We'd have more cars on more roads to maintain more power plants and we'd all work for power, oil, and auto companies. Now that would be growth. At least we've been left the same basic engine design for the past century. As we cave in and inch out just a teeny bit more bang per same old fuel to satisfy this environmental cult every year we can make it evermore complicated and capital intensive. That way, though the Japanese are better at making things complicated, we can Page 1 evermore entrench our job security with patriotism and a little tariff.
Jobs run the economy which run the dollar whence all values flow from.
So the ends of keeping national security through jobs justify any means because nothing is more valuable than the ends which are the essence of value itself. Our job security is just a microcosm of American national security as a whole. They're their own worst enemy. But in America, only occasionally do ends have to justify the means. The deed is to create need.