By Robert Bradley Jr. — November 7, 2024
Ed. Note: This post was originally posted on January 19, 2017, with Donald Trump on deck to take the Presidency.
“Good news indeed! Energy cuts are easy cuts compared to the hard budget choices that lie ahead in the transition from statism and stagnation to a vibrant, coordinated, expanding entrepreneurial economy.”
Rome is not burning, but Joe Romm at Climate Progress is. “Will Trump go down in history as the man who pulled the plug on a livable climate?” he writes, with the subtitle, “The fate of humanity is in the hands of a denier who pledged to kill domestic and global climate action and all clean energy research.”
Really, Joe?
But Romm goes on to (usefully) report:
The Australian journalist Graham Readfearn notes that while you can’t find Trump’s original “100 day action plan” for energy and climate on the campaign website anymore, “it was archived by Wayback Machine”.
Here is my 100-day plan:
- We’re going to rescind all the job-destroying Obama executive actions including the Climate Action Plan and the Water of the U.S. rule.
- We’re going to save the coal industry and other industries threatened by Hillary Clinton’s extremist agenda.
- I’m going to ask Trans Canada to renew its permit application of the Keystone Pipeline
- We’re going to lift moratoriums on energy production in federal areas
- We’re going to revoke policies that impose unwarranted restrictions on new drilling technologies. These technologies create millions of jobs with a smaller footprint than ever before.
- We’re going to cancel the Paris Climate Agreement and stop all payments of U.S. tax dollars to U.N. global warming programs.
- Any regulation that is outdated, unnecessary, bad for workers, or contrary to the national interest will be scrapped. We will also eliminate duplication, provide regulatory certainty, and trust local officials and local residents.
- Any future regulation will go through a simple test: is this regulation good for the American worker? If it doesn’t pass this test, the rule will not be approved.
AIso importantly, Trump (as Romm noted) has announced a plan to cut $100 billion in climate related federal funding over eight years, which would require “zeroing out all federal clean energy R&D, efforts to help countries around the globe deal with climate and the entire government’s climate science effort.”
Good news indeed! Energy cuts are easy cuts compared to the hard budget choices that lie ahead in the transition from statism and stagnation to a vibrant, coordinated, expanding entrepreneurial economy.
Let’s see what happens this time around.
There should be no “climate” policy at all, except to finally recognize that the static radiative effect of incremental CO2 is not capable of forcing absorbed energy to accumulate in the land + ocean + atmosphere system as sensible heat – most likely not even measurably, and most certainly not to any harmful extent. Withdraw the EPA’s 2009 Endangerment Finding!
For energy policy, we must stop tax incentives for intermittent sources such as wind and solar for grid supply; for carbon capture and storage; for producing and utilizing hydrogen as fuel: and for BEV’s. And NO, the “all of the above” approach is almost as insane as “net zero.”
There.
Not just tax incentives but all subsidies. And for EVs. If anyone wants an EV and can afford it- fine, it’s their money.
Good point! And I agree about EV’s – fine for some, but no mandates or anything that ends up having the effect of a mandate.
EPA rules have to be made rational instead of deliberately making rules intended to get rid of ICE cars.
EPA needs to be one of the first targets of the Trump administration.
There should be no “climate” policy at all beyond the above suggestion about CO2, except to additionally counter all the disinformation put out by the emotion-driven, anti-science left and the complicit propaganda news media; namely, Naomi Oreskes’ ludicrous notion that a ‘scientific consensus‘ validates any science conclusion, and namely the ludicrous and unproven notion promulgated by Naomi Oreskes and a core clique of other zealots that skeptic climate scientists were on Big Oil’s payroll.
End all subsidies. Let the power engineers use the most reliable and lowest cost combination of sources. At this time the CCGT with peakers will win. Recognize that more CO2 is good for the earth and all inhabitants. Recognize that climate change is not new and we need to continue to improve our defense against extreme weather that has nothing to do with CO2.
And let us have special school classes for those who shout “The sky is falling!” and then use FF every day, every day, every day while expecting others to sacrifice for mother Gaia.
One should look to Virginia that does that approach using quote unquote peer reviewed science research.
re-education camps out in the boondocks, where there is no electricity
…and no TP or shovels :<)
The EPA declared CO2 is a pollutant.
So where are the millions of court cases bringing people to trial for polluting?
After all, every time a person exhales, they emit CO2.
You need someone to demand to be prosecuted for polluting & make a show trial out of it.
The EPA must be braking the law if it doesn’t prosecute all polluters.
Yes.. MUST remove the CO2 endangerment nonsense.
And every time a tree or plant breathes in CO2, they grow.
The EPA claims that it is pollution that makes the planet green. Either they are mad or they are liers. Or both.
Chris
At least one of these items in the former action list has already been addressed by SCOTUS – the Clean Water Act definition of waters of the US was severely constricted by the court last year.
I think the bottom line is that Trump will terminate any and all Obama and Biden executive orders that hurt the economy, the people, the national security, immigration, etc. virtually immediately.
Then the new Republican majority in the Senate along with the probable GOP majority in the House (as of today) will go to work crafting and enacting bills that will repeal the infamous Biden Build Back Better and lyingly named Inflation Reduction Act to stop the insane ridiculous funding and regulations involved in both laws. The GOP can either use budget reconciliation to do that, or the GOP Senate leadership can go ahead and do what the Dems promised to do, which is to greatly restrict the filibuster rule so that a straight majority can enact bills in the Senate.
Then from that point forward, there’s a host of other laws that should either be repealed and/or amended as necessary, and then take up new legislation that will improve America, such as making the 2017 tax cuts permanent, and taking other actions to make the US more competitive as a place to live, work, and invest. And for godssakes, absolutely get rid of all of the woke BS of the last 4 years.
It’s going to be interesting. Many political lawfare and warfare battles lie ahead. Some will be slam dunks, others not so easy. I see one cockroach that is about to get squashed.
https://rumble.com/v5n15i8-trumps-lawyer-on-ny-ag-wanting-to-still-go-after-trump.-make-our-day.html?e9s=src_v1_upp
will go to work
You are much more optimistic than I am. I don’t have much faith in the GOP anymore.
I am not sure that this is optimistic as much as it is that both President-Elect Trump and the GOP leaders in Congress understand that the results of this election are a mandate from the voters for corrective action. Business as usual isn’t going to work, or there will be a new Dem majority in Congress 2 years from now that will emasculate anything Trump intends to do for the rest of his term.
I am optimistic, I guess, to the extent that Trump listened to his political advisors in the closing month of the election and concentrated on policy rather than just name-calling, which is sort of his standard schtick. And that focus on fixing policy is what put him over the top, not his personality.
Totally agree.
Any indications of giving farmers relief from restrictions on fertilizer use, etc?
I think this election made it clear that everything the Dems wanted and pushed down people’s throats is what got Trump elected — energy prices, general inflation, college anti-Semitism, DEI, CRT, personal pronouns, transgenderism. The Dems are too stupid to back off now and will be screaming so loudly for all this nonsense that the public won’t let the GOP forget it, and enough of them will take delight in canceling as much of it as possible.
Trump is an ignoramus in a lot of ways. But he isn’t stupid, and he will use the Dems hissy fits to push his own agenda and make sure the GOP plays along.
I also think there’s a chance that the 2026 midterms will increase GOP representation enough that Trump will have another two years. A better economy, fewer cross dressing admirals and luggage thieves, cheaper energy, and Dems still having hissy fits will do the trick.
The only real flaw in the ointment is Trump’s fixation on tariffs. If he makes a priority of that and inflation ramps up, the public will turn on him, and 2026 will put Congress back under Dem control.
Tariffs are a tool.
Tariffs are normally only applied to certain products.
Putting tariffs on Chinese EV won’t cause inflation.
Tariffs ALWAYS raise prices. That ALWAYS causes inflation. It may not be much, but if not, then the tariffs are pointless. The whole point of protective tariffs is to raise prices.
Tariffs on Patagonian titanium mouse traps won’t raise prices because there are no such products. Are you saying there will be no Chinese EVs and so no prices raised and no inflation? Then it’s a stupid pointless tariff. But if there are Chinese EVs and tariffs raise their prices, then there will be inflation.
It’s about the most basic arithmetic possible.
I’m saying not enough Americans will buy Chinese EV’s to make a difference. Somebody paying extra for a Chinese EV doesn’t affect my bottom line one bit.
Scarecrow is actually correct that all tariffs are taxes on the people that are paid through the retail or wholesale prices paid for products. If a tariff causes there to be lower purchases of a particular imported good, it will assuredly introduce artificial scarcity, and domestic producers will therefore raise their prices … no matter what, the consumer or the importing domestic industry will pay higher prices as the result of any tariff.
Nobody can repeal the law of supply and demand. Even dictators cannot do so, and certainly no President or Congress can do so.
“The whole point of protective tariffs is to raise prices.”
The original purpose of tariffs was to raise the price of imported goods to protect a country’s infant industries from foreign competition.
They way I read it Trump’s proposed tariffs on all imports has two objectives; first, to help pay for reduced business taxes, and second, when combined with those tax reductions, to increase local manufacturing by making it cheaper to manufacture things here rather than import them.
To be fair, Trump did actually declare a couple months back that he wants to put a 10% minimum tariff on all imported goods. I think that the GOP controlled Senate, if not the House, will take a dim view of that. It is true that Congress in years past delegated too much of its authority to regulate international trade to the President (whoever it is). I don’t see this as a public fight, however, but as a matter of quiet discussions behind the scenes.
Trump will pick some politically popular fights on individual classes of products and/or nations to put a tariff on. Such as Chinese EVs. And probably a lot more than 10%.
The Inflation Reduction Act WAS done through budget reconciliation, bypassing the normal 60 vote threshold in the Senate for cloture. I’m sure much of it will be a target for rescinding by the same method of reconciliation. I think Joe Manchin got taken. Biden and his cohorts ignored or contorted most of what Manchin thought was the most important parts of the bill.
Once the money is cut off, this whole global warming thing will disappear. It is the prospect of making money that keeps this scam going. Cut the grants, the subsidies, the free vacations, and the only people who will be left will be the useful idiots. And gradually the useful idiots will move on to other flavor of the day causes.
The proposed cuts in grants and subsidies are just the tip of the iceberg of the total money flow. The idea of carbon tax on hoi polloi is so appealing to elites that they will not give it up easily.
I am definitely unburdened by what could have been and looking forward to what will be. This time around for Trump should be interesting as he’s had 4 years to think about it. For CC that could mean anything …. coming from Trump …. but I’d wager Green policies will be nowhere on his agenda.
Maybe now is the time to crack open Project 2025 and see what’s in there.
originally posted on January 19, 2017
Much has transpired since that time. My feeling, sorry, my guess is that at some point US academia will have to be reckoned with. It’s where the swamp gets its recruits… whatever the gender…
As I contemplate pulling my snowblower out, I can’t help but think that the pendulum is at least slowing and perhaps is reversing.
Locally, if only it were globally.
I’d settle for it being the UK.
With apologies to Mackay: Countries think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, one by one.
Good start, but there should be extra focus on making these changes irreversible. The climate industrial complex will consider this a setback and will regroup and fight back. Lasting changes can only be achieved if the fraudulent Narrative is fully exposed and defeated.
And the last sentence defines the problem – the Fraudulent Narrative can only be exposed by the MSM who so far are not minded to do so.
If Trump relies on his regulatory power, that means a future POTUS can reverse the policies with the proverbial stroke of a pen. We need the laws revamped.
There is so much more to be done to undo what Biden has done. (You can quote me on that.) We deserve a new post for 2025.
The climate change debate took a turn when Big Tech discovered they need reliable, affordable power for AI and data centers. (Duh.)
While Big Tech hasn’t given up completely on decarbonization, they are beginning to embrace nuclear. There is no technical or economic reason we can’t have a nuclear-powered backbone for our grid, with natural gas plants that can be spun-up quickly to meet peak demand needs.
As ever, money is the lever. As others have suggested above, switch off as much as possible of the subsidies, grants etc. awarded to unreliable power generation and climate hysterics, and divert the money to subsidise development of nuclear and more efficient hydrocarbon production and usage, and interest will drop in the former and grow in the latter.
To gain control and drain the bureaucratic swamp, one of the first steps should be to eliminate many of the alphabet agencies that are not enshrined in the Constitution.
The EPA, FDA, DOE, etc. have outlived their usefulness (if they were useful at all) with most created by executive orders that can be eliminated by a bold Commander in Chief.
They have to be eliminated in whole so that the swamp critters have no recourse except trying to push out lower seniority government union members from their entrenched positions.
Why government employees were ever unionized is a travesty that even FDR argued against.
California is bracing for impact.
California is going to sue about everything. It doesn’t matter what it is. If Trump signs it, California will sue.
Remember the last time a State government called a special session of the legislature because someone they don’t like got elected?
Neither do I.
Trump posted his platform, outlining his proposed policies and the actions he will take, on his campaign website.
https://www.donaldjtrump.com/platform/
There is a button at the bottom of the page that links to a document with extensive detail: “Read More About the Trump Republican Platform.”
He also posted a bunch of accompanying videos in early 2023 explaining his plans in detail.
https://www.donaldjtrump.com/agenda47
In his victory speech on Tuesday, he said:
Just as I did in my first term, we had a great first term, a great, great first term. I will govern by a simple motto: Promises made, promises kept. We’re going to keep our promises. Nothing will stop me from keeping my word to you, the people.
Trump is the most promise-keeping president I’ve ever seen. I anticipate the next four years will be thrillingly brilliant.
Second time round Donald now knows just how deep the swamp really is. I hope Elon Musk will be the US version of the Argentine president and his chainsaw.
Well, the three of them (Trump, Musk, and Milei) are meeting soon..