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It’s Looney Tunes time in Assington, DC, the place the local weather criminals maintain developing with methods to destroy the surroundings for enjoyable and revenue. Final week, Chris Wright, the putative “energy secretary” for the US told African leaders that coal is the answer to a widespread lack of power entry in Africa, dismissing the problem posed by local weather change and saying there’s an excessive amount of emphasis on calling burning coal “destructive.” In a single fell swoop, Wright and the so-called president are thumbing their noses in any respect the nations which dedicated to the Paris Local weather Accords in 2015. That is actual “true believer” stuff that’s immune to motive or rationality in any type.
Chatting with a roomful of African officers and enterprise folks at a Powering Africa summit in downtown Washington final week, Wright stated Western international locations reminiscent of the US have for years been “shamelessly” telling Africa that coal is unhealthy and to not develop it. “That’s just nonsense, 100 percent nonsense,” he said. “Coal transformed our world and made it better, extended life expectancy and grew opportunities, and coal globally will be the largest source of electricity for decades to come. That’s not a policy, that’s not a desire, that’s just a reality. Where is the COP conference for this far more urgent global challenge?” he requested. “I look forward to working with all of you to better energize the world and fully unleash human potential.”
Let’s Deliver Again Coal, And Asbestos, And Freon
Wright stopped in need of calling for the revival of asbestos insulation, Freon for air-con models, or the usage of DDT in agriculture. These issues additionally reworked the world and supplied alternatives, though that they had an unlucky tendency to shorten the lives of those that got here involved with them. And why cease there? Why not begin a marketing campaign to get Africans to take up cigarette smoking whereas we’re at it? Large Tobacco was severely harmed by all of the hysteria about lung most cancers. Why is nobody speaking about that, huh?
Not everyone seems to be shopping for Wright’s bombast. “One of the transformations caused by American fossil fuels was destroying our previously well-balanced climate and plunging some of the poorest and most vulnerable people in Africa into a life dealing with extreme weather and lost homes and livelihoods,” Mohamed Adow, a founding director of Power Shift Africaa non-governmental group primarily based in Nairobi. The African continent additionally had big potential to develop renewable power, “but lacks the right investments to exploit these resources,” stated Ali Mohamed, the chair of the African group of negotiators and Kenya’s particular envoy for local weather change.
Wright is just too dumb to know — or care — that one of many greatest challenges for sub-Saharan Africa is the shortage {of electrical} grids all through a lot of the continent. That’s the major motive renewables — particularly photo voltaic — are perfect for Africa, as they supply native power for native folks. A lot of Africa has adopted cell telephones and skipped proper over the period of phone poles and wires. The identical might occur with electrical energy. For individuals who have by no means had it, even a bit of factor like a light-weight powered by a small photo voltaic panel is usually a life altering expertise.
Homegrown Coal For America
On March 10, 2025, Inside secretary Doug Burgum stated the maladministration is contemplating the usage of emergency authority created by one of many 4,612 government orders signed previously three weeks to deliver again coal-fired producing stations which have closed and cease others from shutting down. He instructed Bloomberg Television in an interview at CERAWeek in Houston, “Under the national energy emergency, which President Trump has declared, we’ve got to keep every coal plant open, and if there had been units at a coal plant that have been shut down, we need to bring those back.”
He added that Biden period insurance policies had been threatening the US energy grid, necessitating emergency motion. Since 2000, about 770 particular person coal-fired models have retired, based on knowledge from International Power Monitor, amid competitors from cheaper pure fuel and renewables, each of that are cheaper than coal. So what the MAGAlomaniacs are saying is that America ought to pump billions of tons extra carbon dioxide into the ambiance so Individuals pays extra for electrical energy. That is what you get whenever you elect morons to run the federal government.
Coal accounts for about 15% of energy technology within the US right now, down from greater than half in 2000, based on the US Power Info Administration. A further 120 coal-fired energy vegetation are scheduled to shut down within the subsequent 5 years partly due to environmental regulations which have made them uneconomic, based on the America’s Energy commerce group representing utilities and miners reminiscent of Peabody Power and Core Pure Assets. The Sierra Membership and different environmental teams are calling BS on that. They declare coal-fired electrical energy is costlier than renewable electrical energy and a supply of harmful international warming greenhouse gases in addition to different harmful pollution. “The retired coal plants that Burgum wants to restart closed because they were expensive, polluting dinosaurs,” stated Laurie Williams, director of the Sierra Membership’s Past Coal Marketing campaign. “Restarting them would drive up people’s electricity rates when they can least afford it.”
The remarks from Burgum, who beforehand served because the governor of North Dakota, which is a significant coal producing state, come as Power Secretary Chris Wright stated the administration is crafting a “market-based” plan to gradual the closure of US coal-fired power plants because it seeks to provide extra electrical energy earlier than an anticipated increase in demand from synthetic intelligence.
Corruption In Excessive Locations
That is bare corruption writ giant. All of us keep in mind how over the past presidential marketing campaign the Republican nominee instructed fossil gasoline corporations to pony up $1 billion to ensure their each want can be granted if he bought elected. If Hunter Biden or Hillary Clinton did that, they might be on their option to jail proper now, however as a result of it’s the chief of the pink workforce, who has appointed the Legal professional Normal, the top of the FBI, and a whole lot of federal prosecutors and judges — all of whom have pledged timeless fealty to him — he will get a free cross and America takes one other big step towards being dominated by an organized crime syndicate. Should you don’t assume that’s true, contemplate this. The alleged president is promoting invites to non-public dinners with himself for $5 million a seat. If that doesn’t hassle you, you would possibly need to take an IQ take a look at to find out in case your psychological acuity is increased than that of a rutabaga.
The usual line from Republicans is that financial forces ought to management who wins and who loses within the market. However they blindly insist there isn’t any financial hurt from the emissions created by coal and methane when they’re burned, which distorts the economics in favor of these fuels — in impact it’s an oblique authorities subsidy, though Republicans refuse to grasp that. In order that they lie and make up hogwash about an power emergency, however everyone knows that’s only a cowl up for the payoff fossil gasoline corporations are getting in return from their beneficiant marketing campaign donations — one other instance of corruption on the highest ranges that favors the wealthiest whereas strange residents get a soapsuds enema from their authorities. Welcome to the land of MAGA, the place magical considering replaces science and greed triumphs over information. This it occurring, folks, as a result of:
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