Ok, true confession here: I am a self-professed spice weenie. I don’t enjoy spicy hot foods. I never have for as long as I can recall. A little extra kick in the salsa is okay, but I’m just not a fan of having to fight with my food. Not that I’m Mr. Bland when it comes to eating; far from it. Some sweet, some savory, a dash of pepper, all good. But I don’t go for the same level of freakshow hot that I see some people daring themselves to eat.
Which also means that I’ve got no built-up tolerance to spicy hot as a result. There are no callouses on my tongue. I can break out in a mild sweat under my eyes just eating cracked pepper potato chips.
Some years ago, we took a family vacation cruise in the Gulf of Mexico. We docked in Cozumel and spent a day seeing the sights. We had a great time and went to a large open-air restaurant for lunch. Not long after we sat down the waiter brought out some tortilla chips and a bowl of something green. It was a very thin almost neon green fluid in a little brown wooden bowl. He looked at us and in broken English just said, “Hot, hot, hot.” Well, how many times here in the US of AL have any of us gone to a Mexican restaurant and soon after sitting down had someone bring out a basket of tortilla chips and some salsa? It’s ubiquitous. It’s part of what happens, right? But this was different, this was hot sauce made on the mothership of all hot sauces, and it didn’t look normal to me.
But my kids immediately reached for the chips and were eyeing that liquid green. The parental instincts kicked in. I said, “Hang on y'all. Let me try it first. It might be really hot. You better let me test it for you.” The quick replies were something like, “Aww Daaaaaadddd! You don’t even like spicy stuff!” (They know me so well.) But I’m the dad, so I boldly stepped into the lion's den of hot sauce to see what was what.
Without a moment’s hesitation and with little regard for my own safety, I took a chip from the basket and dipped it into the green stew steaming in the innocuous little bowl. What happened next is a bit of a blur.
I think I kept my vision, even though my eyeballs began to sweat, which I didn’t know could even be a thing. I definitely could not talk. My tongue had lost all gainful function. In fact, in looking back I believe that it might have been less painful if I had just chosen to nail my tongue to the table!
I just sat there making strange blowing noises while my kids stared at me, and I slowly reached out and moved the green devil sauce away from my children. No kidding. Ask one of them about it, and I’m sure they will recall the poignant details.
Meanwhile, my wife came back to the table to see me sweltering from the internal combustion. I remember us questioning why anyone would put that on the table at all. I mean, really. Why was that okay? Sure, I’m a spice weenie, but that was green kryptonite in a bowl, and there’s no way that restaurant didn’t know what the reactions would be. I can’t help but suspect that either, A) they didn’t care, or B) they got a good laugh and few videos off of it.
But I really question why anyone would put something like that out there knowing full well what the results would be.
Well, here’s where I flip the script and make my bleeding tastebuds into an analogy. Liberal progressives who are pushing the Green New Deal right now are just like waiters who push green hot sauce. They don’t care about the results; they don’t care about the pain; they don’t care about the risks. They just want their green stuff consumed by you and me, period. Green New Deal pushers put it out there with little to no warning and act surprised when the consumer is not happy. They just drop it and run and hope that no one will ask questions.
The Green New Deal activists are just hot sauce liberals.
Think about it. In recent days President Joe Biden himself has said that the pain at the pump right now is a “necessary part of the transition.” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said that it is well known that the current electrical grid infrastructure cannot sustain the push to reach Biden’s electric vehicle goals of 50% total usage by 2030.
So what’s the alternative? In a recent hearing on this very issue, Secretary Buttigieg was questioned as to how we should expect the American public to react in the heat of summer when they can’t get the air conditioning that is basically essential in the modern age because the proposed green energy grid is not able to sustain the charging of millions of electric vehicles along with the ongoing aspects of modern life. He said basically that we’ll have to work on that.
Ya think?!
Already we are hearing industry experts threaten the possibility of blackouts and brownouts based on grid capacity in certain parts of the country. If we mandate electric vehicles, they will all get plugged in overnight for the next day’s commute, which will only serve to raise the grid’s output levels during the time that it is usually at its lowest.
The bulk of our current electrical grid sources its power generation from coal-fired plants. To increase the load capacity in what has traditionally been off-peak hours it is reasonable to assume that more coal will have to be mined and burned. Knowledgeable fact-finders say that the cost of charging one electric vehicle overnight is the equivalent energy of 65 pounds of coal at one of our coal-fired plants.
So let’s just rework the grid infrastructure, says Buttigieg. Let’s get out there and build more solar and wind-based systems. Only those renewables don’t currently operate with sufficient technological capability to sustain the way of life that Americans know, enjoy and expect. So what’s the answer to Buttigieg’s glib response?
Declare an emergency so that government can then subsidize what the private sector cannot. Hence the fact that the Biden Administration recently authorized the use of the National Emergencies Act to do just that. Under the guise of an emergency, the federal government - not the private sector - will build and buy solar panels. Ask yourself: Why is the federal government in the business of corporate welfare with our tax dollars to underwrite the solar panel industry? Short answer: because solar is not fully viable and therefore must be subsidized by you and me.
The same is true for all versions of so-called renewable green energy sources. They are certainly capable of power generation but in limited capacities and with more vulnerabilities than current generation methods.
Back to my original analogy: it is not about you and me. It is not about the pain that we will experience. It is not about the long-term consequences of a forced transition to alternative energy as opposed to an all-of-the-above policy. It’s like green hot sauce on the table.
The Green New Deal pushers don’t care. The pain that we feel is just a part of the process. It is a necessary part of the forced transition that we did not ask for and, much like the hot sauce guy at the restaurant, they just drop their plans into place with little to no warning and look surprised when people express their great discomfort and displeasure.
The pain is necessary, they say. They know best for you, they say. The consumers just have to get over it, they say … like a bunch of hot sauce liberals.
Phil Williams is a former State Senator, retired Army Colonel and combat veteran, and a practicing Attorney. He has served with the leadership of the Alabama Policy Institute and currently hosts Rightside Radio M-F 2-5 pm on WVNN. His column appears every Monday in 1819 News. To contact Phil or request him for a speaking engagement go to www.rightsideradio.org. The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of 1819 News. To comment, please send an email with your name and contact information to Commentary@1819News.com.
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