Trump administration cancels $4 billion in subsidies for big oil.

Photo above - "The Hydrogen is Boomin' . . . " Big oil reacts to news that Trump has cancelled subsidies for their Hydrogen refinery . . .

Everyone who thinks Exxon should get taxpayer money instead of paying for their own drilling and refining, please raise your hand. Okay, just a couple of guys wearing bolo ties and Stetsons, at some Houston skyscraper.

Does the result change if I add that the money was going to help Exxon build a hydrogen plant? You know, in case we ever pivot from EVs to hydrogen powered Porsches and F150's? Exxon would like to be ready. Does that make you more enthusiastic about writing checks to Exxon?

Personally, I don’t think pressurized, liquified, or any other form of hydrogen is going to send EV cars to an early grave. But I don’t have a crystal ball. And that’s exactly why I DON’T want taxpayer money used to fund Exxon's hydrogen lab experiment. In case you don’t remember, this is EXACTLY how we ended up shoveling billions of dollars at Tesla and made Elon Musk the planet’s richest sperm donor.

Of course, the climate change movement is likely to be furious that Exxon’s hydrogen gravy train is screeching to a halt. Hydrogen is going to save the planet, don’tcha know? Evidently we were all misled about EV cars . . . weren’t THEY supposed to save the planet? Oh wait . . . someone forgot to tell us we’d still need thousands of power plants – solar, wind, nuclear, tidal, geothermal – to recharge our cars. So driving around with 1,000 pounds of lithium and rare earth metals in the trunk isn’t all that planet-friendly. Even if you don't mind that vast swaths of solar panels have obliterated cornfields and prairies.

Someone has been telling paper pushers in DC that hydrogen is going to fix all that. All we need to do is build as many hydrogen plants as fast we can, which will use solar or geothermal or wind power to turn water into hydrogen (and oxygen). Then we pump it into trucks to be delivered. Or lay thousands of miles of underground pipe, to get it to corner filling stations. Don’t laugh. This could possibly work.

All kidding aside, I concede that hydrogen might conceivably replace the Jet-A fuel (kerosene) for topping off a 747. A full tank is 60,000 gallons. Just one flight! And we’re not going to see battery powered jumbo jets anytime soon. But if United Airlines and Pratt and Whitney think hydrogen jet fuel is so great, shouldn’t they pay for the refineries themselves?

Okay, I’m going to the peanut gallery another chance here. Can someone please start ranting that if the US government doesn’t give billions and trillions in tax dollars to corporate America, then China will win the hydrogen race? And nobody wants that, right?

All of this hydrogen hoo-ha could soon be moot, however. Hydrogen is going to be back eclipsed because fusion energy is coming. And after that someone will discover a way to capture dark energy from the gazillions of neutrinos zapping the earth every second.

I say we should make corporate America pay for their own lab experiments. It’s how the world got Model-T cars, airplanes, computers, smart phones, and Flamin’ Hot ® Cheetos. If China wants to build a hydrogen factory in Wuhan next to the lab that leaked Covid 19 and killed millions, I won’t stand in their way. I’d rather have a catastrophic explosion near some “wet market” 8,000 miles from me, than in Houston.

I’m just sayin’ . . .

Trump administration cancels $3.7B in clean energy projects, including at Exxon's Baytown

Top | New | Old

Jokersswild · 22-25

Excellent article. It's staggering how much we're handing out in corporate incentives, billions, much of it is wasted as we fall behind countries like China and other developed nations. Where are the Democrats on this? They have increasingly become defenders of corporate welfare.

jehova · 31-35, M

We should pursue agriculturally based petroleum extracted from hemp thc with ethanol. The resultant solution is light petroleum oil. Then let evaporate until the solution is only 10% ethanol and W- T -F its gasoline! from hemp. Free americas farmers.

SunshineGirl · 36-40, F

Hmmm . . direct subsidy to support the roll out of innovative technology seems to me a better use of taxpayer's money than approximately $20bn a year in tax credits to the fossil fuel industries (that are unlikely to be challenged by the current administration).

iamthe99 · M

And your headline is misleading.

I’m just sayin’

View 2 more replies »

BohemianBabe · M

@iamthe99 Yeah, it makes it look like he's cutting subsidies for the rich, which would actually be something I'd praise him for. But he's really cutting subsidies for clean energy projects, which the rich don't like anyway because it means restrictions on how much they can pollute.

SusanInFlorida · 31-35, F

@iamthe99 so your theory is that Exxon is NOT "big oil", and SHOULD get taxpayer money whenever it dips its toe into hydrogen, geothermal, solar, wind farms, tidal, and gravity batteries?

think carefully before you continue your rant.

iamthe99 · M

@SusanInFlorida

think carefully before you continue your rant.

I have, and it's you who are not thinking carefully.

Your title Trump administration cancels $4 billion in subsidies for big oil, misrepresents your article. As @BohemianBabe pointed out, you make it look as though he's cutting subsidies for the rich, which we would praise him for. But really, he's cutting subsidies for clean energy.

MoveAlong · 70-79, M

We're still shoveling billions of $ to Musk. Who do you think is paying for those rocket of his that keep crashing? Well to be fair he puts a small amount of his own money into it.

SusanInFlorida · 31-35, F

@MoveAlong i have mixed feelings on private sector rockets.

on the one hand, if profits are involved, the moguls involved should pay 100% of the R&D costs

if there's actual competition (like with Musk and Bezos and Boeing) and it holds the prospect of safer, more cost effective delivery of people and supplies to space, it's probably a good thing.

the original US space program (mercury, gemini, and apollo rockets) was an attempt to conceal development of ICBMs.

MoveAlong · 70-79, M

@SusanInFlorida NASA's entire budget for FY2024 was $24.9B. Musk's net worth is estimated at well over $400B or at least 16 times NASA's budget. Now, I am all for the development of civilian space programs and the government should be helping serious entrepreneurs with development. However Musk and SpaceX are now turning profits of billions of dollars per year. I think some of that R&D money should be repaid. When small businesses receive government money to launch it is in the form of a loan that must be repaid. If musk doesn't repay this money it is just welfare for wealthiest man in the world.

BohemianBabe · M

Trump administration cancels $3.7B in clean energy projects, including at Exxon's Baytown

Of course, the Republicans are in the pocket of the oil companies. A lot of Democrats are too.

Add a comment...