Exploding green heads

President-designate Trump’s cabinet appointments are all fierce opponents of the left’s “only renewables” green agenda. His nominations to head the EPA, Interior, Energy, Commerce, even Secretary of State are inspiring panicked—but lucrative—fundraising emails to every green donor list. Enviro-establishment heads exploded. They can’t even blame the Koch Bros, because they were #NeverTrumpers!

Actually, there are energy-loving Greens, like the folks at the Breakthrough Institute, who want the markets to sort energy production out with minimal government interference. The True Religion of Global Warming—er, climate change, has until now pulled out the presumed ace in the hole by declaring that if we don’t end the reign of coal and oil, we will all die! President Obama named climate change the number one security threat to the United States. With that assessment, he probably did more to crash his party’s chances than all of Putin’s alleged hackers dreamed of doing.

Apocalyptic scenarios are the stuff of religion, not sound science or politics. And the science around global warming (global cooling, whatever), was never sound. The “Hockey Stick” theory that climate was stable until the 20th century when it got dramatically hotter was the first bad theory debunked. Then followed University of East Anglia emails urging scientists to fudge date to “hide the decline.” Temperature sensors were discovered located in urban heat sinks. Most damning of all, there has been no measurable increase in global temperatures for over 15 years. Many scientists found the alarmist computer models lacked accurate data about clouds and water vapor contributions. Others said the sun was really in charge, and it appears to be going into a cooling, not warming, cycle.

Shamefully, the global warming elites claim The Science is Settled. Threats and actions designed to ruin careers of scientific dissenters, viciously called “deniers,” were made and carried out. Soon it was apparent the “facts were fixed around the policy.” American science was heading into Soviet-style “Lysenkoist” political correctness.

The alarmists’ solution was out of the same old Malthusian hymnal—redistribution of wealth and limits to growth. Trump is challenging their stale orthodoxy with the gospel of economic growth and property rights.

The Republicans will no doubt open the Yucca Mountain depository, and nuclear power will have a renewal. The American people will come to love its almost unlimited clean energy. Fracking will expand. Natural gas has already proven it is clean and reduces carbon emissions. Only now it may be a bridge to nuclear rather than solar and wind.

Malthusian green myths will fade away as more people realize that economic growth does not bring ecological harm. Instead of finger wagging at wealthy nations, real environmentalists will focus on the 2.5 billion people who still cook and heat with carbon intensive wood, charcoal and dung biomass. Upgrading the global poor’s energy capabilities with anything that’s better, even coal or oil, will improve not just the planet, but the lives of those currently clinging to survival.

Wealthier is healthier. Native Americans are sitting on over a trillion dollars in oil reserves. Unlike the Standing Rock tribe, many tribes want in on this economic development. Trump’s new Native American Affairs Coalition will be market-oriented. Expect the Bureau of Indian Affairs to end the red tape logjams and speedily approve new development controlled by the tribes. The Fort Berthold Reservaton, only 150 miles from Standing Rock, already has over 400 miles of pipelines bringing in hundreds of millions in revenue.

Earth is not fragile. It is rich and strong. It will reward the good stewardship that free markets and property rights bring.