Tuesday, June 10, 2025

Americans to Pay More to Cause Even More Climate Change

I don't even know what to call this--a reverse carbon tax?--but it's laughable and incredibly stupid. (But what isn't from Trump?) From the NY Times (free link): 

A 63-year-old coal-fired power plant was scheduled to permanently close its doors in Michigan on June 1. So was an oil- and gas-powered plant that was built in the 1960s in Pennsylvania.

But at the last minute, the Trump administration ordered both to stay open. The orders came as it pursues a far-reaching plan to boost fossil fuels, including coal, by declaring a national “energy emergency.”

The grid operators in Michigan and Pennsylvania said they hadn’t asked for the orders and hadn’t planned on using the plants this summer.

The costs to keep the plants open, which could total tens of millions of dollars, are expected to fall on consumers. Experts have said there’s little evidence of a national energy emergency, and 15 states have sued to challenge President Trump’s declaration, which was issued the day he took office.
Of course there is no "energy emergency" in the US. (Trump is declaring emergencies everywhere, like with immigration, so he can use special powers given to the President is such situations.) It produces more oil than it consumes, oil exports are growing and there is certainly no shortage of natural gas.

But Trump hates clean energy, because he's stuck in a 1970s mentality and maybe because he couldn't stop a wind turbine being installed in view of his golf course in Scotland. 

And he did ask the fossil fuel industry for a billion dollars for his last campaign. Presumably this is the quid of that quid pro quo.

America is already one of the largest CO2 emitters per capita, but apparently that's not good enough, Americans will have to pay more to emit more and cause more climate change. 

It's really shocking how fast the US is declining.

4 comments:

Thomas said...

I didn't realize the US was such a socialist country that the President decides which powerplants are kept on.

David Appell said...

I didn't either. I didn't even know that was legal. But it's an 'emergency,' you know. It's always an emergency here these days.

Entropic man said...

Coal is probably the most expensive energy source available to the grid operators.

Could we make their customers aware that the extra costs should be laid at Trump's door?

David Appell said...

EM wrote:
"Could we make their customers aware that the extra costs should be laid at Trump's door?"

Ha ha. Seriously, Trump's fans won't care. They either won't believe it, or believe it's part of his plan for domination of the left and also the world.

Seriously. They just won't care. They haven't cared about anything negative regarding Trump since he started in 2015--not his affairs, his ignorance, his obvious lack of intelligence, his tariffs, his taking away the Medicaid they depend on, and food stamps.

Really. They are in a cult. Literally, a cult.