Drill, Baby, Dr … Never Mind
Will Trump kill energy independence?
I may have said this, once or twice already: These people have no idea what they're doing.
"Unintended consequences"?? Whazzat?
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Does anyone remember “Drill, baby, drill?” What with all the tumult over Donald Trump’s disastrous trade war, many have forgotten that energy production played a big role in his second inaugural address . He claimed that we were facing a “national energy emergency,” and that he would bring prices down and make America rich by releasing the “liquid gold under our feet.”
There was, in fact, no energy emergency. One thing you always find Trump and MAGA in general doing is assuming that the real world must look the way their prejudices say it should look. Squishy liberals who believe in rule of law were in charge last year, so America must have been in the grip of a terrifying crime wave — even though the homicide rate in 2024 was close to a 65-year low :
Source: Jeff Asher
Similarly, the Biden administration was full of woke environmentalists who believe in the global warming hoax, so they must have crippled energy production — even though America in the Biden years was, for the first time in generations, producing more energy than it consumed:
When I wrote about this at the time, I suggested that Trump was suffering from MAGA brain,
the belief that the only way you can get results is by being tough and nasty, avoiding anything that might be considered woke. Thus, to achieve energy independence, we must put aside worries about pollution and climate change while blocking clean energy. So administrations that care about climate change and the environment in general must be crippling the energy sector. Biden may have presided over record oil production and growing energy exports, but we’ll just say that we have an energy emergency anyway.
You can probably guess what’s coming next. There appears to be a real chance that America will lose its newly reacquired energy independence. And if it does, we know who will be responsible: Trump himself.
To see why, we need to look at the factors responsible for America’s return to energy self-sufficiency.
One of these is fracking — extracting oil and gas embedded in shale by fracturing that shale with high-pressure liquids. Yes, there are serious environmental issues involved both in the fracking process and in the fact that more fossil fuel production adds to greenhouse gas emissions. But while the Biden administration took climate change seriously, that didn’t stop oil and gas production from rising on its watch.
The other factor was the incredible rise of renewable energy. Not that long ago wind and solar power were widely seen as silly, hippy-dippy conceits. Now they’re major contributors to energy supply:
In the case of shale, it’s all about prices. Drilling new shale wells is expensive. In fact, Trump’s vision of drastically lower oil prices never made any sense, because any large drop in oil prices would make new shale wells unprofitable. And since production from any given shale well drops quickly over time, anything that caused new drilling to fall substantially would quickly translate into declining oil production.
How low would prices have to go to shrink the U.S. oil industry? Recently the Dallas Fed did a survey which suggested that drilling in many major fields would stop if the price per barrel fell below the low 60s:
And that was before Trump’s tariffs raised costs, so the critical price is probably higher now. And guess what: oil prices right now are at a level where we can expect production to fall. Here are oil futures:
Source: Bloomberg Why did oil get cheap? Look at the sudden drop on April 2, aka Liberation Day, when Trump first announced extreme tariffs. It’s obvious that oil prices are down thanks to pessimism about the global economy, which in turn is tied to Trump’s trade war. And by the way, that war is by no means over. A new analysis by the Yale Budget Lab finds that the damaging effects of Trump’s tariffs are only modestly mitigated by his surrender to China.
And as for renewables: Trump hates them, wind power in particular. He offers crazy justifications for that hatred — did you hear about his claim that offshore wind farms kill whales ? — but it’s pretty clear that he has been nursing an irrational grudge ever since he was unable to stop a Scottish wind farm that he thought ruined the view from a golf course he owns.
Oh, and I’m pretty sure that MAGA types in general dislike renewable energy because they don’t consider it manly.
So what will be the economy-boosting effects of drill, baby, drill? Nil, baby, nil.
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I suppose that when a team is incapable of distinguishing between reality and desire... policy must be hard.
When practically your entire campaign was based on LIES the problem that this, 'man', and his equally disturbing in lock step sycophant's (sick oh phantasy B leaving blind cult following lye and sailor swallowing cultchored neglectors and Constitutuional defectors asz demos' not erectors, set on a bed of LIES made by Trumps' Maids to 'make up' the demo down orchestrated by one disturbing clown) use and follow as a plan a Knazi KooKoup 4 Ko Ko Puffs from the magic Dragon US All down the rabid rabbit hole schmagig E, swallowed by those who are looped and duped in two sets of not thinkin asz the ship, like US is sinkin, and finally, we see some blinkin, and Knot just Trumps eyes whilst he continuously LIES on the trax our country is being trained for the engineer is barely dressed, as he God -Damns the blessed gift that we will be left to sift threw it all out the window of oppurtunity whence given immunity for won who is a net loss at every turn, and every cost, will conclude in a Divided United States ME, cause how moored to watt the herds hear here there and in Trumps dirty , under where it seems his schemes are the dreams of and for, the pee pole he has swung, like a knumb skull chuck up, and up chucked at American Shins, spurred on by one of Trumps feats, the one that broke the bone, spurring the De Feats of America by internal strife that Ignorance has truly brought to the reality for US, cause when bones spurring calcium and moral depletion is the executed execution watt could the herd B leave could, or would, go wrong when driven so 'right',
B sides that are playing out that weren't listened to B 4, cause the A sides from that he lied to dupe America into lowering everything on day 1, has shore appiered moored than we bargained fore as deep be the Gulph;Golf of America will have US All become an A Hole in One, and Trump luvs him an Eagle, or was it a chicken hawk bat guano shittin stool pidgeoen who towed the line he snorted off of Elons Birdie, while baking a cake scheme, asz burnt have been Trumps followers, as he toasts the Billionaires, cause Trump can have all his fakes, and they can eat US too, cause when lying with the GOP, we will all soon have and even want the, and to, Fleas jumpin ship and shit, but hey, they voted for IT....
TLDR....
TWDR
T rump L ies D estroy R epublics ?
T rumps' L ittle D ick R eflex?
T urds L ike D umb Republicans >?
.
T estaculls L ost D ue R efund ?
T orn L ike D emocrats R esistance ?
.
T riumphant L icks D ix R epeatedly ?
I don't know, I give up Too Little Democratic Resistance to make a resistance , as reqired is persistence, and intermittence, shows too many too ignorant, to learn and be the resistance needed to keep US from flailing anf falling to to the abysmal abyss, that has brought about one who's lies cause so many to the truth, miss, as his reign is the piss that roofers due pass out B 4 the kiss of death to achieve the methOD to speed the demise of a cult of this size matters to little hands down heavy pantz grabbin pussy's incapable of that stance, cuz washed brains in a trance, bring that that boils, to a lance sir lot to digest,
when filling with bullshit has for sew many, stitched ther knit wit mentality that is slowly leading to a finality and demise, that any TrumpLikingDupedRepublican
should despise
Just barely short enough to manage.
Paul Krugman is trying to portray Trump as being a liar by endorsing supply-side economics? Really? It's good to know that Paul Krugman has climbed aboard the energy independence wagon. So, now we know, energy independence is a wholesome, proper, right-minded policy goal. Especially when the energy independence cred of a neoliberal Democrat President can be celebrated.
Like any good neoliberal globalist, Krugman couches his endorsement of energy independence in supply-side terms. Just look at all the energy being produced. Just look at how cheap the cost of energy production has become. And like any good supply-sider, Krugman carefully avoids any hint at what we're accomplishing with all that energy production. Maybe that's because the supply-side economics Krugman endorses only produce profits at consumer expense.
Let's all raise a glass and toast Paul Krugman, the champion of neoliberal supply-side economics. Before we know it, Krugman will be quoting Ronald Reagan and defending the Laffer curve.
Yep, that;s the way I read it as well....