Competitive energies need free markets where consumers vote with their dollars and taxpayers are spared. Increasingly, the price verdicts of (not so) green energies are coming in, and the public is not happy.

This development is evident in a recent Politico article, Republicans are trying to snuff out climate embers around the country,” subtitled “Conservatives are aggressively targeting efforts to reduce carbon emissions across the continent.”

Co-authors Jordan Wolman, Marie French, and Zi-Ann Lum begin:

Conservatives are aggressively targeting efforts to reduce carbon emissions across the continent. Leaders across the continent who have embraced aggressive climate policies are facing a political backlash as the programs drive up the cost of electricity, home heating and even ordinary goods.

In New York, Washington, Pennsylvania and California — and even Canada — concerns about the costs of curbing greenhouse gas emissions are fueling voter revolts and prompting some liberals to scale back or reframe their own climate ambitions.

Wait! We were repeatedly told by the experts and government that the costs of green energy were falling, and scale economies would usher in an “energy transition.” Gore, Obama, Biden …. John Holdren, Joe Romm …. Michael Mann, Andrew Dessler ….

Take Washington, where the state’s year-old program is facing a November ballot initiative that would halt the effort, which aims to reduce the state’s net carbon emissions to zero by 2050…. Washington’s cap-and-trade program “doesn’t do anything other than make gasoline and groceries and eating more expensive,” Brian Heywood, the ballot measure’s sponsor, said in an interview. “I call it the, ‘Hey, just buy a Tesla, bro,’ mentality.”

Pricing CO2 (carbon tax) is not happy politics:

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has already discovered what a potent issue carbon pricing has become: The liberal leader’s reelection bid is in jeopardy due, in part, to an April 1 hike to the nationwide carbon tax that’s sparked protests and widespread opposition.

Now governors are facing some of the same blowback. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro last month bowed to opposition from Republicans, labor groups and fossil fuel interests to the Northeast’s carbon pricing program and proposed his own in-state carbon cap instead, drawing immediate fire from both parties and doubts it can pass a divided Legislature.

And New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, amid growing pushback from the state’s business community, is considering neutering her nascent program in self-defense. She’s proposed a price cap so low that it wouldn’t spur enough reductions to ensure New York hits its 2030 emissions target of 40 percent below 1990 levels….

Trying to find “benefits” to offset the immediate costs is hard–because discernible climate change from policy is out decades, if ever. Back to Canada:

In Canada, support for carbon pricing — Trudeau’s signature policy — has eroded as high interest rates and cost of living concerns have dominated. The pushback has put Trudeau, with sinking popularity, on the defensive: His own Liberals have exempted home heating oil from the fuel charge and are selling the policy’s rebate checks as an affordability measure rather than a climate program.

And Canada’s left-leaning New Democratic Party, in a surprise move, recently walked back its support for the Trudeau government’s consumer fuel charge, suggesting there are more effective policies to fight climate change.

Meanwhile, rival Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is betting long-tail rage over the carbon tax can help his party win the next election, to be held by October of next year — and finally oust Trudeau from office.

In Washington State:

Gas prices have soared in Washington to about $1 above the national average and higher than neighboring Oregon, according to AAA, though Inslee’s office disputes that all of the spike is tied to the cap-and-trade program. A poll conducted last month of 600 registered Washington voters found 53 percent support the effort to end cap and trade, with a margin of error of 4.7 percentage points.

State lawmakers amended the program last month to give farmers and truckers a rebate to ease the costs of fuel surcharges. But it’s not nearly enough to mollify opponents…. Heywood said voters are feeling the crunch. “It doesn’t do anything really other than make some people feel good to address carbon dioxide output,” he said. “And it’s doing it enormously off the backs of the working class and the working poor.”

The forced ‘energy transition’ is in trouble despite huge government commitments to wind, solar, batteries, and EVs. Each of the three fossil fuels is experiencing a global boom, and politicians are backing away from energy taxes in favor of the cheaper, reliable, convenient mass energies consumers demand. Expect this to continue through and after the coming elections.

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