The other day I was taking a walk with my oldest grandson, Kristian, and he told me they were learning about the Great Depression in school. That led us to a discussion about the Greatest Generation, and I was proud to inform him that his great-grandaddy, Cecil Godwin, was part of that Greatest Generation. The same generation that started the liberation of Europe on June 6, 1944.
Of course, Kristian was curious how they earned the title of the Greatest Generation. I told him that in order to understand that you first must understand how their character was molded. Most of them were born between 1917 and 1927, a great time for the United States often called the Roaring Twenties. But on Oct. 24, 1929, the stock market crash plunged them into the Great Depression.
As a group, these young people had started their lives with so much only to see it all stripped away. It’s in these situations when we’re left with nothing, that God forges our characters in the crucible of life. As it says in Romans 8:28, we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him. I believe that the U.S. did love God as a country in those times.
In the decades that followed, God used the Greatest Generation to squash an evil dictator who wanted to rule the world and eliminate the Jewish people. We should remember that the Jewish nation is God’s chosen people, and He will always protect them.
Today, we’ve faced a global pandemic, illegal immigration and runaway inflation. But these times are nothing compared to the challenges of the Great Depression, so we shouldn’t lose focus.
Right now, the electric industry is full of concepts like renewable or zero-carbon electric energy. By 2030, the transportation industry plans to run entirely on electric vehicles. But those plans and policies are made by people who wouldn’t know their foot from a hole in the ground.
Let me share some facts about these policies. Currently, the U.S. has the biggest economy and is the greatest military power in the world. But our political leaders and even some industry leaders are proposing we move entirely away from fossil fuels. Right now, our fossil fuel consumption is less than it was in 1995. But is the U.S. economy smaller today than it was then? Definitely not.
At that point, our total fossil fuel consumption was 2.5 times China’s. Today, China consumes 1.7 times as much fossil fuel as the U.S. Fossil fuel consumption in the Asia-Pacific region of the world, which includes China and India, is also 53% higher than it is for North America and Europe combined.
So, let me ask a question: Who would benefit both militarily and economically if North America and Europe moved to more expensive zero-carbon energy resources? The answer is the Asia-Pacific region and, most importantly, China.
Are we willing to forfeit our economic and military power by walking away from low-cost, reliable electricity? The policies we’re pursuing suggest yes, but the facts should tell us no.
We don’t have to take that path. The U.S. has maintained its level of fossil fuel consumption for more than 28 years. We did that by developing a diversified portfolio of resources including wind, solar, hydroelectric, nuclear, high-efficiency natural gas plants, and, yes, even coal.
I, for one, don’t want my country to lose its economic, military or humanitarian position in the world. My hope is that we don’t have to go through another Great Depression to save ourselves from climate change culture. Maybe God can mold this next generation into the Great Common Sense Generation and save our country from these intellectuals.
Until next month, be safe and seek a common sense path in your life.