On day one of the second Trump administration, the president declared an “energy emergency,” claiming the U.S. needed to exploit protected lands for drilling and kneecap the renewable energy industry to survive.
This fake emergency is not rooted in anything actually urgent—or fact. A March 2024 article by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) lays the truth out plainly: In the past six years, the United States produced more crude oil than any other nation at any time—nearly 3 million more barrels per day than the second most-productive nation, Russia. We also lead the world in natural gas production. The U.S. has never before declared an energy emergency, even when we faced genuine shortages.
In a true “energy emergency,” the balance sheet would look far different. We would be working out how best to conserve our supplies while focusing on how to boost energy efficiency across the country to decrease demand while simultaneously investing in any method that would keep the country from going dark. We would not use an executive order to halt the advancement of the wind energy sector, which accounts for 10% of the total energy in the country. We wouldn’t be removing subsidies from the job-creating industries of battery and solar manufacturing and electric vehicles. We would be calling on companies and citizens alike to be mindful of their consumption to drive down demand while ramping up production through any means necessary.
The truth is we produced a record amount of energy in 2023 (the latest available data) and exceeded our consumption by a margin unseen since records started being kept in 1949. By some interpretations, we’ve catapulted past energy independence, and by others, we’re actively working against reaching it by stunting our capacity to produce energy locally and being forced to continue to rely on oil, a global commodity subject to international influences like supply cuts, blockades, and wars.
There is a potential for catastrophic environmental harm to both people and fragile ecosystems. With the withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement, it’s all but assured that the federal government will not hit its climate goals. As I write this, we’re witnessing unprecedented destruction from fires in Los Angeles, just an hour from Patagonia’s campus. Although they may look different depending on where you are geographically, such events, fortified by the climate crisis, impact all of us as communities and businesses. The climate crisis is happening now, and we are facing its effects every day. We can work to find solutions because the emergency—the real one—is already happening, whether an executive order declares it or not.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has warned that global warming must not exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. To get there, we would have to halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and achieve net-zero by 2050. They’re ambitious targets, but if society, governments, and business commit to doing their respective parts, it’s achievable. We saw glimmers of that unity recently in California when citizens, business and politicians from both sides of the aisles joined together and mobilized to defeat a referendum that aimed to overturn a state law prohibiting drilling for new oil and gas wells within 3,200 feet of homes, schools and hospitals. It was a coming together that happens when we agree to address a genuine threat.
At the start of the year, solar and wind produced more electricity than coal-fired power plants, and the vast majority of new electrical generation capacity in the country came from renewables. As infrastructure and manufacturing costs continued to come down, renewable energy’s place in the country’s energy mix was poised to grow. We even saw the energy industry at large responding: In the past two months, fossil fuel companies declined to bid on leases to drill in the Arctic Refuge—an area again threatened by the president’s emergency declaration—due to the costs involved. Although maybe more symbolic than anything, even Exxon’s CEO urged Trump to stay in the Paris Climate Agreement.
With all of this in mind, it is clear the emergency here is not our supply of energy. Our planet is warming at an alarming rate, and the deadly and costly consequences of this are being felt from the small towns in North Carolina to the biggest cities in California. By focusing on the real emergency, and working together across communities, industries, and party lines, we can silence the fire alarm here on Earth, because despite what you might have heard, not all of us want to move to Mars.
The opinions expressed in Fortune.com commentary pieces are solely the views of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of Fortune.
Read more:
- The path to net zero that doesn’t punish consumers, businesses, or politicians
- To help save the climate, CEOs need to become ‘Chief Coalition Builders ’
- The winning fight against climate change lies at the intersection of environmentalism and economics
- Trump’s return is breaking climate policy—and that may be a good thing
