3 ms·

‘the abundance of [AI] will be limited by the abundance of energy’. And the reason current US policy opposes clean, renewable energy is --- purely political.

mullingitover 4mo ago
You don’t even need to mention the long-term sustainability benefits of renewable energy. It is simply the dominant option economically. Dollars in, watts produced, fossil energy can’t touch it. Politics is merely a downstream effect of the root of the problem: corruption and regulatory capture. Regression into the authoritarian petrostate pattern.
SilentM68 4mo ago
> And the reason current US policy opposes clean, renewable energy is --- purely political. What isn't "purely political?" Everything is political in the world, unfortunately.
rayiner 4mo ago
Who is opposing renewable energy? Texas is projected to top California as the state with the largest amount of solar before the end of the Trump administration.
- jqpabc123 4mo ago
  https://blogs.edf.org/climate411/2025/07/31/trump-admin-blocking-clean-energy-and-raising-costs/ https://blogs.edf.org/climate411/2025/07/31/trump-admin-bloc... https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2025/06/05/views-on-trump-administration-energy-policies-and-priorities/ https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2025/06/05/views-on-trum...
- defrost 4mo ago
  > Who is opposing renewable energy? The current US admin: Trump’s Multi-Pronged Attack on Renewable Energy https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?params=/context/faculty_scholarship/article/5755/&path_info=Gerrard_Trumps_Multi_Pronged_Attack_on_Renewable_Energy.pdf https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?par... but they are slowly being beaten back: Trump admin abandons fight against wind energy as clean energy output surges - https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/06/trump-admin-abandons-fight-against-wind-energy-as-clean-energy-output-surges/ https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/06/trump-admin-abandons... The Trumpian adventures in Iran have wrong footed his fossil fuel buddies and slowed his Don Quixote roll against giant scary windmills for now.
  - matwood 4mo ago
    He hates wind turbines because he simply doesn't like how they look, and couldn't stop them next to one of his golf courses. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c15l3knp4xyo https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c15l3knp4xyo
    - jqpabc123 3mo ago
      And he hates solar because??? If you look at the overall picture, it's clear that he opposes anything not carbon based. And cost isn't a rational reason for it. https://www.cnbc.com/2025/08/20/trump-says-us-will-not-approve-solar-or-wind-power-projects.html https://www.cnbc.com/2025/08/20/trump-says-us-will-not-appro...
      - deleted 3mo ago
        [deleted]
    - recursive 3mo ago
      If there was an oil refinery that looked exactly the same as a turbine from the outside, I would bet that he would love how those would look. The root cause is something else. Hmmm...
arjie 3mo ago
That's true, but it's bipartisan policy. The Trump admin obviously is fighting wind, though solar is just too useful to be able to be stopped even by them. But it's also popular among environmentalists to fight solar projects https://v2.courthousenews.com/greens-fight-mojave-desert-solar-plant/ https://v2.courthousenews.com/greens-fight-mojave-desert-sol... And Indian Point in NY is the classic example of how nuclear was supposed to be replaced by renewables but was replaced by gas (and many solar installations in NY were blocked so we're not coincidentally here): https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/mar/20/nuclear-plant-closure-carbon-emissions-new-york https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/mar/20/nuclear-... So, it's political in that our policy is in line with what most people want: fewer renewable generation stations. But there's no outside enemy to conquer here. We've just collectively decided on this equilibrium.

mullingitover 4mo ago

You don’t even need to mention the long-term sustainability benefits of renewable energy. It is simply the dominant option economically. Dollars in, watts produced, fossil energy can’t touch it. Politics is merely a downstream effect of the root of the problem: corruption and regulatory capture. Regression into the authoritarian petrostate pattern.

SilentM68 4mo ago

> And the reason current US policy opposes clean, renewable energy is --- purely political. What isn't "purely political?" Everything is political in the world, unfortunately.

rayiner 4mo ago

Who is opposing renewable energy? Texas is projected to top California as the state with the largest amount of solar before the end of the Trump administration.

jqpabc123 4mo ago
https://blogs.edf.org/climate411/2025/07/31/trump-admin-blocking-clean-energy-and-raising-costs/ https://blogs.edf.org/climate411/2025/07/31/trump-admin-bloc... https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2025/06/05/views-on-trump-administration-energy-policies-and-priorities/ https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2025/06/05/views-on-trum...
defrost 4mo ago
> Who is opposing renewable energy? The current US admin: Trump’s Multi-Pronged Attack on Renewable Energy https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?params=/context/faculty_scholarship/article/5755/&path_info=Gerrard_Trumps_Multi_Pronged_Attack_on_Renewable_Energy.pdf https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?par... but they are slowly being beaten back: Trump admin abandons fight against wind energy as clean energy output surges - https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/06/trump-admin-abandons-fight-against-wind-energy-as-clean-energy-output-surges/ https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/06/trump-admin-abandons... The Trumpian adventures in Iran have wrong footed his fossil fuel buddies and slowed his Don Quixote roll against giant scary windmills for now.
- matwood 4mo ago
  He hates wind turbines because he simply doesn't like how they look, and couldn't stop them next to one of his golf courses. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c15l3knp4xyo https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c15l3knp4xyo
  - jqpabc123 3mo ago
    And he hates solar because??? If you look at the overall picture, it's clear that he opposes anything not carbon based. And cost isn't a rational reason for it. https://www.cnbc.com/2025/08/20/trump-says-us-will-not-approve-solar-or-wind-power-projects.html https://www.cnbc.com/2025/08/20/trump-says-us-will-not-appro...
    - deleted 3mo ago
      [deleted]
  - recursive 3mo ago
    If there was an oil refinery that looked exactly the same as a turbine from the outside, I would bet that he would love how those would look. The root cause is something else. Hmmm...

arjie 3mo ago

That's true, but it's bipartisan policy. The Trump admin obviously is fighting wind, though solar is just too useful to be able to be stopped even by them. But it's also popular among environmentalists to fight solar projects https://v2.courthousenews.com/greens-fight-mojave-desert-solar-plant/ https://v2.courthousenews.com/greens-fight-mojave-desert-sol... And Indian Point in NY is the classic example of how nuclear was supposed to be replaced by renewables but was replaced by gas (and many solar installations in NY were blocked so we're not coincidentally here): https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/mar/20/nuclear-plant-closure-carbon-emissions-new-york https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/mar/20/nuclear-... So, it's political in that our policy is in line with what most people want: fewer renewable generation stations. But there's no outside enemy to conquer here. We've just collectively decided on this equilibrium.