Steamrolling the Fossil Fuel Agenda

The energy industries in the United States are waging all-out war. They’re desperate to maintain the supremacy of fossil fuels as our main source of power. In the process, they’re destroying life on our planet and prospects for a clean, renewable economy. The misguided support of President Trump and his energy appointees reveals the extremes of aggressive propping up of coal, oil and gas.

The tariff wars, already hurting American industry, are a prime example of the extent of the Trump administration’s support for our fossil fuel masters. In many parts of the US and the world, solar power provides less expensive electricity than coal, oil or gas and is the fastest-growing economic sector. The imposition of a 30% tariff on imported solar panels was one of Trump’s first acts, followed by an additional 25% tariff on all Chinese-made panels, a prime source for the US solar industry. These tariffs are slowly destroying a solar industry that employed 200,000 workers at its peak, and which was far outpacing other job growth sectors.

In each tariff battle, Trump’s antagonistic attitude seems to soften once trading partners agree to purchase more fracked methane (natural gas) from the United States. The consent of China and the European Union to purchase more fracked gas from the US benefits the extraction industry, to the detriment of all of us.

Supporting the fossil fuel sector is possible only when the science of global climate change is denied. Fracked methane gas retains 105 times the heat than carbon dioxide in the first 10 years of its release into the atmosphere. One of the first acts of Scott Pruitt as director of the Environmental Protection Agency was to halt the measurement of methane gas leakage from fracking. It’s much easier to deny science when we have no reliable data. Pruitt’s trip to Morocco, to negotiate the sale of more fracked gas, demonstrated how totally the EPA has become a tool of the fossil energy industry.

The wish list for this industry continues to be placated. Through his announcement of withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement, President Trump has made our country the sole opponent of the world’s attempts to control climate change. The administration has announced its intention to approve drilling for oil and gas in the Arctic and along the shores of every state except Florida. Restrictions on auto emissions have been voided. EPA attorney William Wehrum, who previously represented the American Petroleum Institute and the Koch brothers’ Koch Industries, is speedily dismantling our country’s clean-air regulations.

Efforts of individual states to limit carbon and methane emissions, and to promote renewable energy have been attacked. US Attorney General Sessions has threatened to bring suit against California to stop its auto-emission controls. Energy Secretary Rick Perry has warned New York that it’s too aggressive in halting gas pipelines, even though hearings have shown several of the pipelines to be significant threats to our state’s waterways.

In August, President Trump campaigned in Utica, claiming New York had given up significant economic benefits by not allowing high-volume fracking for methane gas. That same week, the journal Scientific Advances announced that water use for fracked gas and oil wells increased 770% per well since 2011 and that hazardous frack waste, which permanently contaminates fresh drinking water, has increased up to 1,440% per well in the United States.

While the energy industry and the Trump Administration continue to steamroll their oil, gas and coal agenda in the US, on-the-ground effects of climate change are a mounting assault on every living thing on this planet. As scientifically and accurately predicted, worldwide temperatures continue to rise. This summer, heat waves with temperatures topping 90 degrees have occurred in Siberia. The highest reliability measured temperature in Africa was recorded over 124 degrees. Catastrophic forest fires caused by long droughts and extreme heat continue to rage in California, British Columbia, the Western States and even above the Arctic Circle in Sweden.

As warming worsens, the jetstream destabilizes, contributing to intensified droughts and storms worldwide, with cataclysmic results for life on Earth.