An overused phrase in American political discourse is that the government should “be able to walk and chew gum at the same time”. While this makes a pithy line, reality sometimes pitches the proverbial walking and chewing against each other.

The best example of this is the energy policy announced this week by Joe Biden’s administration, which tries to satisfy both the needs of industry and the energy-hostile preferences of the environmental lobby. “Under the Biden-Harris Administration,” the White House statement reads, “private companies have invested almost $80 billion in clean energy manufacturing. Strengthening U.S. clean energy supply chains not only benefits American workers but also makes it easier to deploy clean energy even faster to cut emissions.”

This is all well and good, but do these green initiatives really satisfy America’s energy needs? The answer is no, but Joe Biden is trying to fudge the issue. In the past, the White House tried to address this problem by simply outsourcing to the global markets. This is the reason why last year the US permitted increased oil exports from both Iran and Venezuela, easing the sanctions Washington was once adamant about enforcing, or why Biden asked Ukraine to show restraint in attacking Russian refineries.