Scott Adams Would Call This An Example Of Simulation -- April 20, 2018

Re-posting from earlier: 

Updates

Later, 3:52 p.m. CT: this is pretty funny. Earlier today, I guess about 7:20 a.m. I wrote the following note (below the screenshot) about the "coolest tweet so far today." I though it was a somewhat ridiculous item and considered deleting it, but there wasn't much else going on, so I left it alone. My thought was this: if President Trump feels that the high price of oil/gasoline could threaten his presidency/re-election, he would take steps to increase US production. LOL. Now this headline from oilprice.com (link here): 

Original Post

Coolest tweet so far today: President Trump says oil prices are "too high" and blames OPEC. I don't suppose Trump can do much about OPEC. Some say he can affect price of oil with his actions in the Mideast (think sanctions on Iran). Perhaps, but having said that, this was my immediate thought: there's been a lot of talk recently about the possibility of a recession in 2019. Oil at $100 / bbl could certainly make that possibility more likely. Something tells me President Trump would prefer not to end his first (last?) term with the US in recession. If he thinks the price of oil could be a problem for the US economy, my hunch he will do what he can to support the US oil and gas sector. I don't think he can actually do much, but his administration certainly won't do anything to slow the oil and gas sector. In the big scheme of things, all this talk is probably a "wash," but it pleases me that the president is talking about this rather than talking about sports.

This is the way the EPA proposes to be more flexible, from the linked oilprice.com source above:

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is expected to announce on Friday a new policy that could help avoid costly legal battles over companies violating pollution standards in the oil and gas industry, by encouraging them to self-report and fix violations rather than wait for EPA to conduct investigations.

The head of the office of enforcement of EPA, Susan Bodine, plans to announce the policy—which is not yet finalized—at an event in Dallas today.

EPA’s new policy will be focused on giving oil and gas firms more flexibility if they elect to self-audit their emissions and report violations. 

The new policy is expected to be launched as a pilot program at first, focusing only on providing oil and gas companies with more audit alternatives, first only for recently acquired firms audited by their new owner. 

One flexibility for the oil and gas industry that EPA is mulling over is to extend the period of time that companies will have to fix their pollution after having reported the violation to EPA.  

The new policy is part of the Trump Administration’s idea to find alternatives to costly formal lawsuits. The new plan will also be used to highlight the message that the “audit refresh” is “open for business."