Last night President Trump gave (most of) the joint session of Congress the first State of the Union (SOTU) Address of his Second Term (or, as Trump likes to state, “Third Term” 
) as President of the United States, Commander-in-Chief of the most powerful military in the World, and Leader of the Free World.
The President warned us his Address would be long, and at 1 hour and 47 minutes long it set a record for the longest SOTU Address ever given since 1964, beating the previous record set by former president Bill Clinton in 2000 by almost 20 minutes.
And, Trump’s SOTU Address was arguably the best one since Republican President Ronald Reagan’s over 40 years ago – perhaps even better.
During his address, while speaking of the enormous amounts of electricity demanded by the Artificial Intelligence Industry, Trump said (my emphasis)…
“We’re telling the major tech companies that they have the obligation to provide for their own power needs.
They can build their own power plants as part of their factory, so that no one’s prices will go up, and in many cases, prices of electricity will go down for the community and very substantially down. This is a unique strategy never used in this country before.”
Wait a minute… this has NEVER been done?
Well, if you ever find yourself in East Hartford, Connecticut take a drive down Main Street and you’ll eventually see Pratt & Whitney’s Cogeneration power plant. The plant – which provides their sprawling facility with about two-thirds of its’ electricity, steam heating, and manufacturing needs – has a current peak capacity of 25.8 MW and is mainly powered by Natural Gas (although other fuels, such as Ultra-Low Sulfur Diesel Fuel, can be used). The plant typically generates 99,509 MWh (Megawatt Hours) per year, enough to power over 9,000 homes. In emergencies the plant can also provide power to the Town of East Hartford.
Pratt & Whitey’s Cogen Power Plant, East Hartford, CT
(click image to embigify)
The current cogen power plant was commissioned and came on line in 1992, has been modified and upgraded since then, and is owned and operated by United Technologies / RTX.
Knowing that P&W was generating most of their own power for at least 33 years I was tempted to write “Lie” in the title. But perhaps there’s a nuance to President Trump’s statement that I missed.
Although, Trump shouldn’t be concerned: Even if he did lie to the American People he can always rely on the often-used, tried-and-true “Hillary Defense” (don’t recall, didn’t remember, I’m invoking the 5th Amendment, and, of course, “What difference, at this point, does it make?!?“)
The only thing he might have to worry about is the Democrats impeaching him for talking too long, even though the US Constitution doesn’t limit the length of a President’s State of the Union Address.
Thanks for Reading!
(and, a tip ‘o the Red Sox Cap to Matt at Pratt for pointing out Pratt’s power plant!)
