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On Tuesday, May 31, Heartland Science Director Dr. Jay Lehr, PhD, was a guest on the radio show “Energy Matters” with host Scott Hennen on The Legendary Voice of the Northern Plains. Lehr was invited on to discuss the EPA’s Methane Rule as a part of President Obama’s “Climate Action Plan.”
Lehr explains that the “Climate Action Plan” is intended to eliminate fossil fuels and reduce emissions from shale gas, a naturally abundant source off fuel within the United States. As a result of these regulations, American fuel costs rise and force Americans to rely on foreign sources of energy. Lehr touches on Donald Trump’s address to the oil industry in North Dakota last week, in which he expressed support for independent entrepreneurs in the industry. During the talk, Trump encouraged private landowners who have utilized new technologies like horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, allowing Americans to make use of vast quantities of fossil fuel. It was these innovations, Lehr explains, that have allowed Americans to begin the securitization of energy independence.
Lehr goes on to state that Congress’ current policies of subsidizing alternate sources of energy like wind and solar are ultimately ineffective. Because the United States and many other nations have naturally plentiful sources of fossil fuel, less efficient energy sources cannot feasibly compete with oil. Lehr comments that the United States is the only nation in which land ownership grants the rights to all minerals contained within the ground, giving the US an inherent economic advantage. However, as a result of President Obama’s “Climate Action Plan,” oil prices have already risen.
Further, Lehr explains that the left’s sensationalization and demonization of methane is not actually founded in science. Methane, although a more effective greenhouse gas than CO2, actually dissipates into the atmosphere shortly after release. This means that its emission and presence in our atmosphere is of little consequence to our climate. Lehr states that our climate is affected by more variables than that of which can be scientifically handled and thus cannot be captured accurately by a mathematical model. Lehr points out that modern scientists do not have the ability to accurately predict the temperature two weeks from now, let alone one hundred years.
Lehr states that the EPA’s new restrictions on methane emissions cannot and will not affect the environment, meaning that the “Climate Action Plan” can only be targeted at the oil industry itself. President Obama and his administration have continually used global warming as a vehicle to constrain the energy sector and as Lehr explains, infringe upon commercial rights.
Listen to the interview in full using the player above.
