to the editor: How ironic that these two articles appear next to each other. The first is part of President Trump's elimination of clean energy initiatives and increased use of fossil fuels (“Trump administration pays French company $1 billion to abandon U.S. offshore wind leases,” March 23). The second has to do with the growing use of clean energy in Europe (“European consumers look to solar power and electric vehicles as energy prices rise” March 24).
Trump recently reversed the science-based finding that greenhouse gases threaten public health, aiming to eliminate the legal basis for federal climate regulations. This is consistent with Trump calling climate change a “joke.”
While climate change is not expected to play a major role in the upcoming midterm elections, Trump's general attitude of flouting facts on important issues should persuade voters to oust sycophantic Republicans in the midterms to put a stop to 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 pick winners and losers? TotalEnergies recognized the coming future of renewable energy. Its leaders made the business decision to bid for an offshore lease and develop the wind farm. They cleared all necessary legal hurdles, including national security reviews.
Still hurt by his 2012 defeat Over the wind turbines near his golf course in Scotland, Trump had this wind farm, and several others, in his sights. When the courts decided he couldn't revoke legal agreements, Trump decided to use our tax dollars to buy out the wind farm lease and persuade TotalEnergies will invest in your preferred natural gas. I'm sure the administration's correspondence to TotalEnergies had the tone: “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 to drill and extract things to burn.
Sanford Krasner, Altadena
