Describing the mission of his National Review magazine in its inaugural edition of on Nov. 19, 1955, the then not-yet 30 year-old conservative icon William F. Buckley wrote that his new magazine "stands athwart history, yelling Stop, at a time when no one is inclined to do so, or to have much patience with those who so urge it."

Rishi Sunak, Britain's Tory prime minister, seems to have bravely adopted at least some of that mission by challenging Britain's radical climate agenda. It is a lesson for the United States.

Addressing Britain's sanguine climate policy Sunak said, "there's nothing ambitious about simply asserting a goal for a short-term headline without being honest with the public about the tough choices and sacrifices involved and without any meaningful democratic debate about how we get there."

Mind you, Mr. Sunak is not what the climate cult types calls a "climate change denier"; far from it. But he understands that aspirations without means are merely pipe dreams. And he also understands that imposing climate mandates without public discourse or debate is antithetical to the democratic principles that underlies his republic, as it does ours.

What Are We Doing?

Unfortunately, the mismatch between means and aspirations, as well as the disregard for democratic principles, characterizes much of what passes for the national climate policies of both the United Kingdom and the United States.

In the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) mandated that automobiles in the Model Year 2026 CAFE (corporate average fuel economy) standards at 55 miles per gallon for sedans and 39 mpg for trucks and light duty trucks/SUVs.  Those are enormous increases of 25 percent and 28 percent, respectively, just since 2020.