Powerline

John Hinderaker has a post about the futility of a green energy economy in, appropriately, his Powerline blog ... see: Batteries: a Forlorn Hope ... be sure to watch the video. If the greenies reject out of hand nuclear power generation, their dream of a fossil-fuel-free economy will never come about. Hear that Angela? She must be as detached from reality as Joe ... and Elon ... although I think Elon knows he is ... he is just playing the greenies for suckers.

Headlines

Trump befuddles his allies with ambitious legislative agenda

China makes unprecedented proposals on tech transfers as trade talks progress, US officials

Wild [Trump] rally set for Michigan ... MSNBC ratings slump ...

Jussie Smollett’s ‘community service’: 18 hours with Jesse Jackson

Mueller swiftly closes up shop

Attention Wall Street: Democrats are seeking higher taxes on capital gains

Pelosi: Won’t accept Attorney General’s ‘interpretation’ ...

Orange County ends jail contract with ICE

Trump’s Fed pick owes more than $75,000 in taxes, IRS says

Trump met with Google CEO Sundar Pichai to discuss ‘political fairness’ and China

Trump confirms FBI, DOJ will probe [Smollett] case ...

Poll: Americans evenly split on nuclear power, despite safety record

New New World Otder

Donald Trump is either a doofus or a strategic genius. He is certainly jettisoning much of what had been the liberal agenda of the last fifty years -- "free" trade, NATO, "diversity, " open borders, socialism, China's  hegemony, high U.S. taxes, deferral to the Federal Reserve, global warming, nuclear proliferation, anti-Zionism, pro-EU, pro-Muslin, etc. -- together known as the "New World Order."

Trump is upsetting or redefining the tacit acceptance of these memes ... mostly to keep or restore America's place in the world's power structure. He has sensed that the path that China was following would, in very short order, place its foot on the neck of his country. And this was unacceptable to him and his MAGA pledge. Viewing many f Trump's moves  in this light begins to add some rationality to what, to many, has been characterized as bizarre behavior.

For example, let's look at the White House's opening to Russia. I am certain that Trump understands the risks involved in this strategic pirouette. Yes, Putin is a bad actor ... but so was Stalin ... much, much worse ... yet, our alliance with him was instrumental in winning World War II. I think Trump views America's current challenge to be the strategic equivalent. so do I ... and this is the primary reason I can overlook much of Trump's acerbic style.

Let's imagine for a minute what might have been discussed in that private room in Helsinki ... maybe merely implied if not explicitly stated. I can postulate two alliances:

- A swing toward neutralizing China's growing belligerence. Russia, although anemic economically is a military and nuclear powerhouse ... and it sits right on top of China. This neutralizing role would return Russia to a major layer on the world chessboard.

- If the Muslim world finally coalesced into a caliphate bent on world domination, a Russia-U.S. alliance would be a formidable counterbalance. Putin is thought to be a devout Christan and has had his fill of radical Islam. I believe he sees Trump as a potential buddy in this bar fight.

Thus a Trump-Purim bromance might ameliorate these two major conundrums ... enough for Trump to invite Putin back for another tête-à-tête at the White House this fall ... and enough for Trump to punch through the current media frenzy.

It seems that much of the power-player animosity toward Trump comes from a realization that he is fundamentally changing this world-order game. They either resent overturning their gravy train ... or fear the unknown. Trump is playing a high-stakes game .. with not a lot of allies ... except middle America.

Pinoccio

I was thinking of exposing here the lies about the United States' energy situation that Obama told yesterday in his press conference, but John Hinderacker of the Powerline blog did the task for me ... and a far better job than I ever could have done (please, you must read: Obama's Long Nose ... and the first comment at least.)

Suffice it to say that the environmentalists amongst us seem hell-bent on turning our country into an pristine Eden bereft of heat in the winter, fuel for our transportation, and electricity to comfort our lives.  And I can't for the life of me figure out why?

Afterthought: be prepared for another onslaught of media hysteria about the nuclear accident in Japan (as a result of the earthquake).  It may well be quite serious, but we surely can learn from it.  (What if we never built another plane after the first airliner crash?)  If we ever construct another nuclear power plant in my lifetime, I will be surprised.  Even though, by not doing so, we will help seal our fate as a failed nation.

After afterthought: The only ray of sunshine in all this insanity is that ... long after all the oil has been pumped out of the Middle East ... and we are speaking Mandarin ... we'll still have most of ours underground ... to power the high speed rail lines in China.

L.I.C.

These L.I.C. initials stand for Luddite-in-Chief, an appropriate appellative for our President. This is because Barack Obama had, during his campaign, sworn to put the U.S. coal industry out of business (the major supplier of energy to our electric utilities). He has stopped all new drilling for oil in the Gulf of Mexico. He has also extended the moratorium of drilling for oil off of Florida and all along the East coast of the U.S. … and, of course, in ANWR, Alaska. (Oil is used as our second biggest source of energy for generating electricity.) And there has not been a start to the construction of a single nuclear power plant under his two-year watch … despite his feeble oratory to the contrary. And the building of even ordinary power plants has become dificult under this new administration.

And now this great nation is beginning to suffer the consequences of this Presidential hostility with rolling blackouts (see: U.S. Blackouts). This is not the posture that one would or should expect for the leader of our great and exceptional country. It feels like the United States is on its way to becoming Iraq during the regime of Saddam Hussein … when electricity was only available for a few hours a day.

In the meantime, you would think that, if Obama can finally witness his Christian devotions, that he could also avow his patriotism and encourage our country better to develop our energy resources and electricity production.

A Stopped Clock Is Twice Right

President Obama occasionally gets things right. In his State of the Union address he called for more "safe, clean nuclear power plants." And yesterday he called for $54 billion of federal loan guarantees to those who would build this new generation of nuclear power. See: Loan Guarantees. IF we can take him at his word (the big "if" is on purpose), then this would be an important step forward in the U.S.'s attempt to achieve energy independence. In this speech he also mentioned more offshore drilling for gas and oil. This would be wonderful if it happened, but my cynicism takes over here and such a development (ANWR too?) I'm afraid, is even more suspect.

It would seem to this author that the real path to our nation's energy independence might require the following steps:
1) Build as many new nuclear power plants as can be economically financed and open up Yucca Mountain for long-term nuclear waste disposal (if required).
2) Aim to generate all our electrical needs from nuclear energy (east and west coast) and from coal-fired plants (middle America). No more natural gas and oil-fired electrical power plants should be given permits.
3) Encourage all Americans to heat their homes with natural gas and help build the infrastructure and offer the tax incentives to accomplish this. The objective should be no more oil-heated homes.
4) Specify that kerosene, diesel fuel, and gasoline are the most desirable fuels for transportation vehicles (air, rail, and ground). Offer the necessary incentives to achieve better mileage in these vehicles (including hybrid technology). Investigate liquefied coal as a long-term vehicular fuel option.
5) Set a national goal of ceasing all foreign oil imports within ten years (using the above methodologies and including oil recovery from our vast oil shale deposits.) I predict that the price of Mideast oil would plummet as a consequence of just such a goal setting.
6) Stop wasting federal funds on solar, tidal, geothermal, and wind-power projects and use these funds instead on the above items. Let the private sector fund any of these "green" projects that make any economic sense (likely very few).

I can dream can't I? Tick ... tick ... tick.

Atomic Ant

Barack Obama has made a dramatic commitment to “alternative energy” to combat that bubble-headed bugaboo “greenhouse gasses.” Apparently to him this only means solar and wind energy (and possibly geothermal) methodologies. He has also vowed to put out of business the utilities that burn coal for electricity (see Bankrupting Coal ). He also said in his campaign that he would “consider” expanding our nuclear electrical generating capabilities. We currently get about 20% of our electricity from nuclear power plants (see: United States Nuclear) whereas France (see: French Nuclear) gets over 75% and Japan (see: Japan Nuclear) gets over 35% of their electricity from same. And many of our nuclear power plants are getting quite old and do not take advantage of many of the advances made in this technology over the last twenty years.

But two other facts have recently been revealed to me (on CSPAN this past weekend) that show that Obama may have briefly considered expanding nuclear energy … but he has just as quickly rejected it. Witness:

- The recent $789 billion Stimulus Bill contains no governmental loan guarantees for building more nuclear power plants. Because of the incredible high capital investment required, without these guarantees, it is quite unlikely that any new nuclear plants will be built during Obama’s tenure.

- The Energy Department, under Obama, has recently stopped construction on the long-term nuclear waste storage facility being built at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. Storing nuclear waste has one of the primary barriers to our expansion of nuclear power generation.
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To put this problem in its proper perspective, take some time perusing the following table of energy consumption trends in the United States (see U.S. Energy Consumption. Print it out and put it on your refrigerator). Now these are numbers put out by the U.S. Government … so they are not more smoke being blown up our rear ends by Sierra Club tree-huggers. From this table it is very clear that, for coal generation of electricity to be replaced by solar arrays, wind farms, and geothermal energy, it would require an expansion of these latter three sources by over 30,000 %. This is pure fantasy. (Again, please, please take the time to study this data.) Are Obama and his advisors reading this data? If they are and if they persist with their fairy-tale green energy policies, then they are pulling the biggest scam in political history. And this is a scam that may well cost our economy its future and cause our future generations to retreat to cave-dwelling.

One last thought – how come Iran can pursue nuclear power generation (even if just a chimera) with liberal assent … while we are denied this option?