Share of #global #electricity demand in 2024

The #authority to investigate & change #TaxExempt statuses rests solely w/ #IRS, & the president is BARRED from directly or indirectly requesting that the agency exercise that #power against taxpayers [including #universities].
Andrew De Mello, the IRS’s acting chief counsel, received the request Wed from ofcls in the #Treasury Dept…
The Trump admin has displaced numerous IRS leaders to empower political allies…
Trump on Tues [YESTERDAY] appointed Gary Shapley the agency’s acting commissioner….

In a filing ~45 mins after the deadline had passed, #DOJ lawyers wrote:

“In light of the insufficient amount of time afforded to review the Supreme Court’s Order following the dissolution of the administrative stay in this case, Defendants are not in a position where they 'can’ share any information requested by the Court. That is the reality.”

This is another escalation of the #Trump admin’s refusal to acknowledge the #equal #power of the #JudicialBranch.

I am driven by my emotions.

"Our opinions generally have emotional rather than intellectual roots, and indeed rationality largely functions as a post hoc justification. Our political opinions, ultimately, are what we feel about the world, not what we think about it. And in turn, our opinions about particular events have a lot to do with how we feel about the world in general. It’s not an exaggeration to say that most people’s views about the kind of things that happen today are extensions of concerns of their own ego. And consequently, invitations to change their minds because new facts emerge, or because old ideas are discredited by new evidence, are in fact a threat to the strength and even survival of that ego."

"But few people, especially those who have received a decent education, want to acknowledge that their views are based on emotion and not reason. They therefore try to argue".

https://aurelien2022.substack.com/p/another-country

@histodons @psychology @socialpsych @ukraine @israel

In that famously hot, stuffy room in Philadelphia, windows closed for the sake of secrecy, they sweated & argued about how to limit the powers of the American executive. They arrived at the idea of dividing #power between different branches of govt. As James Madison wrote in “Federalist No. 47”: “The accumulation of all powers, #legislative, #executive, & #judiciary in the same hands…may justly be pronounced the very definition of #tyranny.”

The #Trump admin Wednesday asked #SCOTUS to allow the president to remove a pair of #independent #regulators whose cases have broad implications for at least two dozen other agencies, including the #FederalReserve Board, & for how the federal govt operates.

Trump has moved aggressively to seize greater control of the bureaucracy, ousting independent #watchdogs & removing the two #Democrats on the #FTC, which protects #consumers from deceptive practices & monopoly #power.

#Trump will direct federal agencies to loosen various restrictions on #coal mining, leasing & exports. He will instruct the #Interior Dept to resume coal leasing on millions of acres of #PublicLands, & he will order the #Energy Dept & other agencies to study whether more coal-fired #power plants can supply #electricity for #ArtificialIntelligence #DataCenters.

This is what the social democrats who keep telling me "at least we're getting somewhere" don't seem to understand. Holding power doesn't mean anything if you don't actually do something beneficial with that #power. What's the point of "winning" if nothing comes out of it?

Complicating matters, #tech companies are approaching multiple #power utility providers …seeking multiple bids for the same project, inflating power demand outlooks….

"What we're seeing is this huge proposed influx of these abstract projects that nobody knows anything about," Jon Gordon, a director at the *clean* #energy trade group, Advanced Energy United, whose members include clean power & large energy users like #DataCenters.

Now, the #power industry is struggling with a question that will determine the course of billions of dollars in investment: how to meet the demand?

…If utilities underestimate the demand, they risk an unstable electrical #grid with a higher chance of #blackouts for their customers. If they overbuild, #consumer rate-payers could end up with the tab.