OPINION:
It may have been jaw-dropping, but Bill Gates deserves no credit for his stunning reversal on climate change. Not just because he spent years falsely warning of the pending doomsday or writing a book titled “How to Avoid a Climate Disaster.”
Not even because he was so late to the game. Nearly exactly a year ago, the American public ended the climate change debate when they returned President Trump, who ran on an unapologetic platform of unleashing American dominance, to the White House.
His recent U-turn notwithstanding, Mr. Gates has bankrolled environmental groups that continue to undermine the Trump administration’s efforts to implement the pro-energy agenda America voted for and needs.
Take this summer’s report issued by the Department of Energy. Analysts of “A Critical Review of Impacts of Greenhouse Gas Emissions on the U.S. Climate” reached the same conclusion as Mr. Gates now does. Yes, climate change is real. No, it does not spell imminent doom for humanity. Yes, we should monitor emissions and always strive for better, cleaner technologies. No, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the world is not ending in 12 years.
The key takeaways from Mr. Gates’ essay and the Energy Department report were similar: There is no crisis. Do not be afraid to live. Do not scare children into believing the planet is on the brink of collapse. Contrary to what nearly 1 in 4 young voters said in a recent poll by the Independent Center, the climate situation does not make having children irresponsible.
Mr. Gates took it a step further by saying the cold posed a greater threat than the heat.
Yet when the Energy Department released its findings, instead of celebrating the encouraging news, a group of 85 climate change experts issued an immediate rebuttal to the report.
Much like the 51 national security “experts” who deemed the Hunter Biden laptop “Russian disinformation,” the report was gobbled up by the mainstream media. “Dozens of scientists find errors in a new Energy Department climate report,” blared one headline from NPR. “Dozens of scientists push back on ‘fundamentally flawed’ Department of Energy climate report,” declared ABC News.
One bureaucrat from Washington state even pleaded with Energy Secretary Chris Wright to revoke the report as it “fails to protect Americans from what we all know is coming.” An article on Science.org dismissed the working group authors because, although “all hold scientific doctorates, they hold contrarian views on climate science that are out of step with the mainstream.”
Two environmental groups, the Environmental Defense Fund and the Union of Concerned Scientists, even sued Mr. Wright and his climate change task force for their findings.
Herein lies Mr. Gates’ real hypocrisy. His climate advocacy group, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, gave nearly $2 million to the Environmental Defense Fund, the same group suing Mr. Wright for concluding months earlier what Mr. Gates has only just realized.
Of course, Mr. Gates will not receive the same level of acrimony Mr. Wright did. He still has a net worth of more than $100 billion, and climate groups know who butters their bread.
Their silence only cements the belief that climate change advocacy is driven by money. The Environmental Defense Fund has offices on tony Park Avenue in Manhattan, and its president earned more than $1.2 million in 2023, according to the group’s most recent 990 form. The same document shows six other executives earning more than $400,000 and an annual operating revenue of nearly $300 million. The document reads more like the financial statement of a company trading on the New York Stock Exchange than a “nonprofit.”
Under the first year of Trump 2.0, oil production has hit record highs and gas prices have fallen to four-year lows. Like our efforts to dodge the climate change catastrophe, these are positives that should be celebrated. This is what America wanted when they voted for Mr. Trump, whose administration has implemented policies in support of American dominance.
When it comes to public policy, talk is cheap. Money is what counts. Until Mr. Gates starts pulling back the billions of dollars he has funneled to “climate adaptation,” let’s hold the applause.
• Daniel Turner is the founder and executive director of Power the Future, a national nonprofit organization that advocates for American energy jobs. He also runs a sheep and cattle farm in rural Virginia. Contact him at daniel@powerthefuture.com and follow him on Twitter @DanielTurnerPTF.
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