From Nathan Dombeck

Janesville

To the Editor:

Need another reminder of the US’ backward approach to energy policy? Look to the land down under, Australia. US citizens are scrapping to feed themselves and their families, but the federal government reopens vast swaths of wilderness to gas and oil interest while energy bills rise thanks to data centers and increasing demand. Meanwhile, Australia is giving away energy for free.

Australia — blessed with abundant solar energy thanks to geographic features and a high uptick of home solar panels, estimated at about 4.2 million households — will be offering three free hours of electricity per day to all citizens. The goal: To encourage shifting power-heavy tasks (think dishwasher or clothes dryer) to the middle of the day when solar generation is abundant, downshifting the need as the sun sets, and will be accomplished via a smart meter.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration cancels wind power projects, dashes subsidies for solar panels, and dumps on renewable energy at every turn; all the while openly embracing increasingly outdated and expensive forms of electricity generation like coal and natural gas. We’ll all feel the financial and climatic stress of this approach before too long.

The Trump Administration likes to tout ‘America First’ — but is that really the case? If they truly are putting the lives of Americans first, why do their policies continually lead to harms for American citizens, let alone billions of people around the globe?

The latest example of regressive and harmful policies come from an analysis of the Trump Administration’s climate policy by ProPublica and The Guardian. The analysis points to the horrific death toll that’ll be attributed to the slashing of pollution and emission reduction efforts and the ongoing expansion of fossil fuel production and distribution the US is pursuing, using a metric known as the ‘Mortality Cost of Carbon’.

This metric posits an excess of 1.3 million heat deaths worldwide over the next 80 years due to the US’ rollback of environmental laws — this is on top of the baseline estimated 83 million heat-related deaths. While these numbers reflect vulnerable populations worldwide, the US won’t be immune — already data suggests that heat related deaths have increased by 50% nationwide since 2000, per Yale.

Making America Great Again is failing the American people, and the globe. It’s up to our elected officials to choose the sort of world the want their constituents to live in, and not follow defective policies blindly.