republicans declare legislative war on wind in spite of their own voters
If you’re wondering about the state of renewable energy today, the news is good. It’s getting cheaper, more accessible, and more widespread. Even the most conservative areas of the American heartland are investing heavily into wind and solar power, and following the market and the relevant numbers are continuing to do so at an accelerating rate. And it’s easy to see why. You get plenty of energy that’s becoming more readily available around the clock thanks to advances in battery technology, and none of the radioactive, carcinogenic coal ash in the air, or pollution leaching into the ground, all of it at competitive rates. So, despite the fossil fuel lobby’s best efforts, green energy looks poised to dominate electricity production in the long run.
But just because the fossil fuel lobby is failing to halt the advance of clean power doesn’t mean it’s not trying. Its Republican allies have decided that when it comes to power generation, the markets don’t know best and it’s up to them to defend America from the supposed deleterious effects of wind farms. As part of this anti-wind push, President Trump even claimed that the sound of wind turbines causes cancer, which is nonsensical to the point of self-parody, and a number of state legislators managed to ban wind turbines near military bases under the premise of national security, despite the Pentagon having no issues with such arrangements.
Meanwhile, In other states, the GOP went after tax subsidies for renewable power in an attempt to tax green energy initiatives instead of helping them along, which is perplexing because while arguments about climate change can be bitterly partisan, support for concrete green initiatives is wildly popular with both parties, and taxing projects the public wants seems ridiculous. But such is the power of political balkanization on which Republicans rely. It allows them to pass bills for the benefit of fossil fuel lobbyists, try to sabotage the green energy infrastructures their voters want, then campaign on the platform of stopping the evil liberal Marxist child-molesting Illuminati menace and get reelected, all while undermining efforts to build a better world for the people they’re supposed to represent.
This is yet another example of the insidious sociopathy of our current crop of leaders. They don’t seem to care that we may be losing the ability to grow enough food, that we’re polluting far too much of the planet to delay mitigation efforts, that climate change will kill millions if the projects they’re trying to kill fall through, or that their kids may have to resort to risky geoengineering initiatives to deal with the mess they’ll leave behind. Hiding behind the imaginary demons of their own creation, they shut down healthy debates about the future and pursue short term gain with wild abandon, with no thought to what happens after they’re out of office or pass on. After all, what’s a little cancer, or famine, or mass sterility when there’s a septuagenarian millionaire or billionaire handing out money to protect his business from the need to catch up with the times for another few years?
