As the Democrat presidential candidates jockey to position themselves as the most Green New Deal-friendly, President Donald Trump is putting forth his own ideas on providing Americans more freedom, not less, when it comes to abundant energy choices.
The Boston Globe credits the Democrats with plans to combat climate change:
While Democratic presidential candidates have called for sweeping measures to eliminate the US carbon footprint, President Trump is promising voters a world free of the everyday inconveniences associated with combating climate change — rolling back lightbulb regulations, ordering a study on low-flow toilets, and turning bans on plastic straws into a campaign rallying cry.
The contrast is shaping up to be a key theme of the 2020 presidential race as Trump bets that his pitch to a bygone era will sway voters turned off by calls from some Democrats on the left for a transformative Green New Deal.
The Globe went on to criticize Trump for a speech he gave at a recent Turning Point USA event in Florida “that included a diatribe against wind-powered turbines — arguing that building them produces ‘a tremendous amount of fumes’ and that the ‘windmills,’ as he calls them, are noisy, unattractive, and kill too many birds.”
‘‘I’ve seen the most beautiful fields, farms, fields — most gorgeous things you’ve ever seen, and then you have these ugly things going up,’’ Trump said of the wind turbines. ‘‘And you know what they don’t tell you about windmills? After ten years, they look like hell.’’
“Often operating on his own feelings rather than scientific evidence, the president has castigated Democrats’ environmental agenda as unworkable and counterproductive,” the Globe reported.
The Department of Energy announced last week it would keep incandescent and halogen bulbs on the market rather than phasing them out on January 1.
“The move offered a reprieve for old-fashioned lightbulbs and affects roughly 3 billion — nearly half — of the bulbs in sockets in US homes,” the Globe reported.
‘‘If you like your lightbulbs, you can keep your lightbulbs!’’ the White House tweeted on Saturday.
‘‘The Obama Admin tried to limit Americans to buying more-expensive LED bulbs for their homes — but thanks to President @realDonaldTrump, go ahead and decorate your house with whatever lights you want.’’
‘‘For his base, especially, it hits on something that’s tangible, that’s tactile, and that voters like,’’ Doug Heye, a Republican strategist, said in the Globe report. ‘‘It also hits on those broad themes of freedom and liberty and government encroachment on people’s daily lives.’’
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