Just 24 hours after the election of Duke Energy Chief Financial Officer Donald Trump said Trump's energy plan will force utilities to consider burning more coal.
That's a recipe for death. It's essentially saying they're willing to kill people. The question is not whether more people will die if energy companies continue to burn coal, or worse, if they burn more coal, but how many people will die. be.
Since 2010, my organization has been supporting retirees380 or moreCoal-fired power plant. This has prevented tens of thousands of heart attacks, hundreds of thousands of asthma attacks, and saved tens of thousands of lives.
It's not just our health that's under attack, but our wallets as well. Americans are already suffering from high costs. But President Trump's victory gives companies like Duke the green light to force them to pay extra just to keep the lights on. Increased use of coal will raise energy costs for consumers and deprive Americans of the good jobs that come with investing in clean, renewable energy sources.
We absolutely cannot tolerate any further price increases. We cannot afford new threats to our health and well-being. But big polluters have become too emboldened by the fossil fuel-friendly Project 2025 agenda, already threatening working Americans with even more deadly pollution and higher prices.
Duke Energy previously pledged to completely eliminate coal from its energy portfolioBy 2035Until last month, that deadline was extended by three years. But even Duke, who is a member of this country.worst polluting companysaw the writing on the wall by market forces.
Renewable energy sources are more resilient and cheaper than fossil fuels. Their costs fell rapidly.
From 2010 to 2020, cost of producing electricityProduction from solar PV fell by 85%, and the cost of wind energy fell by 56% for onshore wind and 48% for offshore wind.
That trend continues. Texas is a state rich in oil and gas. liberalized energy marketThere has been no real effort to decarbonize the power grid, and the state ranks first among states in clean energy production.
But fossil fuel and power company executives are willing to continue generating electricity from more expensive fossil fuels, such as coal, if they can pass on the extra costs to consumers and pocket the profits. is.
We cannot take a step back from the clean energy transition that is already underway. There is too much at stake for families and communities. This applies not only to health care and consumer costs, but also to employment.
more330,000 clean energy jobsCreated through the Biden-Harris administrationinflation control lawAlone. And that's on top of hundreds of thousands more created over the past few years. Even Texas, a state rich in oil and gas, is nowMore people will take jobs in renewable energyMore than oil and gas! We can't stop now.
According tounited nations“Every dollar invested in renewable energy creates three times as many jobs as in the fossil fuel industry.”
Clean energy jobs and infrastructure are directly and indirectly responsible for the rebirth of American manufacturing.
Thanks to the Inflation Control Act and other policies of the outgoing administration that encourage supply chains to be brought into the United States, clean energy job creation will indirectly lead to more jobs being created in materials manufacturing as well as in areas such as construction. It has the potential to create jobs. We must continue to invest and grow so more families can benefit from these high-paying jobs.
So what does President Trump's return mean for the transition away from fossil fuels? That means environmentalists and other climate- and health-conscious Americans will have to fight harder. .
But it doesn't have to be a cause for despair either. We have been here before during the first Trump administration. And in the first four years of the Trump administration, we phased out more coal than in the previous four years under President Obama.
And to all these Americans, I would also like to say that there is a whole movement of green organizations that had some success in opposing the Trump administration for the first time and are ready to fight back again.
My organization and others filed hundreds of successful lawsuits to stop the first Trump administration from destroying bedrock environmental protections, exposing the revolving door between administration appointees and polluting industries. .
The effort to save our planet, and with it, America's working families, will continue. And the transition to a clean energy economy will continue.
Ben Jealous is executive director of the Sierra Club and professor of practice at the University of Pennsylvania.
