The Biden administration and nearly every Democrat not named Manchin has reduced the entire economy to one single priority… global warming. And that has nothing to do with the environment, but it means ensuring that the Democrat megadonor class gets to cash in on its Big Green finance investments at the expense of the American middle class. The supply chain crisis is yet another example of it.

Now, via Ed Driscoll at Instapundit, another case of the economy being taken hostage by Big Green’s operatives.

The FAA is headed by a pilot, NASA is headed by an astronaut, the US Marine Corps is headed by a Marine but for the fourth time in a row, and during the worst shipping crisis of the century, the US Department of Transportation, has appointed someone to the US Maritime Administration (MARAD) who is not a captain and has no commercial shipping experience.

Yesterday afternoon, President Biden announced his intention to nominate Rear Admiral Ann Phillips, US Navy (Retired), as the next US Maritime Administrator, a position that has been vacant since Rear Admiral Mark Buzby stepped down following the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol in January.

Phillips is a highly decorated Navy leader with a long list of accomplishments and is highly respected by everyone gCaptain has interviewed. She was head of the Navy’s Climate Change Task Force and is a highly sought after consultant on climate security issues. She holds an MBA. She was chairman of a local government Sea Level Rise Preparedness and Resilience project. She once captained a Navy warship. The appointment looks great on paper except for one kinda big problem. This is not a warship position. It’s a commercial shipping appointment and she has zero experience aboard any commercial ships. She does not even have experience leading navy military sealift ships.

She has two obvious qualifications, identity and politics. All else is irrelevant.

The Democrats hollowed out the military and undermined our national security in order to position their people in the right places to construct a narrative echo chamber. The priority here is to use their positions to add gravitas to the claims that we must turn over our economy to the Left in order to save the planet. Their actual ability to perform the core functions of their job is entirely irrelevant.

It’s about the money and the power.

Here’s Ann’s House testimony back when she was working for Gov. Ralph Northam.

“Under Governor Ralph Northam, Virginia is taking bold and substantive action to identify and fill the gaps. He intends to build capacity for Virginia as we set standards and define how we as a coastal state will approach this existential threat. During the 2019 General Assembly Session, Governor Northam proposed legislation to begin to do just that, the Virginia Coastal Protection Fund Act, which would have modified and funded the Virginia Shoreline Resilience Fund, recast as the Virginia Shoreline Protection Fund, and provided a continuing source of income – estimated to be at least $50 million annually – generated by the sale of carbon dioxide emissions allowances received from Virginia joining the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. Funds so generated would support implementing hazard – mitigation projects to both mitigate and prevent further flood damage. This legislation failed in Committee. And the General Assembly went further, preventing Virginia from participating in RGGI under any circumstance by blocking the use of agency funds for RGGI participation, even though it has already been approved by the Virginia State Air Pollution Control Board.”

What’s the Virginia Shoreline Protection Fund? Think of it as Big Green’s protection money.

All were focused on the best uses of that $43 million in carbon money, the first round of funds Virginia had received through its participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, an 11-state agreement that puts a price on the carbon emissions that are driving climate change, requires power plants to pay that price and then channels the proceeds back to the states. Most of that funding will eventually be paid for by customers of the state’s electric utilities, which are allowed under state law to pass on the costs of carbon allowances to customers

Translation. Everyone’s power bills go up leading to higher death rates among senior citizens and the money goes to assorted leftist environmentalist causes, consultants, and the usual Big Green mafia.

Whatever uses MARAD will be put to, you can expect them to involve false claims of the imminent destruction of the planet being used to leverage more protection money from Americans.