By Fred Palmer,
Senior Fellow CO2 Policy, Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change And Head of Saving U.S. Coal

August 14, 2020 - Coal and now oil and natural gas are at risk from the climate agenda introduced to the American people in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Recall James Hansen in June 1988 before Congress testifying that the nation-wide heat wave, drought in the East and the Yellowstone fires in the West were the leading edge of catastrophic global warming.

Fred Palmer

Recall Al Gore and his book Earth in the Balance in 1992 embracing the Hansen view and adding to worldwide media wide coverage of the prospect of catastrophic global warming, urging population control, de-industrialization and demonizing fossil fuel use as well as advocates for such use. Gore reissued his book in 2000 as he ran for President, with no material changes, and with no discussion of the burgeoning radical Islam threat that led to 9/11 just a year later.

Notwithstanding that more people live longer and better today than then and the lack of catastrophic warming, over 30 years after Hanson and almost 30 years after Gore, the ‘ban fossil fuel use movement’ has never been stronger and it has completely captured the Democratic Party. We are a Presidential election away from potentially starting down the path of fulfilling the Hansen/Gore bogus vision of a climate apocalypse, banning fossil fuel use in the process. .

I say “potentially” advisedly, as there is no such thing as policy certainty no matter who is elected in this glorious democracy that we all get to participate in. Never say never, in other words.

At the Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change, we have been engaged to turn the tide to an observation-based approach to CO2, climate and human development through fossil fuel use. Last Fall, we developed the public education proposal (here) that has never been more needed to restore the future for coal-based electricity generation, coal conversion, oil and natural gas.

All are under attack and all are at risk of outright prohibition, but it is not a given that the tide can’t be turned.  If the  American people understand that CO2 is truly a benign gas required for life on earth, more in the air is better, as all recorded human history shows, and there is a very real threat to us from a Washington DC prohibition from using fossil fuels at all, then that threat can be turned back through the magic of today’s interconnected world. .

In the attached proposal you will note it is robust which means funding is required for a full press before it is too late. With funding we can do it; without it the Policy threat to fossil fuel use will continue to grow and may succeed.

One final thought. In the proposal you will note we commit to an EPA filing to repeal the Obama CO2 Endangerment Finding. That has been accomplished and in fact we have made three separate findings as you will see at CoalZoom.com, Saving US Coal. 

Please donate to our cause before it is too late!