August 25th, 2023

• Stay up to date on all things energy by visiting the TEA Newsroom.
• Natural Gas CARES: It is the world’s Cleanest, Affordable, Reliable Energy Source.
• Opinion: Electric vehicles run on natural gas.
• China’s abandoned, obsolete electric cars piling up.
• Solar boom spreads to timberlands, self-storage rooftops.
• North Carolina’s offshore wind leases blocked by DOD.
• Residential, solar developers buying up NY farmland.

As summer winds down and we head into the back-to-school season with all the expenses that come with it, American families are once again facing tighter budgets from inflation.

For hard working moms and dads, it’s not that complex. This study by the Deloitte Consumer Industry Center shows as prices have gone up for everything from food to school clothes, and of course utility costs, parents are making difficult choices.

Families — across all three income groups in the study — plan to spend less this year, with total spend dropping 10% year over year. The focus is on replenishing the necessities, such as school supplies, while holding off on non-essential purchases like tech and apparel.

While some households are getting along fine with two working parents, countless others are struggling. In the last month alone, gas prices have increased an average of 30 cents across the country, making those daily trips to soccer and band practice more costly.

Witness these numbers:

• 61% of American adults live paycheck to paycheck.
• 45% of families can’t afford a $1,000 dollar emergency expense.
• 36.5 percent of American households have an annual income less than $50,000.

They don’t want or need green-at-any-cost programs or the accompanying hype from the Biden administration and the media.
They don’t want or need to be told what type of stove to cook dinner on.

They don’t need (nor can they afford) an electric vehicle priced at $60,000 to $70,000.

They need lower utility bills now. Period.

Families across America bear the cost of the past two years’ anti-American energy agenda. It undermines our energy security and makes blackouts more likely.

According to the White House Council of Economic Advisors, thanks to affordable natural gas, a family of four now enjoys approximately $2,500 in annual savings.

To find out more about how natural gas CARES can save Americans money and power our lives, check out TEA’s Common Sense Energy Agenda.

Bottom Line: Class is back in session, and families are feeling the squeeze of inflation in their back to school shopping. With Americans paying more for everything, they could use relief on their utility bills by expanding access to affordable natural gas.

Some media outlets and environmental groups jump at the opportunity to call every severe weather event a climate crisis. Early reporting indicates that downed power lines may have been the cause of the recent Maui wildfires.

Further, it is clear that Hawaii Electric delayed maintenance around its power lines even though it knew wildfires were a risk. Instead, the company found itself focused on a state-mandated shift toward renewable energy.

Wildfires are not started by an angry Mother Earth, as this piece points out. In fact, wildfires in Hawaii aren’t usual. They’ve gotten worse over the past 5-10 years because of invasive species of grass that have spread throughout the islands. Protecting habitats from invasive species is part of environmentalism — but it’s not about climate change, so it goes largely ignored by the media and activists.

Maui faces a rebuilding challenge of historic proportions after the deadly wildfires that killed more than 100 people and destroyed a beloved town. Yet some residents say their toughest opponent may be the Hawaii state government itself. And FEMA’s response has drawn criticism, with some workers staying at a luxury hotel.

Also, some had reported this was the first tropical storm to hit the west coast. For the record, it’s been a while — 1939 to  be exact — but it’s certainly not the first. FEMA and state agencies need to focus on helping the victims in Hawaii and California and the Biden administration needs to assist them, without declaring a climate emergency.

President Biden also loves to stretch the truth to suit his agenda. Here is the latest example involving him falsely claiming that he had already declared a climate emergency.

While he hasn’t yet, environmental groups have been clamoring for Biden to take this extreme step. The March to End Fossil Fuels, a coalition of dozens of environmental and other progressive groups, listed a national emergency declaration as one of several demands of Biden, hoping it would halt fossil fuel exports and lead to more renewable energy.

Groups like The Climate Law Institute at the Center for Biological Diversity also believe that Biden could use disaster powers to suspend oil and gas drilling in the outer continental shelf and restrict international trade and private investment in fossil fuels. It urged him to do so in December 2020.

We believe that if President Biden were to issue a climate emergency, markets would immediately react and energy prices could skyrocket. This would create uncertainty on Wall Street and again put American natural gas and oil workers’ livelihoods in jeopardy.

It took Biden nearly 13 days to visit the burning island. So there should be no rush to declare a climate emergency.

We understand the mounting pressure created with the recent weather events. But these are not reasons to declare a climate emergency. Nor should Biden succumb to the political pressure and attempt to score points with the left-wing climate alarmists who feel he has not done enough for the environment.

Why? Because declaring a “climate emergency” means giving one man the power to unilaterally spend mountains of tax dollars and revoke freedoms in the name of an unquantifiable threat. It’s the wrong move for this administration to make at this time.

Bottom Line: We urge President Biden and those advising him to resist the power grab of a climate emergency. We also urge activists to stop prematurely linking every severe weather event to climate change without the scientific evidence.

Kids heading back to school means more drivers are hitting the road, as gasoline demand rose about 6% this week compared to the week prior. Despite this uptick in demand, the prices at the pump actually decreased 5 cents this week, with the current national average for a gallon of gasoline sitting at $3.82. As Labor Day approaches, gas demand and volatile oil prices, particularly during an active hurricane season, could limit how much lower prices descend in the weeks ahead.

Nothing on the calendar for next week!

“My top question for the 2024 GOP primary candidates: Do you think the United States needs to transition away from the sources of energy that built our country? The American people deserve a straight answer.”

— Daniel Turner, Power The Future founder