The Heritage Foundation’s 2018 impact report claims that, during President Trump’s first term, he “embraced nearly two-thirds of the policy recommendations from The Heritage Foundation’s ‘Mandate for Leadership’.” There is no doubt that Trump will continue to follow the mandates handed down in Project 2025. Top on the list of mandates is to “unleash American energy production to reduce energy prices.”

“Drill baby, drill” was Trump’s campaign cry. He claims that increasing oil and gas production will bring down prices. He does not consider the enormous costs of climate chaos associated with the burning of fossil fuels. He refuses to acknowledge the costs of rising sea levels, catastrophic climate events, damage to ecosystems and the impact on our health. Why is this? Money, profit, greed?

It seems only fair that the industry should be responsible for the costs of fires in California and Maui Island and floods in North Carolina and Florida. In 2023, it was estimated that the total costs of climate disasters in the U.S. reached nearly 100 billion dollars!

The fossil fuel industry is terrified of the inevitable: consumers choosing to electrify their homes with solar power. Wind and solar can’t be put into barrels and sold, they are resources available to us all. The claim that drilling will reduce energy prices is a way of selling the industry’s agenda to consumers. We should not be fooled.

Donna Baker-Hartwell

East Andover