3 ms·

good thing the President is pouring billions into restarting coal plants what a freaking horror show we are living in

by ck2 2mo ago

Rover222 2mo ago
At least at this point solar can be driven by pure market forces, it doesn't need federal subsidies to make sense.
- philipkglass 2mo ago
  It's unfortunately worse than coal subsidies. There are direct Federal orders that obsolete coal plants are not allowed to shut down. One example from Washington state: https://www.opb.org/article/2026/06/18/federal-order-keeps-washington-transalta-coal-power-plant-open/ https://www.opb.org/article/2026/06/18/federal-order-keeps-w...
  - bluGill 2mo ago
    There is open, and there is operating. This plant hasn't produced power in a while, but if someone wants to it is still open and so you just need to fire up the boilers again. The order just keeps it available to start again, it doesn't force it to burn coal. Closing the plant means they don't have to do maintenance, and perhaps they will tear it down.
rainsford 2mo ago
While the politicization of renewable energy isn't great, the interesting and positive thing to me is that it's entirely possible we're past the tipping point where the politics really matter. Republican politicians in the US publicly rail against renewable energy because it's red meat for the Fox News crowd, but in reality you see even very Republican states like Utah investing in renewables because economic reality ultimately beats political ideology on stuff like this. Maybe the worst aspect of renewable energy being turned into yet another political culture war issue is that while renewable energy resources themselves are probably inevitable, the political nonsense surrounding them has helped limit US investment in their development relative to places like China. As a result, the US and the West as a whole is likely to be far more reliant on Chinese technology in renewables than we otherwise might have been.

good thing the President is pouring billions into restarting coal plants what a freaking horror show we are living in

by ck2 2mo ago

good thing the President is pouring billions into restarting coal plants what a freaking horror show we are living in

Rover222 2mo ago

At least at this point solar can be driven by pure market forces, it doesn't need federal subsidies to make sense.

philipkglass 2mo ago
It's unfortunately worse than coal subsidies. There are direct Federal orders that obsolete coal plants are not allowed to shut down. One example from Washington state: https://www.opb.org/article/2026/06/18/federal-order-keeps-washington-transalta-coal-power-plant-open/ https://www.opb.org/article/2026/06/18/federal-order-keeps-w...
- bluGill 2mo ago
  There is open, and there is operating. This plant hasn't produced power in a while, but if someone wants to it is still open and so you just need to fire up the boilers again. The order just keeps it available to start again, it doesn't force it to burn coal. Closing the plant means they don't have to do maintenance, and perhaps they will tear it down.

rainsford 2mo ago

While the politicization of renewable energy isn't great, the interesting and positive thing to me is that it's entirely possible we're past the tipping point where the politics really matter. Republican politicians in the US publicly rail against renewable energy because it's red meat for the Fox News crowd, but in reality you see even very Republican states like Utah investing in renewables because economic reality ultimately beats political ideology on stuff like this. Maybe the worst aspect of renewable energy being turned into yet another political culture war issue is that while renewable energy resources themselves are probably inevitable, the political nonsense surrounding them has helped limit US investment in their development relative to places like China. As a result, the US and the West as a whole is likely to be far more reliant on Chinese technology in renewables than we otherwise might have been.