“We have ended the war on American energy—and we have ended the war on clean coal. We are now an exporter of energy to the world.”
~Donald Trump, State of the Union. Jan. 30, 2018
In Trumpworld, energy is all about fossil fuels. From the minute he stepped into the Oval Office, Pr*sident Trump has done everything in his power to try to expand their extraction and burning.
Federal regulators and lawsuits have blocked his way in many instances, but the regime continues its efforts, whether it’s opening up more federal leasing of coal and oil on public lands, including those under the sea, or smashing regulations imposed in recognition of the toll these fuels are taking on people’s health and the environment, particularly the climate. A big portion of the outcome depends on the federal courts.
When Trump says the war on clean coal has been ended, he’s not talking about what most people with any knowledge about such things think of as “clean coal,” stuff that is processed in such a way to eliminate or at least capture its pollutants—including carbon dioxide emissions, a goal that, despite some progress, remains illusory.
When he says “clean coal,” he just means … coal. Period.
While touting the alleged benefits of removing the modest government protections and controls over the exploitation of fossil fuels, however, he’s fully engaged at the behest of the fossil fuel industries in a war on the renewable sources of energy on which our future relies—short, that is, of success in reaching another illusory goal, nuclear fusion, which is always just a few more decades away from achievement.
Chris Mooney and Steve Mufson on Wednesday spotlighted one of the battles in Trump’s war on energy, his attempt to slash the federal budget on renewables and energy efficiency. This isn’t the first time:
The Trump administration is poised to ask Congress for deep budget cuts to the Energy Department's renewable energy and energy efficiency programs, slashing them by 72 percent overall in fiscal 2019, according to draft budget documents obtained by The Washington Post.
Many of the sharp cuts would likely be restored by Congress, but President Trump's budget due out in February will mark a starting point for negotiations and offer a statement of intent and policy priorities.
He tried to wield the ax last year in this realm, too, whacking a $2 billion budget for renewables and efficiency to just $636.1 million. Congress wouldn’t go along because even many Republicans who are pleased with the push on fossil fuels aren’t utter fools when it comes to both the promise and reality of renewables. This year, the White House is seeking a budget of just $575.5 million. The document Mooney and Mufson reviewed also proposes staff cuts from the 680 in the 2017 budget to 450 in 2019.
Thirty-five years ago, President Ronald Reagan also cut deep into the bone of the renewables budget. In fact, it wasn’t until President Barack Obama’s first budget in fiscal 2010 that renewables were funded—inflation-adjusted—at the same level as Jimmy Carter’s last budget in fiscal 1981. And while Trump is unlikely to have the success that Reagan did, a certain amount of damage will be done.
At a time when the climate crisis facing us is at least as bad as World War II, we should be mobilizing as the nation did then. We retooled and expanded our industrial capacity to beat the Axis. Nobody said, oh, we can’t afford to defeat the Axis powers, we can’t make the innovations to confront their war machines. Despite the odds, No Can Do was not an expression from politicians or the public.
Nor should it be now.
What we really needed right when Reagan was hacking away at the Department of Energy’s budget was an industrial plan focused on spurring innovations in solar, wind, geothermal, and efficiency, as well as generating millions of green jobs. Instead we squandered decades. We still need an industrial plan focused on a foundation of green energy and economic justice. Obviously, we won’t get one from the current regime. But, to make it happen once Trump and his minions are ousted, there are many Democratic politicians who need to be persuaded to stop their hemming and hawing and foot-dragging.