“The coronavirus pandemic has laid bare just how vulnerable the United States is to sudden, catastrophic shocks. Climate change poses the next big threat. Ignoring it, particularly to the benefit of fossil fuel interests, is a risk we can’t afford.”
Above are the opening lines of an op-ed that appeared in the New York Times two years ago, written by Sarah Bloom Raskin – former Federal Reserve governor, former deputy Treasury secretary, and now former nominee for Vice Chair for Supervision at the Federal Reserve Bank.
The op-ed was headlined, “Why Is the Fed Spending So Much Money on a Dying Industry?” The subhead read as follows: “It should not be directing money to further entrench the carbon economy.”
Is that the mindset we want in Federal Reserve officials? Ideological? Irrational? Misinformed?
Let’s parse that first paragraph. What the coronavirus pandemic “laid bare” was the willingness of public officials at the local, state, and national level to exaggerate a threat so as to increase their powers and restrict our liberties.
Now, let’s take that headline? “Dying industry”? The fossil fuel industry is thriving, and it will continue to supply our energy needs for the foreseeable future. Ideologues like Raskin are trying to kill it, but they won’t succeed, because the opposition to their plans for imposed scarcity is strong, and growing stronger.
Leading that opposition was our own Senator Joe Manchin, who just announced he would not support Biden’s nomination of Raskin to the Fed. Manchin cited his “concerns about the critical importance of financing an all-of-the-above energy policy to meet our nation’s critical energy needs.”
It might have been Manchin's announcement that pushed Raskin into removing herself from consideration the following day.
We are glad that risk has been removed.
As Chris Hamilton, president of the West Virginia Coal Association told The Record, his group is thankful Manchin opposed Raskin's appointment.
"She appears so strongly entrenched in her views to transition away from our fossil energy industries, she obviously would use her position/office as a platform to perpetuate her views," he said.
Wayne Winegarden, a senior fellow in business and economics for the Pacific Research Institute, said he agreed with Manchin's reasoning for not supporting Raskin's nomination.
"The Federal Reserve has a very difficult path ahead and needs leaders who are clearly focused on regaining and maintaining price stability," he told The Record. "Policies that punish energy are antithetical to these goals."