By John J. Duncan Jr.

duncanj@knoxfocus.com

I suppose the only people happy about the high gas prices are American environmental radicals and the leaders of OPEC.

Our environmental extremists have wanted much higher gas prices for many years so people would be forced to drive less.

But I noticed a long time ago that almost all extreme environmentalists came from wealthy or very upper income families who could easily afford higher gas prices.

There never seemed to understand that driving also drove up the price of everything else.

Environmental rules, regulations and red tape led to the closure of thousands of small and medium-sized businesses and/or forced them to have much of the work done in other countries.

Driving up prices and destroying jobs didn't hurt the environmental elitists, but it sure hurt and still does hurt many thousands of poor, lower income, and working people in this country.

It has certainly helped foreign energy producers who just happen to be some of the biggest contributors to U.S. environmental groups.

It is not only gas and diesel fuel that has gone way up. It was reported on June 6th that coal had more than doubled over the past year, and this was going to cause a big jump in our utility costs.

Presently, 61% of U.S. electricity is produced by fossil fuels. At current rates of usage, the Energy Information Administration estimates that the U.S. has 470 years' worth of recoverable coal reserves.

As silly as it sounds, there would probably not be as much opposition to coal if it was white instead of black. It just looks dirty.

But modern technology has made it not only possible, but actually made it easy to produce clean energy from coal.

U.S. air is much cleaner than it was 50 years ago, but environmental groups hate to admit this. Their contributions will go way down unless they can convince everyone that our air and water are terribly polluted.

The U.S. has the toughest environmental rules in the world. It produces much more pollution around the globe. It produces much more pollution around the globe to keep forcing more industry to China, India, and small developing countries where their environmental regulations are almost non-existent or not nearly as strong as ours.

I know that millions hated President Trump because of his personality. Trump Derangement Syndrome was real, and some had so much hatred for him they probably needed psychiatric help.

But he had this country becoming almost totally energy independent. We did not have to go begging to OPEC or countries run by dictators.

Gas prices were less than half of what they are now. And every report seems to be that gas is heading much higher.

OPEC has announced that they are going to produce more oil in July and August. I hope this helps, but it is a shame that we have become even more vulnerable to foreign energy producers under this administration.

A few weeks before the 2020 elections, I sent a message to Mark Meadows, who was the president's Chief of Staff. He was a good friend of mine due to our service in the House.

I urged him to run some ads saying if you wanted to pay five or six dollars a gallon for gas, vote for Biden. But he didn't handle the campaign advertising, and even I didn't think gas prices would go up as fast as they have.

Luckily, because I knew the Biden Administration would be controlled by environmental radicals, I decided to trade for a hybrid automobile that get 40 miles to the gallon.

I did this early last year before the chip shortage hit and car dealers would still bargain a little. Now, I am very glad I did.

But it is really sad that President Biden and the wealthy environmentalists who control his administration have almost no sympathy for ordinary working people.

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