Yellow Vest Protests

Yellow Vest protestors in France are back with a vengeance and the contagion is spreading. The protest movement sparked by a fuel tax subsided during the holidays, but on the first weekend of the year, some 50,000 protestors took to the streets. They overturned cars and set fires, violent actions that Clear Energy Alliance does not condone.

Why are the protests still happening even though President Emanuel Macron has already suspended the fuel tax? Well, the French government has made expensive promises it can’t keep and is looking to raise more money from the rural poor and middle class while protecting the urban wealthy.

This is inevitably what happens when democratic governments with socialist programs mature. There is never enough of other people’s money to go around and the people who were supposed to benefit the most…the working class… ultimately endure the greatest suffering. The protestors could see right through Macron’s carbon tax on motor fuel as just an excuse to raise money while claiming he was doing something noble about climate change.

And now the Yellow Vest movement has made its way to North America. In Canada, a convoy of trucks honked their horns and delayed traffic, but thankfully no violence. These protestors are unhappy about carbon taxes, illegal immigration, wasteful government spending and policies they say hurt the oil industry, which in turn hurts them.

We’ve got a rejection of a carbon tax, opposition to illegal immigration, and complaints about wasteful government spending. Does that sound familiar to anyone?

For the Clear Energy Alliance, I’m Mark Mathis. Power On.