One of President Joe Biden's most disgusting "Nero fiddles while Rome burns" moments came when he hosted his first state dinner for visiting French President Emmanuel Macron.
While the president and his guests gorged themselves on 200 live Maine lobsters poached in butter, his administration did everything it could to regulate the Maine fishing industry — particularly lobstermen — out of existence.
And they're making the fishing industry a scapegoat for the actual peril lurking in the waters off New England — offshore wind farms.
Rep. Jared Golden, a Maine Democrat, called out the White House's hypocrisy.
"If the Biden White House can prioritize purchasing 200 Maine lobsters for a fancy dinner, @POTUS should also take the time to meet with the Maine lobstermen his administration is currently regulating out of business," he tweeted.
Part of the controversy is centered on the 4,900 square mile Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, the only marine monument on the U.S. Atlantic coast.
Conservationists say this area requires protection due to its high level of biodiversity. Maine lobstermen and fishermen say it's precisely that diversity that makes it a prime ground for harvesting lobster and fish.
Bob Vanasse, executive director of Saving Seafood, congratulated Golden for casting a light on Biden's duplicity on the issue, and said that it's not just the Maine lobster industry that's in peril, but also the tuna, swordfish and crab industries.
"I applaud the congressman for calling out the administration's hypocrisy when it comes to our domestic fisheries and their policies," Vanasse said.
"This is not the first time that something like this has happened, but it is good to see, and particularly a Democrat pointing it out because this administration has frankly not been friendly or helpful to our domestic fishing industry," he continued.
Celebrity chef Andrew Gruel said there's one factor that the environmentalists, regulators, and Biden are missing: sustainability.
"The fishermen are the best stewards of the ocean," he told Newsmax. "It's inherent in their nature that they need to maintain a sustainable fishery, otherwise their kids — the next generation — don't have a bounty of seafood in which to create a career. So it's a true example of an industry regulating itself."
Of special concern, environmentalists point to lobstermen as the primary cause for the decline in the North Atlantic right whale population.
Gruel dismissed that and said "there's zero evidence that there has been a death of a right whale as the result of entanglement in Maine lobster fishing traps."
He noted, however, that the decline of the right whale began at about the time that the cruise ship industry began making stops in and around Maine. "But of course they don't get any flak from this," Gruel said. "So talk about scapegoating."
Indeed, in 2017, the cruise ship Grand Princess pulled into Ketchikan, Alaska, with a humpback whale lodged on its submerged bulbous bow, a protuberance designed to reduce drag, and increase speed, range and fuel efficiency.
But there's yet another culprit lurking in the waters off New England, one near and dear to liberals, Democrats, environmentalists, and yes, Biden: green energy.
Just as land-based wind turbines are killing off birds by the millions — including protected species such as the American bald eagle — offshore wind farms are proving to be the death knell to whales.
But in the case of the offshore wind farms, it's believed that the sound of the turbines being carried through the water interferes with whales' sonar that they use for navigation, causing them to beach themselves and die.
David Wojick, Ph.D., writing for CFACT, estimated that "if each huge (offshore wind) project kills just one whale a year, then extinction of the 300 or so remaining North Atlantic Right Whales is assured within the projects' stated 30 year life."
A group of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, citizens formed the Save Right Whales Coalition, which is determined to stop offshore wind turbine projects that members say could harm whales.
"Any species whose numbers are this low requires that we not take any additional action that could harm these whales," environmental activist Michael Shellenberger said of the endangered North Atlantic right whales. "Particularly given that we have an abundance of nuclear and natural gas resources that would provide a sufficient alternative to these large industrial wind turbines."
And considering offshore wind farms' excessive construction cost, estimated at $25,000 per household in one project, combined with its limited 30-year lifespan, the only reason they're even considered a viable alternative are subsidies.
Eliminate the subsidies, you eliminate the wind turbines.
It's one more example that subsidies reward failure; free markets reward success.
But yeah, fishermen are the real problem. Just ask Biden. After he finishes his lobster dinner and wipes the butter off his face.
Michael Dorstewitz is a retired lawyer and has been a frequent contributor to Newsmax. He is also a former U.S. Merchant Marine officer and an enthusiastic Second Amendment supporter. Read Michael Dorstewitz's Reports — More Here.
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