View this post on the web at [link removed]

ELEPHANT IN THE GREEN ROOM
Donald Trump tried to end the green energy revolution. His war with Iran, however, has given it new life — whether he likes that or not.
One of President Donald Trump’s core promises has been to reverse any progress the United States had made on renewable energy. “I HATE ‘GREEN TAX CREDITS,’” Trump wrote on social media [ [link removed] ] last year. “They are largely a giant SCAM.” In the early days of his presidency, Trump’s team even released a memo [ [link removed] ] detailing every way they would defund the “Green New Scam.”
But Trump failed to stop the green energy revolution — and, instead, gave it fresh momentum. His war in Iran is causing many countries to reconsider the disadvantages of fossil fuel and the benefits of clean renewable energy, in ways Democrats could have only dreamed.
“Trump has done more with this half-baked war to spur the transition to a green economy than anything Kamala Harris could have realistically hoped to accomplish if she had been elected,” wrote [ [link removed] ] Dean Baker, who co-founded the Center for Economic and Policy Research.
The Biden administration offered subsidies to promote green energy projects [ [link removed] ] and encourage people to buy environmentally-friendly products [ [link removed] ], such as electric vehicles and solar panels. While Harris could’ve maintained or increased those subsidies, convincing the rest of the world to shift to renewables would have taken time and arduous diplomacy, Baker told What A Day.
“Trump’s war has been a freakout moment for countries,” he said. “They are redoubling their efforts to move towards clean energy, not just for environmental reasons but for national security.”
Trump has managed to “fully expose the lie of American dependence on fossil fuels,” Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA), who co-sponsored the Green New Deal, told What A Day. “Clean energy is cheaper, made in America, and can’t be exported abroad to the highest bidder.”
The Trump administration has called green energy too risky, even as the world economy teeters on the brink of an oil supply catastrophe.
The oil crisis won’t be as painful for the United States because domestic oil companies will increase their profits, Trump economic adviser Kevin Hassett claimed last week [ [link removed] ]. In the same breath, he acknowledged that “it’s very frustrating to go to the pump and see what the price of gasoline looks like.”
But Trump promised consumers he would lower gas prices. Now he’s warning that they could be higher [ [link removed] ] come November.
Both Trump and Hassett are ignoring the big geopolitical advantages of clean energy, which can be generated from sunshine and wind, and doesn’t have to travel through, for example, the Strait of Hormuz. New clean energy projects are largely cheaper [ [link removed] ] than dirty alternatives. Electric vehicles, hugely popular in China and Europe, are also cheaper [ [link removed] ] to operate than gas-powered cars — especially during oil shortages.
Hassett further claimed that “Green New Deal-type policies” hurt other countries’ economies. European leaders don’t seem to agree.
“This [war] must be a wake-up call and a turning point — when Europe steps away from fossil fuel dependence, and steps towards clean energy autonomy,” European Union energy chief Dan Jorgensen told reporters [ [link removed] ] on Tuesday. “Because now it is more obvious than ever: clean energy means security. It means affordability. It means independence.”
Will Trump be remembered for leading a green energy transformation? Well… he seems to be working on that!
WHAT ELSE? 👀
Iran struck three ships in the Strait of Hormuz today [ [link removed] ], [ [link removed] ] as mediators scrambled to restart diplomatic talks. Donald Trump is giving Iran a few days to offer a peace proposal, the Wall Street Journal reports.
The FBI reportedly started investigating a [ [link removed] ]New York Times [ [link removed] ] reporter [ [link removed] ] after she published an article about FBI Director Kash Patel using the bureau to drive his girlfriend around and provide her with security. In a statement to the Times, the FBI confirmed that it’s no longer pursuing a case, but added that “investigators were concerned about how the aggressive reporting techniques crossed lines of stalking.”
Virginia voted to effectively eliminate four Republican-held House seats, [ [link removed] ] giving Democrats a major advantage ahead of the midterms. Remember, this whole gerrymandering battle is only happening because Trump and Texas Republicans started it. Now, MAGAworld is freaking out. “It’ll take us a decade to dig out of this,” MAGA Godfather Steve Bannon said on [ [link removed] ] his podcast. Trump complained on social media: “The Democrats eked out another Crooked Victory!” A Crooked victory, you say? I’ll take it!
ICE agents detained the wife of an Army sergeant [ [link removed] ] in Texas as the couple attended an appointment to move forward with securing her permanent residency. “A person opened the door, escorted us through the hallway, and at the end of the hallway, my wife got arrested,” the sergeant told the Associated Press. “Arrested without any order, any warrant ... They took away my wife. They don’t tell me anything.” A strikingly similar incident [ [link removed] ] happened to another soldier’s wife earlier this month; she was released after public backlash.
The CDC is blocking the publication of a report showing that COVID vaccines [ [link removed] ] drastically slashed the likelihood of patients needing to visit the hospital, according to the Washington Post. Acting Director Jay Bhattacharya had reportedly delayed the report due to concerns about its methodology, though it had already passed the agency’s scientific review process.
Donors to Trump’s White House ballroom project [ [link removed] ] signed a contract that allows them to contribute anonymously “while exempting the White House from key conflict of interest safeguards and limiting scrutiny by Congress and the public,” the Post reports. The contract protects against conflicts of interest… but allows ultra-wealthy donors to secretly give money to Trump’s pet project?
Fifty-five percent of Americans want Donald Trump [ [link removed] ] to be impeached, including 21 percent of people who voted for him in 2024, according to a new poll. Does this mean he’ll be impeached? It does not. (And as we were all reminded during his first term, getting impeached isn’t the same thing as getting convicted in the Senate!) But a lot more people want him impeached than I thought, especially when it comes to Republicans!
Texas can require public schools to display [ [link removed] ] the Ten Commandments in classrooms, a federal appeals court ruled.
LIGHT AT THE END… ☀️
A federal court dismissed FBI Director Kash Patel’s lawsuit [ [link removed] ] accusing former FBI official Frank Figliuzzi of defaming him by alleging that he had “been visible at nightclubs far more than he has been on the seventh floor” of the FBI headquarters. Hilariously, this is unrelated to The Atlantic’s piece alleging that Patel often gets deliriously drunk — a point he has denied, and countered with a $250 million defamation lawsuit.
Happy Earth Day! Here’s a gallery of some of the most beautiful [ [link removed] ] and iconic photos of our beautiful blue and green planet, because why not.
Teens in Lenox, a small town in Western Massachusetts [ [link removed] ], [ [link removed] ] are rallying to change a local school mascot: the Lenox Millionaires. The mascot is basically the Monopoly Man, and the kids don’t want to be represented by the bourgeois. Older residents, however, think the mascot reflects the town’s history and shouldn’t be changed. As one senior in high school put it: “I don’t think there’s anything unique about being a second home to wealthy people … It just makes it seem like we think we’re superior to other people.”
The National Gallery of Art received a $116 million [ [link removed] ] donation to support loaning out its art to smaller museums across the country. “The defunding that’s going on for the arts as a whole — somebody’s got to pick up the slack,” Mitchell Rales, a billionaire art collector, told the New York Times. A billionaire using his wealth for good? We love to see it.
There’s an entire industry of people who breed [ [link removed] ] different types of potatoes to be made into the perfect chips. One potato breeder, David Douches, has developed five different potatoes for chips over the past 15 years, including one that can stay fresh at colder temperatures for an extended period of time. The starchy developments, such as a potato that is disease-resistant, also helps fight hunger around the world.
Two men from England drove a three-wheeled car [ [link removed] ] named Sheila from London to southern Africa, breaking the world record for, you guessed it, the longest trip in a three-wheeled car. The men traveled some 14,000 miles through 22 countries. “No power steering, no air con, and it doesn’t do well up hills or down them. It is the most unsuitable car for probably any journey,” one of the travelers said. “We made friends with the designer of this car, and he’s scared to take it any more than 20 miles.”
A 2-month-old Asian elephant named Linh Ma [ [link removed] ] made her public debut at the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington, D.C. today. She was the first elephant born at the zoo in about 25 years. Here’s a livecam of the elephants [ [link removed] ], if you aren’t nearby!
This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Unsubscribe [link removed]?