Once upon a time, conservative ideologues opposed government interference in the holy magic of the marketplace.

Take energy policy, for example. Right-wing cheerleaders of fossil fuels demanded that the government keep its fat thumb off the scale of free market competition between Big Oil and those frilly new "alternative" sources of energy.

Where did those market "purists" go? Into the White House, the Cabinet and Congress — where they've mutated into big government bullies, attacking renewable energy enterprises while hyping and subsidizing the corporate profiteers of dirty energy. President Donald Trump himself hasn't merely put his thumb on the scale; he's hauled his entire hulk onto it!

For example, this month, he lavished a $700 million gimme of our tax dollars to prop up coal production, a dirty fuel the market is abandoning.

Wait, there's more: he paid another 700 million of our dollars to Invenergy, an offshore wind energy firm — not so it could produce electricity, but to cancel four wind farms it had planned to build. Yes, he paid the company to not produce wind energy! Trump declared that even though wind power is less costly than coal, he found windmills "ugly."

So, here's my advice to the wind industry: Gold-plate your turbines and label them "Trump Towers." And maybe stage a series of cage fights on some of them. Trump is all about hype and spectacle — so there you go.

Meanwhile, the actual marketplace is loudly saying "no" to fossil fuels and YES! to renewables. Get this: Wind now routinely surpasses coal as a supplier of electricity to America. And, last month, solar power also surpassed coal. Political bullying aside, renewables are the future.

IS YOUR LUSH GREEN LAWN KILLING MOTHER NATURE?

Sometimes, little things can be a big deal. For example, in considering ways to help protect Mother Earth from global environmental rampages by us humans, look out your window.

In many cities and most suburbs, chances are you're looking at a lawn — a grass-carpeted yard that looks almost the same as the one next door, the one next to it, etc. Some see a lush expanse of green grass as the ultimate in landscaping beauty, and some even consider a well-manicured lawn to be a measure of one's moral character.

Beauty and piety aside, though, the spread and intensification of "lawn culture" has become an environmental extravagance that is already unsustainable in whole sections of our country, and it adds up to a steadily increasing burden on Earth's essential resources. Grass itself is natural, but keeping it alive across thousands of square miles is not, for it requires a deluge of chemicals and endless rivers of water applied again and again, yard after yard, trying to keep these plots green. And — O, the irony! — their "green" includes eliminating bees, butterflies ... and, well, nature. One statistic tells the tale: Americans use more than 10 times more poison per acre than all of America's farmers use on their crops.

Just glance around you, and you'll see the grass lawn imperative at work throughout your community — it surrounds local schools, "greens-up" corporate complexes, spreads across college campuses, forms miles of golf courses, etc.

This is not a diatribe against grassy plots, which can be natural joys. But let's get real, creative and in touch with the full balance and beauty of nature. You can promote ground cover sanity right where you live with native plants, xeriscaping, organic methods, rain gardens and "re-wilding" your yard with things like prairie grass. For help, go to Rewild.org/Rewild-Your-Life.

To find out more about Jim Hightower and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators webpage at www.creators.com.

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Photo credit: Thomas Réaubourg at Unsplash