Trump’s Latest Energy Insecurity Plan
Propping up coal and nuclear power plants makes no sense, either for national security or economics.
Energy Secretary Rick Perry
Photographer: MONEY SHARMA/AFP/Getty Images
A tip for whenever you hear someone invoke “security” as a reason to mess with markets: Try reading it instead as “insecurity,” regarding the wealth or status of those sounding the alarm.
The latest abuse of this quintessential 21st-century justification for just about anything concerns the provenance of your electricity. This one emerged Thursday evening in the form of a draft memo, obtained by Jennifer Dlouhy of Bloomberg News, proposing the U.S. Energy Department use emergency powers to prop up struggling coal-fired and nuclear power plants. (Earlier that day, the Trump Administration also invoked national security in announcing tariffs on steel and aluminum coming from such monstrous threats to the homeland as – *checks notes* – Canada.)