expensive Coal Bailout coming, Perry: it's gov's job to pick who wins/loses

[Blue3]

http://www.npr.org/2017/10/12/557367017/is-this-how-the-trump-administration-might-save-coal

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[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

One of the things I really like about the Trump Administration is how it has lead the Republican Party, like a horror movie villain in the third act, to completely abandon it's disguises in favor of letting the pure evil underneath shine out, clearly visible to anyone with a working brain.

[Rookie Yinzer]

One of the things I really like about the Trump Administration is how it has lead the Republican Party, like a horror movie villain in the third act, to completely abandon it's disguises in favor of letting the pure evil underneath shine out, clearly visible to anyone with a working brain.

[Blue3]

One of the things I really like about the Trump Administration is how it has lead the Republican Party, like a horror movie villain in the third act, to completely abandon it's disguises in favor of letting the pure evil underneath shine out, clearly visible to anyone with a working brain.

It's so true.

This in particular is just indefensible.

[Hindsight was 2020]

Well so much for the old argument against clean energy being that it is no economically feasible

[TPIG]

We Republicans can't criticize the dumping of public money into inefficient green-energy sources and yet support something like this. We need to eliminate government imposed barriers to energy production, not have government propping up industries that can't survive on their own. We shouldn't have a government that is pro-coal or anti-coal but instead a government that supports open and free competition within the energy sector. Hope this plan fails.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Well so much for the old argument against clean energy being that it is no economically feasible

Coal is really what's economically infeasible when you add the costs of pollution and greenhouse gases.

[Maxwell]

wow thanks to our glorious chairman of the central energy politburo Rick Perry! Don't let those capitalist swine try to shut down our terrific coal mines!

here's to the next energy secretary under a Democrat, following this precedent, nationalizing the energy industry.

[pbrower2a]

We Republicans can't criticize the dumping of public money into inefficient green-energy sources and yet support something like this. We need to eliminate government imposed barriers to energy production, not have government propping up industries that can't survive on their own. We shouldn't have a government that is pro-coal or anti-coal but instead a government that supports open and free competition within the energy sector. Hope this plan fails.

This is what we get with a demagogue as leader: someone who scraps economic rationality and efficiency for patronage. Coal mining has been a dying business for decades in the Appalachians (where the 'classical' coal miners are), and President Trump can prop it up only by demanding that we Americans burn more coal. That means pumping more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, and thus accelerating AGW.

Will the 'classical' coal miners go to the west to mine the coal? Probably not, as the mining techniques are different. The 'classical' coal miners will get nothing out of it, but the coal barons will profiteer richly.

To be sure, there are other uses of coal than burning it for energy. But I don't see us making much more iron and steel per capita. Petroleum coke, which comes from oil and natural gas, is far more suitable as the carbon to be used in iron and steel production, as it is closer to being carbon than coal often containing sulfur unwelcome in iron and steel. (The RMS Titanic  sank faster than anyone could have expected because its steel had excessive sulfur that makes steel more brittle).

With his rejection of the free market for purposes other than equity (such as alleviation of poverty) or national security, President Trump shows that he is not a conservative.

 

[Tartarus Sauce]

It won't save the the coal industry. I remember they were interviewing the commissioner of the utilities board in I think Arkansas for a piece several months back, and he more or less argued to the effect that no utilities company would take the bait because they know the moment Trump is out of office, coal will get the boot again, and likely for good. The leaders of the industry have read the writing on the wall already.

It will, however, end up being another addition to the pile of internal contradictions between the increasingly policy antiquated Republican establishment and the nationalist paradigm of Trump which will lead to a collapse in the party's order eventually.

[Fuzzy Bear]

We Republicans can't criticize the dumping of public money into inefficient green-energy sources and yet support something like this. We need to eliminate government imposed barriers to energy production, not have government propping up industries that can't survive on their own. We shouldn't have a government that is pro-coal or anti-coal but instead a government that supports open and free competition within the energy sector. Hope this plan fails.

It's pretty telling, though, that Perry actually says it's the government's job to pick winners and losers.  

Wasn't Perry against TARP?  Wasn't one of the objections for TARP the idea that it picked winners and losers?  Wasn't that the objection to Solyndra?  I can go on and on.  If the government is going to pick winners and losers for the greater good, I suppose it's not the end of the world, but let's drop the "free market" premises for the sake of intellectual honesty.

[JA]

And the Trump Administration’s efforts at transforming America into a dirty energy state continues unabated...

[TPIG]

We Republicans can't criticize the dumping of public money into inefficient green-energy sources and yet support something like this. We need to eliminate government imposed barriers to energy production, not have government propping up industries that can't survive on their own. We shouldn't have a government that is pro-coal or anti-coal but instead a government that supports open and free competition within the energy sector. Hope this plan fails.

It's pretty telling, though, that Perry actually says it's the government's job to pick winners and losers.  

Wasn't Perry against TARP?  Wasn't one of the objections for TARP the idea that it picked winners and losers?  Wasn't that the objection to Solyndra?  I can go on and on.  If the government is going to pick winners and losers for the greater good, I suppose it's not the end of the world, but let's drop the "free market" premises for the sake of intellectual honesty.

I don't think Republicans should drop the "free market premises". The taxpayers shouldn't have their hard-earned money stripped from them so that it can be shipped off to politically in-favor companies, whether they be coal companies or renewable energy companies. The government should pursue policies that lower energy costs for consumers (increasing drilling permits, reducing regulations) not robbing from the taxpayer to prop up dying companies.

[mvd10]

Donald Trump's administration betrays the most sacred Republican principle. News at 11.

I'm not really an Objectivist (I back the core message but Rand obviously is too extreme) but at this stage I'm begging for Paul Ryan and his most extreme Randian economist buddies to basically coup the hell out of this sh**t. Anyway, they ditched Bush's Compassionate Conservatism literally days after Obama won so I'm confident they can purge Trumpism after Trump loses in a landslide. But until that day we'll have to live with this deplorable "conservatism".

[politicallefty]

As China, India, and many European nations move away from fossil-fueled vehicles, I'm sure the Trump Administration will do everything it can to support widespread adoption of coal-fueled vehicles.

^That's me being facetious, but only because Corporate America far exceeds the double-digit IQ average of the Trump Administration. Fortunately, the American auto industry is moving forward with the Obama Administration's standards and actually going to far exceed them.

To the blue avatars in this topic, I don't know what you think you won, but making America great again was not something you won. You lost and we lost. We have stupidity reigning supreme now. While China and India build out great infrastructure with no carbon emissions, we in the United States are stuck with catering to failing coal interests.

I can only hope that these four years are nothing more than a blip on the radar screen. We need serious leadership that appreciates the threat of warming and rising seas and leadership that wants to create good-paying jobs to repair our decaying infrastructure. Donald Trump does not care about any of that and if you believed him, you were lied to. We'll be lucky to rank top 10 on any serious world ranking by 2020 (for the few that we do still hold).

[Young Conservative]

Horrible policy and not a conservative policy.

[KingSweden]

As China, India, and many European nations move away from fossil-fueled vehicles, I'm sure the Trump Administration will do everything it can to support widespread adoption of coal-fueled vehicles.

^That's me being facetious, but only because Corporate America far exceeds the double-digit IQ average of the Trump Administration. Fortunately, the American auto industry is moving forward with the Obama Administration's standards and actually going to far exceed them.

To the blue avatars in this topic, I don't know what you think you won, but making America great again was not something you won. You lost and we lost. We have stupidity reigning supreme now. While China and India build out great infrastructure with no carbon emissions, we in the United States are stuck with catering to failing coal interests.

I can only hope that these four years are nothing more than a blip on the radar screen. We need serious leadership that appreciates the threat of warming and rising seas and leadership that wants to create good-paying jobs to repair our decaying infrastructure. Donald Trump does not care about any of that and if you believed him, you were lied to. We'll be lucky to rank top 10 on any serious world ranking by 2020 (for the few that we do still hold).

Whoa man stop harshing my mellow, you mean it’s not good we get to warmly navel gaze and annoy those SJWs we saw on Facebook that one time?!?

[MasterJedi]

Donald Trump's administration betrays the most sacred Republican principle. News at 11.

I'm not really an Objectivist (I back the core message but Rand obviously is too extreme) but at this stage I'm begging for Paul Ryan and his most extreme Randian economist buddies to basically coup the hell out of this sh**t. Anyway, they ditched Bush's Compassionate Conservatism literally days after Obama won so I'm confident they can purge Trumpism after Trump loses in a landslide. But until that day we'll have to live with this deplorable "conservatism".

Outside of a few individuals the Republicans haven't been "free market" in a long, long time. They'll preach it but will bailout and do whatever their donors in different sectors want. That's why we have locked in monopolies on cable/internet/energy companies in areas. Not allowed to have a solar panel on your house now hooked up to the grid, illegal to do other things, the war against net neutrality.

Personally I would love to see the government come in and absolutely nuke these entities to tiny pieces and actually let competition in.

[ProgressiveCanadian]

So basically a government handout?

[JA]

So basically a government handout?

Yeah, but it’s for corporations and the rich, so that’s different.

[Maxwell]

yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaas

[TDAS04]

One of the things I really like about the Trump Administration is how it has lead the Republican Party, like a horror movie villain in the third act, to completely abandon it's disguises in favor of letting the pure evil underneath shine out, clearly visible to anyone with a working brain.