Undaunted

A champion for truth, science, and responsible stewardship

Each week, The Contrarian will feature a standout figure for democracy. For this week, we honor our former Vice President, Al Gore.

Climate change deniers have derided Vice President Al Gore for decades. And yet with each new climate change-enhanced disaster, his warnings about global warming seem more prescient. Many Trump regime critics have focused (understandably) on executive decrees making a mockery of the Constitution, paving the way for cronyism and corruption, and demonizing disfavored groups; Gore meanwhile kept his eye firmly on the fate of the planet.

Slamming President Trump’s climate denial and “phony” energy emergence, he declared, “These performative acts show the pervasive influence that the fossil fuel industry will have in the United States over the next four years. But make no mistake, the global Sustainability Revolution is unstoppable.” He slammed withdrawal from the Paris Accords as “shortsighted abdication of leadership that will only serve to put our nation at a disadvantage.” And he documented the other policy travesties.

Again, Gore hits the mark. Former car czar Steven Rattner points out: “The problem with that pronouncement is that it is a solution in search of a problem. American energy companies have been drilling robustly and production of oil and natural gas continues to notch record after record.” The U.S. is the largest oil and gas producer on the planet.

Trump’s gusher of gifts to the fossil fuel industry included the expansion of drilling on public lands; revoking the imaginary “mandate” on electric vehicles; and blocking efforts to expand wind energy production. However, the emergency is not so pressing as to include all energy sources. As for wind: “Trump officially barred new offshore wind leases and will review federal permitting of wind projects, making good on a promise to ‘end leasing to massive wind farms that degrade our natural landscapes and fail to serve American energy consumers,’” Vox reported. Even his own party members may dissent. (“The top four states for wind generation — Texas, Iowa, Oklahoma, and Kansas — are solidly red, and unlikely to acquiesce. Even Trump’s pick for Interior secretary, Doug Burgum, refused to disavow wind power during a hearing last week, saying he would pursue an ‘all of the above’ energy strategy.”)

Meanwhile, in targeting credits for EV’s Trump is handing China a gift. Rattner notes that while the U.S. lags in EV production, only 10 percent of our car production is electric. In China, that number is 50 percent. China dominates the world market with 76 percent of the global market.

Depending on its final form, this monstrously backward energy approach could not only put the planet at greater risk but increase the chances of more natural disasters and decreases the boom in green energy jobs. “[T]hese proclamations are not reflective of our political and economic reality. These efforts to roll back progress – particularly the hugely popular clean energy investments in the Inflation Reduction Act – will be met with opposition from both political parties,” Gore said. “That’s why, in the coming weeks, months, and years, climate leaders and activists must not be deterred or distracted. From extreme weather disasters like Hurricane Helene and the still burning Los Angeles wildfires, to the growing number of climate refugees, to competitiveness in the global economy, the climate crisis will have profound consequences for the United States over the next four years.”

Republicans might want to answer Gore’s call to “Governors, Mayors, business leaders and investors, and activists to put their heads down and do the work that will advance the climate solutions that our nation and the world so urgently need.’” Republicans can go on denying the indisputable science, but they would be well-advised not to deny the jobs and economic benefits that have flowed into their districts from the previous administration’s investment in green energy.

“The environmental policies of Joe Biden’s administration will save approximately 200,000 Americans’ lives from dangerous pollution in the coming decades and have spurred a surge in clean energy jobs, two independent reports outlining the stakes of the upcoming US presidential election have found,” the Guardian reported last September. “The first full year of the Inflation Reduction Act, the sprawling climate bill passed by Democratic votes in Congress in 2022, saw nearly 150,000 clean energy jobs added, according to a… report by nonpartisan business group E2.”

Trump heads to California on Friday to visit the site of some of the deadliest fires of our lifetime. At times he has sounded downright nuts. (“Los Angeles has massive amounts of water available to it. All they have to do is turn the valve,” he insisted. The faucet’s location was unspecified, though prior claims have suggested that Trump believes there is essentially a giant faucet way up north in Canada.) We should brace ourselves: Trump may well do what he falsely accused President Biden of doing—holding up aid for political reasons or imposing unprecedented conditions on aid to tens of thousands of desperate people. Trump remains the worst enemy of sane energy policy and all of the victims of our overheating planet. A responsible and informed president would continue the transition to green energy, an engine of jobs and economic growth. Unfortunately, voters chose Trump over former Vice President Kamala Harris.

Through it all, Al Gore has remained an undaunted champion of environmental sanity.