Accidental Environmentalist? How Trump’s War Exposed the Fragility of Dirty Energy.
This story was originally published by The Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Of all the epithets hurled at Donald Trump since he became US president, perhaps the most unusual was delivered last month—that he is, in fact, some sort of environmentalist. Trump is the “greatest gift” to the environmental movement, argued Gavin Newsom, California’s governor, […]
This story was originally published by The Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Donald Trump has been called an environmentalist by California Governor Gavin Newsom due to the fallout from the US-Israel war on Iran. Newsom believes the war has woken the world to the vulnerability of energy security and forced a change in thinking towards clean energy.
Since February, the Strait of Hormuz, a key route for oil and gas exports, has been disrupted, causing prices to rise globally. In response, countries have sought to reduce their oil and gas consumption and turn to cleaner forms of energy like solar and wind. As a result, global fossil fuel emissions are expected to drop by 0.5 percent this year.
However, critics argue that Trump's administration has undermined clean energy efforts by repealing pollution limits, funneling money to the fossil fuel industry, and attacking renewable energy projects. Despite this, many experts believe that the conflict will hasten the shift towards clean energy, as renewable investment now exceeds fossil fuels and electric vehicles are increasingly popular.
Nonetheless, there is concern that as oil prices drop due to the crisis, Big Oil will continue to benefit and fossil fuel use may persist at high levels in the future.
Written by urgent.news from Mother Jones's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
