It must be tough to be a liberal these days, even if it seems your ideas are ascendant.
You demand COVID-19 lockdowns and mask mandates and wail about income inequality, and your favorite president throws an intimate, maskless 60th birthday bash for 500 friends at his $12 million mansion.
One of your favorite governors who promoted the #MeToo cause has, according to the state’s attorney general, racked up multiple counts of sexual assault and harassment.
Some of your other favorite pols shout “defund the police” as they proudly proclaim they spent tens of thousands on private security, and your media cheerleaders denounce voter-ID laws even as they demand vaccine passports and call for businesses to treat the unvaccinated as the great unwashed.
Now, Politico has thrown liberals another reason to be bewildered – if they are capable of that.
In an article Tuesday, the publication noted, “Marijuana has never been more popular in the U.S. — and its carbon emissions have never posed a bigger threat to the climate. America’s patchwork approach to legalizing weed has helped make cannabis cultivation one of the most energy-intensive crops in the nation. And as states increasingly embrace marijuana, a growing source of greenhouse gases is going essentially unnoticed by climate hawks on Capitol Hill.”
Greenhouse-grown pot now consumes fully 1 percent of the nation’s total energy usage, Politico reported. In one state, Massachusetts, that figure is 10 percent.
Growing weed consumes as much electricity “as driving about 20 miles in a fuel-efficient car,” Politico noted. “Then there’s the still-vibrant illegal market — where there are no emissions rules whatsoever — that consumes fossil fuels at an even higher rate, often using standalone generators or stealing power from neighbors to fuel their operations. … The average indoor grow operation consumes more power than 14 typical homes.”
“The problem is only going to get worse,” the website lamented.
That’s because pot-cultivation is the fastest growing industry in America, according to Politico, and will accelerate as more states loosen restrictions.
Yet the production methods will remain the same, although more energy-efficient equipment is being developed.
Adam Smith, director of the Craft Cannabis Alliance, which lobbies for making cannabis sales legal across state lines, described the current model as “neither economically sustainable nor competitive. Nor is it environmentally sane.”
Nor do the heavyweights of the environmental advocacy industry know or care about this phenomenon.
“Right now though, the impact of cannabis on energy consumption is a blind spot for environmental groups,” Politico noted.
“While some local chapters of green groups have pushed for regulations on new grow operations in states like California, national engagement is still lacking. The Sierra Club, Environmental Defense Fund, Natural Resources Defense Council and Earthjustice have not turned their national lobbying efforts onto the sector.”
It will be get-your-popcorn-ready time if they do.
Meanwhile, as the adage holds, if it weren’t for double standards, liberals would have no standards at all.
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