The modern American version of “the environmental emperor has no
clothes” until now has been the rise and fall of Enron. As former Ken
Lay speechwriter Robert Bradley, Jr., says, “(T)he cause of Enron’s financial bankruptcy were at root philosophical…. Enron’s leaders were certainly engaged in massive philosophical fraud – an attempt to cheat reality itself.”
For years, Enron was hailed as one of the most forward-thinking
corporations, and Lay, its founder and CEO, was a man in great demand.
During his 13-year tenure that ended with a bang in 2021, Lay collected
over $220 million in cash and company stock, and just months before “the
largest bankruptcy in America” (at that time), Lay gave five
presentations at the 2001 World Economic Forum meeting in Davos.
As Bradley, now the CEO of the Institute for Economic Research,
recounts, Lay was the salesman promoting a business model developed by
Jeffrey Skilling, who Lay had brought on as chief operating officer. In
Skilling’s “mark-to-market” accounting, anticipated future profits from
any deal were accounted for by estimating their present value rather
than historical cost. Thus, argued Skilling, Enron did not really need
“assets.”
It just needed connections.
And that was Lay’s special skill. His idea was to embrace a
“revolution always” business philosophy, which Bradley called “a
perpetual search for the first-mover advantage.” To that end, he became
all things to all people, winning favor from Republicans, Democrats,
environmentalists, minorities, and business leaders. His
“illusion-making,” in effect, created a smokescreen so strong that
nearly everyone was caught by surprise when the bubble burst.
Today, the collapse of FTX and the recent criminal conviction of
founder and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (who is facing a lifetime behind bars)
bring Enron, Skilling, and Lay to mind. But, despite the magnitude of
SBF’s fraud, it pales in comparison to the ongoing fraud being
perpetrated mostly on America and its Western allies in the name of
“climate change.”
A bit like FTX, but unlike Enron, there are plenty of warning signs
that the “Green Revolution” is about to come tumbling down and its
loudest advocates brought to account. The main thing keeping the mirages
afloat today is the massive egos and their investments in folly that
may leave them going down with the ship.
While the “Green Revolution” has been underway for decades, it is the
Biden Administration that has imposed mandates, attacked popular energy
sources and transportation options, and waged war against traditional
industrial development. Europeans and states like California had earlier
imposed their own mandates with supposedly “hard” deadlines for
abolishing the use of oil, natural gas, coal, and every tool or vehicle
that uses them.
The green war on fossil fuels, as fleshed out in the “Net Zero”
campaign, is perhaps history’s greatest example of philosophical fraud.
“To dream the impossible dream” and turn it into reality would mean sacrificing an estimated 6,000 useful products that rely on byproducts from crude oil refineries – products that range
from asphalt for highways to fertilizers, cosmetics, synthetic rubber,
medicines and medical devices, cleaning products, plastics, and so many
more. The 3 billion
who live without the benefits fossil fuels have provided are also the
poorest, sickest, and most vulnerable humans on the planet.
Cracks are already developing in the “Net Zero” world, what with
countries backing away from the mandates they so recently touted while
marching around like peacocks in mating season. In March, the European
Union reached an agreement with Germany to formally back away from its total ban on internal combustion engines in 2035.
Still, 30 countries are signatories to the Glasgow Declaration that
would force all vehicles sold by 2040 to have zero carbon dioxide
emissions, and 21 others have crafted plans to ban new ICE vehicle sales
earlier than 2040. Dozens of major cities and states, most notably
California and the California clone states, intend to disallow new ICE
vehicles by 2035.
Several problems stand in the way of their utopian dream. Even EV advocates
are now admitting the “EV-olution” has to overcome “serious issues” —
like the use of child labor in lithium mining, the woefully inadequate
EV charging infrastructure, and an unprepared power grid. Yet the
biggest obstacle is that a majority of the Earth’s people object to having EVs – or heat pumps, or electric stoves, and so on — shoved down their throats.
EVs may be fine for short-trip urban travel but not for construction
equipment, airplanes, or even urban buses, as evidenced by the recent horrific scene
in San Francisco when a Google-operated electric bus lost power and
slid backward downhill into nine vehicles. Today’s EVs are wholly
impractical for mountain and prairie residents or others making long
trips (worse with children).
Like Ken Lay with Enron, the Green Revolution has relied heavily on
government subsidies and a “revolution always” business philosophy aimed
at making pariahs of anyone who dares oppose the grandiose – but
fatally flawed – plan.
During the Obama Administration, Solyndra went under despite a $535 million government-guaranteed loan, none of which was paid back. Forbes, citing OpenTheBooks.com, noted that taxpayers were left holding the notes
for $400 million given to Abound Solar, $280 million wasted by
CaliSolar, $193 million doled out to Fisker Automotive (with another
$336 million canceled), and $132 million to A123 Systems (a failed
battery maker).
Undaunted, the Biden Administration’s $2.3 trillion
“jobs” package was rife with more subsidies for technologies that, by
their own admission, are unsustainable. Yet despite all the free money, Ford, General Motors, and many other automakers are backing away from multibillion-dollar investments in new EV factories as new EV sales have slowed despite increased rebates.
Ford in March projected a loss of $3 billion on electric vehicles in
2023, offsetting profits of as much as $14 billion from its other
divisions. Ford also admitted losses of $900 million in 2021 and $2.1
billion in 2022 in its EV division. Ford and GM believe their EV
fortunes will turn around by 2025, but those rosy scenarios seem wholly
dependent upon Biden (or an even “greener” Democrat) winning the White
House next November.
Even with a Green win in 2024, reality will still bite the EV dream. China has been quietly moving toward total dominance in the global EV marketplace – largely because it controls the lithium battery market. Financial Times wrote in September that China is so far ahead in the EV market that its competitors are trailing in the dust.
Biden’s reliance on huge subsidies to underwrite the “Green
Revolution” has brought soaring inflation to the U.S. that is taking
away purchasing power faster than it can increase subsidies and
Mafia-style “incentives” (you will buy what we want you to buy, or
else!).
Lay died of a heart attack shortly after his trial, leaving behind “a legacy of shame” characterized by “mismanagement and dishonesty” that led Politico to rank him as the third-worst American CEO of all time.
America’s doddering President Biden, now facing pre-impeachment
hearings for other alleged mistakes, may not live to see his name
smeared as Lay’s once was. But does anyone truly believe Biden is
calling all the shots here?
Who will, then, get the blame if America’s forced march to EV
subservience to Xi’s China brings an end to America’s hegemony on the
world stage?
This article originally appeared at Real Clear Energy
