To the editor: How ironic that these two articles appear side by side. The first is part of President Trump’s killing of clean-energy initiatives and increasing use of fossil fuels (“Trump administration paying French firm $1 billion to drop U.S. offshore wind leases,” March 23). The second is about the growing use of clean energy in Europe (“European consumers seek out solar, EVs as energy prices surge,” March 24).
Trump recently reversed the scientifically based finding that greenhouse gases threaten public health, aiming to remove the legal basis for federal climate regulations. This is consistent with Trump calling climate change a “hoax.”
While climate change is not expected to play a major role in the upcoming midterms, Trump’s general attitude of mocking facts on important issues should persuade voters to remove sycophantic Republicans in the midterms to put a check on Trump’s other egregious actions.
Jack Holtzman, San Diego
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To the editor: What happened to the Republican Party that believed in capitalism and free enterprise, and that the government should not choose winners and losers? TotalEnergies recognized the coming future of renewables. Its leaders made a business decision to bid on an offshore lease and develop the wind farm. They cleared all the necessary legal hurdles, including national security reviews.
Still smarting from his 2012 defeat over the wind turbines near his Scotland golf course, Trump had this wind farm, and several others, in his sights. When the courts decided that he couldn’t reverse legal agreements, Trump decided to use our tax dollars to buy out the wind farm lease and persuade TotalEnergies to invest in his preferred natural gas. I’m sure the correspondence from the administration to TotalEnergies had the tone of, “That’s a nice little wind farm you have there. It would be a shame if something happened to it.”
So China and the rest of the world continue to develop clean energy. The United States continues to invest in a 19th century pattern of continually burning fossil fuels, and continuing drilling and mining for stuff to burn.
Sanford Krasner, Altadena