Editor,

On Jan. 20, 2025, after signing executive orders to promote fossil fuels and withdraw support for renewable energy, Trump said: “We’re going to drill, baby, drill and do all of the things that we wanted to…We aren’t going to do the wind thing.”

I get a daily news feed that covers national and international events. I felt my blood pressure rise and a vein started throbbing above my eye when I read that our president has ordered a halt to a nearly finished wind farm off the coast of Rhode Island. It would have provided electricity for more than 350,000 homes in Rhode Island and Connecticut by next spring. The Connecticut Attorney General, William Tong, says that: “Trump and his enablers will own the resulting cost increases for taxpayers.”

Trump and his administration have been strenuously opposed to solar and wind projects while propping up coal, gas and oil. Many Republicans and their constituents benefit from solar and wind in their states. Total solar use (utility and small-scale), in the U.S., is led by California, Texas, Florida, North Carolina, Arizona and New Mexico.

Texas leads in wind power, followed by Iowa, Oklahoma and Kansas. Arizona and New York saw solid gains in wind power in recent years. Clean energy generation is critical to the survival and improvement of our utility infrastructure grids.

China is by far the largest producer of solar and wind energy in the world. In Germany, wind and solar accounted for a combined 43% of power and in Spain the percentage is 42%.

Our country has the open spaces needed, the investment monies available, the science and technology chops required, and we could be a world leader in renewable energy production and use. What in the existing world of increased extreme temperatures and environmental degradation is our president thinking? Is he thinking he knows best, or that he knows more than scientists and experts who have spent their careers understanding our current danger? Doesn’t matter what he thinks, we need help.

Mike Diamanti

Coupeville