Another Day, Another Wrecking Ball
The only nice thing to be said about the Trump administration is that, despite the way it’s often portrayed in the media, there really are no surprises. We have seen that the president micro-manages the entirety of the federal government, and will not miss a single opportunity to dismantle any aspect of it that has some chance of actually helping the common American.
Yesterday, we welcomed Don Simmons to the Department of Energy, in his new role as policy-maker regarding renewable energy. His only qualification? He’s a climate denier, and fiercely opposed to renewable energy. Simmons comes to us from the Institute for Energy Research, a “self-styled, free-market energy think tank that is funded largely by fossil fuel interests.”
Why snap the unbroken streak of appointments aimed to destroy the progress we’ve made as a country over the last half-century.
Craig the point is true and yes its Wrecking Balls and more
but lets be objective We Americans with our Civic community complacency and our tendency to concentrate on wealth and pleasure accumulation has much to do with our slow demise that is increasing as we are a mature Empire now in Decline…
Travel the Heartlands of the country and interview the different folks and you will get the Picture…. our system is Broken.
We may be able to shoot off 50 or more roman candles ( tomahawks) and do minmal damage etc and beat our chests that we are Bog we Bad blah blah blah…
but our so called congress and Senate and President can t even have a real discussion and accurate budget process so they just pass another Hot check onto the other ones they wrote and they pile up. They kick the Can down the road…
and we claim to have a hold on how to run a country! We don’t even have a Rel budget
You consult to start ups and I am sure the budget is critical to being able to survive until they grow and scale the opportunity into a profitable venture….
It is that basic Truth We have fallen and I dont see a big enough parachute to slow this folly down….from a hard landing.
Pretending to the End has become a National past time! All sides are guilty in our Collective Follies!
Craig,
By “helping the common American”, you really mean those Americans who share your political persuasion.
The EERE has a budget of more than $3 billion.
Basically the purpose of the EERE is to “”to create and sustain American leadership in the transition to a global clean energy economy.”
It also monitors and provides some funding to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and 12 of the U.S. Department of Energy’s national laboratories.
The EERE is undoubtedly useful, and does a good job. The President can’t arbitrarily ‘cut’ funding ! The budget is set by Congress.
What the President has asked for is proposals to reduce funding by 50%. This could involve overlaps with other departments, or increasing private funding for laboratories.
With the National Debt running at $ 22 trillion, it’s not unreasonable for the President to ask if the $190 million to operate a Bioenergy Technologies Office to research, development, and deployment projects for advanced biofuels, or the $ 104 million Fuel Cell Technologies Office, which funds research, development, and deployment of hydrogen and fuel cell technologies,couldn’t be batter left to commercial industry.
Both these technologies are no doubt worthwhile, but since both are already subjects of huge funding by giant multinationals, is this the best use of taxpayer funds?
Is $5.6 million in salaries to promote the use of ethanol justified when Ethanol is a mandated product, and supported by a huge industry ?
Is the annual $3.9 million in funding for the Collegiate Wind Competition still worthwhile ?
Surely a contest “where college teams are judged by their ability to design a wind turbine based on market research, develop a business plan to market the product, build and test the turbine against set requirements, and demonstrate knowledge of siting constraints and location challenges for product installation”,
is no longer necessary considering the expertise of the huge multinational corporations involved in the Wind industry ?
Craig, you have every right to be suspicious of new appointments, but just condemning everything the President says or does by attributing the most dire speculation as to the motives, isn’t helpful.
President Obama did allow many government programs to run past their use, and his administration did allow the bureaucracy to become bloated and wasteful.
Some pruning is necessary.
Common American = lower 90% economically.