The United States is moving money away from solutions and into destruction.
A new analysis shows the Department of Energy’s orders blocking coal retirements will cost electricity customers $3.1 billion annually by 2028, potentially rising to $5.9 billion if more plants are forced to stay online—adding up to well over $10 billion in extra costs by 2030. These are coal plants that utilities had already decided to close because they are uneconomic and polluting.
At the same time, the administration wants to cancel Solar for All—a $7 billion program designed to bring rooftop solar to millions of low-income families—by freezing and threatening to redirect its funds. Federal judges forced a release of the frozen grants, but the program remains under constant attack.
So the U.S. administration is taking money out of solar and pouring it into coal. America is not saving money—it is spending more, but on what destroys instead of what saves.
Declaring Coal “Safe”
The absurdity doesn’t end with the money. Trump’s EPA, led by loyalist Lee Zeldin, is moving to erase the scientific finding that greenhouse gases endanger human health—the 2009 “endangerment finding” that has underpinned U.S. climate action for more than 15 years.
https://app.wedonthavetime.org/posts/6cceb988-511f-4caf-8efd-481a9f7fc113
Revoking it would strip the EPA of its authority to regulate carbon pollution and dismantle the last guardrails on fossil fuel expansion. Zeldin called it “the largest deregulatory action in U.S. history.”
In other words: Coal isn’t just being bailed out with billions—it is being legally declared harmless.
The reality? Tens of thousands of Americans die every year from fossil-related pollution. Pretending coal is “safe” doesn’t make it so. It just locks in more suffering.
The money trail tells the story
Now, coal companies are already cashing in. The DOE’s mandates are handing them billions at the expense of ordinary Americans’ electricity bills. And oil executives stand to gain far more as subsidies, deregulation, and contracts roll out.
This isn’t energy policy. It’s political payback.
Coal Is Losing—That’s Why It’s Being Propped Up
📉 Coal is collapsing. The International Energy Agency projects renewables will overtake coal as the world’s top source of electricity by 2026 at the latest Carbon Brief.
📈 Wind and solar will supply more than a third of global electricity within two years.
🚫 Coal’s share of the global power mix is falling to its lowest level in a century.
Coal is losing. Renewables are winning. The only way to keep coal alive is to use public money to prop it up.
Imagine if cigarette sales collapsed because people switched to healthier options—and instead of letting tobacco die, the government shut down anti-smoking programs and forced every citizen to pay higher bills so Marlboro could keep selling cigarettes.
That is exactly what’s happening with coal.
America Up, China Down
While the U.S. burns billions to protect fossil fuels, its emissions are rising—even as China’s are falling.
📈 In the first half of 2025, U.S. carbon emissions rose 4.2% compared to last year.
📉 China’s emissions fell 2.7% in the same period, thanks to record solar deployment and falling coal use.
For decades, American politicians attacked China for failing to act. Now the roles are reversing: China is accelerating clean energy while the U.S. is moving backwards.
And per capita, Americans still pollute far more.
https://app.wedonthavetime.org/posts/11a12794-7936-46b3-80ad-684c12e13eda
The Tariff Shield
Perhaps this is why huge tariffs on Chinese goods are suddenly on the table. The fossil fuel lobby knows the truth: U.S. oil and coal executives are terrified of losing to China’s clean energy boom. China is pouring money into solar, wind, batteries, and electric transport. The U.S., under Trump, is copying the spending strategy—but pouring the money into coal and oil. One side is investing in the future, the other in the past.
Guess who wins in the end—old or new? The tragedy is, we don’t have time for the delays this fossil protectionism will create. Every year wasted on zombie coal brings more fires, more floods, more heat, more death.
Markets Are Moving the Other Way
There’s a brutal irony here. While Washington is shoveling billions into coal and oil to keep them alive, Wall Street is quietly walking away.
📉 Fossil fuel financing from America’s six biggest banks is down 25% this year, dropping to $73 billion
📉 Morgan Stanley cut more than half of its fossil lending.
📉 Even JPMorgan — the industry’s number one cheerleader — cut back.
And here’s the kicker: this isn’t happening because of climate pledges or pressure campaigns. Most U.S. banks actually quit the Net-Zero Banking Alliance after Trump’s reelection. They’re doing this because the numbers don’t add up anymore. Fossil fuels aren’t a safe bet. Clean energy is.
DOE claims this is about “grid reliability” and future energy demand. But the reality is renewables plus storage are already cheaper and more resilient.
https://app.wedonthavetime.org/posts/88682907-ee4a-4332-8cb4-bed7421c04c2
So why is the U.S. government doing the opposite, forcing citizens to pay higher electricity bills to keep financially dying coal plants alive? Why pour people’s money into what markets are already abandoning, when safer, better, more profitable alternatives are everywhere?
There’s only one explanation: hidden corruption—when special interests capture policy and bend it against the public good.
This isn’t about energy security or jobs. It’s about propping up fossil fuel donors who bought political favors. Nothing else makes sense. Policy is clinging to the past. The market is already choosing the future.
The Bigger Picture
This is not about “energy security.” It is a fossil fuel protection racket:
• $10 billion in bailouts to keep coal alive.
• Planning to strip $7 billion from solar.
• Coal pollution legally declared “not harmful.”
• Emissions rising in the U.S. while China’s fall.
• Tariffs deployed as a shield for dying fossil industries.
And it’s not just about money. Just this week, Trump moved to freeze Revolution Wind — a project already 80% complete, with 45 turbines standing off Rhode Island, ready to power 350,000 homes. Billions invested, union jobs created, clean power only months away from delivery — and it’s blocked with a vague “national security” excuse. That’s not protecting America. That’s protecting the fossil fuel industry.
https://app.wedonthavetime.org/posts/0e256c54-fabb-44f6-8f22-b52d91dc3d66
Public money is being moved from the future to the past—from solar to coal, from health to harm, from evidence to denial. The result: Americans are forced to pay more—for a future that is worth less.
And here’s the deeper truth: the root problem isn’t lack of citizen action, it’s corruption reversing that action.
Because it’s not just a minority that cares. Recent studies show that between 80% and 89% of people worldwide want stronger climate action.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/commentisfree/2025/apr/23/climate-action-public-support?utm_source=chatgpt.com
That’s a silent global majority—nearly nine out of ten people. But they don’t realize they are the majority. Instead, corruption drowns their will, bends politics toward fossil interests, and blocks the action people everywhere are already demanding.
The Way Forward
This isn’t just about America. When the world’s largest historical emitter pays billions to protect fossil fuels, cuts billions from renewables, and legally declares coal “safe,” the damage ripples across the globe.
And here’s the truth: smart consumer choices alone will not solve the climate crisis. Living sustainably, making responsible decisions—those efforts matter. But they become meaningless if corruption doesn’t just shield polluting industries—it actively reverses the progress citizens and markets are trying to make.
Case Study: Sweden Shows How Special Interests Cancel Out Citizens’ Choices
Take Sweden, where I come from—the birthplace of flygskam (“flight shame”). Citizens, businesses, and climate-conscious individuals have significantly reduced domestic flying, with a 41% decline from 2018 to 2023—proving that our choices do work. Less demand should have forced the aviation industry to adapt and begin changing.
So what does the government do in response? Under pressure from the aviation lobby, it cuts the flight tax to bring demand back—even while admitting this will increase emissions.
Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson justified it bluntly: “the tax ‘had resulted in a heavy competitive disadvantage for Swedish airports. Now it is abolished’.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/19/sweden-cuts-flying-tax-emissions?utm_source=chatgpt.com
And aviation is not just another sector—it is one of the least taxed industries in the world. Airlines pay no VAT on tickets and no tax on fuel, unlike road and rail transport, which are taxed heavily.
Think about that. In the birthplace of flygskam, citizens cut flying. Science shows aviation remains almost entirely fossil-fueled. The natural pressure for change was there. But instead of letting the industry adapt, the government intervened to reverse the trend and restore demand, protecting business as usual.
So what’s the point of me not flying, if my sacrifice only helps keep the special interests of a heavily polluting industry alive—without changing?
This is what hidden corruption looks like. Not envelopes of cash, but influence that bends politics to cancel out citizen action, silence science, and protect polluters. And in the process, it reverses the progress we’ve already made.
The Real Enemy: Corruption
Because corruption doesn’t just stall progress—it undoes it. It redirects public funds from healing to harm. It muffles science, amplifies denial, and ensures industries never evolve.
That’s why We Don’t Have Time launched #MakeScienceGreatAgain—to defend science, expose corruption, and demand that public money funds solutions, not destruction.
Join the campaign. Share this truth. But don’t stop there. Be angry. Be vocal. And most importantly—use your vote, your money, and your actions to stop sponsoring corruption.
The climate crisis will never be solved by better consumer choices alone. It will only be solved when corruption stops reversing the change that citizens and markets are already making.
We are the silent majority. And it’s time to stop being silent.
https://wedonthavetime.org/makesciencegreatagain
