Heading Backward

Spectator

No, snow in Florida does not mean climate change was just a hoax all along. We were told, and told and told, that extreme weather events would become the norm—you know, like snow in Florida.

Meanwhile, the Phoenix area is having no winter at all, with temperatures still around 80; the Sierra Nevada snowpack is below average; Lake Mead, on which 25 million people in the southwest rely for their water, is at a critically low 33 percent of capacity; and Arizona, Colorado, and California may start water restrictions. All of it is well outside norms and is part of the consequence of climate change. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 2025 was the third warmest year humans have ever recorded on our little planet.

We know the gunk we are spewing into the atmosphere by our burning of fossil fuels is exacerbating these climatic changes, and we know that reducing those emissions would help. Much of the rest of the world seems to understand these facts while our current administration does not.

Here in the United States, we’re actually increasing those emissions. Our carbon dioxide byproducts increased by 2.5 percent last year and other greenhouse gas emissions increased, too. The primary culprit continues to be coal-fired power plants. Coal is now and always has been the dirtiest and most dangerous of the fossil fuels from their extraction, transportation, and right up until we burn it, releasing carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, methane (mostly released during extraction), and particulate matter that, according to Earth.org, contributes to as many as 200,000 premature deaths from various lung ailments annually in the U.S. alone.

Nevertheless, we are plunging ahead with coal-fired plants, even reopening some that were shuttered and ordering the continued operation of some we planned to shutter. It’s a bizarre decision predicated on exactly zero science and the lie there is such a thing as “clean coal.”

The coal currently being mined is the same dirty stuff it has always been, though we have found ways to reduce the emissions at least somewhat by installing elaborate smokestack scrubbers and finding ways to burn it more efficiently. But coal is still dirtier and more expensive than oil or natural gas and far more expensive than any of the current renewable energy sources. According to our own Department of Energy (DOE), even unsubsidized renewable sources like solar and wind are cheaper than coal or other fossil fuels.

We had made significant progress in closing these polluting behemoths, reducing our dependence on coal for electricity production from 48 percent of production in 2000 to just 16 percent today. Unfortunately, that trajectory has now stopped.

Now we hear we’ll need more coal production, not less, to power the gigantic data centers being constructed for all of our artificial intelligence needs. Plants scheduled to be closed in Indiana, Colorado, and Washington state have been instructed to either reopen or remain open. (The plant in Washington is the state’s largest air polluter, and they might decide to defy the DOE order.)

The good news here, and it all comes from sources other than the current crew in the White House or Congress, is that we continue to make major improvements in the development and delivery of renewable energy.

Both solar and wind power are now considerably cheaper to produce and both provide reliable power less expensively than any fossil fuels. It is true enough that the production of solar panels, 80 percent of which are made in China according to the U.S. Department of Labor, comes with their own set of environmental concerns given the rare earths needed to construct them. But the manufacturers are doing better, and according to our DOE, about 95 percent of solar panel modules by weight are recyclable now.

Even better, the development of flexible solar panels has advanced significantly and they will soon be available on electric vehicles of all sizes and other uneven surfaces. Battery storage has also improved dramatically, and solid state batteries are nearing widespread availability, which means fast recharging and longer battery life.

We’ve also discovered agrivoltaics, combining agricultural uses with both wind and power. Some growers have discovered solar arrays provide needed shade for some crops and their evaporative properties also help cool the panels. Farmers in Europe have learned they can help boost their income by leasing land for wind or solar without sacrificing much farmland.

Unfortunately, the federal government under its current leadership has canceled subsidies and tax breaks for both solar and wind installations for individual or industrial-scale use. We already get nearly 24 percent of our electric production from renewables and we could get more, but we have an administration marooned in the 1950s when oil was still king.

The future was looking bright but instead, we’re headed backward to a darker past.

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