We admire President Trump and the job he’s doing–and aren’t afraid to say so publicly. However, we don’t always agree with his decisions and policies. This is one of those times. In fact, we strongly disagree with a new Trump policy. President Trump has decided that the nation’s electricity grid, in order to be “secure” and not vulnerable to outages, needs to have a diversity of sources producing electricity. Even if those sources (coal and nuclear) are no longer economic. Natural gas, and to a far less degree, renewables like wind and solar, are replacing both coal and nuclear power plants. The gas is abundant, it’s cheap, it burns clean and just makes sense. Yet powerful lobbying interests for coal and nuclear have convinced Trump that without their higher-priced electricity in the mix, the country is somehow threatened. That’s bunkum. Last Friday, President Trump ordered Dept. of Energy Secretary Rick Perry to “prepare immediate steps” to stop the coal and nuke plants from retiring. That is unfortunate. Obama picked energy winners and losers. Fossil fuels like coal were targeted for extinction by Obama. Now, Trump is doing the same thing but in reverse. By propping up coal and nuclear, he will make electricity far more expensive for everyone. The right answer here, as it always has been, is to let the free market work…
We admire President Trump and the job he’s doing–and aren’t afraid to say so publicly. However, we don’t always agree with his decisions and policies. This is one of those times. In fact, we strongly disagree with a new Trump policy. President Trump has decided that the nation’s electricity grid, in order to be “secure” and not vulnerable to outages, needs to have a diversity of sources producing electricity. Even if those sources (coal and nuclear) are no longer economic. Natural gas, and to a far less degree, renewables like wind and solar, are replacing both coal and nuclear power plants. The gas is abundant, it’s cheap, it burns clean and just makes sense. Yet powerful lobbying interests for coal and nuclear have convinced Trump that without their higher-priced electricity in the mix, the country is somehow threatened. That’s bunkum. Last Friday, President Trump ordered Dept. of Energy Secretary Rick Perry to “prepare immediate steps” to stop the coal and nuke plants from retiring. That is unfortunate. Obama picked energy winners and losers. Fossil fuels like coal were targeted for extinction by Obama. Now, Trump is doing the same thing but in reverse. By propping up coal and nuclear, he will make electricity far more expensive for everyone. The right answer here, as it always has been, is to let the free market work…