Let’s Go Back to the Constitution.

As I write this, President Biden has signed forty executive orders, actions, and directives in just his first nine days of office. Regardless of whether you support or oppose the policies he is advancing with these actions, the ever-increasing reliance on executive orders and the corresponding avoidance of the legislative process should cause you concern.

The issue is of personal and immediate importance to me because I am in the oil and gas industry and President Biden’s orders will cost my industry thousands of jobs and will cost state and local governments tens of millions of dollars in lost tax revenue.  Biden’s orders will also increase the costs Americans pay for anything that must be transported, heated, or cooled at a time when our country’s economy is struggling due to the COVID pandemic.  I realize some will respond the job losses will be offset by new green jobs but because President Biden acted unilaterally without the benefit of the legislative branch’s fact-finding process, we must take his word for it.  Just ask yourself: What is a green job? Where will they be?  What will they pay?  When will they be created?  Now point to me where, in any of his executive orders, President Biden answers even one of these questions.  The truth is there are no answers and none were required before he acted.

I appreciate others will say President Biden was “forced” to act because Congress is too slow.  That analysis is flawed and unconstitutional.  First, President Biden wasn’t forced to act. Democrats have a majority in the House of Representatives and the tie-breaking vote in the Senate. Biden doesn’t need a single Republican vote to pass legislation. Biden – like his immediate Republican and Democratic predecessors, chose to use executive orders rather than push for legislation because it is easier.  If you are a Democratic Representative or Senator, letting the President legislate makes your job easier too.  Easy is a dangerous justification for executive action.

Democracies are inefficient by design.  I completely agree that getting Congress to even vote is too often a heroic endeavor, but the Founders knew this.  They intentionally chose inefficient governance.  The most efficient form of government is a dictatorship. They had seen that in action and knew the cost it imposed on personal freedoms.  Conditioning legislation on a majority vote of both houses and the President’s approval is challenging, but this not only protects us against governmental over-reaching, but it also primarily benefits those who cannot protect themselves.

Executive Orders are a Flawed Substitute for Legislation.  President Obama executed several executive orders that President Trump overturned shortly after taking office.  President Biden overturned many of Trump’s actions.  In four years we will have another presidential election.  If a Republican wins in 2024, it’s a safe bet they’ll overturn many of Biden’s recent orders.  Even the New York Times criticized Biden’s use of executive orders noting this process “creates instability and uncertainty that can carry significant economic as well as human costs.”

Legislating with Executive Orders Rewards the Haves and Punishes the Have-nots.  If you want an executive order, you need only convince the President.  If you want legislation, you need at least 218 congressmen, 51 senators, and the president.  Each one of us has immediate access to our congressman.  How many of us have access to the President?  Not only is it a small group, but those that do are invariably the rich and powerful.  Do you really think they’ll use their access to advance any cause other than their own?

Legislating with Executive Orders Promotes Bigotry.  When I say bigotry, I am not referring to racial prejudice; I mean the complete intolerance of any belief or opinion that differs from one’s own.  Originally, executive orders were meant to provide guidance to governmental agencies within the discretion granted the executive by a piece of legislation. Today, however, they are too often used as a substitute for legislation.  To justify the use of an executive order, a president will say it is intended to address an immediate harm.  If the president can point to a bad guy to create an Us versus Them, so much the better.  The American Oil and Gas Industry has, unfortunately, become a political football in this drama.

I noted earlier that executive orders do not require fact finding. If a president wants to vilify a group of people, they can without supporting facts.  If President Biden has his way, there will soon be no drilling on federal property. Implicit in this is the assumption that fracking is bad for the environment.  I’ve written before that there are no documented cases of fracking fluid contaminating drinking water and that converting electrical generation plants from coal to natural gas has resulted in significantly decreased CO2emissions in the United States.  It is also true that if we decrease our natural gas production, electricity generators will use more coal because wind and solar cannot supply our base demand – the wind doesn’t always blow, and the sun is frequently blocked by clouds.  Moreover, Not In My Backyard objections will block the growth of commercial wind turbines and solar collection panels in the areas of our country that most frequently advocate for greater use of alternative energy sources thus forcing their electricity providers to rely on fossil fuels, including coal if gas is unavailable or too expensive.

Ordinary Americans are Paying the Price for Today’s Political Expediency.  President Biden is attacking our industry because today it is politically expedient to do so.  The irony is that American consumers will pay higher prices for almost everything.  Commodity prices are a strict function of supply versus demand.  When oil production decreases, gasoline and diesel prices increase and the cost of everything we buy that must be transported also increases.  The cost of electricity will also increase as does the cost of natural gas.  Not only will it cost more to heat your home, think of everything you use electricity for. A small increase in the cost of generating that electricity has a tremendous impact on your budget.  Converting natural gas electrical plants to wind or solar will only magnify that impact because of their increased costs.

Anyone can be Tomorrow’s Villain.  The Framers chose an inefficient form of government to protect individual liberties and freedoms.  When we concentrate power in one individual, as we have done by acceding to the increased use of executive orders, we lessen those protections because one individual decides who is to be favored and who is to be abhorred.  That’s wrong.  The Constitution precludes this favoritism to ensure equality and personal freedom.  We should start following it again.