The growing demand for more renewable energy needs to be more, so much more, than about quenching our thirst for ever more power. It needs to be part of a societal transformation that includes the voiceless, the marginalized, and the future.

This equitable transition requires a severe reduction in fossil fuel burning, an end to fossil fuel expansion, significant energy-efficiency initiatives, affordable housing, a drastic cutback in consumption, the recreation of a robust and competent public transit system, and support for renewable energy in a similar manner that saw trolleys and trains discarded to make way for automobiles and our addiction to extracting prehistoric organisms.

Renewable energy can’t be about powering data centers, artificial intelligence, and cryptocurrency and making a handful of narcissistic psychopaths even more wealthy. One racist trillionaire is one more than the world needs.

This cleaner energy needs to be about powering homes, businesses, schools, and a just society and addressing the crisis at hand. Renewables are also less expensive, if that’s all you care about.

According to the International Renewable Energy Agency, 91% of all new utility-scale renewable projects in 2024 produced electricity at a lower cost than the cheapest fossil fuel alternative.

Just last week, Shell CEO Wael Sawan said prices of oil and natural gas (methane) will likely continue to rise beyond the current war-driven pressure as global demand continues to grow.

Simply, renewables, including geothermal energy, are some of the best tools we have to turn down the heat. Present-day climate change is far faster and more severe than at any time in the geological record. It’s largely because of our fossil fuel dependency.

Big Oil and its enablers, however, have spent decades vilifying renewable energy, because vacation homes, superyachts, private jets, and luxury vehicles are more important than a livable planet. Plus, there are country club fees and regime tribute to pay.

Industry CEOs and the addicts their products created use climate misinformation and emotional appeals to block policies that would restrict fossil fuel use and/or support renewable energy development.

Former Exxon president Lee Raymond, who worked for the corporation for 42 years beginning in 1963, was a notable denier of human-caused climate change. In a 2005 interview, Raymond repeated his attempts to link the crisis to natural causes rather than human activities, most notably fossil fuel burning.

“It has to do with sun spots. It has to do with the wobble of the Earth,” said Raymond, who died earlier this month.

Two decades later, instead of helping to build a robust renewables system, the D.C. regime clings to 20th-century energy technology. The White House lies that windmills cause cancer, even though there is no credible evidence that links wind turbines to this broad group of more than 100 diseases.

Coal mining, on the other hand, most certainly does cause cancer. A systematic review recently published by the American Cancer Society found coal mining and living near coal mines are consistently associated with an increase in cancer deaths.

This obvious fact didn’t stop the regime from recently unleashing “Coalie.” The regime’s latest mascot of ignorance was introduced to the world on a racist social media site by a stooge. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum wrote “Mine, Baby, Mine!” The billionaire noted the Oval Office occupant has made it a top priority for the Department of the Interior “to unleash Beautiful, Clean Coal” and the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation & Enforcement “is leading the charge!”

The fact a lump of coal, which could also been mistaken for a lump of something else, is the regime’s spokesthing for U.S. energy policy is on brand. The regime enjoys playing politics with people’s lives. Owning the libs — and ignoring common sense and discrediting science — is more important than healthy lungs.

Coalie, or some other unfunny White House cartoon character, recently announced that the incompetent Department of the Interior has reached another renewable-energy-ending agreement. This one buys back offshore wind leases in California, New York, and the Gulf of Maine from Invenergy. The regime lies that its idiocy will further energy security and affordability.

The developer will be reimbursed $765 million to terminate the four offshore wind leases, bringing the regime’s total number of lease buyouts to eight at a cost of some $2.5 billion.

This unlawful misuse of taxpayer money is the regime’s latest tactic to derail domestic energy development and keep us addicted to fossil fuels, despite the soaring costs associated with both buying and burning them.

Besides saving ratepayers money — for example, Vineyard Wind’s 20-year contract is expected to save Massachusetts customers $1.4 billion on electricity bills over the next two decades — renewable energy is a key cog in efforts to mitigate the climate crisis.

Renewable energy offers a cleaner and less expensive path forward — although corporate greed and questionable siting will certainly remain problematic.

Between 2014 and 2019, behind-the-meter (BTM) solar produced more than 8,600 gigawatt-hours of electricity in the six New England states, according to a 2020 study. That energy saved southern New England ratepayers a combined $831 million in that time.

BTM solar also avoided 5.1 million tons of climate-changing carbon dioxide emissions during those years, reducing pollutants proven to have negative impacts on human health by millions of pounds. The study’s authors found BTM solar contributed $87 million in public health benefits.

Offshore wind also needs to play a role. A 2024 report found this renewable energy source to be “critical for achieving New England’s climate goals and protecting New Englanders from energy price shocks.”

A 2025 report from the International Energy Agency said renewables will grow faster than any major energy source in the next decade. The world is expected to build more renewable energy projects in the next five years than has been rolled out over the past four decades.

The 519-page report claims this increase in renewable energy could nearly meet the world’s growing appetite for electricity, which is on track to rise by 40% over the next decade, because of the growing demand for electric cars and AI data centers.

Transitioning the nearly 266 million gasoline-powered and flex-fuel vehicles in the United States — about 92% of all registered vehicles on the road — to electric is not the solution. A well-funded and well-maintained local, regional, and nationwide public transit system is the answer. (There are an estimated 1.2 billion gasoline-powered vehicles on the road worldwide.)

Building AI infrastructure and the energy needed to power artificial intelligence, most of which is an unending stream of constant consent violations and pointless distractions, is simply a waste of critical resources.

As much of the industrialized world, most notably China, more quickly transitions to renewable energy, our fondness for Coalie will leave us behind economically. It will also further degrade public health and the natural world.

Frank Carini can be reached at [email protected]. His opinions don’t reflect those of ecoRI News.