Media mogul and failed presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg is not letting up on his years-long obsession with putting the nails in the coffin on the U.S. coal industry.
The Bloomberg News owner pledged another $500 million to “expand the Beyond Carbon campaign, one of the largest philanthropic efforts to fight the climate crisis in the U.S,” Bloomberg Philanthropies announced in a Sept. 20 press release. The intent is to “[f]inish the job on coal” by 2030, Bloomberg Philanthropies stated.
The organization fanatically celebrated how “With 372 of 530 coal plants announced to retire or closed to date – more than 70 percent of the country’s coal fleet – this next phase will shut down every last U.S. coal plant.”
The new development is in addition to the $500 million Bloomberg pledged in 2019 towards the same “Beyond Carbon” effort, meaning he will have spent at least $1 billion to ensure that the coal industry is eradicated from the U.S. economy.
This reeks of hypocrisy in the face of Bloomberg’s partiality to flying what leftists would consider emissions-spewing private jets. ClimateJets.org, developed by climate activist Akash Shendure, estimated Bloomberg’s travels on private jets in 2022 alone accounted for “327,854 gallons (1,241,062 liters) of jet fuel used” and “3,196.58 metric tons of carbon dioxide emitted.”
But Bloomberg had no problem patting himself the back and championing his own eco-extremist efforts:
Thirteen years ago, when cap and trade efforts failed in Congress, our team refused to let politics trump progress. Since then, Bloomberg Philanthropies has helped retire more than 70 percent of all U.S. coal plants, which accounts for more than 80 percent of all emissions reductions in the United States since 2010.
But the billionaire activist is largely unaffected by the rippling impacts of his climate activism. “Michael Bloomberg is one of the richest men in America. He’s not going to feel the financial pinch that would be the result of his outrageous attack against middle America,” MRC Business Vice President Dan Schneider said in a statement. “The people who will be hurt the most, of course, are those who struggle to make ends meet. This is a brutal attack against Americans as winter approaches.”
"It is amazing," said Climate Depot founder Marc Morano in comments to MRC Business. "Michael Bloomberg has not been called out for his hypocrisy. He is literally making the lives of average Americans more miserable by restricting access to affordable energy. Restrictions on freedom of movement in higher energy cost will not solve any alleged 'climate crisis.' But it will make us all poorer."
Morano pointed out Bloomberg's leadership role as President of the Board for the radical climate group C40 Cities. That group published a wild report in 2019 that "called for limiting the number of new clothes per person per year to only three items," as Morano noted. He continued: "How many of Bloomberg's billionaire friends will follow these dictates that are designed only for the masses?"
Bloomberg’s delusional, self-righteous gambit to put the 55,165 workers left in the coal mining industry out of their jobs wouldn’t do anything to significantly reduce global temperatures.
Hoover Institution Visiting Fellow Bjorn Lomborg had ripped President Joe Biden and the U.S. Senate’s Inflation Reduction Act scheme to waste $369 billion on a phony green energy transition, the effects of which on global temperatures Lomborg said would be almost negligible. “Remember, everything you like about civilization is powered by lots and lots of energy,” he said. “Most of that energy today comes from fossil fuels,” such as coal. Bloomberg’s luxurious private jet-flying lifestyle suggests he clearly knows this too.
Statista concluded Sept. 7 that “Fossil fuels remain the greatest source of electricity generation worldwide.” Coal in particular “accounted for roughly 35.8 percent of the global power mix” in 2022.” Natural gas “followed with a 22 percent share. China, India, and the United States accounted for the largest share of coal used for electricity generation in 2021.”
Conservatives are under attack. Contact Bloomberg News at letters@bloomberg.net and tell it to distance itself from its owner’s obsession with wiping out the U.S. coal industry.
