The Fossil Fuel Industry’s Control of Our Government

Editor:

The world as we know it today was built on the back of burning fossil fuels. Unfortunately, this process has come at a tremendous cost. Emissions from burning fossil fuels are rapidly warming our world at a rate that has never occurred in the history of our planet. Why, then, do we continue to burn planet killing fossil fuels?

One primary reason is the tremendous control the fossil fuel industry has over our government. The industry spends approximately $250 million dollars per year lobbying elected officials. The vast majority of this money goes to Republican officials and candidates. During the 2024 presidential campaign alone, oil interests gave more than $75 million to Donald Trump’s affiliated PACs.

This lobbying money spent by the fossil fuel industry serves as a highly effective financial instrument, yielding unparalleled returns on investment by securing multi-billion dollar taxpayer subsidies, rolling back environmental regulations, and aggressively stalling clean energy competition.

In addition, our federal government spends between $20 to $35 billion a year on direct handouts to the fossil fuel industry. These perks primarily include special tax breaks, deductions, cheap access to drilling on public lands, and regulatory loopholes.

We cannot expect meaningful climate action as long as our representatives are financially beholden to the very industry driving this crisis. It is time for voters to demand absolute transparency and use their ballots to reject candidates who prioritize fossil fuel payouts over our planet’s future.

Ron Sadler

Houghton

Thank you Aspirus!

Editor:

The athletic departments at Calumet High School and Lake Linden-Hubbell High School would like to thank Aspirus Keweenaw Hospital for their help in providing sports physicals to our student-athletes this spring. Over 40 dedicated and community-minded health care professionals donated their time, expertise, and talents to ensure that both CLK and Lake Linden-Hubbell students receive a quality sports physical. The medical staff and support staff at Aspirus Keweenaw Hospital are always a pleasure to work with and we are very fortunate to have them as a part of our communities.

Patrick Dwyer, Athletic Director, Calumet High School

Jack Kumpula, Athletic Director, Lake Linden-Hubbell High School

The ancient Athenian poet Agathon wrote that “Even God cannot change the past.” President Trump is attempting exactly that–rewriting history–through policy and rhetoric.

Even God can’t change the past, but Trump is trying

Editor:

Testifying about the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, Officer Caroline Edwards described a scene of “carnage” where injured officers bled and vomited amid relentless hand-to-hand combat. There were more than 140 injuries to police officers on January 6, and a comprehensive review of police bodycam video revealed “approximately 1,000” assaults on law enforcement on that day.

In one instance, Andrew Taake, who has been pardoned by Trump, pleaded guilty to assaulting police with bear spray and a metal whip. One of the officers he sprayed in the face described the pain as the worst he’d ever experienced — “like living death.”

Notably, the Department of Justice recently deleted news releases from its website detailing Jan. 6 charges, convictions, and sentences — including those involving violent assaults on law enforcement — with the DOJ calling the records “partisan propaganda.”

George Orwell, author of the dystopian novel 1984, wrote, “If the Leader says of such and such an event, ‘It never happened’ – well, it never happened. If he says that two and two are five – well, two and two are five.”

Timothy Snyder, author of “On Tyranny,” argues that democracy cannot exist without history because it depends on citizens who can recognize patterns from the past, accept responsibility for what their nation has done and choose better paths for the future.

Let’s heed the words of Soviet dissident Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn: “The simple step of a courageous individual is not to take part in the lie.” We should refuse to participate in efforts to rewrite January 6 as anything less than a violent assault on democracy and the rule of law.

Terry Hansen

Grafton, WI