Experts Weigh In On Trump’s Energy Policies
Though I’ve been scolded quite a bit for expressing my fears about the environmental impacts of Donald Trump’s presidency, I’m certainly not the only one who dreads what’s very likely about to come. As expressed in this article, experts agree that the considerable progress that the U.S. has made in the direction of renewable energy could be reversed if Trump follows through on his promises to repeal the Clean Power Act, cancel all funding for renewables, pull out of the Paris Agreement, remove all restrictions of energy production from fossil fuels, and open up vast amounts of land to coal mining and oil/gas exploration.
Most people seem to think that this won’t be as bad as we expect. I wish I were that confident.
Craig your concerns are valid and some damage may be done. It all depends on haw far they go with their blindly money motivated carbon Easter Egg Hunt where everyday the Easter Bunny provides more carbon so they can get their Green money) sugar Fix !
Etc.
Yes they will try to mine more oil / gas but that is happening with or with out them but the world market can only absorb so much . And you cant drill off shore at today’s depressed prices.
The Irony is that they can’t have or do it all. The energy market dynamics will prevent them form promoting all of the different sources at more Frenzied rates. More gas on the market makes coal even less competitive. DAH – we know those uneducated white trash morons that yell and scream about things they are clueless about but its Physics! versus Slogans?
As I write gas, wind and now solar beat out much of the existing coal capacity in the Wholesale Power markets on Price.
More gas on market price stays low coal loses its a No Brainer!
All of the shallow , angry , proud to be ignorant and die hard conservative coal backers can’t change International Trends in the use of Coal. Last 10 years has seen close to 750 Gigawatts or 750,000 megawatts of Coal capacity cancelled. Just 150 in the last 2 years. The Global market is contracting
Perhaps Trumperian Foreign Policy will be trying to force Nations to burn coal at the Point of a Drone ???!! attack!!
I know they don’t read or think too long about most things but some one needs to calm them down so the disappointments are not too dramatic and places them into trump shock!
Reality TV antics aside how are they going to handle these reality. It will take more than Guns, Red Meat and big Trucks Caps that say Make America Great Again – much much more.
Coal Demand is in a Death spiral and so called clean coal is a very expensive and still ( after Billions in DOE and Federal , Private sector funding ) Under performing coal format that parallels the large scale financial risks found with large Nukes. Not price competitive no mater how one slices it.
Check Out Kemper Plant in Mississippi A bloated Dirty Elephant! Literally and Figuratively!
They say they Hate Federal spending on R & D and dont get the purpose of the DOE etc. So more inconsistency with reality clashes on Horizon.
Craig where I share your concern is in the Clean Power Plan and the continued growth is the Solar DG market. this is where serious damage could happen.
Utility scale Wind and Solar will survive due to the political constituency it now has and its strong price position. Not only visionary Democrats and Progressives support it now but also many GOMERS now make a living in it and many IOWA farmers make a living off wind leases. They make more money off wind leases than they do farming.
So much for the Rural ways of Life LOL LOL It took Intellectual Thinking Progressives to lift their boats up out in the rural hintherlands , another irony !
There may be some leveling off of growth depends on tax policy changes. Too many variables
There are market & pricing realities that Slogans and Subsidies will be challenged to change. 50,000 Megawatts of Coal are planned for closing by Elec Utilities Nationwide in the next 6 years in the US.
How is the Trumpster going to change that???
If they get carried away with Draconian policies and rules that hurt Renewable s and allow Excessive fracking and destroy the EPA then we do have some challenging Issues. This is the area that concerns me.
But if they flood the market with gas like now the price stays low and the banks get reluctant to under write more drilling?.
Oil price is depressed because of over supply now so some of this is Rhetoric BS ! They have found in West Texas Permian Basin and the Delaware basin over 23 Billion barrels of new Shale oil in Texas. Plus close to 20 Trillion feet of gas in the past 2 months.
Just a few technical details for the trumpsters to deal with = I know they distrust facts as Elitist Conspiracy theories etc but it comes from the OIL co’s. Take it up with them!
I am going to relax and rake yard leaves and listen to music as Garrison Geillor said to do! The Follies of Trumpism have only just begun to Unravel ! there will be damage done sadly though !
Craig,
As a citizen of a free society you have a right to peacefully protest and agitate against the government and any or all, government policies.
That’s your right and indeed duty as a citizen to participate in political debates and the civic life of your nation.
However, democratic nations rely upon citizens accepting elected executive governments must be allowed, after following due constitutional process, to govern.
You are quite free to post unflattering pictures of the President, and rile against his decisions.
What you are not entitled to do is refuse to accept the authority of an elected government supported by Constitutional due process, and defy decisions of the administration by violent or excessively disruptive means.
I expect that a minority of loud protestors will erupt with increased vigor in an attempt to frustrate and foil the Trump Administration. This rationale behind this strategy will be to provoke a reaction for government policy to become more divisive and the nation descend into bitter internal dissension.
I fear the violent, intolerant actions of criminal protestors at the Dakota pipeline site may just be a portent of larger chaotic disruptions over the next four years.
The provocations created by these misogynist protestors will severely test the patience of the new administration. The tacticians behind the protestors hope to provoke a heavy handed response from the new administration and supporters.
The scene is set to create a battle ground for extremists, the casualties being moderates and the national economy.
You may feel that this kind of civil unrest is price worth paying to neutralize Trump, but then you won’t be paying the price will you?
The real price will be paid by ordinary folk, caught in the middle of extremes. No one wins in such a scenario.
I’m exceedingly saddened that demonstrators claiming to be environmentalists, have behaved so badly in Morton County, North Dakota.
But equally distressing is to witness advocates like yourself, failing to disassociate yourself and speak out against such unacceptable behaviour !
In doing so, you may think you are winning a tiny battle and that’s important, but in reality your silence erodes the credibility of the entire environmental movement, making support much harder to gain and increasing support for populists like Trump.
Dreaming of recreating the great protest movements of the 50’s and 60’s, doesn’t justify supporting the kind of crazy, fanatical, violent conduct of the current demonstrations.
To paraphrase Edmund Burke, ” All it takes for evil to flourish, is for good men to do nothing”.
Once again, I invite you to speck out against the conduct of those demonstrators, or at least explain why you believe the theft and butchering of endangered species, violence and assaults (including sexual assault) on local land owners, including Indians tribe members, piles of rubbish and excrement and destruction of animal sanctuaries, vandalizing of graves, etc is justified ?
All this to protest a pipeline that will be buried more than 100 ft blow the ground, with every imaginable safeguard and nowhere near any water supply ?
Is this the kind of civil war you seek to employ as a tactic against the new President ?