Joe Biden’s Internet-Zero Agenda Spells Bother Down on the Farm and on the Grocery store | The Gateway Pundit

This story initially was printed by Real Clear Wire

By Bonner Russell Cohen
Actual Clear Wire

Feeling the warmth from farmers dumping manure in entrance of presidency buildings throughout the Continent, European Fee President Ursela von der Leyen is pumping the brakes on a pillar of the European Union’s Internet-Zero local weather coverage and withdrawing an EU-wide invoice that may drive farmers to cut back using chemical pesticides by 50% by 2030.

With elections to the European Parliament in Brussels set for later this yr, backing away from considered one of Internet-Zero’s most radical measures is an act of political realism. Europe is being rocked by hovering vitality and meals costs, a lot of it introduced on by the political class’s obsession with decreasing greenhouse fuel emissions from all sources, together with agriculture. With peasants operating amok, the “climate crisis” will simply have to attend.

Blissfully oblivious to what’s taking place throughout the pond, the Biden administration is doubling down by itself model of Internet-Zero emissions, and the American public could also be in for some nasty surprises. And a brand new report by the Columbus, Ohio-based Buckeye Institute exhibits simply how nasty these surprises can be. The report, “Net-Zero Climate-Control Policies Will Fail the Farm,” was authored by Trevor W. Lewis and M. Ankith Reddy.

The issues begin with provisions within the 2022 Inflation Discount Act and Biden administration laws favoring EVs over traditionally-powered autos within the agricultural sector, the report says.

Compelled Transition to EVs

“First, EVs are significantly less reliable and more expensive to purchase, repair, power, and maintain than combustion engine vehicles, making them impractical and ill-suited to working farms. Farm equipment must be durable and capable of operating in all weather conditions,” the Buckeye report factors out. “Tractors and farm equipment must operate in offroad environments on poorly paved roads under constant risk of collisions that can permanently damage an electric vehicle’s sensitive parts, rendering it useless.”

“EV batteries drain faster in extreme cold and heat, and EVs lose range in the rain due to lower resistance between the car and the road and power diversion to the windshield wipers and headlights…Replacing an electric vehicle battery typically costs from $5,000 – $15,000, and general EV repairs require more labor and cost 25% more than standard vehicles,” the report provides.

“These reliability and financial concerns make EVs unattractive as farm equipment and make running a successful farm more expensive, but Biden administration rules will all but force farmers to buy or subsidize them anyway,” Lewis and Reddy observe.

Reliance on Intermittent Power

“Second, a nationwide transition to electric energy depends entirely on intermittent, unreliable zero-emission sources of electric power, namely wind and solar. Wind and solar do not produce power consistently throughout the day, and the variation in renewable power makes it harder for operators to schedule power demand, which makes energy prices volatile and ultimately more expensive,” the report says.

Easing the strains intermittent energy places on an already shaky electrical grid requires bringing extra pure fuel energy crops on-line, lest the nation face extra blackouts and brownouts. However in July 2023, the report notes, the White Home Council on Environmental High quality elevated the bureaucratic crimson tape on the approval of recent pure fuel initiatives.

“The Biden administration’s efforts to force farmers to adopt electric equipment ill-suited to farming and to replace natural gas generators with unreliable renewable energy sources is a recipe for unsustainable farming. Unfortunately, Washington’s central planners seem oblivious to that stubborn fact and remain committed to making Europe’s mistakes,” Buckeye factors out.

Monitoring Emissions from Farm to Desk

American farmers additionally discover themselves within the bull’s eye of ESG (environmental social, and governance) reporting necessities proposed by the Biden White Home.  In March 2022, the Securities and Trade Fee (SEC) proposed a compulsory ESG disclosure rule that may apply to each publicly traded firm. “The rule would mandate costly ESG emissions reporting for a firm’s entire supply chain, requiring large publicly traded food processing companies, grocery stores, and restaurant groups to track and report emissions from farm to table,” the report explains.  “Large companies looking to reduce their overall emissions would stop purchasing food from farms with high emission rates, once again applying financial costs and pressures to the American farmer.”

“With its heavy use of artificial fertilizers and fossil fuels, livestock methane emissions, weed and bug sprays, and genetically modified crops, agriculture has been targeted by ESG fiduciaries,” Lewis and Reddy observe. And now farmer Brown is being focused by the Biden SEC.

The EU calls considered one of its Internet-Zero agriculture packages “Farm to Fork.” However Europe’s farmers are in open revolt, and the powers that be in Brussels have taken discover.  And the SEC’s energy seize may additionally be in for some tough sledding.  The Biden plan faces a stiff courtroom problem, with plaintiffs arguing that the SEC – underneath the “major questions doctrine” adopted by the present Supreme Courtroom – lacks congressional authority to control an trade’s, together with agriculture, complete provide chain.

Bonner Russell Cohen, Ph. D., is a senior coverage analyst with CFACT.

This text was initially printed by RealClearEnergy and made accessible through RealClearWire.