Trump GOP: Forget Progress, Back to the Caves!

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As I started reading Steve Hanley’s article last night about the Trump administration putting pressure on the International Energy Agency (IEA) to focus only on fossil fuels and stop tracking and reporting on renewable energy, my blood started to boil and I was driven to write this article. The level of stupidity, the level of idiocy, is just too much.

The vast majority of new power capacity in the past few years has come from solar and wind power. That’s true globally, and it’s also true in the US. Solar and wind power are cheaper, and also much cleaner of course — which means they are even much cheaper if we look at total societal costs. Why would you want to force fossil fuels and stop the growth of renewable energy and electric vehicles if you aren’t a total moron or ridiculously, insanely corrupt?

Trying to strong-arm and threaten the IEA, as the Trump administration is doing, to focus entirely on fossil fuels and ignore renewable energy is surreal in how nonsensical it is.

It was just another example of how Donald Trump and his stooges are trying to drag the US and the world backward, are trying to halt progress, are blind to the high costs of fossil fuels, or just corrupt and cruel. Frankly, it feels like they want to drag as back to the mentality of cave men.

The constant assault on science, on progress, and on common sense is embarrassing, disheartening, and perhaps even downright depressing. “Being data driven doesn’t mean we don’t take sides. We take the side of secure energy. We take the side of affordable energy. We take the side of sustainable energy. We are a data driven organization. We are a non-political organization, but we are determined to lead the global energy journey towards the betterment of humanity,”

But in the midst of all this, despite the USA’s power and influence, the world is moving forward. Forget about our obsession with propping up and subsidizing fossil fuels. Most of the world doesn’t benefit from that, and they are electrifying and cleaning their grids and transport systems accordingly. They are increasingly leaving the USA behind.

It’s also good to see that the IEA has pushed back on Republicans’ absurd request to end the renewable energy coverage and only focus on fossil fuels.

“Being data driven doesn’t mean we don’t take sides. We take the side of secure energy. We take the side of affordable energy. We take the side of sustainable energy. We are a data driven organization. We are a non-political organization, but we are determined to lead the global energy journey towards the betterment of humanity,” Fatih Birol, head of the IEA, stated.

But no matter how much sense others make about these matters, it looks like we’re going to continue being total idiots.