LARRY KUDLOW: America is not the cause of alleged climate issues

Speaking of far-left obsessive, Green New Deal radical climate change, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is in the news for flying carbon fuel-heavy private jets all around the world.  

Now, personally, I don’t really have a problem with private jets. But Secretary Buttigieg is a rabid climate guy, so you’d think he would have a big problem flying around in all of those big carbon-emitting jets. You remember he was the guy who drove from the Transportation Department building for presidential meetings in his big black SUV, but then he’d stop just outside the White House security gate, jump out of the truck, pop open the tailgate and bring out his bicycle. 

And then for the reporters, he would ride a half a block down West Exec Road to get to the side entrance of the White House. Very climate conscious. Anyway, a government watchdog group called Americans for Public Trust has filed a federal lawsuit against the FAA because the agency is stonewalling records detailing Buttigieg’s use of government-private jets under the Freedom of Information Act.  

WASHINGTON, DC – MAY 23: U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg holds a news conference about summer air travel at the department’s headquarters on May 23, 2023 in Washington, DC. Airlines and regulators are preparing for the number of American (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images / Getty Images)

Now, earlier, Fox News Digital reported that Buttigieg took at least 18 flights using taxpayer-funded private jets — but he ain’t talking now and neither is the FAA. Kinda dirty pool don’t ya think? By the way, just for the record, Buttigieg’s predecessor, Elaine Chao, well, she was criticized because she used private jets on seven occasions in 2017, but at least Elaine fessed up with the number of trips and the cost, which was about $94,000.  

PETE BUTTIGIEG TOOK GOVERNMENT JET TO NYC FOR RADIO INTERVIEW, ACLU MEETING BEFORE FLYING BACK HOURS LATER

And then she stopped doing it. So clearly my pal Elaine Chao has a lot more character than the current occupant of that particular office. But still, on the subject of radical-left climate change, the Buttigieg story is not near as much fun as Joe Biden speaking last night in front of the League of Conservation Voters in Washington D.C. He said a bunch of wonderful things as per usual. Now, first up, he described climate as the only truly existential threat. Take a listen.

PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: “This is the only truly existential threat. It’s the existential threat. If we don’t meet the requirements that we’re looking at, we’re in real trouble.” 

I don’t really think so, Joe. In fact, after watching you work overtime to throw your primary presidential opponent Donald Trump in jail, something that’s never been done before in American history, I kinda think you’re the biggest existential threat we face, but I digress for the moment. 

Then, Mr. Biden takes the usual left-wing refrain and blames America for the alleged climate problem. Take a listen. 

BIDEN: “Here’s the bottom line. Look, we’re the ones that caused the problem– the United States. We cleared all our land. We did all the things that to make…make things more easy for us to make money. Not a bad thing at the time. No one really fully understood. But we and the major emitters in the world have an obligation to help those countries.”  

“Major emitters in the world?” This is a total untruth. America is not the cause of alleged climate issues. Actually, America is the solution. We have the cleanest burning oil and natural gas along with renewables. In fact, America has reduced its carbon emissions between 2010 and 2020 by over 1,000 tons. 

FILE – Trucks line up to enter a Port of Oakland shipping terminal on Nov. 10, 2021, in Oakland, Calif. President Joe Biden’s administration cleared the way for California’s plan to phase out a wide range of diesel-powered trucks, a part of the state ((AP Photo/Noah Berger, File) / AP Newsroom)

The UK maybe cut C02 by 200 million tons, Germany by less, France less than 100. Meanwhile, if you take a look at these charts, now, you can see it. We are the leader in the cuts but take a look at China. China increased its C02 emissions by just less than 2 million tons, India increased by about 800 million tons, the Saudis by about 100 million. So this blame America business is another one of Biden’s bottomless Pinocchio untruths, which of course he gets away with because his friendly media never calls him out on it. 

BIDEN ENERGY SECRETARY DEFENDS PRAISING CHINA ON CLIMATE CHANGE SPENDING IN FIERY HEARING EXCHANGE

And finally, Mr. Biden unveils a very interesting, ambitious proposal that no one’s ever heard about before last night. He said, “We have plans to build a railroad from the Pacific all the way to the Indian Ocean.” Wow. That there is an ambitious project. Gov. Ron DeSantis’ War Room, tweeted out the word “ambitious” with a map. Check the map out. We have it up on the full screen. 

I’m going to give Governor DeSantis a big hat tip for the map. That’s a fabulous map. Now listen, this railroad would cover something like 8,000 miles according to the Google maps.  

So we tried to figure out what it would cost. Now, here’s one way to do it. We looked at the Channel between Dover, England and Calais, France which is 23.5 miles long and costs about $21 billion. So Biden’s 8,000-mile Pacific-Indian Ocean railroad is about 340 times the length of the Channel. And that would come to something like $7 trillion.  

Now this is not the last word on these calculations, OK? Think of it as the first step. 

You all can do your own math to your own satisfaction. But I don’t know where that $7 trillion is going to come from, right now, considering that Mr. Biden has already bankrupted the U.S. government with his $5 trillion, 2-year spending spree that has delivered a 16% increase in the CPI.  Make that 33% for energy prices and a 20% hike in grocery prices.  

And lord knows how much carbon would be released into the world’s atmosphere by building this railroad under the Pacific Ocean, over Indo-China land, and then back under the Indian Ocean. It kind of boggles the mind, just the mere thought of it.  

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So, I’ve kind of figured that Joe Biden himself is really the existential threat. Just sayin’.