Winter is not my favorite season. I don’t like shoveling snow, getting stuck in drifts and especially trying to desperately stay on the highway during white-out blizzards. Been there, done that. Opinion But I sure missed it this year. I think many longtime Wyomingites did too, and not onl y because they longed for a white Christmas. It just doesn’t seem natural to see people wearing shorts to the grocery store in January, even if it’s 70-plus degrees. On the positive side, I have friends who marveled that they could take their kids out to enjoy activities that usually only happen in summer.  But longtime residents know what this portends: a dreadful rest of the year, with a dramatically low snowpack that doesn’t fill our waterways, reducing essential water storage for agriculture, cities and ecosystems. Devastating drought conditions will likely get worse, and severe wildfire risks could be at an all-time high. There are fundamental political reasons why there are more climate-related disasters, and normally dry areas are getting pummeled by snow. Some of our federal and state elected officials are complicit in actively working to bring our efforts to fight climate change to a screeching halt. I’ve always found people want to talk about the weather, and they are fascinated by the case of our stolen winter. Climate change is on almost everyone’s mind, except for the dwindling number of Americans who still think it’s all a hoax. Unfortunately, that list includes President Donald Trump, who has spent the last decade calling it a fraud, and the first 14 months of his second term dismantling the climate change work of former President Joe Biden, whose administration valiantly tried to address this crisis that scientists have warned threatens the planet’s very survival. Some readers have told me over the years that I have “Trump Derangement Syndrome,” a derogatory label for intense worry, persistent anger or preoccupation with the president’s words and policies. But I know I’ve got a clean bill of health when it comes to TDS, and here’s why: We have a president who totally ignores science and encourages others to do the same. Trump pulled the U.S. out of the Paris Climate Agreement, sending the signal to the rest of the world that since we no longer care about fighting climate change, why should they? Trump has defunded critical climate research, changed the federal government’s priority from advancing clean energy technology to protecting fossil fuels, and ordered federal agencies to stop considering the economic damage caused by climate change when writing regulations. In short, all of these asinine decisions are examples of how instead of trying to keep Americans healthy and save the environment, the president is only capable of throwing a tantrum to make his predecessor — who defeated him fair-and-square in 2020 — look bad.  I don’t have TDS, I have Trump “I Know What You’re Doing” Syndrome. He’s confirmed by his actions that he doesn’t care about anyone else on the planet but himself. I wonder how Trump will handle it when his beloved Mar-a-Lago is underwater when climate change raises the sea level.  Yes, Trump is responsible for much of this, but he’s not operating in a vacuum. He’s had plenty of help from Wyoming’s congressional delegation, as well as special assistance from his biggest fan and coattail hanger-on in Wyoming, Secretary of State (and U.S. House candidate) Chuck Gray. Gray has focused heavily on defeating wind farm projects, which he calls “woke.” In January, the American Petroleum Institute announced that killing state climate lawsuits is a top priority this year for the oil lobby. U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman soon came to the rescue, with a news release that said she’s working on a bill to create a liability waiver that could give the companies complete legal immunity. It’s modeled after a 2005 bill that prevented lawsuits against gun manufacturers. Nearly 200 groups have urged Democratic congressional officials to oppose this get-out-of-jail free card. One is the Center for Climate Integrity, which said Hageman’s proposal “would bar the courthouse doors for communities across the country and stick U.S. taxpayers with the massive bill for climate damages, while bailing out corporate polluters from having to pay for the mess they made.” “Wherever you find yourself on the issue of climate change,” U.S. Sen. John Barrasso said in 2008, “we can agree on one important dynamic — change not only awaits us, it is banging on the door. We need to change it on our terms before Washington’s massive bureaucracy changes it for us.”  Whatever happened to that guy? In July 2022 Barrasso said, “We have a crisis in this country, and it’s not the climate. We have an energy crisis. People know what they want. They want American energy that is reliable, available and affordable.’’ He certainly wasn’t talking about wind and solar power or battery storage. By 2024, Barrasso was calling out the “climate zealots” for “focusing so much on killing the production of American energy that they’re choking off the lifeblood of our communities.” The senator sponsored a bill to accelerate leasing and permitting decisions for all types of energy projects on federal lands. “The insignificant crumbs thrown at renewable energy do nothing to address the climate crisis, but instead would make it game over for a livable planet,” criticized the Center for Biological Diversity. Shortly after Trump’s second inauguration in 2025, Barrasso said the president’s election and a global turn against climate priorities provide a mandate to overhaul the International Energy Agency. Barrasso said the agency is biased against fossil fuels and a “cheerleader” for renewable energy, which is funny when you know that the person who’s furiously waving his pompoms for Trump is our senior senator. U.S. Sen. Cynthia Lummis, who is retiring at the end of the year, also sponsored bills to tweak Biden when he was in the White House. In 2023 she introduced the “Real Emergencies Act” to prohibit the president from declaring a national emergency solely on the basis of climate change. Was she scared that Biden called climate change a clear and present danger to the country? Or that the “Green New Deal” proposal by progressive lawmakers would fulfill its goal of putting millions of Americans to work in good-paying union jobs and tackling pollution and climate damage? Probably. But she explained that her bill was aimed at protecting domestic energy production in Wyoming that would be harmed if a climate change emergency was declared. The delegation has certainly raised fears that climate change will remain the boogeyman for conservative lawmakers for years. But I think Gray, who is seeking Hageman’s seat while she runs to replace Lummis, would set a new standard for indignation about what a Democratic administration would do about climate change. “Liberals who want to cover Wyoming with their ‘woke’ wind projects?” Gray proclaimed in one of his TV commercials. “Not on my watch.” Please don’t ask me what a woke wind project is, or how Gray could ban them if he’s elected, because I have no idea what he’s talking about. He also said he stands with Trump on everything, which should tell you all you need to know about him. Barrasso isn’t up for reelection, but if you don’t like what Hageman and Gray are preaching about climate change and why they think we must protect fossil fuels that pollute our environment and put all life on Earth at ever-greater risk, please vote in the Aug. 18 primary election.  Wyoming shouldn’t be represented by politicians who think they’re doing their job by continuing to prop up a dying industry when clean renewable energy and strengthening our environmental regulations instead of tossing them out is our best hope for survival — and a real Wyoming winter. The post High temps and no snow? What happened to our Wyoming winter? appeared first on WyoFile . ...read more read less