In his inauguration speech, on becoming the 47th President of the United States, Donald Trump stated very categorically that there are only two genders: male and female. In making this statement, he seemed to have no problems offending the transgender community.
Trump made no such bold, or counter cultural pronouncements about climate change. He avoided the issue while at the same time announcing an energy emergency. He used the word ‘energy’ three times – energy prices, energy emergency and American energy – but he did not mention ‘climate’, not once in his inaugural address. He didn’t mention the word ‘environment’ either.
Of course, the energy emergency – assuming it does indeed exist – is a consequence of concerns about climate change and the environment. The Paris Agreement, which the President subsequently announced he would be withdrawing the United States from, has as its main goal keeping global temperatures below 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) specifically by dramatically reducing the use of coal, oil and gas. It is ostensibly about saving the environment – something never mentioned in Trump’s inaugural address.
While claiming an energy emergency, in the first week of his presidency Trump also announced he will halt the leasing of federal waters for offshore wind farms. He wants to solve the energy crisis, not with American wind, but with American oil and gas.
Trump specifically said:
The inflation crisis was caused by massive overspending and escalating energy prices, and that is why today I will also declare a national emergency. We will drill baby, drill.
America will be a manufacturing nation once again, and we have something that no other manufacturing nation will ever have — the largest amount of oil and gas of any country on earth — and we are going to use it. We’ll use it.
We will bring prices down, fill our strategic reserves up again right to the top, and export American energy all over the world.
This puts Trump at odds with the King of England, Charles III, and so many others of the ruling class who have been making a fortune out of the energy transition that, according to Trump, has unsustainably forced up prices.
While Trump wants to contain the spread of wind farms, earnings from King Charles’s sovereign’s public estate have more than doubled as a direct result of planned new offshore wind farms along the British coastline.
More specifically, profits at the King’s property group more than doubled to £1.1billion in the 12 months to the end of March 2024, up from £443million in the previous financial year. Most of the £658million increase in profits came from the extra fees paid by the developers who won the rights to build six new offshore wind farms — in the North Sea and off the coasts of Cumbria, Lancashire and north Wales. In total, the in the fourth round of seabed leasing in January 2023 banked just over £1billion for the Crown Estate.
For sure, the policies of Trump as they relate to energy production do not appear consistent with King Charles III who rules over the Commonwealth including Australia. But neither Charles nor Donald is commenting on this – for the moment.
The chatter is that Trump has great respect for the monarch, and that his wife Melania is a pen pal of King Charles, both sharing a concern for the environment and specifically climate change – that was also not mentioned at the inauguration.
Australian conservatives meanwhile are reaffirming support for the King, with the leader of the Opposition, Peter Dutton, indicating that should he win the election in Australia later this year that Australia will not withdraw from the Paris Agreement. Indeed, as far as I can tell, here in Australia at least, there is no interest in putting this country, or its people and businesses first when it comes to issues of energy affordability.
The Australian government is absurdly claiming we can continue as a global aluminium powerhouse while transitioning to wind and solar. Dutton, in opposition, is claiming nuclear, as a fine source of future reliable electricity. Never mind, that nuclear would likely increase the wholesale electricity prices to the point it was at least twice as expensive as electricity from new and refurbished coal-generating electricity plants but still cheaper than renewables.
Of course, what is missing in all of this is some discussion about the science that underpins the notion there is a climate emergency in the first place, an emergency requiring the energy transition which more than doubled the earning of our King last financial year, while according to the new President of the United States it is unaffordable.
Instead, everyone is being polite and not mentioning it. A situation that could continue for as long as Melania and the King of England are pen pals – at least.
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The feature image/photograph shows wind farms off the coast of Norwich, with Jennifer Marohasy in the foreground back in September 2015.
