The Washington Free Beacon recently reported that the Biden administration’s stunningly unjust Department of Justice “quietly weighed in on litigation pending before the Supreme Court this week, siding with liberal cities and states that are seeking to force the nation's largest oil companies to pay billions of dollars in damages for global warming.”

Biden’s Solicitor General, Elizabeth Prelogar, is pushing the Supreme Court to give its imprimatur to the notion that states can make laws mandating that oil companies pay “the costs of global climate change.” Prelogar is also urging SCOTUS to “allow Democratic states to pursue their individual lawsuits against the various companies.”

The Beacon also noted that the lawsuits against the big oil companies “are being assisted by the California law firm Sher Edling, which was founded in 2016 to wage war on oil companies via novel legal methods,” and has “received nearly $14 million in donations wired through the so-called Collective Action Fund for Accountability, a shadowy pass-through group that isn't required to publicly disclose its donors.”

Mandating that companies that provide the vast majority of the world’s energy pay for any possible harm that energy production has caused the planet is the worst idea in the history of the world. And that may be an understatement. First off, “global warming” is unproven, impossible to separate from normal planetary processes. Second, we don’t even know if it is occurring. Third, we have no idea if it is “man-caused,” let alone caused by fossil fuel companies. Fourth, there are numerous “experts” who believe that, if it is occurring, it would be a net benefit to the planet. Which seems logical.

And all of those previous statements/reasons are utterly moot. Huh?

Any current government, whether state or national, that wishes to levy fines against companies in the extraction industry—or sue them into oblivion—is an existential threat to those it is (hopefully) sworn to protect and defend…and therefore invalid, illegitimate.

Let me explain. Any possible “damage” these companies have done to the earth is more than counteracted by the literally incalculable good they have done. Global warming? Petroleum, coal, and natural gas-based energy has prevented countless millions from dying of extreme cold over the past century or more via various, relatively inexpensive, heating systems. Global cooling? Petroleum, coal, and natural gas-based energy has prevented countless millions from dying of excessive heat via the relatively recent miracle of air-conditioning.

What else? Let’s see. How many lives have been immeasurably improved because of the internal combustion engine? The freedom to get in one’s car and drive to work, or to travel across the country to see the sights, historical, environmental, or otherwise, is a blessing—though too often taken for granted now—beyond compare. The same goes for air travel. Not to mention that, prior to gasoline-powered vehicles, things were a tad more difficult. Who wants to ride a horse to work in heavy snow and 40-below windchills? Walk? Bicycle? What about the elderly, infirm, and handicapped? Would that be fair, inclusive, tolerant, and kind? And the ubiquitous horse poop—filling the streets and thoroughfares of that era was an ever-present health threat on several levels.

More? Before petroleum-based oils came into existence, many people lit their homes with lamps fueled by whale oil. Sperm—and other—whales were also benefactors of the switch to oil, coal, and natural gas.

Instead of seeking to punish those who have brought the world real “progress,” dramatically improving lives and preventing countless deaths, we should be falling to our knees and thanking almighty God that they did so.

Fines and reparations? In a more just world, those would be levied against the governments that try to punish the very entities that have done us the most good.

Image: Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Flickr, unaltered.