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‘Stop Living In A Green Fantasy World’: NYT Columnist Hammers ‘Moral-Preening Progressives’ On Energy Policy

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New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman blasted progressives opposing permitting reform for “living in a green fantasy world” while Russian President Vladimir Putin cut off energy to Europe in a Tuesday column.

Friedman’s column, titled “Putin Will Make People Choose Between Heating or Eating This Winter,” excoriated the governments of Europe for failing to adequately prepare for a lack of Russian energy supplies as Russian President Vladimir Putin has cut off supplies of oil and natural gas to the region. Freidman noted that Putin was counting on a cold winter to force the European Union to stop supporting Ukraine, citing the cutoff of natural gas to Europe, and also attacked American lawmakers seeking to block fossil fuel production without an adequate replacement.

“I wish I could say for certain that Putin will fail — that the Americans will outproduce him,” Friedman wrote in the op-ed. “And I wish I could write that Putin will regret his tactics, because they will eventually transform Russia from the energy czar of Europe to an energy colony of China — where Putin is now selling a lot of his oil at a deep discount to overcome his loss of Western markets.”

“Yes, I wish I could write all of those things,” Friedman wrote. “But I can’t — not unless the U.S. and its Western allies stop living in a green fantasy world that says we can go from dirty fossil fuels to clean renewable energy by just flipping a switch.”

Putin Will Make People Choose Between Heating or Eating This Winter https://t.co/6gBG7iWwZJ

— Thomas L. Friedman (@tomfriedman) September 14, 2022

Friedman also blasted Democratic lawmakers who announced their opposition to a continuing resolution that included Democratic West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin’s permitting reform legislation.

“I don’t know who’s more irresponsible: the moral-preening progressives who want an overnight immaculate green revolution, with solar panels and wind farms but no new transmission lines or pipelines, or the cynical, phony tough-guy Republicans, who’d rather see Putin win and our energy companies lose than do right for America and Ukraine by agreeing with Biden,” Friedman wrote.

“U.S. energy policy today has to be the arsenal of democracy to defeat petro-Putinism in Europe, by providing desperately needed oil and gas to our allies at reasonable prices so that Putin cannot blackmail them,” Friedman added.