Budget Cuts Series: Clean Coal, Despite Rick Perry's Praise

In Smart Dissent's Budget Cuts Series, we are detailing as many of the White House proposed budget cuts as we can keep up with.  We seek to learn and share what's hidden beneath the surface which are so many programs, facilities, and people that will never be reported by most media.

Several weeks ago, Rick Perry made headline during a public appearance.  He proved yet again he's one of the stupidest successful people in America. “Here’s a little economics lesson: supply and demand,” Perry said during his West Virginia visit. “You put the supply out there, and demand will follow.”  

While the national media and our citizens laughed at Perry (and cried inside), why was he in West Virginia?  The news did not seem to get to that part of the story.  

On his first official visit to this coal-seam state that voted overwhelmingly for Donald J. Trump, Energy Secretary Rick Perry praised the work of the scientists at a federal laboratory devoted to figuring out how to burn more coal with less pollution.

But in the Trump administration’s ideal economy, where the energy sector would be freed from regulatory mandates, international climate change obligations and environmental rules, what scientists at the West Virginia lab do would not matter very much.... despite his effusive praise, Mr. Perry has proposed to cut by 54 percent the budget of the Energy Department’s Office of Fossil Energy, which focuses on researching technologies to use coal, oil and natural gas more cleanly and safely.

Both Mr. Trump and Mr. Perry have regularly proclaimed their support for clean coal — exactly the technologies developed in the Morgantown lab that Mr. Trump’s budget proposes to cut.

Mr. Trump has shown little concern for climate change. He has announced the withdrawal of the United States from the international Paris climate accord and has instructed Mr. Pruitt to dismantle Mr. Obama’s climate-related regulations.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/18/us/politics/rick-perry-trump-clean-coal-budget-cuts.html