Ralph Schoellhammer, an assistant professor in economics and political science at Webster University Vienna, has predicted an early demise of the European Green Deal.
In a recent Spike Online article, Schellhammer revealed that after investing billions of dollars into the green initiative, many of the major players in the energy sector are now shifting their priorities due to energy shortages in the past years. The world, he said, seems to have realized just how impractical renewable energy can be. (Related: European energy crisis making it impossible to produce renewable energy equipment like solar panels.)
WindEurope, which advocates wind energy policies of the European Union, reported that there was no investment in an offshore wind farm made in 2022, apart from a few small floating wind projects. The numbers for overall wind-turbine orders also declined by 47 percent compared with 2021.
Additionally, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is considering a softening of planned rules requiring companies to disclose the effects of extreme weather and other costs related to global warming when the regulator completes its climate-change proposals, people close to the agency said in February.
Due to these shortcomings, many fossil fuel companies are now having second thoughts about rebranding themselves as "green."
When Bernard Looney took over as BP Plc CEO in 2020, he promised to quickly decarbonize the British oil major; cutting oil and gas production by 40 percent by 2030; and channeling billions of dollars into wind and solar projects. But on Tuesday, March 14, Looney said: "We have to invest in today's energy system and the reality is that today's energy system is predominantly an oil and gas system. And that needs investment."
Biden approves big oil-drilling project in Alaska
Meanwhile, environmentalists are now aghast at President Joe Biden as he approved the Willow project, a huge oil-drilling project on Alaska's petroleum-rich North Slope. They say that it showed the inconsistency of the United States' first "climate president." Climate warriors felt betrayed, given that Biden's campaign promise included ending fossil fuel and pivoting to a green energy economy.
On March 13, Biden greenlit ConocoPhillips's drilling project, which could eventually produce 180,000 barrels of oil per day. But to still be in line with his promise, the president is "limiting the amount of drilling on the site to the minimum amount that is economically viable, while also imposing new limits on drilling in other areas of Alaska."
Raena Garcia, a fossil fuels campaigner at Friends of the Earth, said Biden's approval of this project is "a colossal and reprehensible stain on his environmental legacy." The U.S. leader's Democratic allies, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, also criticized the move.
Ocasio-Cortez said Biden ignored "the voices of the people of Nuiqsut, our frontline communities and the irrefutable science that says we must stop building projects like this to slow the ever more devastating impacts of climate change."
Analysts think that Biden is trying hard to be strategic in his decisions. He has been tussling with oil and gas executives over these very issues for a year, begging for more production while getting an earful in return about hostile government policy. "He's now trying to make government policy toward oil and gas producers a little more friendly, even as it brings incoming fire from the Left," Yahoo Finance Senior Columnist Rick Newman said.
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Watch the video below where Truth in Energy and Climate's Frank Lasee denounces the Biden administration for sabotaging the energy grid.
This video is from the New American channel on Brighteon.com.
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