Donald Trump Says Windmills are 'Ruining the Atmosphere'

Donald Trump has said windmills are damaging the atmosphere, as part of a string of criticisms regarding the traditional renewable energy source.

The former president was speaking to Fox News' Sean Hannity on his show Thursday when he attacked Joe Biden for what he described as failures regarding the U.S. energy crisis.

Trump also discussed the issues of China, Russia and India continuing to release high levels of emissions while the U.S spends money attempting to cut its own.

"We made [oil] affordable, we had more energy jobs than we have ever had. Now all of those, not all, a lot of those jobs are gone," Trump said on the show.

"If you could start that up again, you could stop with all of the windmills all over the place, that are ruining the atmosphere.

"You look at what's happening to these beautiful prairies and plains and these gorgeous areas of our country where they have these rusting hulks put up all over the place that are noisy, they're killing the birds.

"I don't get the environmental incentive, it is a very expensive, probably the most expensive, form of energy. If you look at what we had, natural gas is very clean. They destroyed the coal miners and you have clean coal.

"They use coal now for much more than just energy, they use it for other things also but they destroyed the coal miners. They are just destroying these people for no reason whatsoever."

In January 2021, Biden made a speech reiterating the importance of revitalizing the communities that generated fossil fuel energy. He insisted his administration wanted to improve coal communities and ensure they had access to good-paying jobs.

"This is not time for small measures, we need to be bold. So, let me be clear, that includes helping revitalize the economies of coal, oil and gas, and power plant communities," Biden said.

"We have to start by creating new, good-paying jobs, capping those abandoned wells, reclaiming mines, turning old brownfield sites into new hubs of economic growth, creating new, good-paying jobs in those communities where those workers live because they helped build this country.

"We're never going to forget the men and women who dug the coal and built the nation. We're going to do right by them."

While speaking on Hannity's show, Trump also took aim at Russia, China and India for their high levels of pollution.

"Remembers this, China is opening a coal plant every week, a big one every single week," he claimed.

He continued: "I got out of this Paris climate accord, it was a disaster for our country. It was going to cost trillions of dollars for our country, it would have really hurt our country badly.

"China didn't have to abide by it, Russia didn't have to abide by it, India didn't have to abide by it.

"So, if we are going to be clean and they are going to be dirty, it blows right over and by the United States. Unless they are going to do it, it is not fair because it is very expensive to do."

During the election campaign, Biden said that the U.S. would rejoin the Paris agreement if he was elected President. Biden also announced that his administration would spend $2 trillion on a climate change plan.

Newsweek has contacted the White House and Trump's office for comment.