Guest blog by S. A. Shelley: On the morning of October 25, on CNN, Ms. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez spoke about fracking and how it is necessary to ban all fracking in the U.S. by 2025.

Fracking for energy is responsible for the overwhelming majority of gas supplies that feed America’s economy, including the heating of homes. As noted in previous blogs and based upon scientific fact, not woke feelings, burning natural gas is one of the cleanest ways to continue powering economies while economies transition. Yes, there are problems with fracking, including leakage of methane from poorly tapped wells, but with political imperative these problems can be fixed, now-ish without doing major economic damage.

A complete ban of fracking by 2025 will push America into an accelerated and irrevocable economic death.  Of course, this “fracking ban” was quickly walked back by the president-elect during his campaign.

So why the urgent demand to instantly stop producing fossil fuels ahead of any real capability for renewable green technology to take over? My hypothesis, “Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, is a millennial.” Millennials are characterized by instant gratification. When they grew up, if they wanted something, they could order it online and it would be delivered overnight. If they wanted to watch a movie, they went online, downloaded it and watched, without ever thinking about checking a show time at a theatre. Feeling sad, Millennials would turn to the instant gratification of Twitter or Facebook.

It takes time to develop substantive relationships and understanding of complex issues. Much of the woke environmental tribe has not had that time. Consequently, “progs” like Ms. Ocasio-Cortez who are articulate, show remarkable presence and wield catchy slogans, are espousing poorly conceived and dangerous solutions to problems that they do not fully understand. It’s even worse with the Prime Minister of Canada. It will get worse soon, because post-modernist thinkers and politicians are now linking energy and economy in a Great Reset. That will not end well and it is only a question of how many people will freeze and starve before society returns to rational and objective solutions to complex problems.

It took about 100 years for the current energy industries, oil, gas, coal and nuclear, to develop sufficiently to support modern society, food production, heating, transport, etc. At best guess, it will take about 50 years for renewable energy industries to develop sufficiently in order to maintain society at its current standards of living. While green is better in many ways, overnight green is impossible. Overnight green will result in significant economic devastation. We might keep sea levels from rising, but we’ll also keep billions more from rising to higher standards of living, while dropping just as many down. As argued before, planning, vision and careful progress is required, not zealous resets.

Trust neither the old fools nor the newbies with all the answers: The best path invariably lies somewhere in between. One can only hope that politicians such as Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, with all their enthusiasm and charisma, will develop the perspective needed to solve critical problems with realistic and achievable solutions.

Vive l’Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Northern British Columbia and the Northern Territories Libre!

Definition: Prog = a person who adheres to environmental and economic feelings based ideologies bereft of any substantive scientific or data validation.