Make America Green Again

Donald Trump Can Lead the Greatest Environmental Movement of All Time

Common sense energy, trade, and economic policies can do more to protect planetary ecosystems, restore biodiversity, reduce emissions and eliminate poverty than the failed energy policies of the past three decades (aka The Green New Deal).

Political policies mandating alternative energy technologies and lavish subsidies have destabilized the world’s greatest industrial economies, driven up carbon emissions, and have had no effect on rising global temperatures.

Anyone who has been paying attention to the impacts and outcomes of abandoning reliable energy resources in favor of wind turbines, solar panels, and battery storage knows they result in higher energy costs, catastrophic environmental damage, and relentlessly rising world carbon dioxide emissions. During the past three decades there has been no evidence of rising sea levels, increasing hurricanes , declining polar bear populations, or more frequent wild fires.

Carbon dioxide is essential for life on Earth to exist, but because of a bureaucratic decision by the EPA, it was declared a pollutant (endangerment clause); not because it is toxic to life but because of the amount present in the atmosphere. This political designation ignores the fact that only 33% of atmospheric CO2 since 1850 was produced by humans contributing .01% of the atmosphere while 99.9% is composed of other naturally occurring gases.

It is time to stop listening to those who insist we invest our national treasure into the futile pursuit of a destructive policy that provides no advantages to the safety, security, health and well being of our citizens and denies us the opportunity to raise the standard of living for the 80 % of humans mired in poverty and ignorance around the world.

President Trump has consistently voiced his intent to assure that everyone has access to clean air and clean water. As simple as it sounds, it is a fact that the greatest impact on improving the human condition has been the ability to provide potable (drinkable) water and to clean the air of polluting particles (soot and smog). It is the lack of these basic essentials that is responsible for most of the disease and suffering that claims the lives of poor, indigenous peoples around the world.

Providing clean air, free of particulates, and clean water, free of disease and contamination, is a common sense solution that would be the most effective means of raising the standard of living for all people. Flooding them with medicines and insisting they build solar panels and windmills has not and will not make a significant difference to their plight.

Current global CO2 levels are the lowest in the history of the world and are not toxic to living organisms. It is poor quality particulate laden air that is responsible for the premature deaths of millions of primarily women and children each year. The two main sources have consistently been from countries whose expanding electrical needs are increasingly being met by burning coal, and by people who are forced to burn wood and dung to cook and heat their homes. The need for fuel leads to the deforestation of their lands and the lack of energy for waste management leads to contamination of the water for their crops, animals, and personal consumption.

In modern societies there is a looming crisis of water table contamination and depletion of aquifers that threatens to subject us to the same risks of shortages and disease endured in emerging economies. It has taken a back seat to current policies focused on ineffective alternative energy technologies and policies (wind, solar, mandates) which is delaying the essential immediate need to untangle the web of water rights, deforestation, development, and industrial policies needed to secure this critical resource for the future.

The key factor in the United States’ leadership in reducing airborne particulates and carbon dioxide emissions was policies that set in motion a transition from burning coal to burning natural gas for energy, while maintaining a stable grid and keeping energy prices low. It should be no surprise that these historic accomplishments have been reversed by the poorly considered and misguided policies of the past four years which mirrored the technically unachievable and economically disastrous programs that have crippled the modern nations of the European Union.

Mr. Trump’s record is of “promises made; promises kept.” If he delivers on the promises of the cleanest air, cleanest water, restoring US manufacturing, and developing our natural gas resources (drill baby drill), it will create a foundation for establishing the most consequential environmental renewal of all time.

Americans have experienced the two programs and we can clearly remember which one works. President Trump says we will get tired of winning. I miss how that feels and have not tired of it yet. Let’s Make America Green Again.