Coronavirus has led to an astonishing shutdown of economic activity and a drastic reduction in the use of fossil fuels. This global crisis is also an inflection point for that other global crisis, the slower one with even higher stakes, which remains the backdrop against which modernity now plays out. So far, the American government’s aid legislation has failed to address clean energy or the climate. The $2 trillion stimulus bill passed by Congress this week not include relief for renewables, such as crucial tax credit extensions for solar and wind. A best-case outcome might include a rethinking of the social contract that helps protect and provide for the most vulnerable members of society at a time of increasing risk. We need to ask: What does a government owe to its people?
By Meehan Crist. New York Times. March 27, 2020.
