Speaking at a power plant in Tanzania Tuesday, President Obama outlined his vision for electrifying Africa. This entails offering $7 billion of U.S. taxpayer money to bring more power to the continent’s vast rural regions.
Videos By Rare
“We are here today to focus on one of the biggest hurdles to Africa’s economic development – the fact that nearly 70 percent of Africans lack access to electricity,” Mr. Obama said. “It’s a win for Africans – families get to electrify their homes; businesses can run their plants; investors can say if we locate in an African country, that they’re going to be able to power up in a reliable way. All this will make economies grow.”
Lucky Africa.
Before departing on his African trip, Mr. Obama laid out his own domestic energy plans that were far different and far worse for America’s economy. The first and most important were new regulations to curb the emissions from power plants, what he called “carbon pollution” that was driving global warming.
The president was quite forceful on just how serious he thought this “pollution” was, saying that unless his climate policies were enacted the entire world would suffer the consequences – even calling on developing countries to find ways to grow that didn’t emit this pollution:
Developing countries are using more and more energy, and tens of millions of people entering a global middle class naturally want to buy cars and air-conditioners of their own, just like us. Can’t blame them for that. And when you have conversations with poor countries, they’ll say, well, you went through these stages of development – why can’t we? But what we also have to recognize is these same countries are also more vulnerable to the effects of climate change than we are. They don’t just have as much to lose, they probably have more to lose.
Developing nations with some of the fastest-rising levels of carbon pollution are going to have to take action to meet this challenge alongside us. They’re watching what we do, but we’ve got to make sure that they’re stepping up to the plate as well. We compete for business with them, but we also share a planet. And we have to all shoulder the responsibility for keeping the planet habitable, or we’re going to suffer the consequences – together.
In other words, President Obama tells Americans we must all take the hit – even developing countries – in order to stop global warming but tells Africans that he will give them billions to build more power plants so they can grow their economies.
He can’t have it both ways. Either everyone sacrifices economic growth and stops building fossil-fuel-fired power plants to save the planet, or building more such plants is good for the economy – anyone’s economy.
If Mr. Obama applied his climate principles to Africa, the entire continent would be in the dark. Period.
If so-called carbon pollution is bad, why would Mr. Obama subject millions of Africans to more of it? That power plant he spoke at in Tanzania is a gas-fired power plant. The same company, Symbion, also built a diesel-fired plant nearby – in the same city.
If the effects of global warming are so terrible, and developing countries would suffer the most from them, why is our president dooming Africa to the hells of a warming planet?
Conversely, if more electricity is so great, why does the president want Americans to use less of it? Why does he need to reassure us that our economy can succeed in spite of his new efficiency initiatives?
If generating more cheap power is the key to economic growth, why is President Obama so intent on making American power more expensive?
Does Obama think that America is capable of innovation but Africa isn’t?
Of course he doesn’t; he’s not an idiot. He’s merely a hypocrite. Mr. Obama knows good and well that cheap, abundant energy is a boon to every economy everywhere in the world, including America. He told Tanzanians the truth, that producing more energy as cheaply as possible will help them grow and prosper, bettering their lives and making their economies more competitive. He wasn’t worried about global warming or “carbon pollution” and he knows they aren’t worried either.
Mr. Obama is well aware that the benefits of a thriving, prosperous economy will far outweigh any purported negative effects from climate change. He just won’t say so here at home.
Matt Cover is Content Editor for Rare. Follow him on Twitter @MattCover