Category: Budgets

Excellent — Or Funny?

Budgets, Politics, Trumpism

I see that the U.S. is finally going to get serious about our energy infrastructure:

One announcement Trump is set to make is the allocation of $425 million in Defense Production Act (DPA) funds to aid 13 coal plants in Arizona, Arkansas, Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, West Virginia, and Wisconsin, per the official. Funding will also support coal mines in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

The official noted that funding will enable coal plants to extend their operational life through investment in upgrades, strengthen grid reliability, and prevent electricity prices from surging with demand.

So because it’s being funded by the DPA (as it should be), there’s no haggling with Congress required.  But the very next little addendum is what got me giggling:

The president is also expected to tell reporters that $75 million in DPA funding will help construct a coal-export terminal in Oakland, California, the official said.

One wonders what the Watermelons in California will think of their beloved Golden Shower State becoming a conduit for the EEEEVIL COLE to be sent out to pollute other nations’ air.  Maybe their feelings will be assuaged by this:

The West Gateway project is anticipated to create 1,400 on-site jobs and support thousands more in the western states.

…not that California ever cared about those icky blue-collar jobs, though.

There’s a lot more good news, but read the rest of the thing to get it all.

I personally think that the coal-mining industry would be far better served by the elimination of most if not all of the tiresome Obama/Biden-era EPA restrictions, but that would involve Congress and we all know what horrors, foot-dragging and tantrums that would cause.

Motive Laid Bare

Budgets, Gummint, Taxes and Theft

Ambrose Bierce once said something along the lines of:  “Whenever politicians talk, no matter what the topic, it’s always about money.”

In that spirit therefore, I offer up this little piece of shit masquerading as a pearl:

Democrats have moved to enact legislation that would establish retroactive liability for American energy producers through so-called “climate superfund” laws which penalize companies for lawfully providing energy that Americans rely on every day.

Beyond potential political challenges, the Democrat plan to punish energy producers also faces significant legal hurdles.

The Justice Department and Vermont in late March faced off in the federal courts over the 2024 climate superfund law that would require fossil fuel providers to pay for the alleged costs of climate change. The Trump administration has sued to block the law, claiming it violates the Constitution. The administration believes that climate superfund laws are unlawful attempts to regulate emissions that cross state lines. API and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce have filed their own lawsuit against Vermont.

Jonathan Rose, who represented Vermont at the late March hearing, said, “We don’t need to convince the court that climate change presents serious challenges to the state of Vermont. The act is intended to recover some of the costs it’s going to need to adapt to climate change,” he said. “What it doesn’t do is, it doesn’t try to mitigate climate change, stop climate change, or otherwise impact global emissions or anything like that.”

Yeah, it’s not even attempting to paint itself as having “noble” intentions (i.e. staving off Global Cooling Climate Warming Change©);  it’s a naked grab for money, pure and simple.  The accepted “fact” that Global Cooling Climate Warming Change© is actually a thing simply gives the theft a foundation.  (Corollary:  if Global Cooling Climate Warming Change© is not real — it isn’t — then all this bullshit should go away — it won’t — because they’ll always clamp onto some other imaginary catastrophe as a pretext for their theft.)

A cursory look at a couple of other states trying to do similar:  New York and Hawaii.  Both Bluer than Paul Newman’s eyes, both stuck with massive Democrat government-created spending deficits.

Not Much For The Grunts

Budgets, Military

I read this post at Insty’s place, wherein some people are complaining that the Pentagon is spending money on things like steak, ice cream, donuts and… lobster tails?  Go ahead and read it, because there are some telling points made.

However.

I have no way of checking on this, let alone quantifying it, but I think I’d sell my AK-47 if much (or any) lobster was being served in the enlisted men’s mess halls around the world.  In other words, I’m betting that those pricey lobster tails are being consumed by generals, military contractors and other REMFs, and not by the troops on the ground or at the sharp end.

Just so we’re all clear on my position on this:  I want the boys doing the hard work to eat whatever they want and whatever we can get to them. If that includes steak, ice cream, donuts or fucking lobster tails, then so be it.  But my concern for the diets of the aforementioned brass, leeches and REMFs drops off a cliff when it comes to said items.

To paraphrase some French* queen, let them eat Spam.

*I know, Marie Antoinette was Austrian.  Shuddup.