Trying to keep up with the continuous Trump assaults on the Constitution, Latinos and Blue cities facing military occupations, is a little like taking a sip of water from an open fire hydrant. Trump has blown through so many red lines, that taken together, they bear a remarkable resemblance to the red carpet rolled out for Putin.
All together, it is more than tiring, but exhausting. That’s why good news, real good news is so valuable and encouraging – recharging our hopes and optimism.
I’d like you to go to your favorite library or book store, to get a copy of Bill McKibben’s “Here Comes the Sun: A Last Chance for the Climate and a Fresh Chance for Civilization.”
If you’ve been following climate change over the years, then you recognize the McKibben name as the activist/environmentalist who was warning us of global warming doom and gloom, IF we didn’t immediately change our ways, stop burning fossil fuels and switch to renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, geothermal, hydro and emerging battery technologies.
For the first time in his career, McKibben says he is now optimistic. “It’s not that we’re going to stop global warming,” he said in an interview with Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman. “It’s too late for that. It’s that we really have a chance to reboot the way the world and its economy and its geopolitics works right now.”
While the Trump administration and Republicans at the state and local levels are increasingly hostile to renewable energy – eliminating Biden-era subsidies, increasing taxes and even banning new renewable projects, like Nebraska has – the rest of the world and Blue states are forging ahead with renewables.
In May, said McKibben, China put up three gigawatts of solar energy per day – a gigawatt being the rough equivalent of a coal-fired power plant. China produces 80 percent of the world’s solar panels and 60 percent of the world’s wind turbines – enough to make renewes cheaper than fossil fuels.
California – the world’s fourth-largest economy – can meet 100 percent of day-time energy demand with renewables. At night, said McKibben, batteries are the largest source of electricity on the grid. Today, said McKibben, California uses 40 percent less natural gas to produce electricity, than it did two years ago.
And yet Red states are also getting in on renewable savings – that includes the petrostate of Texas, which is erecting solar and wind projects faster than California. Utah, as Red as they come, enacted legislation that eliminates local red tape and allows apartment dwellers to buy smaller solar panels, hang them from patio/deck bannisters, plug into the nearest outlet and realize, on average, a reduction of 20 percent on electric bills. This is illegal everywhere else in the country.
The biggest problem facing would-be American customers of solar panels is that it costs three-times what it costs in Australia or the EU. That’s due to local red tape and inspections that can take months to wade through in the U.S., compared to the rest of the world. McKibben recommends that local officials and state legislatures adopt SolarAPP, which allows contractors to get instant permit approval with a few details entered into a standardized app.
And yet, China-made solar panels are so cheap (how cheap are they?) that German farmers use them to line their fields as fencing, and Pakistan farmers are replacing diesel-based engines for irrigation pumping, with solar panels laying on the ground. In one year, Pakistan has seen a 40 percent reduction in diesel fuel consumption.
So, here’s the deal. Buy or borrow McKibben’s book. Lobby your local, state and federal officials to make installation of renewable energy cheaper and more efficient. Use renewables in your home, business and neighborhood. Encourage Blue municipalities, counties and states to get on the same page for the renewable issue and others.
After all, if blue towns, counties and states produce 71 percent of the nation’s gross national product, collectively we can impose regulations on the rest of nation, regardless of Trump and his minions.
