This opinion piece was first published by The Washington Times. 

On his first day in office, President Biden rejoined the Paris climate accords. American farmers and unsuspecting consumers will soon pay the hefty price of that decision, which saddles U.S. industry, agriculture and transportation with stringent emissions reduction requirements aimed at achieving unobtainable “net-zero” goals.

The president doubled down by pursuing climate controls, trying to accomplish President Barack Obama’s failed Green New Deal, with executive orders targeting future domestic oil and natural gas supplies, which will make chemical feedstocks more expensive to produce and purchase, and the Securities Exchange Commission proposing environmental, social and governance reports to track carbon emissions from farm to fork.

Europe has experimented with these heavy-handed policies for decades, and we know how the story ends.

The devastating consequences are neither secret nor up for debate. The European Union pledged to reduce carbon-based emissions 55% below 1990 levels by 2030, which has required cap-and-trade schemes with fewer tradable credits each year, convoluted carbon border adjustment mechanisms, closing natural gas fields, curbing nitrogen fertilizer use, and shuttering generational farms. To say the least, those policy choices have made energy, electricity, land, farming, shipping, maintenance and food more expensive across Europe — sometimes even intentionally so.

After Europe’s electric companies unsurprisingly passed these higher energy production costs along to consumers, residential and industrial power prices rose 131% and 59%, respectively, between January 2021 and January 2022. Germany’s manufacturing and chemical industries, hit hard by rising cap-and-trade prices and taxes designed to cut emissions, responded by spending $650 billion to move operations out of the EU. Several EU countries have encouraged banks to withhold loans and funds from farmers emitting too much greenhouse gas. The Netherlands plans to use eminent domain to acquire and close working farms, all in the name of climate control.

European farmers are fed up. Understandably.

Reports say that farmers in France, “the EU’s biggest agricultural producer, say they are not being paid enough and are choked by excessive regulation on environmental protection.” Belgian farmers have mobilized and “called out high administrative burdens … climate regulations and other issues.” Tractor blockades have laid siege to Paris, blitzed Berlin, and surrounded Brussels in protest.

The Biden administration knows as much but does not care about the carnage. Federal interventions and misguided mandates will be just as expensive here as they have been in Europe, and U.S. farmers and consumers will be seriously harmed financially.

To better appreciate the costs soon to reach American farms and unsuspecting households, the Buckeye Institute recently modeled what a typical U.S. corn farm can expect to pay if forced to price in the “social cost” of its operations’ carbon emissions. The short answer is more. Much more.

Diesel fuel for trucks, tractors and combines will become painfully expensive. So will the propane for powering grain dryers and heating barns. Nitrogen fertilizer will cost more, too. By our calculations, a carbon pricing scheme will raise annual farm operating costs by a whopping 34%.

Here, as in Europe, farmers will inevitably pass those higher costs along to supermarkets, restaurants, and consumers trying to make ends meet. The new rules will increase an average family of four’s household grocery bill by $1,300 per year, a 15% spike. Some carbon-intensive foods such as processed American cheese and beef could rise by as much as $9 per pound each — making $20-plus cheeseburgers a mainstay of the Biden administration’s net-zero policies.

Corrective action can and must be taken at every level. Short of withdrawing from the Paris climate accords again, congressional Republicans can and should pursue meaningful bipartisan collaboration with Democrats from energy-producing and agricultural states to resist new net-zero regulations.

State legislatures should ensure fair insurance and lending practices for businesses and farms. And U.S. shareholders should follow the lead of 12 state agriculture commissioners in pushing back hard against banks and corporate leaders making poor ESG-guided investment decisions that will needlessly raise producer costs and consumer prices.

There is little to be learned from the second kick of a mule, as the old saying goes. European countries took the first proverbial kick from net-zero mandates, and they have the economic bruises to show for it. There is no reason for U.S. farmers and consumers to stand behind the same mule.

Rea S. Hederman Jr. is vice president of policy and executive director of the Economic Research Center at the Buckeye Institute in Columbus, Ohio.