OPINION
LETTERS
We struggle to defend environmental quality, public health, and Constitutional rights amid a deluge of orchestrated disinformation that spreads divisive ignorance, antagonism, and distrust.
A timely example is persistent denial of climate change while promoting increasingly self-abusive energy policy. For instance, claims motivated by corporate agendas assert that China dominates global production of wind-turbine hardware but doesn’t use it. Yet eighteen-times more wind energy is generated by China than any other nation, triple the rest of the world combined.
Similarly, the use of electric vehicles is frequently condemned as impractical – assertions often made by officials who benefit from short-term fossil-fuel industry profits. As the U.S. suffers health-threatening air and water contamination caused by Big Oil emission particulates, the rest of the world is rapidly progressing with the transition to EVs. Europeans have enjoyed a 51% increase in the sale of electric vehicles within the last year, no doubt further spurred by soaring fossil-fuel costs.
Another facet of disinformation deceit is the false claim that free markets favor dirty energy. Yet, hundreds of billions of dollars annually subsidize fossil-fuel businesses through federal tax-credits, tax-exemptions, and other financial supports. Concurrently, despite clean energy being profitable and inexpensive, the Trump administration is actively subverting clean-energy ventures, including well-justified wind-power projects, both land-based and offshore.
These blatantly corrupt and deceptive efforts to sabotage conversion to clean energy may prolong fossil-fuels profits but will severely penalize the U.S. – harming public health while profoundly impairing America’s ability to competitively market and implement beneficial technology.
David Kyler
Center for a Sustainable Coast