That’s the way National Review editor Rich Lowry describes the Democratic presidential nominee’s approach to fossil fuels.

Joe Biden wants to take one of the great American success stories of the past several decades and drive it into the ground.

He would turn his back on the stupendous wealth represented by proven reserves of oil and gas in this country.

Rather than focusing on producing cheap, abundant energy — a key ingredient to human progress through all of human history — he’d embark on the fool’s errand of trying to adjust the world’s thermostat 80 years from now.

After a 50-year effort to diminish our reliance on Middle Eastern oil, which has miraculously happened at last, Biden would force the U.S. to transition to solar and wind, industries that currently depend on Chinese supply chains.

Whereas California has embraced the radical goal of a carbon-free electric grid by 2045 (and has drastically increased the price of energy in the state already), Biden has seen and raised the Golden State by embracing a goal of 2035.

All this was underlined by Biden’s statement at the end of last week’s debate that he wants to transition from oil, which constituted a gaffe only for anyone who hadn’t been paying attention to his Green New Deal–shaped energy plan.

It’s a funny time to want to kneecap oil and gas. Proven reserves of natural gas in the U.S. are higher than ever before, thanks to American-made technological innovations. A couple of years ago, the U.S. surpassed Russia and Saudi Arabia in crude oil production. In recent years, petroleum and natural-gas exports have been increasing. And, of course, the rise of natural gas has cut U.S. carbon emissions.

This should be considered a national strength to build on, not a national shame to be put on a glide path to extinction. Fossil fuels are a tremendously useful source of energy. …