Power Grid Blackouts Expected From Biden’s Energy Push

Power Grid Blackouts Expected From Biden's Energy Push

(RightWing.org) – Since President Joe Biden took office in 2021, he and the alt-Left progressive wing of the party, like Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a.k.a. AOC (D-NY) and Senator Edward Markey (D-MA), have pushed full steam ahead on things like the Green New Deal with apparent disregard for the dangers inherent in their plans.

This is why when Conservatives like Rick Perry (R), who’s a former Texas governor and a former secretary of energy, tries to warn the country of the potential dangers ahead — like increased blackouts — it is important that people, especially lawmakers and decision-makers, pay attention.

Fox Op-Ed

In a May 31 op-ed for Fox News, Perry pointed out that the environmental warriors on the Left have been making rules and regulations that will force America to rely heavily, if not exclusively, on electric vehicles (EVs). One example of that push can be seen in California’s Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom’s proclamation declaring that all new car sales in the state must be zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) by 2035, just 12 years in the future.

Governor Perry, who was secretary of energy during the Trump administration, is by no means opposed to reducing the overall carbon footprint of the country. In fact, he hails it as a “laudable goal” that the Democrats hope to achieve. However, he is concerned that their fixation on the endpoint might be blinding them to the fact that governmental red tape and aging infrastructure — the real kind, not the Left-invented kind that they pushed through in the ill-named Inflation Reduction Act — could end up hurting the checkbooks of American families, and the security of the United States.

The opinion piece discusses an April 12 press release from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which announced “new proposed federal vehicle emissions standards” and the group’s prediction that “EVs could account for 67% of new light-duty vehicle sales [by] 2032.” Indeed a laudable goal, but as the governor says, if that’s accurate, they haven’t said how they would overcome two major hurdles in accomplishing it:

  • The massive increase in demand upon America’s aging electric grid
  • Reliance on the People’s Republic of China (PRC) for EV batteries and rare earth minerals (REMs).

Perry drew attention to the annual assessment of the power grid put out by North American Electric Reliability Corp (NERC), which said, “[fossil fuel] generator retirements continue to increase the risks [that could lead to] potential supply shortages in the western two-thirds of North America”— meaning an increased chance of blackouts during peak usage times. The governor said that is just one indication the “nation’s power grid is already in precarious shape,” and the EPA needs to take note before blindly jumping into their new rules.

What’s Wrong With China and EVs?

The PRC and the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) have become increasingly belligerent toward the United States and its allies in recent years. According to a 2022 report from the United States Geological Survey (USGS), China accounted for at least 60% of all REMs mined in 2021 and accounted for more than one-third of the world’s reserves.

In fact, the 2023 threat assessment put out by the Director of National Intelligence’s (DNI) office concluded that the PRC’s chokehold on “the mining and processing of several strategic materials… presents a major vulnerability to the United States.” China has already shown a willingness to use its dominance in the area to bully other countries into geopolitical submission, and Perry points to the bureaucratic mountain that companies need to climb to get permits to open mines in America.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) published a report that said, “Between 2010 and 2019… it took on average over 16 years to develop projects from discovery to first production.” In other words, the United States would have no chance at all to develop a source for these crucial elements before disaster would strike if it ever came to a military confrontation with the PRC.

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