Oil and natural gas innovations and investments over several decades has contributed to the economic growth and individual prosperity of not just the United States of America but of the free world.

During President Trump’s first administration the US became energy independent and was the envy of the world. This position resulted in unprecedented low costs for fuel and anything produced from fuel, but also assured national security and overall strength of the United States as a world power.

Energy policy must be concerned with not just the impact on the planet but also the impact on the people and the economy. It is counterproductive to promote energy policies based on “false science” that harms both the environment today and the economy for the foreseeable future.

We believe there is climate change … but there has been climate change, warming and then cooling, for millions of years. It is a false statement to say that we have warmer temperatures or oceans than at any time in history. It should be noted that in the past many times there was no ice on the poles and the oceans were hundreds of feet higher covering what is now Aquidneck Island.

Conversely there were periods when Canada and most of New England were under hundreds of feet of ice and the oceans much lower that it would have been possible to walk the Narragansett Bay from Providence to Block Island. And that was before the industrial revolution and not the result of anthropogenic climate change.

Based on the consensus of renowned climate scientists such as Dr. Richard Lindzen of MIT and Dr. William Happer of Princeton, there is no existential threat to the earth from fossil fuel based C02 driving today’s climate change. The only existential threat is to the finances of the renewable industry and their acolytes in power in Washington as more and more people wake up to the economic damage of deceptive policies like the Inflation Reduction Act.

The primary goals of any energy policy must be to produce the most cost effective and reliable electricity from multiple safe sources. Therefore, we are advocating that the policy of the United States must be to support a balanced energy policy that includes expanding dispatchable renewable energy such as clean gas and much overdue renewed support for nuclear power.

It is not only counterproductive, but dangerous to set forth goals such as “net-zero”, which cannot be achieved without significant adverse impacts to Rhode Island and the United States. Good science, engineering, and economics requires us to study all viable alternatives and proceed cautiously. With the false narrative of a “existential crisis” and the net-zero goals promoted by the Biden (and McKee) administration, agencies such as the BOEM have moved recklessly ahead without adequate review and consideration of the adverse impacts nor the true costs.

In support of their political overlords, they have abandoned science to rapidly achieve political goals. While there is a place for some renewable power in our energy mix, quantifiable targets should be an outcome of wise energy policy and not an explicit goal. It is impossible to invent a predominantly solar/wind/battery electric grid to support not just homes but a transportation system and agricultural/industrial system.

The United States and certainly the Rhode Island economy cannot absorb a direct transition to an expensive, unreliable intermittent renewable-energy economy without hurting residents, particularly the poor, aged, and middle-income. In addition, we believe that EVs should be a consumer choice not a government mandate.

Evidence has shown that Rhode Island EV mandates will strain the electrical grid and severely exacerbate the cost and reliability problems of electricity even more. People will freeze in the winter and overheat in the summer with electrical based heat pump systems down, while wealthy taxpayer funded EV drivers will remain warm/cool in their cars.

Also, if you factor in the cost to mine and produce the batteries and other components with rare earth minerals, it does nothing and may in fact increase the problems with the climate that they are supposed to improve. And finally, we don’t even know if there are enough minerals to be mined in the earth, at any cost or harm to other countries, to support this transition.

As has been the case throughout most of US history, the free market should decide which innovations succeed, as was the case with computers and smart phones and every major technical innovation, rather than the government using our taxpayer dollars to tilt the scales in favor of EVs or any other green-energy product. Instead, we strongly advocate that they use our tax dollars to improve the sad state of our roads and bridges for all vehicles that free consumers buy.

Therefore, we support President Donald J. Trump for president in the national presidential election so that we can return to a sane science-based and economically sound energy policy. He has a track record of success on this and in other areas impacting our country. He will protect the environment but also our economy and our people.

And after he replaces the leadership with new cabinet secretaries and agency heads, we will work closely and transparently with a new administration at the Department of Interior/BOEM, Department of Energy, Department of Commerce/NOAA, the NRC, and other agencies to assure a pro-American, pro-Rhode Island balanced energy policy that preserves 100% availability of electricity at all times to all the people, including the poor, at the lowest possible cost.

And maybe we will have Rhode Island residents, of which there are many qualified who won’t sell out Rhode Island after getting a position as some in the past have done, who will lead some of these agencies. We believe that the best way for innovation to happen with energy is for price-based free markets, rather than government tax subsidies to pick and choose preferred alternatives.

This is particularly relevant given that tax subsidies for various energy alternatives are benefiting corporations based in other countries, rather than our own domestic energy sources. The time is over on November 5th with the United States continuing to enrich the European Union headquartered renewable energy companies and China’s supply chain at the expense and to the detriment of our own environment and citizens.

We also support Ms. Patricia Morgan as candidate for the Senate from the State of Rhode Island. With regard to energy policy and many other areas, she will work with President Trump to assure that there is a Rhode Island first energy policy rather than work for the interests of the renewable energy industry, foreign countries, and self-interests of elected officials and their families. She has already introduced a bill in the RI General Assembly (H7815) to require offshore wind and solar developers to reveal complete life cycle costs of proposals, and how much, if any, fossil fuels they will replace. Given the unique nature of her background and skills she would be a well-qualified member for several key Senate committees which would be helpful to Rhode Island such as the Energy and Natural Resources and Commerce, Science, and Transportation.

Please join us in this important position to support those who will enact a sane US and RI energy policy to help preserve everything that is special about Rhode Island as place to live, work, and thrive for the next generations.

Signers of these Rhode Island Energy Policy Endorsements for President Trump and Senate Candidate Patricia Morgan:

• Joe Forgione (primary press and official contact: jforgione28@gmail.com) Portsmouth
• Mike Armenia Newport
• Miles Bidwell Portsmouth
• John Francis Homer III Portsmouth
• Richard Hood Portsmouth
• William F. Horan Middletown
• Martin Kits van Heyningen Newport
• Ed Monaco Cumberland
• Ben Riggs Newport