Trump Escalates War On Renewables, Slashes DOE Budget By 70%

March 8th, 2019 by Steve Hanley

Donald Trump, putative president of the United States of America, wants to take a sledgehammer to funding for the Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. According to Bloomberg, when the administration’s proposed budget is released next week it will slash funding for that office by 70% from $2.3 billion to just $700 million.

The proposed budget cuts have enraged clean energy supporters. “President Trump’s annual attack on clean energy research is a brazen ploy to gin up support from the fossil fuel industry,” said Ken Cook, president of the Environmental Working Group, a non-profit whose mission is to empower people to live healthier lives in a healthier environment. “This latest attempt to roll back the clean energy revolution will fail. Even members of Congress who represent deep red districts and states understand how important the renewable energy sector is to the economy.”

On its website, the EERE office says its mission is to “create and sustain American leadership in the transition to a global clean energy economy. Its vision is a strong and prosperous America powered by clean, affordable, and secure energy.” Trump and the coterie of fossil fuel prostitutes he has assembled around him prefer an America awash with pollution from coal-fired generating plants and the maimed bodies of American soldiers sent to fight for oil and gas rights in foreign countries.

The EWG adds that the EERE office was created in response to the energy crisis of the early 1970s. The office has played a critical role in supporting clean energy through funding research that has sparked dramatic advances in wind, solar, and geothermal energy, as well as electric cars and LED lighting. EERE also oversees operations at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado and provides funding for all 12 of the DOE’s national laboratories. Pretty important stuff, wouldn’t you say?

Bloomberg dismisses the proposed budget as a charade that is little more than the opening salvo in a budgetary process that has become more partisan in recent years. Nancy Pelosi showed earlier this year she has all the intestinal fortitude needed to stand up to the outrageous blustering of a delusional president.

Even Republicans are generally in favor of energy conservation and renewables. If energy is a national security issue, not squandering it seems like a good place to begin. Of course, someone would have to be capable of second order thinking to understand that concept, and it appears nobody in the Trump maladministration meets that criterion.

In the bizarre world of Trump, there is always plenty of money for the military and building walls 30′ high even if it means the Earth becomes an overheated cinder. Good luck with your insane budget proposals, Donnie.









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