Contrary to “common wisdom” and industry lies, LNG is not significantly better emissions than coal. When exported, especially across the Pacific to e.g., Japan, it’s sometimes within just a couple of percentage points the lifetime emissions as coal.

Solar is already a vastly cheaper form of energy than fossil gas and wind is rapidly going down those learning curves (it’s already comparable in many geographic areas. The issue that US energy utilities simply don’t care. They only really know how to deal with “dispatchable” power generation. They don’t want to change. They don’t want to adapt. They’d rather spend more (ratepayer) money doing things the old way. Even though we already have the technology to deal with nearly all of the “reliability” issues that come with renewable generation.

Your voice can influence this. In many states, the energy utilities are regulated by a regulatory commission – and those commissioners, frankly, aren’t getting a steady stream of feedback. They are often elected officials. I’ve got one of my commissioner’s cell phone number – they can sometimes be THAT accessible – and they’re in charge of holding these monopoly utilities to task.

We don’t need a global socialist revolution to seriously address climate change. Tons of progress is already happening, even under the regimes we’re currently stuck with. Don’t just read articles. Talk to friends and family. Take action. Make calls. Vote. Donate. It’s a still a winnable battle so long as you don’t let the doomsayers suck all the air out of the room, but it gets less so every day that people stand by.