By EDWARD CROSS
Kansas Independent Oil & Gas Association
July is a special month for many Americans. Most of us will eagerly take a break from our busy summer schedules to once again celebrate Independence Day. There will be much fanfare with fireworks, parades, picnics, and other patriotic events celebrating our country’s independence from Great Britain in 1776. But when the festivities have ended, only a few will have reflected upon the true meaning of independence and the role it has played in shaping our nation’s character.
Our founding fathers made it clear in the Declaration of Independence that all men were entitled to certain unalienable rights. Among those rights are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is easy to take for granted those rights and freedoms we share as Americans. However, it is important that we understand and appreciate the hard work and sacrifice that our forefathers made in order for us to enjoy the luxury of freedom. Freedom and independence are cornerstones in the foundation of our country’s heritage. The independent ideology of the American people is a fundamental element of our society and a key to our nation’s prosperity. We must protect that independence at all cost.
One important freedom we must protect is our free enterprise system. American business, and certainly the oil and gas industry, was founded upon the ideology of independence and free-market principles. Those principles allow business to be governed by the laws of supply and demand without government interference and excessive regulation. The dynamic free market has led to innovation and wealth creation, and has established an economic environment where hard work is rewarded.
But now, it seems free-market capitalism and independence is under attack. Environmental activists work to obstruct energy development and infrastructure projects, reducing our energy options under a false belief that oil and natural gas production and use are incompatible with environmental progress.
The U.S. continues on a path toward one of the greatest self-inflicted wounds in history. President Biden has adopted liberal climate change priorities calling for an end to fossil fuel production and use and a restoration of the failed energy policies of the Obama-era. Biden’s anti-fossil fuel barrage will have no effect on the climate as global demand for fossil fuels will continue to increase for decades no matter what the U.S. does. Meantime, Russia, China, and Iran will take advantage of America’s astonishing fossil-fuel retreat.
The Biden Administration’s energy policy errors are oblivious to the needs of low-income families who would be hurt the most by these misguided energy policies. Biden’s plans are out-of-touch with working people and the economy.
What Biden’s anti-energy agenda combined with climate proposals like the Green New Deal do is concentrate more power in the hands of the federal government and central planners, which at the end of the day, is what they want. We should use our energy abundance to lift people up, which is a different philosophy than a zero-emissions world.
Contrary to claims from environmental activists, cutting U.S. oil and natural gas production would not magically reduce world energy demand. But it could raise costs significantly for American families and manufacturers, profoundly damage the U.S. economy, diminish our geopolitical influence and severely weaken our energy security. That’s where environmental activists strategies lead, and it is not a path most Americans want to take.
In his 1946 Independence Day speech, John F. Kennedy said, “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.” Those words were never so true. Being mindful of the erosion of our independence and free-market system by misguided environmental activist ideologies cannot be over emphasized. We must, now more than ever, remain steadfast in our resolve to protect and preserve the precious independence that has molded our nation’s character.