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# Win or Lose, Now We Know: Affordability Requires Diesel Fuel!
November 05 2026
Written by Ken Alpern.
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ALPERN AT LARGE - First the Biden Administration got smacked down hard for issues of Affordability, and now the Trump Administration has been smacked down hard for those same issues.
Affordability, De-flation (not just lower In-flation), and Sustainability means putting on your big boy/girl pants and realizing that being an Adult and following the painful, emotionless rules of Science and Economics is not always very pretty.
As I stated in my last [CityWatch piece](https://ded2209.inmotionhosting.com/~citywa9/election-2024/33656-election-season-final-suggestion-you-cant-choose-reality-it-chooses-you), you can’t choose Reality, because Reality chooses you.
If you/we can handle all that Reality means and requires and recognize that avoiding the knee-jerk demonization of those who say things you don’t want to hear (but damn well need to hear!), then you/we will be fine.
If you/we can be brave and reach out to our fellow humans in our communities, nations, and world, as well as work with Mother Nature, then you/we will be fine.
If you/we can eschew Faux-Environmentalist, Faux-Economic, and Faux-Scientific dogma, and avoid adhering to disproven theories and failed practices as if Science and Economics were Faith-based instead of Reason-based, then you/we will be fine.
But if left-brained, cold-logic physics, biology, and economics just aren’t your bag, and you dictate to others who know them better than you do (which politicians do to scientists, and politically motivated pseudo-scientists do to science-motivated scientists all the darned time!), then you/we will NOT be fine.
1. Like it or not, when we rely on Russia and Iran to export so much of the world’s diesel, we’re gonna be in big, big, BIG trouble!
2. Like it or not, when we don’t build enough diesel refineries, and establish enough diesel refinery capacity in the United States, our food and other groceries (which rely on diesel!), Affordability will NEVER occur!
3. Regardless of what political gas bags proclaim to get into power by those who want feel-good words instead of cheap food, groceries, and a sustainable cost of living, our last diesel refinery being built in 1977 in Louisiana is a recipe for disaster!
4. Do I blame folks for disliking the concepts of diesel refineries as a sustainable and improved quality of life? No! Who does like the concept of nasty-smelling smoke billowing into the air?
5. Do I blame China and India and the Third World for wanting to join the Northern Hemisphere and getting 21st-Century quality food, groceries, automobiles, etc.? No! They’re humans just like us!
6. Do I blame Ukraine for wanting to bomb the daylights out of Russia’s diesel factories and destroy their ruthless enemy’s economy? No!
7. Do I blame the world for wanting to decrease man-made factors causing climate change? No…but throwing the baby out with the bath water, and creating a balanced approach to energy policy, affordability, sustainability, and economics just isn’t what we’ve been doing for decades…
…and it’s nailed not just one but two presidential Administrations (both Biden and Trump, hate ‘em or love ‘em!).
Diesel refineries and AI centers in remote portions of our state and nation, with economic prosperity and water/oil infrastructure and pipelines throughout our nation?
Why not?
I hate the concept of AI (or whatever stupid name Trump wants to call Artificial Intelligence), but if it’s a choice between China leading that industry or the United States, I’ll take the latter.
Our nation was built into a major economic and political power because of reservoirs and water/energy infrastructure that made economic sense. Water shouldn’t be wasted when it rains but redirected to where people need it…
…and that means that if we have enough water pipelines to be directed to residential communities, and AI facilities in the boonies, and into the ground to establish a fire-reducing water table, we’ll live better.
Nuclear facilities in the boonies to create energy in a 21st-Century cleaner fossil fuel alternative than ANY that exist now are also part of the equation: and the states that jump on “in the boonies” nuclear energy facilities will reap the economic benefits, and will reap the affordability benefits, more than any “Pollyanna” approach ever will.
We want Affordability, we need Affordability, and we deserve Affordability…but we’ll only GET Affordability if we take advantage of proper land use policies and governmental oversight to create a truly sustainable energy/economic/water infrastructure grid that restores and renews a miserable and fading middle class.
And if the newly elected Democratic and Socialist/Democratic politicians want to ignore the tough but oh-so rewarding requirements of TRUE sustainable, economically sound, and realizable economic/energy policies to establish TRUE Affordability, then they will discover in 2028 that the voting public is done with them, too.
*(**Kenneth S. Alpern, M.D,** is a dermatologist who has served in clinics in Los Angeles, Orange, and Riverside Counties, and is a proud husband and father. He was active for 20 years on the Mar Vista Community Council (MVCC) as a Board Member focused on Planning and Transportation, and helped lead the grassroots efforts of the Expo Line as well as connecting LAX to MetroRail. His latest project is his fictional online book entitled The Unforgotten Tales of Middle-Earth, and can be reached at . The views expressed in this article are solely those of Dr. Alpern.)*
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