When it comes to climate and energy, let’s retire the politics of fear
February 3, 2026
By Gary Abernathy
In the latest example of the scare tactics favored by climate change alarmists, it was announced
last month that 2025 “was the third-warmest in modern history, according to Copernicus, the European Union’s climate change monitoring service,” as reported by NBC News.
The story added, “The conclusion came as no surprise: The past 11 years have been the 11
warmest on record, according to Copernicus data. In 2025, the average global temperature was about
1.47 degrees Celsius (2.65 Fahrenheit) higher than from 1850 to 1900 — the period scientists use as a
reference point, since it precedes the industrial era in which massive amounts of carbon pollution have
been pumped into the atmosphere.”
As usual, our most affordable and reliable fuel sources were blamed.
“The primary reason for these record temperatures is the accumulation of greenhouse gases in
the atmosphere, dominated by the burning of fossil fuels,” according to Samantha Burgess, the
“strategic lead on climate” for the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, which
operates Copernicus, according to the report.
Sometimes it feels like the climate change crusaders are oblivious to everything going on around
them. For decades, they’ve been resorting to the same tired strategies to convince us that doom and
gloom are just around the corner if we don’t change our ways. What they ignore is that their tactics
aren’t working – more people than ever are tuning them out.
Americans in particular have grown wise to the predictions that don’t come true and the
demands that don’t make sense. In fact, so badly has science become blatantly politicized that the
number of people who have a great amount of trust in science keeps shrinking.
That fact was backed up by a recent Pew Research Center report that found that “Americans’
confidence in scientists remains lower than it was prior to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
To many of us, it is now obvious that the inconsistent guidance on Covid and many pandemic
edicts that were later found to be ineffective and even misleading demonstrated that science was not
above being overtly politicized.
While the Pew study noted a Democrat-Republican disparagement regarding trust in science
(Democrats trust it more, Republicans less), only 28 percent of all U.S. adults said they have “a great
deal” of confidence in scientists “to act in the public’s best interest.”
I recently noted the welcome admission by manmade climate change believer Noah Kauffman, a
senior research scholar at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy, who, writing for The Atlantic, said flatly that “the full effects of climate change are unknowable, and a more constructive
public discussion about climate policy will require getting more comfortable with that.”
Whether in regard to vaccines, dietary guidelines or climate change, in recent years science has
too often found itself at the center of partisan political debates and lost the trust of many Americans by appearing to support certain causes over others based on ideology rather than pure scientific data.
But we can’t afford to let that happen when it comes to making energy decisions. Why? Because
no one can deny that affordable energy is the key to economic prosperity for American households and businesses.
When energy costs are low, manufacturers can produce goods at a lower cost, resulting in more
competitive products domestically and internationally.
When fuel is affordable – whether diesel, gasoline or jet fuel – all modes of transportation,
including airlines, trucking and shipping companies, can charge less, resulting in savings for all
consumers.
Heating, cooling and transportation costs represent the most significant share of most families’
budgets. When energy costs are reasonable, household spending on other goods and services increases, not only helping individual families but contributing to overall economic growth.
In addition to everything else, there is real damage caused by manipulating science in a way that
puts climate over people. It puts people in danger and keeps them in poverty – and ultimately only a
privileged few will benefit.
Consider the billions the Biden Administration doled out to political cronies on its way out the
door in the name of the climate cause. Consider also the Obama Administration giving a half billion
dollars to Solyndra, the solar panel company accused of engaging in “a pattern of false and misleading
assertions,” only to see it go bust – all at the expense of hardworking, taxpaying Americans.
That’s why it’s important to remove the manipulation of the energy sector from the
politicization that has infiltrated the scientific community. Americans should not be pawns in the effort to frighten our people or our government into abandoning our most reliable, affordable and increasingly clean energy sources.
There’s a better way. By passing the Affordable, Reliable, Clean Energy Act (ARC-ES), Congress
can codify into law the guarantee that Americans will always have access to low-cost energy, regardless of the effort of progressive political groups to weaponize science in order to funnel tax dollars to prop up “alternatives.”
Anyone can manipulate data to come up with horrifying “what if” scenarios designed to frighten
or intimidate people into making their preferred choices. That’s not how to make public policy.
We need to pass ARC-ES to move past the days when the science that fewer people trust is
manipulated to justify changes in energy policy that few people want. When it comes to science, let’s
trade the politics of panic for the integrity of facts.
Gary Abernathy is a longtime newspaper editor, reporter and columnist. He was a contributing
columnist for the Washington Post from 2017-2023 and a frequent guest analyst across numerous media platforms. He is a contributing opinion columnist for The Empowerment Alliance, which advocates for realistic approaches to energy consumption and environmental conservation.