Dear Editor,

There have been a number of decisions made by the Trump administration that make me scratch my head. Closing Voice of America, firing all the Inspector Generals whose job it is to ferret out “waste, fraud, and abuse,” pardoning the 1500 January 6 rioters, attacking any opposition voices in the media as “enemies of the people,” cutting off funding for public media, large reductions in food aid at home and abroad, claiming the “government” is replete with “deep state” radical leftists to justify cutting many agencies including USAID, FDA, EPA, FEMA, IRS,  VA, Consumer Financing Protection Bureau, (what did I miss?), weaponizing the Department of Justice, attacking colleges as “Woke” and anti-semitic, cancelling the subsidies in Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act which encouraged green energy transition, while expanding the subsidies for fossil fuel extraction, and so on. 

Drill, baby, drill, and bring back “clean coal” … an oxymoron for sure. The US is the world’s largest producer of oil and gas, nearly double the closest 2nd, Saudi Arabia. And do we really want waxy crude trains from Utah travelling the Colorado River corridor through Glenwood Canyon? I say No! 

The laws of physics still apply. We are told that today’s price of gas at the pump is the rationale for the rollback of science-based climate change investigation, and the decimation of the agencies established by Congress to assess this slow-moving train wreck. Never mind what kind of planet we will be leaving for our children and grandchildren.

But there are other voices in the debate as well.  The Secretary General of the United Nations recently called our world today “A Moment of Opportunity: Supercharging the Clean Energy Age.” Here is part of his comments:    

“The headlines are dominated by a world in trouble. By conflict and climate chaos. By rising human suffering. By growing geo-political divides. But amidst the turmoil, another story is being written. And its implications will be profound. 

“Throughout history, energy has shaped the destiny of humankind – from mastering fire, to harnessing steam, to splitting the atom. Now, we are on the cusp of a new era. Fossil fuels are running out of road. The sun is rising on a clean energy age. Just follow the money. 

“$2 trillion went into clean energy last year – that’s $800 billion more than fossil fuels, and up almost 70% in ten years. And new data released today from the International Renewable Energy Agency shows that solar – not so long ago four times the cost of fossil fuels – is now 41% cheaper. Offshore wind – 53%. And over 90% of new renewables worldwide produced electricity for less than the cheapest new fossil fuel alternative. 

“This is not just a shift in power. This is a shift in possibility. Yes, in repairing our relationship with the climate. Already, the carbon emissions saved by solar and wind globally are almost equivalent to what the whole European Union produces in a year. But this transformation is fundamentally about energy security and people’s security. It’s about smart economics. Decent jobs, public health, advancing the Sustainable Development Goals. And delivering clean and affordable energy to everyone, everywhere.”

And just this past week, the International Court of Justice issued a unanimous decision (14 to 0) that high emitting countries are responsible for the damage they are doing to the environment and to the millions of people affected by their emissions. The US, the largest historical emitter, and China, the largest current emitter, are in the cross hairs. The US is only 4% of the world’s population but has put up a large percentage of the CO2 in the atmosphere today.

We have a moral obligation to clean up after ourselves. Common sense would dictate that we do “all of the above” in keeping people warm and / or cooled, and able to move around their world. That includes the remarkably economic solutions of wind, solar and, yes, nuclear.  

But the administration is doubling down on denial.  They claim that climate change activists are alarmists, part of a “religion.”  Where does this rejection of clean energy come from?  

Money talks. The fossil fuel lobby paid Trump a billion dollars for rescinding many Biden era regulations. In 10 years, people will be asking, what did you do when there was still time to change this outcome? Trump and his sycophants are on the wrong side of history, prejudiced by the corrupting influence of big money in our politics.  

The 10 hottest years on record have been the last 10 years. 2024 was the hottest year on record. There is an increase in frequency and severity of extreme weather such as hurricanes, heat domes, wildfires, droughts, floods, melting sea ice and sea level rise, warmer oceans leading to rapid intensification of hurricanes. 

According to Audubon, two thirds of all birds are in danger of extinction. The changes to our planet that normally would take hundreds of thousands of years, are happening in decades. We are at an inflection point and must act to turn this around.  

Dissent is patriotic, and our current spineless Republican Congress is complicit.  “America First” ignores our responsibility to the rest of the world for creating the mess the environment is in. Throw the bums out and let’s move toward sane public policy.  

Bill Thibedeau

Gilpin County