Blumenthal Does Natural Gas

Blumenthal

The title of the story in the Hartford paper was, “Consumers are struggling with rising home heating prices. Senators want to halt US exports of natural gas,” and the lede graph was, “A group of U.S. senators, including Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, is targeting natural gas exports as a culprit behind rising prices and asked the Biden administration to halt the shipments.”

Years ago, when Blumenthal was running against Linda McMahon’s $50 million campaign chest – not a high hurdle for Blumenthal to surmount – McMahon asked Blumenthal during one of their debates to tell everyone how he thought jobs were created.

Blumenthal banged about for a while in the economic china closet, breaking most of the expensive gold monogramed pieces, until he was driven out by McMahon.

“Mr. Blumenthal,” Connecticut Commentary noted at the time, “proceeded to rattle off at great length his crony capitalist talking points, prominent among them that governmental intervention – i.e. the picking and choosing of winners and losers in what remains of the U.S. free market system -- is indispensable in the creation of jobs: ‘… We can and should create more of them [jobs] by creative policy, and that’s the kind of approach I want to bring to Washington.’ Never fearful of patting himself on the back, Mr. Blumenthal explained that as Attorney General he had ‘stood up for jobs when that company [Pratt&Whitney] wanted to ship them out of state and overseas… I want programs that provide more capital for small businesses, tax policies that promote creating jobs, stronger intervention by government to make sure that we use the ‘made in America’ policy and ‘buy America’ policy to take jobs here, rather than buying products that are manufactured overseas…”

“Mrs. McMahon, cutting through the campaign blather, patiently explained how a job is created: ‘Government, government, government – government does not create jobs. It’s very simple how you create jobs. An entrepreneur takes a risk; he or she believes that he creates a good or service that is sold for more than it costs to make it. If an entrepreneur thinks he can do that, he creates a job.’”

This was, many commentators might agree, the high point of McMahon’s $50 million lost campaign for the U.S. Senate.

Natural gas, we all know, is important to New England, which suffers harsher winters than, say, Florida. And natural gas has become expensive – “dear,” as wealthy senators living in the gold plated nest egg of Greenwich, Connecticut might say, not that too many of them are spooked by the price of natural gas used by the lower orders to heat their homes during frigid New England winters or the price of energy in general.

Prices have gone up on natural gas and other commodities because inflation forces prices upwards, the classic definition of inflation being: too many dollars chasing too few goods. When demand is high and products and services are scarce, inflation, a hidden tax that reduces the purchasing power of the dollar, kicks in.

Energy prices in Connecticut have increased, among other reasons, because the supply was restricted when President Joe Biden shut down the nearly finished, fully financed Keystone pipeline running from Alberta to Nebraska. At the same time, the fracking industry was crippled by other Biden restrictions, further reducing the supply of energy to the US.

Blumenthal has not yet been asked to offer a definition of inflation, as earlier he was asked by McMahon to explain how jobs were created.

Inflation, which boosts prices and lowers the purchasing power of the dollar, is a VERY big deal, although the onset of inflation affects the poor and middle classes more severely than the rich. Blumenthal, this writer has mentioned several times, is the eighth richest U.S. Senator in Congress.

At the close of the second week in February, the Connecticut paper most frequently consulted by Blumenthal’s staff reported, in a front page below the fold Associated Press story, “Inflation in the US jumps to 40-year high.”

“Shortages of supplies and workers, heavy doses of federal aid,” the paper disclosed, “ultra-low interest rates and robust consumer spending combined to send inflation leaping in the past year.”

But not to worry overmuch. The inflation “hammering American consumers, wiping out pay raises” has “reinforced the Federal Reserve decision to begin raising borrowing rates across the country,” the traditional emetic for high inflation.

So then, the shortage of workers has in part been caused by over generous doses of federal aid to states intended to ameliorate the predictable consequences of business shutdowns caused by political decisions made by governors. The rise in energy prices had been caused in part by a restriction in the supply of natural gas, caused by an anti-fossil fuel, pro-green energy administration.

And Blumenthal’s answer to frigid, cost-conscious New Englanders is… what? He wants to divert natural gas exports from countries other than the United States to New England, reasoning that the diversion will increase supply to New England and fulfill demand, reduced politically by vote counting US politicians, a near perfect example of vote hungry politicos purporting to solve the problems they themselves have caused.

Blumenthal is careful to state that OF COURSE he realizes his solution will solidify support in much of Europe for Vladimir Putin, now attempting to become the number one supplier of natural gas to energy hungry Europe. Blumenthal hopes other US politicians will warm to his notion, despite the geopolitical cost to Ukraine and NATO countries.

Perhaps Blumenthal should instruct his staff to ring up McMahon before votes are counted in the upcoming 2022 elections so that she might explain to him how the free enterprise system really works.