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WATCH LIVE: Energy Nominee Rick Perry Senate Hearing

WATCH LIVE: Energy Nominee Rick Perry Senate Hearing

Democrats may ask him tough questions on the Keystone pipeline.
Posted by Thursday, January 19, 2017 at 10:00am
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Former Texas Governor Rick Perry, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Energy Department, will face the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources at 10AM EST.

During the 2012 primary, Perry said he would abolish the Department of Energy if he became president. He also famously forgot the name of the department during one of the debates in November 2011. But that didn’ bother Trump:

“As the Governor of Texas, Rick Perry created created a business climate that produced millions of new jobs and lower energy prices in his state, and he will bring that same approach to our entire country as Secretary of Energy,” Trump said in a statement. “My administration is going to make sure we take advantage of our huge natural resource deposits to make America energy independent and create vast new wealth for our nation, and Rick Perry is going to do an amazing job as the leader of that process.”

Something I’ve noticed in all the hearings:

Rick Perry will travel a LOT as Energy secretary. The majority of the senators have asked him to visit their states.

Does it surprise anyone that the New York Times pushed a fake story about Rick Perry and the department? It doesn’t surprise me at all.

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Ragspierre | January 19, 2017 at 10:25 am

“My past statements made over five years ago about abolishing the Department of Energy do not reflect my current thinking,” Perry plans to say. “In fact, after being briefed on so many of the vital functions of the Department of Energy, I regret recommending its elimination.”

Perry also intends to walk back from his many previous comments criticizing the validity of climate change science. But he leaves open the question of what to do about it and the degree to which humans are fueling global warming, echoing recent statements from Trump’s selections to run the Interior Department and Environmental Protection Agency.

“I believe the climate is changing. I believe some of it is naturally occurring, but some of it is also caused by manmade activity,” his remarks say. “The question is how do we address it in a thoughtful way that doesn’t compromise economic growth, the affordability of energy, or American jobs.”

He also brags big about Texas wind power, which would not exist in a real market economy. It only lives by tax-payer subsidies. Like ethanol as a motor fuel, it’s pure crony crapitalism.

I toldja…

Everything we know about organizational behavior tells us that putting a “change agent” in charge of an organization TENDS to make them defenders of the status quo.

It appears Perry comes “pre-squished”. He won’t even need to be co-opted over time.

    mailman in reply to Ragspierre. | January 19, 2017 at 10:38 am

    You also told us hiLIARy would win HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA 🙂

      Ragspierre in reply to mailman. | January 19, 2017 at 10:44 am

      I think what I said was that Hellary COULD win. The fact is she very nearly did win.

      HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Cultist.

        mailman in reply to Ragspierre. | January 19, 2017 at 12:25 pm

        She won second place…which makes me happy 🙂

        Barry in reply to Ragspierre. | January 19, 2017 at 2:46 pm

        Trump won in a landslide.

        Some people assured us Trump would not win. Preference cascade and all…

        Having been wrong on everything, they now tell us how terrible each and every nominee will be.

        They, having voted for such collectivists as Romney, the father of RomneyCare, the birther of ObamaCare, now find trump is the collectivist.

        And they keep telling us they are going to say “I told you”.

        They are as honest as CNN.

          Ragspierre in reply to Barry. | January 19, 2017 at 2:53 pm

          No. He did NOT. You’re a delusional cultist.

          He won by a margin that I think ranks in the mid-thirties out of…I believe…47 electoral votes.

          Not. Even. CLOSE.

          Barry in reply to Barry. | January 19, 2017 at 11:13 pm

          Remedial math:

          (306 – 232) / 232 = 32%

          Trump beat shrillary by 32%. That’s a landslide victory.

          You delude yourself. TDS does that.

          Ragspierre in reply to Barry. | January 20, 2017 at 9:53 am

          You can torture numbers to make them say anything, Butt-hurt Barri.

          Look up the rankings. It’s just historical FACT, liar.

          Your Man-crush wasn’t even close to a “landslide”. You poor, delusional cultist.

          Barry in reply to Barry. | January 20, 2017 at 11:26 am

          I realize your not very good at mathematics. The numbers are not “tortured”. Shrillary lost by 32%, which is a landslide. History doesn’t matter. I did not claim it was the largest margin of victory, nor the only landslide election.

          32%. Get that through your poor deluded skull and quit torturing yourself.

          Ragspierre in reply to Barry. | January 20, 2017 at 11:30 am

          He won by a margin that I think ranks in the mid-thirties out of…I believe…47 electoral votes.

          Not. Even. CLOSE.

          You lying sack of filth. Your TDS is disgusting.

          Barry in reply to Barry. | January 20, 2017 at 1:11 pm

          Tough day for you I suspect.
          Delusions are like that, eventually they get busted.
          Lies are like that, eventually the truth prevails.
          Keep typing the word “lie”. It will not change the truth.

    MattMusson in reply to Ragspierre. | January 19, 2017 at 4:00 pm

    Texas is the #1 Green Energy state and the #1 total Energy state.

    If you want to lower the Carbon footprint of the USA – simply convert all coal fired power plants to run on FRACKED natural gas. In fact, NYC just converted all #2, #3 and #4 fuel oil boilers to Fracked NatGas and Scientific American says the air is so much better it is literally saving lives.

    Because of Fracked natural gas, the USA is the ONLY industrialized country that might achieve the Kyoto protocols targets.

mailman | January 19, 2017 at 10:38 am

Its the confirmation process, tell your enemies what they want to hear then do what is necessary once you put the big boy pants on.

    Ragspierre in reply to mailman. | January 19, 2017 at 10:48 am

    Typical. “Lie your way into office”.

    What a POS. And that makes you just like Hellary.

    How ’bout this…tell the truth. No Deemocrat’s gonna vote for Perry out of committee anyhow.

    Your “big boy pants” are on fire, liar.

      Tom Servo in reply to Ragspierre. | January 19, 2017 at 11:07 am

      Come on now, you know what this confirmation game has been about for decades now. The Constitution mandates advice and consent, so the new President pretends to ask for it, in order to show respect for the process, and the Senate pretends to give it, in order to get a chance to mug for the cameras. Nothing more.

      In reality, all members of the same party as the President want to vote for his nominees, unless some criminal offense can be found to shame them out of it, and all political opponents of the sitting President want to vote against his nominees, unless they think it might cause them some electoral trouble in their home states. The only real “drama” comes if the out of power party thinks that they can find some divisions within the ruling party that they can exploit – doesn’t seem to be happening this time around.

      And you know that not only is this true today, this has been true for our entire lives. Maybe there were some halcyon days in the past where the process wasn’t a complete fraud and a sham, but I doubt it.

      It would be far better if we did things the way most parliamentary democracies do. Pick the leader, and then he or she names his team and that’s it. This ridiculous dog and pony show has become completely meaningless.

        Ragspierre in reply to Tom Servo. | January 19, 2017 at 11:18 am

        Yours is an amazing load of bullshit, related in anOTHER attempt to rationalize what Perry said.

        “Come on, now” your lying self.

          Tom Servo in reply to Ragspierre. | January 19, 2017 at 12:54 pm

          You are clearly annoyed by your inability to refute a single line of what I wrote, which is why you didn’t even try.

          And clearly, although I placed it in this thread, I was making a critique of EVERY hearing, not just Perry’s. Because there’s nothing different happening in any of them.

          Every other parliamentary democracy in the world handles this process more honestly and easily than we do. That’s the point.

        Ragspierre in reply to Tom Servo. | January 19, 2017 at 1:20 pm

        “The Constitution mandates advice and consent, so the new President pretends to ask for it, in order to show respect for the process, and the Senate pretends to give it, in order to get a chance to mug for the cameras. Nothing more.”

        First, I generally don’t fiske loads of bullshit like yours, but if you insist, we’ll start here.

        To begin, no “President pretends to ask” of the advice and consent of the Senate WRT Constitutional cabinet members. As you state immediately above, that’s mandatory. You stupidly contradict yourself.

        Next, you create your first of a platoon of straw-men. I don’t “refute” fallacies. Identifying them is enough.

        If you weren’t an anti-historical buffoon, you’d know the Senate does not give consent pro forma, and has historically refused to consent to nominees.

      SDN in reply to Ragspierre. | January 19, 2017 at 11:54 am

      Someone send Rags another case of Beaudreaux’s Butt Paste.

      Yep, we tried the high road. We lost. So now we fight fire with fire.

        Ragspierre in reply to SDN. | January 19, 2017 at 11:59 am

        Somebody send SDN a new Engergizer for his dildo.

        I don’t support government by lying liars who lie. I never have. I never will.

        You apparently warmly DO.

        MattMusson in reply to SDN. | January 19, 2017 at 4:03 pm

        I can only surmise that Rags is getting paid by the word.

          Ragspierre in reply to MattMusson. | January 19, 2017 at 4:44 pm

          I surmise that if all you have is broke-dick ad hominem, you need to STFU.

          Now, IF you can contrive to make an intelligent argument, go for it, “Surmise boi”.

      Bob00 in reply to Ragspierre. | January 19, 2017 at 4:05 pm

      Oh no, Rags is attacking a fellow aggie. We are in the last days!

        Ragspierre in reply to Bob00. | January 19, 2017 at 4:42 pm

        Hey, Aggie or not, I’ve voted for and support Perry in the past.

        I’ve ALSO criticized him when he was wrong, as in Texas’ own crony crapitalist nonsense and tax abaitments for chosen businesses.

        BTW, T-Boone Pickens is a villain in my book.

Mac45 | January 19, 2017 at 11:42 am

Rick Perry is a career politician. So, it is wise to take anything he says, which may seem self-serving, with a big grain of salt. Look at his actions, rather than his words.

The Department of Energy is one of the most powerful agencies in the US government. It directly controls all atomic energy issues as well as the interstate transmission of electricity and the US production of natural gas and oil, including transportation of product. It also controls virtually all research in the area of energy production and use.

For this reason, it is a good idea to have a leader of that department who has a high-profile, vet-able past in the area of energy. Rick Perry has such a past. It is doubtful that he will suddenly change his spots if he becomes Secretary of Energy. His background would seem to indicate that he would be much more sympathetic to the actual energy needs of the citizens of the United States than was Dr. Ernest Moniz, the out-going Secretary.

    Ragspierre in reply to Mac45. | January 19, 2017 at 11:56 am

    “His background would seem to indicate that he would be much more sympathetic to the actual energy needs of the citizens of the United States than was Dr. Ernest Moniz, the out-going Secretary.”

    Yet anOTHER attempt to deflect and rationalize what Perry said to the American people, and how it CLEARLY contradicts what he HAS said, and about MUCH more than the Dept Of Energy.

    Plus a remarkable example of “damning with faint praise”.

    Then there’s this…

    “Rick Perry is a career politician.”

    I thought Mr. Establishment was “draining the swamp”. I thought this was a “new day” of ballsy truth-telling to pow-wah.

    According to you and some others here, this is just more cynical bullshitting to office. Same old…

      Mac45 in reply to Ragspierre. | January 19, 2017 at 6:04 pm

      Placing someone who ia on the record as being FOR the abolition of the Energy Department, as it is currently configured and run, is a good thing. The Energy Department has a phenomenal amount of contl over the lifeblood of this country, energy. It controls its development, acquisition and generation as well as the transportation of energy products. It also totally controls ALL nuclear research, development and operation in this country. Also, let us not forget that it is THE PRESIDENT who runs the administration. If does not like how one of his cabinet secretaries runs his department all he has to do is say, “You’re fired”.

      As to Perry being a career politician, like it or not, every administration needs to have some career politicians in them. Heck YOU wanted to ELECT a career politician with very close ties to the Establishment, Ted Cruz, as PRESIDENT. So, please do not attempt to use that as an argument.

        Ragspierre in reply to Mac45. | January 19, 2017 at 7:03 pm

        I was using YOUR cult’s argument against your bullshit.

        Which is apparently without limit. What a lying sack of filth (as regards Cruz).

        But you guys wallowed in that. Remember how Goldman-Sachs was the kiss of death…??? Now it’s ALLLLLLL good, along with being a Deemocrat and a Soros employee.

    mailman in reply to Mac45. | January 19, 2017 at 12:28 pm

    I like the fact he said he would follow the law. How have we come to this situation where someone HAS to state openly they will follow the law!!!!

tom swift | January 19, 2017 at 2:58 pm

Pure kabuki, maybe with a touch of Grand Guignol thrown in.

The appointee tells the congresscritters what they want to hear. They’re not expecting the appointee to come across as a closet Democrat; it’s enough that he seem either harmless or so dumb he’ll be easy to outmaneuver in future. “Seem”—it doesn’t have to be real, or even terribly convincing. That’s what kabuki is, a show; a relatively expensive show, but a show nonetheless. The congresscritters pretend to believe him, and since they’re then pretending he’s as safe as they’re going to get, they have an excuse to vote for him. That allows them to claim that they’re “bipartisan”, at least to the extent that the Senate is still pretending that it should be. Then when whatever the appointee does in office obviously has nothing to do with what he said during the hearing, they can complain that he lied. Everybody has loads of excuses, so everybody’s happy. An old game, always ready to be trotted out as needed; rinse and repeat.

These hearings are not the place to look for policy statements. You’d do better to search for engineering calculations in TV ads for pickup trucks. Congresscritters are paid to pretend that this is a serious process. But nobody else has that excuse. It’s kabuki; stop pretending otherwise, it’s bad for your blood pressure.

    Ragspierre in reply to tom swift. | January 19, 2017 at 3:11 pm

    Another crock of shit to justify the back-tracking of another T-rumpian appointee.

    If these are so worthless and fundamentally dishonest, any fundamentally honest and gutsy POTUS would just make the nominations and let the Senate send in written questions that might or might not be answered.

    There’s no requirement for hearings, and there’s no requirement any nominee appear for one.

    “These hearings are not the place to look for policy statements.”

    Sure they are, liar. That’s what Perry published today to the American people. Nothing less.

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