Not that long ago, it seemed like the climate industrial complex was as formidable as Goliath. After decades of fruitful strategic partnerships with powerful global institutions, it appeared nearly invincible and all but inevitable that its agenda would be forced upon the American people.
Thankfully, Americans are wising up to the spectacular scam that the climate industrial complex has perpetuated against them. Even better, they are beginning to realize that climate realism, sound energy policy, and the American dream are solidly intertwined.
One of the main reasons climate alarmism and the green energy transition scam prevailed for so long is that, for about the past three decades, the climate industrial complex has sown its seeds in public schools, colleges, universities, the mainstream media, and across the internet, which created a ubiquitous propaganda machine that basically brainwashed an entire generation.
The sudden and surprising rise of alternative media, like podcaster Joe Rogan, has been a boon for climate realism. Unlike the mainstream media, these podcasters operate independently and to the beat of their own drum. They and their guests are not wedded to the climate consensus narrative, consider alternative viewpoints, utilize the scientific method, seek truth, and promote commonsense energy policies that emphasize the need for energy sources that are abundant, affordable, reliable, and actually clean. Best of all, they are listened to by tens of millions of curious Americans.
Another blessing occurred when Elon Musk, a climate realist who also owns an electric vehicle company, bought Twitter and made the platform an open forum for honest debate about climate science and energy policy. Slowly, this has created a domino effect in which other platforms like Facebook and YouTube have relaxed guidelines that generally silenced and ostracized climate realism and the questioning of climate orthodoxy.
More recently, Bill Gates wrote a blog post, “Three Tough Truths About Climate Change,” that spilled the beans on climate alarmism. “Climate change … will not lead to humanity’s demise. People will be able to live and thrive in most places on Earth for the foreseeable future,” Gates confessed.
When one of the richest men in the world, who has been a climate change champion for years, suddenly changes his tune so publicly, you know that the tide is turning.
Perhaps more importantly, we are witnessing a decoupling between the climate industrial complex and Wall Street. For many years, likely unbeknownst to most Americans, big banks have discriminated against fossil fuel energy production by restricting access to capital and lending. Nebulous-sounding programs like environmental, social, and governance (ESG) scores were touted as social justice vehicles to hold corporations accountable.
Fortunately, there has been a strong blowback to the insidious relationship formed by Big Climate and Big Banks. States and courts are rejecting ESG mandates. Big financial firms are rescinding their participation in various net-zero types of agreements.
When fossil fuel energy producers are allowed to operate on a level financial playing field, which is becoming more the case these days, Americans benefit considerably because they have greater access to affordable, reliable energy.
While the cultural shift and more favorable economic circumstances have been thorns in the side of the climate industrial complex, the death blow has been delivered by none other than President Donald Trump.
Before Trump came down the golden escalator in 2015, the Republican position on climate change and energy was milquetoast at best. In a heartbeat, Trump made it clear that he was absolutely dedicated to American energy production and more than skeptical of the climate industrial complex.
During his first term, Trump waged war on the climate industrial complex. “I am going to lift the restrictions on American energy and allow this wealth to pour into our communities,” he declared.
Trump won many battles during his first term. However, many of those victories were reversed by the Biden administration.
During the Biden years, the climate industrial complex was reinflated with cash under the Inflation Reduction Act and American Rescue Plan. Under Biden, all federal agencies were tasked with “leading a whole-of-government effort to address climate change through Executive Order 14008.”
Unsurprisingly, Biden’s total embrace of the climate industrial complex agenda resulted in across-the-board inflation, record-high energy prices, government mandates on what types of appliances and cars consumers could purchase, and many other negative outcomes.
In 2024, voters overwhelmingly reelected Trump as he made it clear as day that he would immediately undo all of Biden’s energy policies.
Again, Trump has made American energy dominance a priority. Even better, he is directing agency administrators like Lee Zeldin at the EPA to reverse long-standing, arcane rules that have unfairly protected the interests of the climate industrial complex to the detriment of hard-working Americans.
While many Americans still think climate change is a problem, they consistently rank it as a low-priority issue, far behind their main concern: the high cost of living.
By linking the overall economic benefits of affordable energy to increased prosperity for hard-working Americans, climate realists have a very compelling argument on their side. The affordability crisis is a visceral problem that supersedes abstract concerns, which plays right into the hands of the climate realism position.
Lastly, it bears noting that the climate realism stance is future-oriented, optimistic in nature, and aligns with the coming need for enormous amounts of constant energy to power data centers, artificial intelligence (AI), quantum computing, and other emerging technologies. In other words, without climate realism, we risk losing the AI arms race to China and Russia.
Chris Talgo (ctalgo@heartland.org) is editorial director at The Heartland Institute.
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