Green Lawsuits are Gutting US Production
Weaponized environmental lawsuits are destroying America's productive economy, from manufacturing to energy to mining. Handing our prosperity -- and our independence -- to China and it's growing band of minion dictators.
Two years ago, the Biden administration celebrated taking 4 million acres of federal land -- that's bigger than the state of Connecticut -- off-limits for oil and gas exploration.
Environmental groups were ecstatic, calling it a new path toward independence from fossil fuels. They were ecstatic because the land had enormous potential to create jobs and wealth in domestic energy, freeing us from conducting permanent wars in the middle east and perhaps keeping the lights on.
The move was part of a much larger push to effectively ban domestic production. Not just in energy and mining, but in manufacturing.
Sue and Settle Spin Cycle
What's most concerning is the tactic: the 4 million acres were condemned — almost the size of the state of New Jersey. Not because of a public policy decision that voters could weight in, but to settle a lawsuit by WildEarth, an environmental law fare outfit.
They'll sue to compel some policy, and since the Biden administration is sympathetic the legal battle is basically a pretend fight -- please, don't force me.
Presto, they condemn 4 million acres without the peoples' representatives in Congress even having a say. And with nobody to blame -- they forced us, you see!
The tactic is known as sue and settle. And it's absolutely ravaged our mining industry, to the point we're forced to rely on China and hostile third-world dictatorships to keep the lights on.
As Tom Pyle of the American Energy Alliance puts it, "the swamp has been refilled via lawsuit, with unelected bureaucrats circumventing the people's will."
According to the National Mining Association, America is reliant on imports for more than half of 51 minerals -- up from 47 last year. We're 100% reliant on 15 minerals, 12 of which are "critical."
To illustrate, today China alone refines 42% of the world's copper, 65% of its lithium, and 70% of the world's cobalt. China has already weaponized critical rare earths, embargoing any country that disobeys, from Lithuania to Japan.
It can do this because environmentalists handed it a monopoly.
Meanwhile, the US has some $6.2 trillion of minerals sitting in the ground. And, by the way, has much stricter environmental standards.
Of course that doesn't matter since it's not about clean production, it's about environmentalists banning anything they can, and they can't ban stuff in China.
US Manufacturing Jobs at Risk
To illustrate what it looks like on the ground, a few weeks ago American Rare Earths found 64% more rare earths than it expected at its Wyoming mines. But it might not be able to even bring it up with environmentalists blocking the way.
In Utah a potash mine -- potash is a clean fertilizer -- was blocked by lawsuits. We've had similar stories from oil in the Permian to lithium -- critical in manufacturing -- along the Nevada-Oregon border.
Sue and settle is an even bigger problem than energy and mining.
Biden's new ambient air particle rules are predicted to put at least a million manufacturing jobs at risk, and according to the National Association of Manufacturers "we will barely be able to build new manufacturing facilities."
Our economy is being crushed by Washington. We're gutting our communities, and we're handing our future to dictators who hate us.
It won't stop until we get a president -- and a Congress -- who can pull a Javier Milei and drain that swamp til it's dry.
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