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May 20, 2024 Editor, The News-Gazette: Remember “Drain the swamp!” Trump’s battle cry claiming he would free the federal government from the grips of rich, corrupt special interest groups? Now, try to square this with reports from attendees at a private meeting at Mar a Lago last month with about two dozen top oil executives. There, Trump offered that, for a $1 billion campaign donation, he would reverse the Biden administration’s environmental policies designed to combat climate change and stop any new ones from being enacted. Giving $1 billion would be a “deal,” Trump assured them, because of the taxation and regulation they would avoid. Suddenly, things feel a whole lot swampier.
Trump was right that Big Oil could easily afford the billion dollar bribe he was (illegally) soliciting. In 2023, three large oil and gas producers reported combined profits of $85.6 billion. And we wonder why gas prices remain high!
Meanwhile, the tragic effects of climate change become more and more obvious. Almost every day we read about another devastating and deadly storm. In contrast with Trump’s willingness to sell out our environment in exchange for power, President Biden noted on Earth Day that no one can any longer deny the impacts and staggering costs of climate change as the nation confronts historic floods, droughts, wildfires, tornados and hurricanes.
He highlighted his administration’s efforts to build a clean energy economy, creating high paying jobs as American workers install solar panels, service wind turbines, cap old oil wells, manufacture electric vehicles, and more. Under his leadership, we are on track to conserve more lands and waters than any president before him and are working with the international community to slash methane emissions and restore lost forests.
While Trump repeatedly touted an “Infrastructure Week” that never materialized, Biden signed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law which has funded more than 56,000 projects, including those making it cheaper to install clean energy technologies and lowering many families’ monthly energy bills.
As Trump promised his Big Oil cronies at his swampy Mar a Lago meeting, all of this would disappear if he were elected. He made it crystal clear that lining their pockets and his own seems to be far more important than saving our planet from destruction.
ANNETTE GREEN Rockbridge County
