Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election is being seen as a positive development by those who favor renewable forms of energy over fossil fuels.
The Trump administration has moved to reverse over 100 climate and environmental rules, considering them burdensome to the fossil fuel industry. But Biden plans to clamp down on industry polluters and invest in renewable energy to reduce carbon emissions. Steve Melink (www.melinkcorp.com), ForbesBooks author of Fusion Capitalism: A Clean Energy Vision For Conservatives and a lifelong conservative himself, says this new strategy makes sense environmentally but also for other strategic reasons.
“Climate change and its many manifestations, such as wildfires, droughts, storms, and hurricanes, increasingly represent a clear and present danger which our government leaders can no longer dismiss,” Melink says. “The costs and risks to our safety and health as a nation are becoming real and tangible. Biden wants to make combatting climate change a national priority – and more and more people agree it should be.”
But in addition to all the environmental disasters we are seeing, Melink offers several other reasons we should be moving away from fossil fuels and toward renewable energy:
Economic growth. Melink points out that coal jobs are disappearing but that there will be many more jobs available in the solar and wind power industries. “As a transition takes place, communities and utilities can start training workers in renewable energy fields,” he says. “Biden is focused on creating the clean energy economy of the future with millions of solar and wind power jobs that are safer and healthier and pay very competitively. He recognizes the coal industry had an important role to play in the 20th century, but he knows his job is not to prop up old and dying industries of the past. Instead, we need to invest in new technologies that make our environment cleaner and our economy stronger.”
National security. Melink says that because of our insatiable demand for oil in the world marketplace, the U.S. is unwittingly propping up the price and helping dictators and terrorists finance their wars and destruction. “Just because the U.S. has become largely energy independent over the last decade does not mean we are immune to the global ramifications of our vast consumption,” he says. “Then we have to counter this effect by sending our military to unstable regions of the world to try and maintain peace for critical commerce. In essence, we are paying for our oil twice – once at the pump and again with our tax dollars.”
Human health. “The burning of fossil fuels and emission of pollutants in the air that we all breathe causes chronic respiratory diseases like asthma in children and COPD in the elderly,” Melink says. “This causes a drag on our education system and our economy because hundreds of thousands of children are often missing school and their parents are missing work to take them to see doctors and other healthcare specialists. This is not to mention the dangers and risks to their health and esteem and confidence as desired productive members of society.”
“There is no doubt,” Melink says, “that those countries that address these problems and turn them into opportunities will be the ones that thrive for decades to come. So the United States shouldn’t just be taking part in the growing clean energy revolution, we should be leading it. This is not a partisan issue.”
About Steve Melink
Steve Melink (www.melinkcorp.com) is the ForbesBooks author of Fusion Capitalism: A Clean Energy Vision For Conservatives, and founder/CEO of Melink Corporation, a Cincinnati, Ohio-based company considered a pioneer in renewable energy solutions for the commercial building industry. Melink’s company has worked with retail, restaurants, hotels chains, hospitals, nursing homes, universities, and supermarkets. Melink is a national speaker on sustainability, clean energy and zero-energy buildings, and he has consulted with federal and state legislators. He earned a BS in mechanical engineering from Vanderbilt University and an MBA from Duke University.