Editorial: Call to renewables

Events of late should serve as an urgent call to transform ours into a renewable energy economy. Oil prices exploded on Monday in reaction to talk of the West cutting off Russian crude. That as residents around Winterset and Chariton cleaned up from freakish tornadoes in winter (remember the December tornado that chewed up Aurelia) that killed seven. The fossil fuel economy is fomenting war around the globe while the climate warms into a new “normal” of extreme weather. Congress fiddles while California burns. Russia holds Europe hostage through its natural gas reserves. Heavy March rain over bare black Iowa ground rushes phosphorous-laden soil to the rivers and eventually the Gulf. Methane is belching from the earth as Siberian tundra thaws. The renewable energy economy promises a whole new cadre of well-paying jobs in solar, wind, battery production, new car assembly, biomass conversion to electricity and, yes, new biofuels grown from algae. Legislation that would kick-start capital investment was laid asunder in the Build Back Better program. Congress is slogging along with limp efforts to resuscitate vital foundational programs like a clean electricity standard that is a predicate to market-based decarbonization. We can’t afford to wait. Rising gasoline prices demand swift action. In World War II the USA retooled its economy, and built a modern navy and air force overnight. If we muster the resolve, we can convert to a clean energy economy and tell Russia and the Middle East to eat their natural gas. That is a far more effective solution than selling American fighter jets to the Saudis, who won’t lift a finger to help us through this current crisis. It will take an all-in approach to get ourselves off the oil addiction that is cooking the planet and sustaining war: biofuels, nuclear, wind, solar, geothermal. It’s high time we get serious about it.