The Godfather of Global Warming, Dr. James Hansen, was criticized in his day for wanting mitigation but compared to modern government employees and climate evangelists he was downright practical. He noted coal was the problem and he was right. He was also right when he fleshed that out by stating that clean coal would solve the emissions problem, no Draconian cutbacks and penalties needed.

Who now has coal burning so clean that the Clean Power Plan was retracted because the private sector had met its 2025 energy targets...by 2017? The United States.

Yet instead of embracing those mitigation strategies the Biden administration has doubled down in its war on affordable energy. America's poorest people are now forced to subsidize the wealthy 0.6%. Many young people believe they may never be able to afford a new car because the federal government is mandating expensive electric ones. The US government is not only mandating ineffective and expensive solar and wind domestically, we force poor countries to do the same. We won't provide a World Bank loan to countries with 2 billion people burning wood fires and dung in their homes unless it is for solar. Even middle class countries can't afford the Biden energy agenda. South Africa has spent billions on solar and wind and closed one coal plant - because alternative energy is fickle and they don't want more brownouts than they already have.

There 180X as many federal government employees as there are coal miners in the US, and unlike most government employees, coal miners contribute to the tax pool rather than being drains on it. Bullying by the Biden Administration is why Sen. Joe Manchin is standing up to the leader of his party the only way he can - stalling appointments at an EPA which has aggressively been undermining science overall, and energy science in particular.

Another set of regulations that act as laws due to abuse of Chevron deference - which is finally getting a look by the Supreme Court next year - is designed to prop up solar and wind pet projects by penalizing coal and gas even more. Even though their improvements in emissions have been far ahead of old goals under the never-enacted Clean Power Plan.

Watching the EPA testify at the House Agriculture Committee a few weeks ago, I was stunned how out-of-touch they are. Every new regulation and added cost, they said, was to help farmers - because it would prevent climate change and promote social justice. It was maddening to me, and I am jaded to government functionaries doing the jobs they were appointed to do. Millions of acres of farmland are being sold to housing developers because the White House does not see food as a strategic resource. That the Biden administration has a special affection for China is fine, the Obama administration also let them manipulate science and economics, but you don't outsource your food to competitors.

Yet EPA and CDC have been next-level militant in enacting political agendas and running through science to do it. It is good that Senator Manchin is taking a stand.

What will Democrats do, not support him in the next primary? He could flip to Republican and still win.