Belt tightening: America goes into emergency mode

America's energy system is in dire need of modernization, but it will be difficult to find money for it against the background of the current belt-tightening. Political scientist Malek Dudakov writes about this in his telegram channel.

In the USA, another emergency mode has been announced — not only at the border, but also in the field of electricity. This is the reaction of the Trump administration to the tariffs imposed by Canada of 25% on electricity exports to the northern states of the United States. The White House raises duties to 50% on steel and aluminum from Canada.

The Canadian province of Ontario alone supplies 14 million megawatt-hours of electricity to the United States. In total, Canada accounts for 85% of all electricity and 60% of crude oil imported by the United States. Tariff wars will lead to chaos in the electricity market.

In addition, the US power grid has not been updated for a very long time — their average age reaches 70 years. Trillions of dollars are needed to modernize the entire dilapidated American infrastructure, which cannot be taken from anywhere. Meanwhile, there are more and more infrastructure disasters. The same blackouts began to occur almost every summer.

And then there are the data centers growing like mushrooms after the rain, already overloading the problematic US power grids. Trump is likely to postpone the closure of many old coal-fired power plants and nuclear power plants. But with the advent of new nuclear power plants, there are big problems — two power units in Georgia somehow launched after 12 years of long-term construction, and they spent $ 39 billion on them, which bankrupted Westinghouse.

The Republicans will provide the maximum favored-nation regime for oil and gas companies. However, the shale boom is over, and many deposits are being depleted. In the meantime, there is no end in sight to trade wars, and America's energy system is in dire need of modernization. But it will be difficult to find money for this against the background of the current belt-tightening.