Is the Biden Administration so deliberately naïve that it would turn US security over to China?
Don Ritter
Autocratic Producers (primarily Saudi Arabia, the Emirates, Russia, Iran, Qatar, Venezuela and China) and certain democratic (or semi-democratic) Consumers (fossil fuel-dependent nations, mostly in the Global South), are uniting over oil, gas, coal, petrochemicals, natural gas-derived fertilizers and wind-solar-battery raw materials that are essential for building and maintaining modern industrial nations.
The implications are enormous, for global commerce, and especially for America.
China straddles both worlds. It’s the world’s largest coal producer and consumer – and the second-largest fossil fuels consumer after the USA.Although the United States remains the planet’s largest oil and gas producer, government policies are restricting investment in future domestic production, forcing U.S. companies to scour the world to increase production.
The autocratic Producers clearly benefit from America’s declining production, because major Consumers (India, Brazil, Indonesia, South Africa and others) that buy oil, gas and petrochemicals must feed their people, fuel their vehicles, and sustain or grow their economies at reasonable cost.
Giant energy Producer Russia continues to sustain its economy and finance its war in Ukraine, as it waits for Western electorates to lose patience and reduce military aid. Moscow counts on continued fossil fuel sales to Consumercountries, particularly China.
China is importing record amounts of oil and gas from Russia, making it the largest financier of Russia’s Ukraine war. China’s dual-use technologies also enter indirectly into the Russian war machine. Courtesy of Saudi Arabia’s Aramco, China is building new refineries and becoming a major petrochemicals producer – even as Biden energy policies curtail U.S. refinery and petrochemical investments.
Petrochemicals fuel or provide building blocks for just about everything. They therefore add tremendous value to the crude oil China imports from Russia.
Meanwhile, America and the West pursue sweeping policies on “manmade climate change.” That means they deride and downgrade the value of fossil fuels that are the lifeblood of all industrialized nations: Producers, Consumers and those fortunate or wise enough to play both roles.
Western government attitudes toward fossil fuels are derived from fears of a “growing climate crisis.” Those attitudes are creating a deep and abiding conflict of interest between the West and both the Producerand Consumer nations that view fossil-fuel-dependent economic growth as paramount.
Therein lies the conundrum.
If the United States and West will no longer be major Producers, where do Consumers turn for the energy and products they require? Unfortunately, they must turn toProducers – which happen to be autocratic states, which respond to those needs by increasing their oil and gas production, to meet global demand, while simultaneously bolstering their economies and strengthening their autocratic power.
Producersfriendly to the West (Saudi Arabia, the Emirates and Qatar, e.g.) are not the problem right now. But others are.
In a nutshell, the West’s fossil fuel cutbacks are being replaced on the global economic, strategic and geo-political stage by an expanding alliance of autocratic Producers that are serving Consumers not just as energy and raw materials suppliers, but as political partners.
Moreover, if those Producers continue replacing America’s and the West’s declining oil, gas and coal supplies, the climate-focused nations will decline as economic and military powers; their influence over climate issues will diminish; and the overall human contribution to climate change will actually grow, as Consumers pursue their own bests interests, which are inextricably linked to fossil fuel use, now and decades from now.
China is already the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases. It has no intention of abandoning its economic, military or strategic ambitions – all of which rely on fossil fuels. But it has now effectively, though not officially, abandoned the Paris Climate Accords. That alone likely makes America’s and the West’s fossil fuel sacrifices on the climate altar both “painful and pointless.”
Ironically¸ the U.S. is now importing environmentally dirty crude oil from autocratic, adversarial Producer Venezuela – rather than expanding its own domestic production. Meanwhile, natural gas exports from Russia to Europe will soon be replaced by Exxon and Chevron production in Algeria.
Even more ironic (or insane), China dominates the world’s wind, solar and battery technologies, their raw material supply chains and their manufacturing. U.S. politicians may be ramping up talk about reducing dependence on China for critical items related to American economic and national security, they are demanding and pursuing policies that make the USA and West ever more dependent on so-called “clean renewable” energy from wind, solar, battery and fossil powerhouse China.
We are witnessing a geopolitical shift of historic proportions. Fossil fuel-friendly China and other autocraticProducers will be the biggest winners; fossil fuel-repressing democratic America and the West the biggest losers.
Indeed, democraticConsumers are already and increasingly beholden to the autocraticProducers. That’s evident from the role that energy supply and demand has likely played in persuading some 80 nations to remain neutral on the Ukraine war.
Russia and OPEC members know the largest and ever-expanding market for their oil, gas and raw material products is world-leading manufacturer China. That global power, in turn, can more and more manufacture whatever the Producernationsneed. China gets fuels and raw materials to feed its vast energy-hungry, export-oriented industries and immense agricultural economy. Other Consumernationslikewise purchase or trade for fossil fuel products.
The symbiosis between Producers and Consumersis clear.
Meanwhile,no matter how hard they try to deny these realities, or “transition to renewable energy,” The USA and West will remain dependent on fossil fuels from Producers for decades to come. The U.S. Energy Information Agency predicts that even in 2050 America will still be 65% dependent on fossil fuels for its overall energy needs, versus 79% today. Is a 14% reduction worth all the sacrifices?
The still-growing Chinese manufacturing and military powerhouse will be enriched by the inevitable shift away from Western manufacturers, who will see their costs and prices increase without reliable, reasonably priced fossil-fuel energy and derivative products.
China’s 1.5 billion people – repressed, surveilled, cajoled and punished for social infractions – are nonetheless disciplined, educated, and increasingly productive and wealthy. With the growing prowess and sophistication of its military, autocratic China is the biggest beneficiary of all from the Western strategy of abandoning fossil fuels.
If the USA and West continue along their anti-fossil-fuel path, it is quite possible that autocratic Producers will soon dominate the world – while China becomes their biggest Consumer and the world’s preeminent player, surpassing even the United States. Is this the path we really want to follow?
Don Ritter holds a Science Doctorate from MIT and served fourteen years on the House of Representatives Energy and Commerce and Science and Technology Committees. After leaving Congress, he created and led the National Environmental Policy Institute.
He was a National Academy of Sciences Fellow in the USSR, speaks fluent Russian, and was Ranking Member on the Congressional Helsinki Commission and founding Co-Chair of the Baltic States-Ukraine Caucus. He is a Trustee of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation and Museum and co-chairs its Capital Campaign.
For more on the value of Fossil Fuels and Energy Politics, go to WUWT’s ClimateTV page
Not naive at all. The Biden crime family is just doing the bidding of its Communist paymasters.
That’s what it looks like.
Spot on Milo, not naive just evil. This is the most corrupt individual to make his career home and his millions in Washington DC. I first noticed the duplicitous dipstick during the Clarence Thomas hearings. He will say nice things to your face and then stab you in your back the moment you turn away. He does the bidding of the wealth holders for big paydays and it has paid off with a seat in the oval office on the lap of the invisible ventriloquist board of directors.
Things are certainly looking bad for Joe & Co – the truth is outing
the truth outed on the klintons too and still no orange onesies for them
Degrowth or pro growth
That’s the choice and the west has chosen the former
That’s what Bloomberg’s hoping so he can make his next $100 billion.
The answer to your first question has to be YES
the Biden Administration is naïve, and is turning US security over to China
Are you certain that it’s not ultra self-loathing?
It might be Chicom blackmail. The Chicoms know Biden’s secrets.
They probably also know their bank account numbers. What goes in can come out again as well, with the right numbers.
Naive, ignorant, and zealously devoted to their wacky ideology; call it a lose-lose-lose for losers.
not naive
Venal
Headline:“UK Motoring Expert Warns of Threat to Britain From Chinese Cars
https://www.theepochtimes.com/world/electric-cars-uk-analyst-disagrees-about-trojan-horse-threat-from-beijing-5433754
As if every Very Large Scale Integration silicon chip (microprocessors, graphics engines, co-processors, disc-drive controllers) weren’t already supplied with ‘little extra add ons’
Making those chips requires immense amounts of energy and only China has enough – at the right price.
So when Intel, AMD, Apple etc etc hand over the blueprints of their mega new chip to the Chinese foundries, and because the thngs are simply soooooo huuuuge, it is simplicity itself to add in a little trojan/worm that will be undetectable unless you know its there.
Because all those chips are now ‘internet enabled/connected’ whether they’re in computers, phones, TVs and now cars – no-one anywhere can escape their monitoring/reporting/spying.
I recently replaced the dishwasher. It’s ‘enabled’, but why would you load it up and then switch it on remotely?
What am I missing?
What if it got switched off remotely?
Indeed. It remains disabled.
https://www.newsweek.com/amazon-smart-home-brandon-jackson-echo-racial-slur-allegation-1806947
This is a definite possibility. Do not “enable” your house, you only “enable” the overlords
I can still manage turning things on and off myself…
Depends on how many things Alexa or Siri can control.
Smart oven, No cooking
Smart thermostat, no heating or cooling
Smart Lights, darkness
Smart Plugs, no refrigerator…coffee…etc.
Smart Door Locks, no access
Basically, anything with “smart” in its name is thick.
smart meter , no nothing
Do not have any smart appliance in your home, including meters and ensure your Alexa is muted or unplugged when not in use
Home invasion is a real and current threat, not bed bugs but Big Brother bugs
Good listing of the points against the false climate change agenda of the USA and other western nations. This self-destruction is so obvious it must be intentional, there must be a motive. If Milo (above) is correct it is for payoff. Some other suggestions include anti-capitalism, runaway socialism, cultural advancement of, for example, the BRIC’s nations, etc. The Devon Archer testimony yesterday may represent a turning-point for the Biden Crime Family. But consider this: what strategy do the Democrats have for Plan B? They can push Amendment 25, having the President take a Cognitive Decline examination and be removed, anytime they want. VP Harris steps up to the plate? Not workable. So what is the master plan of the left? And will they wait until the economy and culture are totally destroyed?
kackles is the only thing holding em back from offing FJB i reckon
hes semicontrollable, shes a loose cannon
I agree with the facts detailed in this essay, but not with the pessimism. In less than four years under Donald Trump the US went from a net consumer to a net producer of energy. Any of the front-runner Republican candidates could do the same and make it permanent.
The Energiewende in Germany is an utter failure, as is their attempt to dump nuclear. Off-shore wind in the UK is the same. They are forced to grind up US forests to replace the mountains of coal they could be burning at Drax. Meanwhile, the huge resources of the North Sea go untapped.
The problem with these grand utopian visions of the far-left, burn-it-all-down crowd is not that they are not grand enough. They just don’t work. To implement them requires a totalitarian state. At some point the misery outweighs the grandeur and the pendulum swings back.
Anyone can see with their own eyes that the emperor has no clothes. Maybe it takes a precocious little boy to actually say it out loud, but when the food supply has been trashed and the energy supply is not enough to keep the heat on people do tend to notice.
“They are forced to grind up US forests to replace the mountains of coal they could be burning at Drax.”
NONSENSE. Nobody is grinding up forests. Try learning the truth about this topic by talking to a professional forester instead of getting that lie from reading enviro bullshit. I agree, they should burn coal at DRAX- but that doesn’t mean anybody is grinding up forests- they are MANAGING those forests- and because the ignorant UK government hates coal, the American forestry firms don’t mind selling DRAX some chips from WELL MANAGED FORESTS.
“I agree with the facts detailed in this essay, but not with the pessimism. In less than four years under Donald Trump the US went from a net consumer to a net producer of energy. Any of the front-runner Republican candidates could do the same and make it permanent.”
I agree with this. Competent Leadership is the issue. We need a leader who sees the Big Picture, including not considering CO2 a threat that requires radical social change. A leader who has no competing interests for his energies. A candidate who owes no political favors. A tried and true leader who has proven himself in the past.
You know who I’m talking about.
Elect Trump and the world will start looking a whole lot better.
sorry but what did Trump accomplish that wasn’t turned around in 2 years?
Your point? Is it over? Should we give up now?
My point is Trump can turn around Biden’s destructive moves and put things back on track.
With enough Republicans in both Houses of Congress, laws can be written which a future president’s Executive Orders can’t change on a whim, the way a former president’s Executive Orders can be changed.
Of course, we need voters who know the truth, and are able to discern who the good guys are, and who the bad guys are. I’m not sure there are enough of those. We’ll know after the election in 2024.
By all rights, Biden should lose in a landslide next time, no matter who runs against him, considering Biden’s horrible record. But, propagada is a powerful tool and the radical Democrats are using it to the maximum extent right now. And a lot of people are easily misled, unfortunately.
I know who I’m voting for, though. One of the good guys: Donald Trump.
my point is enough people need to pull their head out of whatever hole it is in and stop electing these fools
Naive!? Perhaps it is naive to think that Old Bribery Joe is doing anything other than what he is told as Barack Hussein brings his third term to a highly successful conclusion!
The destruction of the democratic West has been the century-long goal of committed Marxists; our 45th (and 47th) president is no different! Western elites are happily convincing the masses to smile as they once again are enshackled; this time with a fusion of government, corporate and intel agency power that would make the Nazis giddy!
We live in interesting times, as about 3/4 of registered US Democrats no longer believe in freedom of speech. A thinking person might wonder what kind of mind control program was used to turn the party of the ACLU into the party of the KGB!
The Climate Catastrophe Hoax is just one more tool in the arsenal of our rulers to deprive humanity of energy, wealth and freedom; except for themselves, of course, some animals being far more equal!
“Naive!? Perhaps it is naive to think that Old Bribery Joe is doing anything other than what he is told as Barack Hussein brings his third term to a highly successful conclusion!”
Yeah, and Ron above, wonders what the “master plan of the left is”, and I think it is that Barack will continue his control through Kamala Harris, if it comes to Joe somehow leaving office early.
I think a committee is running the Democrat Party, including the White House, and I think Barack Obama has a whole lot to do with it. He and Biden are both traitors to their nation, who allowed, if not personally perpetrated the unwarranted attacks on Donald Trump, before he was president, while he was president, and after he was president. I think Barack Obama and Joe Biden and all their henchmen should be tried for treason and the undermining of the U.S. Constitution for their own political gain.
The radical Democrats present the greatest danger to our personal freedoms that has ever existed since this nation was founded. Republicans should start treating radical Democrats as the existential threat to freedom that they are.
Republicans should not just try to get along with these Thieves of Freedom.
Quit coddling up to the enemy, Republicans. Quit trying to get the enemy to say nice things about you. If they say nice things about you, that means what you are doing is helping their radical agenda. Wake up, Republicans, before we lose it all. The radical Democrats are trying to take it all right now. If you don’t see it, then you are part of the problem.
“Is the Biden Administration so deliberately naïve that it would turn US security over to China?”
No, it’s part of the Plan. Fuel insecurity, food insecurity, social upheaval, health insecurity, border insecurity – a total FUD campaign to disable and crush western economies so the parasitic elite can “rescue” the survivors with UBI, digital ID and CBDC. Resistance is futile, at least that’s what they will tell you.
Are you so deliberately naive you refuse to admit Joe Biden is doing exactly what he has been paid to do? Really?
Or blackmailed to do.
Paid, blackmailed, either way the Bidens have received millions upon millions of dollars from multiple foreign sources. China has proven repeatedly that they are quite skilled at using “cutouts” to pay off and corrupt government officials and private citizens all over the world.
Joe is a “Manchurian Candidate”.
“The U.S. Energy Information Agency predicts that even in 2050 America will still be 65% dependent on fossil fuels for its overall energy needs”
but… but… some states have net zero by ’50 laws- these states will probably have thousands of border guards to prevent even a drop of oil or an ounce of that evil coal to enter that state- so the people of that state will be protected from bad weather- it’s really simple, all you gotta do is pass a law and it’ll happen! It’ll be cheap and all our energy will be “clean and green” /sarc
The people of that State will probably be moving elsewhere.
Many are leaving Woke-achusetts and have been for decades- but the state loves immigrants, legal or otherwise, other, of course, than Martha’s Vineyard. The state has about the same population as it did in the ’50s. A century ago, having immigrants pour in was good policy with rapidly expanding industries. No more- most industries have left. The remaining are mostly high tech, not useful to most immigrants.
“Many are leaving Woke-achusetts and have been for decades- but the state loves immigrants, legal or otherwise, other, of course, than Martha’s Vineyard.”
I hear Mayor Adams in New York City has a surplus of immitgrants he wants to get rid of.
Mayor Adams is complaining more and more about all the illegal immigrants showing up in New York City, but he never mentions Biden’s name. Biden’s open border policy is the problem, Mayor Adams. You should start calling him on it or you are just going to get more and more and more and more immigrants coming into your city, disrupting the lives of the people you are supposed to be representing.
I hear New York City is taking legal action where New York City will no longer be designated a “Sanctuary City” for illegal immigrants. The motive for this appears to be that if New York City is a sanctuary city, they are legally required to provide housing for illegal immigrants, and New York City has run out of housing, so they want to do away with this status so they will be in compliance with the law.
Again, Mayor Adams, Joe Biden is the problem. That’s where you should focus your effots.
Here in Woke-achusetts, many illegal immigrants are offered nice motels and hotels to stay in- at no cost to themselves- along with all the other benefits available here by the state- at tremendous cost to the taxpayers. I don’t see how any community can call itself a Sanctuary City- legally.
As for my state- just read in a local newspaper that now anyone can have their gender, on official documents, to be “X”. Is that nuts or what?
Even the IEA acknowledges that fossil fuels will still be pre-eminent in energy in 2050 “falling from the 80% today, a level constant for decades to just over 60% in 2050”
‘IEA World Energy Outlook 2022’
Rhetorical question?
Why are all the military Generals that report to Biden, not asking the simple question:
How will America run its militaries (ships, planes, and vehicles) without fuel?
My father, a career officer, used to remind me that the generals all serve at the pleasure of the president. If they ask inconvenient questions they may find themselves canned or worse.
any excuse to remove them will do
and replace with more Levines etc good the dogplaying transgay wierd dude got canned
for stealing womens clothes, zero about his inability to do the highpaid job
Intermittent energy collectors (solar and wind) will never produce enough energy to even power non-transportation uses, much less be able to produce more solar and wind collector units.
We will be dependent on oil and natural gas until sufficient nuclear power is online 24×7. Wind and solar only really make sense in small use-case scenarios, like remote locations.
Utopia. Can’t you see it there, just on the horizon? If we could just ignore most of the lessons of the 20th century… It could be ours.
It depends on Party whims and donor groups on the degree of policy disarray.
I’ve been tweeting a lot recently on how do the intermittent so called ‘Renewables’ even exist without the COG‘s of our ModernCivilisation, viz., Coal, Oil & Gas and for that matter how do Hydroelectric & even Nuclear power plants get built without these?
Have we ever seen a WindTurbine or Solar Panel made by their own power output pray tell?
There’s no fuel found that can replace these EnergyDense Fuels! Am I missing something?
Open to any errors of thinking here…anyone?
The BRICS nations are powering ahead, they will soon out power, out gun and out finance the G20
90% of African nations are welcoming Russian & Chinese investment and technology in their infrastructures and support in developing their indigenous fossil fuel and other rare earth element capability
In a couple of decades time, the West will be consigned to regressing nations status, it may be quicker than that if they continue the climate alarmism, nut zero self harm
people need to stop supporting this madness
Very nice, clearly stating the obvious. The US and the west are a disgusting embarrassment. This is too important to rely on a fix from the ballot box. Consider election participation percentages. General election participation is very low and mid terms are critically low. Consider who is voting, at least half of the voting population is in the grasp of the democrat party and will basically vote how they are told. The democrat party is not where I would seek intelligent, well considered advice. Most of the rest are republicans/conservatives who can rarely come together, put their differences aside and whip democrats. The rest are libertarians, greens, socialists, communists or some form of globalist. No we have to show the common man that he is being lied to, cheated and fleeced. When he realizes what is happening to him it will stop. That is why all the information available here at WUWT needs to be rendered down to the level that any middle school or high school student can easily understand.
Zerohedge ran an item a few days back about usa strategic reserves not only are they al time low theyre not likely to be refilled anytime soon they reckon and worries about the drawdown and the age/condition of the salt caverns themselves.
down to a very low “days of use”
and I pondered on the thought Aussies supposed tohave bought oil reserves for our emergencies and stored in usa , useless if we needed in a hurry but is any even left I wonder??
report chinas pulling all drone sales to usa starting Oct 1st might be cos on onsale to ukies? but also a big stylecramp for your Own athome spy in the sky programs?
mentioned this earlier and today theres a new item
https://www.zerohedge.com/energy/wti-soars-near-ytd-highs-after-api-reports-biggest-weekly-crude-draw-least-40-years