Thursday, September 05, 2024

IIRC

"To address this dire energy crisis that Kamala and Joe have created, I will immediately issue a national emergency declaration to achieve massive increase in domestic energy supply," Trump said. "Electricity is desperately needed for AI...and China is already building massive electricity producing plants. We haven't even thought about it. We will think about it and I'll get it done on an emergency basis so we will be the leader in AI and every other form of technology."

"With the sweeping authorities, we will blast through every bureaucratic hurdle to issue rapid approvals for new drilling, new pipelines, new refineries, new power plants, new electric plants, and reactors of all types," Trump continued.

IIRC, Trump tried to open ANWR to drilling when he had the power to do so.  Nobody bit.  The major oil companies and drilling companies and everybody else said "Nah, we're good."  Drilling there was too risky, too expensive, and too difficult.  The market simply wouldn't support it.  Trump, stuck in the '70's, still doesn't understand that.  But the world oil market has moved on.

We don't need a massive increase in domestic energy supply.  If anything, we need less consumption.  Crypto currency, not AI, is what's consuming more electricity than it's giving back in benefits to society.  Texas has opened itself to massive "data mining" for crypto, and all it's produced is more consumption of electricity our system doesn't generate.  There's a reason Texas won't connect to the national grid:  it would have to come up to federal standards.  There's a reason Texas has brownouts and rolling blackouts in the summer, and why the winter storm shut down the entire Texas grid for three weeks:  lack of generating capacity, and lack of investment in current generators to weatherize them and make them viable in extremes of cold, or able to generate enough power in Texas summers.  It's not a problem of regulation; it's a problem of lack of regulation.  It's a problem of the market.  Texas electricity generators don't see any market impetus to improve their situation, i.e., to invest in infrastructure.  When demand is too high, they just don't meet it.  When the entire grid collapsed in winter, the Legislature fumed and fussed at the entity (ERCOT) incapable of doing anything about it (because the power supply generation is overseen and controlled by the Public Utility Commission) and did nothing else.

Trump's "plan" (I use the term extremely loosely) would be to further de-regulate in order to promote, or in his mind, "release" companies to provide this energy bonanza he thinks government is keeping them from.  But what's restricting the energy providers, to the extent they are restricted, is the market.  Oil companies don't need to drill for anymore oil than they are already drilling for.  They aren't clamoring to open ANWR because the market won't support the expense of exploring there.  Pipelines and refineries, likewise, are massive capital investments.  If the market will bear them, they will be built.  Regulations aren't restricting anything.

And despite what John Roberts said, Trump is not a dictator; nor a monarch.  Hell, he couldn't authorize all of this if he wanted to.  Remember Covid, and his tweet to "INVOKE P!"  He meant to activate the federal government to purchase medical equipment and distribute it where it was desperately needed.  He was so stupid, so stone ignorant, he didn't realize you don't engage the federal bureaucracy with a tweet.  And he had no one around him who knew what to do, so nothing happened, and people continued to suffer and die, hospitals continued to be overwhelmed, healthcare continued to crater.  He says he will do all these things the second time around:  but he doesn't know how to, even if he wants to.  He just thinks, like some parody of a politician from popular culture or a graphic novel, that this is how you campaign:  promise everything to everybody and reap the electoral results.  Why not?  Nothing he's said to try to campaign against Kamala has been worth a damn.  Might as well make stupidly outlandish promises.

What could it hurt?  It's not like the NYTimes is paying attention.  Or apparently anybody else, for that matter.

Just gonna add this in closing:

Uh, no. When we get rid of Trump, we're going to do better. We're certainly not going to do as badly. Because right now there's nothing to distinguish Trump from Rudy: I'll be surprised if Trump hasn't taken up that line by the weekend.
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)