There are reasons for “red tape.” Safety. Pollution. The neighbors.
Trump has always been a blowhard, making impossible promises and delivering less. That’s not going to change.
During the 2024 campaign, he promised voters “he would cut their electric and gasoline prices in half in the first year of his administration,” CNBC says (in a story here). Anyone who took that literally will be disappointed.
But he’ll do something, and he’s told us what it is: “I will approve new drilling, new pipelines, new refineries, new power plants, new reactors and we will slash the red tape.”
Is that a good idea? Do you want oil trains running through Seattle? How about a pipeline under Puget Sound? Would he approve the proposed Pebble Mine, which could threaten the world’s most important commercial salmon fishery?
As for oil companies, they want to make money, not pump more oil (see story here). With oil producers disinterested in boosting production, easing leasing restrictions and pushing leases out the door won’t by itself put more oil in pipelines or refineries.
Nuclear power has a checkered history. When someone mentions “nuclear power,” most people immediately think of the Chernobyl, Fukushima, and Three Mile Island accidents.
In Washington State, attempts to build nuclear power plants in the 1970s, characterized by cost overruns and shoddy construction, failed miserably. If we’re going to resume building nuclear plants, rushing construction under relaxed oversight is the last thing you should want to do.
Maybe Trump should start with something smaller, like tackling the price of eggs.
Photo below: A mining waste spill in Canada (see story here)
