The World Chides Our Climate Stance; Should They?

The U.S. is roundly condemned for our environmental stance under President Trump. Do the facts support this? Isaac Orr, a research fellow at the Heartland Institute, argued in a July 18, 2017, opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal that in fact, the opposite is true, that environmental super-star, Germany, achieves miniscule environmental progress and at a substantial price. 
At the recent closing of the Group of 20 summit in Hamburg, German Chancellor Angela Merkel chided Trump for having removed the U.S. from that Paris accord. However, as Orr describes it, “the German people will benefit far more from the American president’s focus on facilitating U.S. energy production and boosting exports than from Mrs. Merkel’s climate policies, which have increased residential electricity prices for German households and failed to achieve any meaningful reductions in fossil-fuel consumption or carbon-dioxide emissions.  We must also note, much of America’s explosion in energy production is in low-carbon natural gas.
“Germany has developed a reputation as a green-energy superpower, but in many respects it isn’t.
“All told, Germany derived more than 80% of its total energy consumption from fossil fuels. (fossil fuels meet 81 percent of U.S. energy demand,  according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).
Orr notes that the Germans are aided by Trump’s opening up the energy supply which drives down prices. The Germans imported $74 billion worth of oil in 2013, at $108 per barrel. However fracking has supplied the market since that time with so much oil that it now sells for around $47 per barrel saving that nation $42 billion per year, and their average home $1,100.
“Ms. Merkel’s climate and energy policies have caused residential electricity prices in Germany to spike by approximately 47% since 2006, costing the average German household about $380 more a year. The higher prices are largely due to a 10-fold increase in renewable-energy surcharges that guarantee returns for the wind and solar-power industries. These surcharges now make up 23% of German residential electric bills.
“The German people are paying far more for their household energy needs under Ms. Merkel, yet they have little to show for it. Since 2009, when Germany began to pursue renewables aggressively, annual CO₂ emissions are down a negligible 0.1%.” This compared to a 14% CO₂ emissions drop in the U.S. since 2005, primarily because of abundant and cheap low-carbon natural gas from fracking, which Germany bans.
“Slapping around Mr. Trump, who is deeply unpopular in Germany, might score Ms. Merkel some domestic political points. But if the German leader really wants to help the environment, she might consider scaling back the attacks. Without American energy production and exports, Germany—and the world—would be a dirtier, darker and less efficient place.”
In Orr’s view, Germany should be thankful for U.S. energy. Further, they should say the same for the engineers who developed and are rapidly improving the hydraulic fracking processes which are flooding the U.S. with ever cheaper fuel, including low-carbon natural gas.
Art Hall 
From the Bible: For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it.  Habakkuk 2:3