Call this a study in comparative seriousness. With the most populous state warning people to turn off their appliances and air conditioners in the middle of a heat wave, how does the Biden administration plan its energy policy to meet the nation’s needs? Answer, via the RNC — they don’t.

Instead, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen decided to go outside her portfolio yesterday to pledge that Joe Biden and his team will “rid ourselves of our current dependence on fossil fuels,” in favor of “the wind, the sun, and other sources of clean energy.” How’s that working out for California at the moment?

Biden Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen: Under Biden's plan, we will “rid ourselves” of oil and gas. pic.twitter.com/ixipZOKxjd

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) September 8, 2022

It seems odd to send Yellen out to extol the so-called “Inflation Reduction Act” as a climate-change bill. That should be the argument from either Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm or Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, not the chief Cabinet officer for economics. To the extent that Yellen talks about this bill at all, it should be to defend its financial and budget impacts.

Having Yellen sell this as a climate-change bill more or less concedes the argument on inflation and budget impacts, no?

While this administration gasses on about “ridding ourselves” of fossil fuel (pun very much intended), another demonstrates far more seriousness about approaching energy policy based on reality. Newly installed Prime Minister Liz Truss took a big step toward regaining energy independence for the UK by lifting the national ban on fracking, a move she hopes will restore British energy production as Russia uses energy as a strategic economic weapon:

The newly-appointed Conservative prime minister made the announcement Thursday, explaining that she will allow oil and gas developers to request permission from the government to increase domestic fuel supplies.

Truss said that her hope is that fracking operations will start in the next six months and is approving 100 new exploration licenses for oil and gas drilling in the North Sea.

“We will make sure that the U.K. is a net energy exporter by 2040,” Truss told parliament. “We are supporting this country through this winter and next, and tackling the root causes of high prices so we are never in the same position again.” …

In 2019, the Conservative Party banned fracking – a process that harvests oil and gas from buried shale rock – due to safety concerns about the practice, according to the party’s manifesto.

If Truss’ partners on the Continent follow suit, that will help Europe regain the strategic position it squandered in its haste to addict itself to cheap Russian energy imports. That would actually be a rational strategic plan not just for energy but also for security for the EU and NATO.

Even apart from the strategic interests that are clearly driving this decision for Truss, this policy recognizes the dead end that utopian Green energy policies have created in Europe. They didn’t rid themselves of dependence on fossil fuels — they only outsourced the production to a potentially hostile regime. Their “green” resources are woefully inadequate for their energy requirements, even after two decades or more of heavy subsidies and policies that disadvantaged reliable fossil-fuel-produced energy. Having Russia cut off the oil and gas to Europe shows just how flabby and delusional their energy policies have been.

The Russian gambit was a wake-up call to more than just the EU, after all. Truss understands that. Biden and Yellen … not so much. They want us to embrace the same delusions that left Europe in thrall to Vladimir Putin. The result will be what Californians are experiencing now, only on a much wider and regular basis.