A Note on Executive Order: Unleashing America's Energy

Under Trump the United States has withdrawn from the Paris Climate Accords. This aligns with his aims to “unleash America’s energy”. Trump’s energy policy seeks to free us “from burdensome and ideologically motivated regulations”, which translates to any environmental policy or practice that acknowledges the perils of climate change and the negative impact human “progress” has on the environment. 

This executive order abolished the American Climate Corps, which was a program implemented under Biden to support clean energy development and fight climate change. This executive order also calls for the weakening of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1970, which in essence holds entities accountable for their environmental impact. This order also disbanded The Interagency Working Group on the Social Cost of Greenhouse Gases.

This executive order and the policies lying therein have the potential to do great harm to the animals, wildlife, natural spaces, and humans of the United States. This plan is shortsighted and greedy. Excess use of natural resources is not sustainable. I hate the term “natural resources”. It makes nature sound like a commodity. Nature is not a commodity and humans are not separate from nature. We are nature. What happens to the planet, happens to us as well. 

Trump doesn’t care if the national parks are destroyed or if factories dump toxic waste into our waters. He’s going to be safely tucked away at Mar-a-Lago where none of the fallout of environmental disaster will touch him or anyone he knows. Bottom line - I greatly fear that this executive order indicates a dangerous disregard for the environment on the part of President Trump. I worry that there will be long lasting and probably irreversible consequences to policies implemented under this order. 

I wonder whether President Trump has ever visited national parks, gone camping, or gone for long hikes in nature.  He does seem to love the outdoors, as he is an avid golfer. At least two of his sons seem to enjoy hunting, and sometimes hunters are very interested in wildlife and nature conservation. 

My problem with the current President relates to his lack of curiosity or self-awareness.  A person with wisdom, who is intellectually curious and has some degree of insight into internal motivations and biases, is likely to seek out an accurate understanding of reality.  I’ve been acutely interested in climate change ever since I happened upon the “hockey stick” article while browsing through Geophysical Research Letters in a university library back in 1997. I’ve followed critiques of “alarmism” and the works of persons who doubted the severity and swiftness of global warming, and the work of the scientists who warn that things are very bad and threaten humanity’s future.  I can remember the climate forecasts that were being made in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and I can look at recent climate news from the past decade, and the models of 25 years ago have been fairly accurate. The critiques of the climate warming models have also been mostly answered.  There really isn’t much room for doubt now, and we can be highly confident that human release of greenhouse gasses (and feedback effects related to methane release from natural sources in response to melting permafrost and warming lakes) are rapidly raising global temperatures, and raising sea levels.   

The prognosis for humanity isn’t good.   Long stretches of extremely high temperatures coupled with high humidity will make some parts of the planet practically uninhabitable for months of each year, except for persons who can shelter in air-conditioned spaces. Increases in number and severity of storms with rain and wind are likely, but in other areas droughts may become more severe and longer. Look at Table 1 on pages 10-12 of the UK Climate Change Risk Assessment of 2022, or the Fifth National Climate Assessment for the USA from 2023.  And the USA and the UK are fairly protected from many of the worst changes. Global assessments of risk show that the Central Sahel, and low-lying lands near coasts in areas regularly hit by tropical storms (places like Bangladesh, islands of the Caribbean or Western Pacific, Thailand, Vietnam, Florida and the American Gulf Coast) are especially vulnerable. 

It seems a damning indictment of our species that political leaders across the world can just shrug their shoulder and go on encouraging economic activity that increases our output of greenhouse gasses. Russia encourages the use of fossil fuels, and China builds many new coal-fired power plants. As you’ve pointed out, the USA has withdrawn from efforts to reduce greenhouse gasses.    

Student suggests regular bus service between Petersburg and Springfield

 Dear Mayor Rich Snyder, 

My name is [student name] and I am a junior at the University of Illinois Springfield studying social work. I am from Petersburg, and I am very passionate about making the town a better community for everyone. There is an issue of public transportation in Petersburg, which I believe could be solved, and that would make the community a better place.  

Petersburg is about 23 miles from the main shopping areas of Springfield. However, for persons in Petersburg to get to the main AMC movie theater, the large grocery stores, or the downtown of Springfield, they must drive cars. A round-trip is typical 50 to 56 miles, and for cars with 25-28 miles per gallon, that’s two gallons, or about $8 in fuel costs for every trip into Springfield.  Older Petersburg residents who don’t see well at night or feel uncomfortable driving, and young persons who do not yet drive or cannot yet afford a car are also facing a difficulty getting to Springfield and back.  

A few ways that the public transportation issue could be solved in Peterburg include gaining Uber access, bus access, and making the senior transport (S.M.A.R.T) more accessible. 

Gaining Uber access is something that could simply be done, by a submission for drivers to travel to the area, or outside of the Springfield area.  Allowing Uber access into the small community that we live in would be beneficial for anyone who does not have daily transportation to work, whether that was in Springfield, Petersburg itself, or one of the surrounding towns. Allowing individuals to get to work every day would allow for them to save more money and potentially being able to purchase a vehicle of their own. 

Gaining bus access for residents of Petersburg would be beneficial for when a group of people need to go to the same place. For example, many people daily in Petersburg need to go to the grocery store, the dollar store, the doctor’s office, etc. If we had a few busses that ran a few times a day to these places, a lot of stress of having to find a ride would be taken off the Petersburg residents. Finally, making the S.M.A.R.T van more accessible for the senior citizens. Although it is based in Menard County, for Menard County residents, I personally have experienced many issues with them. I work at the doctor’s office in town, and there have been numerous times the van has not been on time, or has even forgotten their passengers at the office. Personally, I find this unacceptable and there needs to be something done about it in order to ensure these senior citizens are respectfully treated during their rides, that they do indeed pay for. 

I imagine two mid-sized busses capable of picking up and transporting persons in wheelchairs. Each would make four 100 minute runs between Petersburg and Springfield, allowing the driver a 20 minute break between each run for an eight-hour shift.  The busses would be spaced an hour apart, so that the first bus would leave Petersburg at 8, 10, noon, and 2. The second bus would be the evening bus, departing at 11, 1, 3, and 5. The busses would stop  in Petersburg at Countryside Estates, Senior Services at Sheridan and 6th, and Jackson and 6th.  It would stop in Salisbury, and then in Springfield at Harvest Market at White Oaks Plaza, the AMC theaters off Wabash, the Walmart Supercenter/Aldi/Target off Veterans Parkway, the downtown transport center at 11th and Adams, St. John’s Hospital, and Memorial Hospital, and then return to Petersburg.  

The first bus of the day: 8:00am departure from Countryside Estates, 8:06 departure from Jacksonville and 6th in Petersburg, 8:19 stop at Salisbury, 8:38 at Memorial Hospital, 8:43 at St. John’s Hospital, 8:47 at SMTD Transfer Center, 9:02 at White Oaks Plaza, 9:08 at AMC Classic Springfield 12, and a stop at the parking lot for Walmart, Aldi, and Target from 9:14 to 9:16. The bus would be back at Petersburg at 9:52, and then start again from Countryside Estates at 10:00. The last bus of the day would depart Springfield from the Walmart / Aldi / Target parking lot at 6:16pm. The bus could be free, to encourage use and discourage people from driving. After initial costs of purchasing the busses ($120,000), the city budget would need $14,000 for bus maintenance, $240,000 per year for salaries and benefits for three bus drivers, $10,000 per year for purchases of new busses and insurance, and $116,000 for fuel.  The city of Springfield or the Sangamon County government might each pay a portion of the $380,000 annual cost of running the busses, leaving the average cost to residents of Petersburg at about $100 per year per household.

Finally, I thank you for reading this letter and taking my thoughts into consideration. As a member of the small community, we live in, I think it is important that we take everyone’s interests seriously and into consideration. 

I like your idea. Our nation is too dependent on cars, and this limits the freedom of younger and older citizens. Springfield and Petersburg pay a lot to maintain their streets for private vehicles, and taking some of that money out from subsidizing car companies and private use of vehicles to support public transport appeals to me. I think a free regular shuttle with eight departures per day to Petersburg might also bring more tourists out to that town.  Perhaps the schedule could give a midday break for the drivers, allowing later busses so that people could have a dinner in either Petersburg or Springfield before catching a bus from one town to the other.  Advocating for public transit is an important way to ameliorate carbon emissions and global warming.