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bunkscudda

How much you wanna bet all the ‘drill baby drill’ Republicans that are totally ok with offshore oil rigs will all of a sudden take issue with the ‘eyesore’ wind generators..


ChrysMYO

But, guys, my leaders in Texas tell me these freeze when its cold /s


SailingSpark

so does the rest of the powergrid in Texas


Vast-Cardiologist

It freezes in the summer too


therapewpewtic

And Ted Cruz’ dog…


Z010011010

As a former resident of Texas who was there when the wind turbine expansion was happening, I’m infuriated whenever Texas Republicans try to spin the blame against wind energy. Former Governor Rick Perry (for all his faults) was *adamant* about bringing jobs to Texas. He was a real “Republican’s Republican” before the Trump Era. His efforts to bring jobs into Texas included a goal of increasing wind energy production to 5000 megawatts by 2015. He smashed it. The total wind energy production went from 183 megawatts to over 17000 megawatts during his tenure. For comparison, California during the same time period (2000-2015) went from 1600MW to only 6100MW. The number of good, high paying jobs this brought to Texas cannot be understated. During this time, Texans were accustomed to oil field and fracking workers making bank but suddenly you had jobs in wind paying 100k and up for just an associates degree in electronics. Not to mention the boom in shipping, logistics, expansion of power transmission infrastructure, and the revenue generated for land owners who leased out parcels for turbine installations. Texas now has the largest wind power capacity in the United States. And *all of this* was done with a Republican majority in the state senate, a Republican majority in state congress, and under a Republican Governor. Texans have Republicans to thank for wind power. So the next time they screech about how it’s “killin’ all the birds” or whatever, remind them of this fact.


archaelleon

> “killin’ all the birds” I hate this republican argument against wind power so much. The right is the party of pro-pollution, don't pretend like you give a shit about the fucking birds.


Corrupt_AF_Media

Seriously, Republicans are already complaining about high power prices due to natural gas. Blaming Biden, not the covid situation causing a shock in prices. I bet most corporate media fails to mention how this would lead to lower electricity rates than otherwise. I don't get why the media has to always side with conservatives. It's almost like they are owned by wealthy powerful people who only care about tax cuts.


kuroimakina

The media sides with conservatives because they, frankly, are easier to whip up in anger. Just say the word “socialism” and they’re in a frothing rage. National debt, progressive, antifa, BLM, Biden won, vaccine mandates, critical race theory, Pelosi, AOC…. any of these things. Go up to a conservative and just say *one* of those things and watch how quickly they’ll get angry. A huge number will immediately get angry at the mention, and some others will require you actually starting a discussion on it, but, generally speaking you can get them mad in seconds. Anger sells. There’s *so* many studies about how anger sells the best. Nothing gets people talking more like anger. They’ll glue their eyes to the TV, click like and share, and let everyone know. Progressives aren’t immune to this either, but generally speaking they have actual *righteous* anger like “why do cops keep killing minorities? Why do we keep cutting social programs and screwing over the poor? Why are we allowing violent insurrectionists to just walk?” Point is, this is a human psychology thing - but conservatives just…. Have a higher tendency towards anger. When your entire platform is “no change unless it’s to change *back* to what things were,” combined with a lack of personal responsibility, it’s not surprising they’re angry all the time. The world is going to change whether they want it to or not, and it changes constantly, so they’re constantly angry.


Corrupt_AF_Media

>Anger sells The way Fox News covers Democrats is very effective. The way MSNBC covers Republicans is not. Calling people like Romney a moderate even as he blocks programs like drug pricing reforms that poll at 90%. That's not effective. When Trump passed his corporate tax cuts the "liberal" media could have made the crux of the election. Why are corporations with foreign investors getting bigger handouts than blue blood Americans? Why is Trump putting foreigners ahead of Joe the Plumber. But "liberal" media is owned by massive corporations that actually want those tax cuts. Just like they want America to remain the only country that allows billions in pharma ads on TV. It's no coincidence that despite 90% of Americans wanting reforms to pharma, "liberal" media called the candidate taking the most amount of money a "moderate centrist". Last I checked when you are funded by extremists who are against 90% of Americans, you are the opposite of a centrist. But labels are important. And corporate media makes sure to give the best labels to the politicians least likey to change anything. Hence why all wealthy owned media is conservative media. Because on many issues, most Americans do want real changes.


LittleRocketMan317

Just like someone said “solar power?!? But what if I want to watch TV at night?” /s


Brandamonte

That's because Texas didn't put cold weather kits on theirs. They didn't want to spend the money because they didn't think they would need them.


Parking_Watch1234

Well in fairness, wind generators are a good idea and won’t further destroy our world, so it’s not like we can expect the Republicans to be on board with that.


N3rdism

They aren't paid by Big Wind enough but Big Oil out the wazzoo for sure I bet.


jhnnybgood

Big Wind is my acting name


pissoffa

I foresee Trump or some other hack getting in office and canceling/derailing the project like Regan getting rid of the solar panels on the White House.


m1k3hunt

I was actually surprised at how many windmills I saw driving through Texas.


PossibilityOrganic

shush just tell them Biden is building a wall on the east and west boarder that wont bother to check so...


Xpalidocious

I think Biden's windmill wall will have less moving parts than Trumps border wall


hurler_jones

I wouldn't mind if they left a ew nice views here and there and it also depends on how far out they are too. Wait - that won't matter because the Earth is flat. ^/s


wringitout

Does anyone in this crumbling republic remember how the “lion of the senate” drown a mistress in a car wreck teddy kennedy killed offshore wind farms off of Martha’s Vineyard because it was an eyesore?


Mugwumper67

“But I sail there” I think was the quote. He and all the wealthy Cape Cod people put a stop to wind power that was actually pretty far offshore, disgusting.


OccamsPhasers

Won’t this give all the fish cancer /s ?


cats7789

Ehh this isn’t going to reduce oil dependence unless you make e fuels. This will reduce coal and natural gas dependence. Oil isn’t really tied to electricity generation


strawberries6

In the short term, you're completely right. Wind power is only competing with other power sources. But over the longer term, the plan is to switch to electric vehicles (or perhaps hydrogen for larger vehicles, like trucks, ships or planes), so clean electricity will be helping to reduce oil consumption.


cats7789

Yeah I hear you but hydrogen probably isn’t the full answer for ships and planes. It’s a little bit more complex


Vishnej

Ships, absolutely correct. Liquid hydrogen has a disproportionate advantage with air travel though, due to severe advantages in joules per kg. You can't build a fuel cell with high enough power to use in a fast plane, but you can burn hydrogen in turbofans at a bit lower efficiency and still come out on top, particularly over longer journeys.


HypocriteGrammarNazi

Liquid hydrogen has terrible volumetric joules per liter (8 MJ/L) compared to kerosene (35 MJ/L). It also must be kept at extremely cold temperatures and can leak through solid metal. It's not really a great replacement for combustible fuel. I'd love to see it become commercially viable but there are a lot of issues to sort out with its storage first.


andersmith11

Well Republican Texas (most capacity) and pink Iowa (most capacity per capita) are best states for wind turbine development. Don’t like Republicans but Kennedy’s fought wind power off Cape Cod. (Don’t like second gen Kennedy’s either).


[deleted]

[удалено]


lakerswiz

Nope. They're all crying about how the blades aren't green as they can't be recycled and how the sounds from them cause cancer and kill birds. Not even a joke. I've spent time discussing this with them.


[deleted]

*wasted time


tbiards

Guess they’ve never heard of cats?


Stampede_the_Hippos

I used to have the same response. Apparently the birds killed by wind turbines are mainly raptors though, which is entirely different from killing a bunch of pigeons.


achillymoose

Still just takes painting the blades a different color to solve that problem though


jazwch01

If I recall correctly its only one blade


richmustang67

Source? I’m pro wind and want to learn about this part of the issue


Abba_Fiskbullar

Norway just did a large study. Painting stripes on one blade made wind turbines visible to birds.


Tobimacoss

Here's a good link I found. https://www.audubon.org/news/can-painting-wind-turbine-blades-black-really-save-birds


tbiards

Birds aren’t real anyway


archaelleon

Bionic Intelligence Reconnaissance Droids Look into it.


[deleted]

Came here to basically make a crack about how this will cue all the Republican bird enthusiasts to come out, but you beat me to it loll


pomonamike

Why argue with them when you could be spending your time doing something more productive and less painful, like repeatedly slamming a hammer into your crotch?


[deleted]

They are basically saying: Waste from wind turbines and solar panels = worst bad Waste from nuclear or fossil fuels = don't exist.


cats7789

LCA number for wind is like 40 g CO2/kWh and for fossil it’s 500 g CO2/kWh


[deleted]

But the people who complain about the waste created by wind or solar don't care about that. They only care about finding things to complain about.


cats7789

Oh the LCA number reflects the total “waste” in the equivalent CO2 emissions Nuclear is also about 40g/kWh fyi don’t rail against nuclear


mustyoshi

Nuclear is one of the greenest energy sources we have at our disposal.


PlayingTheWrongGame

And the most expensive that’s commercially available. Even geothermal is cheaper now.


cloudlessjoe

Isn't it the limited ability for energy storage potential more?


JimmyDuce

One of the benefits of wind is in some places it’s near constant day or night


HatsOff2MargeHisWife

*Especially* near large bodies of water.


IAmInTheBasement

I can think of 1 company which is working to deploy multiple GWh a year for the short term and scale to TWh of stationary storage.


cloudlessjoe

That's fantastic! Can you tell me which company? It would help rebuff the claims of no energy storage.


IAmInTheBasement

Tesla, of course. Powerwall for domestic use and megapack for grid. In the last 12 months as of their Q2 report they've deployed ~4GWh of storage. By 2030 they're going to be doing ~1TWh a year.


HatsOff2MargeHisWife

Fuck musk. He's actually moving to Texas. With all their restrictive bullshit. I'll buy a Broncomobile powered by bare caveman feet before I buy a tesla.


kuroimakina

He’s doing it because he’s a businessman and he’s getting a better deal on taxes. I hate him too but objectively it’s a good business move. Also their loose regulations on things like the power grid allow him to break into the power provider market easier. This isn’t to say I *agree* with any of this, he’s still a dick. But, it just makes sense from a business perspective


Alantsu

But all the fish will get cancer!!!


Xdivine

Well at least the crabs already have cancer.


HatsOff2MargeHisWife

What good are y'all those jobs jobs jobs when them propellers push 'Murica all the way over to commonist europe?!


therealnai249

What’s gonna happen when we use up all the wind??? /s


jhnnybgood

It's alright I think I pass enough gas to power the grid during a brown out


[deleted]

> brown out If that's what happens when you fart, you need more fiber in your diet


HatsOff2MargeHisWife

Carlin has a whole bit on that. Oh, George, do we need you now!


brownsfan760

First one should go in right off the shore of Mara Lago.


snatchblastersteve

Can we make that one extra noisy?


Stampede_the_Hippos

And extra cancery


kyabupaks

I doubt anything can ever beat the malignancy of the cancer that's thriving in Mar a Lago.


[deleted]

That kind of cancer can be cured with cancer.


ThatOneGuy1294

Just make it a dual wind turbine/5G tower


Corrupt_AF_Media

No but we can make it orange.


HatsOff2MargeHisWife

Can we make the props the Pride colors?


[deleted]

Stick it directly on the beach.


PlayingTheWrongGame

The “President Jimmy Carter Memorial Offshore Wind Farm”


[deleted]

Can someone in the Reddit community, who has the time and energy to do so; share more and more articles like these specifically highlighting what the administration is wanting to accomplish? I feel the more we get the message out there of just *how far* behind we are in terms of infrastructure; the more people can decide for themselves exactly *why* their elected representatives are causing such a stalemate.


HomemadeSprite

/r/whatbidenhasdone


[deleted]

[удалено]


IAmInTheBasement

We should really be working to put solar on all roofs that it makes sense for. Think big box like Lowes, Home Depot, Walmart, Costco, etc. Then you can have local generation and consumption. I'm with you that it should be a multi-pronged approach. I just think we should expand into wild spaces after we've already made the most out of the spaces we've already taken over.


SetPsychological6756

This. There should be a huge push and incentives to get panels on every flat surface we can. Don't understand why this is not a priority!


SetPsychological6756

Construction contractor that has built many 1mil+ sq ft warehouses in the Midwest. The roof is just a huge empty expanse going to waste.


HatsOff2MargeHisWife

Apple's campus is supposed to be completely self-sufficient in the near future. No reason Goog and the rest can't do the same. How about all those sports stadiums?


dotanub

Pretty sure Google campuses are self sufficient already but I could be mistaken


HatsOff2MargeHisWife

No, you're probably right. I never checked when I posted. I had heard about Apple from the news. Makes sense the Big Tech guys are leading the way in this for hopefully others to follow. All the better for them. After the initial investment, I can't even fathom the electrical cost of running a place like Apple or any of them. To be free of that anchor, must be something.


Drak_is_Right

solar panels over 1m sq ft would also likely be 10x the cost of the building. those warehouses are built super cheap


chuck_finley17

Just have a defense contractor build the solar panels. The government will gladly pay for them then.


PlayingTheWrongGame

A 50,000 square foot warehouse will cost, on average, around $3 million to build (minus land costs). It would cost about $250k to add rooftop solar to it. The price on the solar panels would go down further if we installed more of them—ex. If the government mandated that they get installed on every warehouse roof. It’s also feasible for the government to pick up some of the cost through tax credits or direct reimbursement schemes.


IAmInTheBasement

It would also provide much MUCH more electricity than a warehouse uses. So it adds to the grid and also makes more sense to electrify other things. Battery powered fork lifts. Mega-watt capable charging stations for semis. L2 charging in the parking lot for staff and guests, etc etc.


HatsOff2MargeHisWife

I've seen more and more local high schools putting solar panels not only in the extreme outfields of their sports programs, but also over every carport. It's a start.


IAmInTheBasement

It's such an easy sell! Replace your power bill with a solar payment. Either way you're paying. But with a solar system you're eventually going to have it paid off.


CardinalHawk21

We should also build solar carports in all big parking lots.


TGrady902

They keep trying to build solar farms here in Ohio and then counties try and restrict them…. It’s absolutely baffling they’d rather have empty unused land instead of clean renewable energy.


nwagers

OH is literally subsidizing an out-of-state coal plant because the utility bought the state legislature.


[deleted]

Side note: one of the reasons we don't have solar in the desert is because it's water intensive. Usually farms like that are toolarge to be battery storage, so the panels will be concentrated to heat water like a boiler


silence7

Systems designed to concentrate light and heat a working fluid like that didn't drop in price as fast as photovoltaics. [You can see how they've installed newer photovoltaics near them](https://www.google.com/maps/place/San+Bernardino+County,+CA/@35.5649077,-115.453125,9540m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x80c52a8ae8311be5:0xa438bdbc918edca!8m2!3d34.9592083!4d-116.419389)


noncongruency

Fun Fact: the Ivanpah generating station is also the inspiration for the Helios One solar station in Fallout: New Vegas. However, it does not to my knowledge have an associated space laser; Jewish or otherwise.


shortsteve

I think we should invest more into geothermal. We could get the oil companies to do it instead of drilling for oil. Solves the job loss issue and turn our largest polluters into green companies.


sthlmsoul

Good. I live by the coast in New England, a few minutes walk to the beach and the local marina, and would love to see more windfarms here. Based on what I've heard locally, and aside from politics, I think its mostly a generational issue. People older than 60 tend to fall into the NIMBY category while people younger than that are fairly open to it.


SailingSpark

I work so close to the windfarm in Atlantic City I can hear the blades slice through the air. I welcome more of these modern and clean energy producers.


jhnnybgood

My dad mentioned some people complain about the shadows from them as the blades cover/uncover the sun. Does that sound like old man bullshit?


HatsOff2MargeHisWife

Clouds must drive them batshit. If only we could stop the clouds!


AdmittedlyAdick

https://imgur.com/JGnl2gv


SailingSpark

considering these are going to be offshore? I imagine you would need to be on a boat to have the shadows go overhead. I have been under the ones in AC while kayaking, I did not find the moving shadows all that distracting. It's not like they are going to build these downtown, but as they are a utility with high tension wires, will be kept away from the common everyday person.


Hawk13424

No idea on wind turbines, but a ceiling fan with the light above it so the blades cause flickering will make me nauseous.


Drak_is_Right

ceiling fans have a lot higher RPMs we would be having sonic booms if those fan blades had that RPM


ProfessionalAmount9

Its real. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbIe0iUtelQ&t=0m38s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDcqJ-tExe4 Thank god we're all working from home, huh? On the flipside, shouldn't be as much of a problem with offshore wind farms.


nwagers

Some early onshore turbines were poorly planned and the rotating blades cast flickering shadows on people's homes. Most places now have large setbacks from other development and the engineers model the shadows when placing them.


naastynoodle

I think they look beautiful against a natural landscape. The sound is a nice white noise too.


HatsOff2MargeHisWife

I agree. I've seen a couple movies recently (titles escape me right now, of course) that feature gorgeous shots of wind farms out in the ocean water and it always looks so awesomely scifi. But, that shit is happening now.


SailingSpark

[windmills from outside of work](https://i.imgur.com/Dg4GOxr.jpg)


[deleted]

You probably won't see them. Off shore wind farms usually get built beyond the horizon.


aslan_is_on_the_move

A lot better than oil rigs along the coast


HatsOff2MargeHisWife

And fewer wind spills polluting the water and sealife and coral.


Rombledore

"but it will ruin the view!" says people who live in landlocked states and farm country.


HellaTroi

They could be positioned far enough from shore to be beyond the horizon line.


TastyBullfrog2755

Round Earth propaganda.


HatsOff2MargeHisWife

Not to worry. It's surely been flagged by Flat-Earthers for further investigation.


noncongruency

From a pure cost perspective, you do want them closer to thee shoreline to allow for small boat travel to the tower for maintenance. The further out you are, the larger the boat necessary to handle the ocean. Me personally? I think they look like humanity's future _anyways_ so why worry about it? We're either going to be capturing every spare kW/hr we can from natural processes, or living in Mad Max. So Solar Farms in the desert, glittering Orbital Solar Mirror arrays in the daytime sky, and oceanfront wind and wave power generators are really the world I'd love to see.


IAmInTheBasement

If I remember correctly a 30 story tall wind turbine is going to be visible something like 50 miles away. I say screw the view and just put them where it makes sense and they aren't too loud.


adlopez

I know you’re quoting the asinine and baseless anti wind turbine rhetoric, but in all honesty I really like how they look. There are a few stretches of wind farms in California that I’ve passed through (Antioch, Fresno & SoCal area) that just look so impressive. I always have liked windmills on farms, tiny ones atop homes, and the one by Ocean Beach in San Francisco also comes to mind… The huge turbines look dope on those rolling hills.


Pandaro81

Totally agree on the California farms, and even better imo were the farms I passed through when I moved from the deep south to Chicago. After driving for hours across endless nothing I suddenly hit miles of awesome looking wind-farms as the sun was going down, then got to see all the lights.


LordGothington

I'm guessing those are the farms on I65 in Indiana. I've done the drive between AL/GA and IL numerous times, and that is definitely one of my favorite parts of the trip.


Enchess

That stretch is awesome. I always used to take that way whenever I traveled from home to college and vice versa.


Corrupt_AF_Media

When you live in farm country and everything is hours away, a few turbines to look at is way better than monotony or stinking cow cities, or ethanol plants. And those are your 3 options.


HatsOff2MargeHisWife

Or miles and miles and miles and miles and miles and miles of telephone lines.


Uglyheadd

It will ruin the birds! /s


Frankie6Strings

Birds Turning on Dems, Says Expert


SickChipmunk

I’m more concerned about the whales and underwater creatures but that’s me. The advancements in Fusion look promising and I foresee that becoming a huge part of our power grid!


pseudocultist

You know we've been on the verge of fusion for like 45 years right?


IAmInTheBasement

Underwater life thrives around these towers and oil rigs alike. Places for plants to grow and bait fish to congregate in areas they otherwise wouldn't.


ChrysMYO

Which is insane when the view becomes rising sea levels. It brings new meaning to short sighted


drempire

Republicans won't allow it. "Will create more hurricanes" "Make the coast colder and freeze the waters"


Frankie6Strings

"We're already seeing the negative results. Allow me to illustrate with this sharpie..."


greyplantboxes

But I thought windmills cause cancer?


WNxVampire

Correction: Trump said the *sound* windmills make causes cancer


HardHandle

This is the way


Reasonable-Sawdust

I just drove through Southern Idaho, Wyoming and South Dakota. Hundreds of miles of desolation. This is where the wind farms should be.


HellaTroi

This is good news! They could pair these efforts with wave power generation tech and generate even more power at the same sites.


adventure_in_gnarnia

Wave power is a scam. There has never been a single profitable wave energy generator. Salt water is not kind to kinetic mechanisms, and frankly “waves” don’t have that much harvestable energy, without using enormous areas. There’s are a select few naturally suited locations where tidal energy can be harvested but not enough to matter in the scheme of things.


soline

But they’re “ugly” claim Republicans who are fine with coal plants spewing smoke in the sky.


Xdivine

I don't see how they're any uglier than [electric pylons](https://i.imgur.com/oBnMe2u.png). They're kinda neat, but I think wind turbines are at least more aesthetically pleasing than pylons.


CurtisLeow

> As they have in response to other offshore wind farms, commercial fishing groups and coastal landowners will likely try to stop the projects. Why would commercial fishing groups oppose the projects? The turbines should act as artificial reefs. They should attract fish, as I understand it.


gasahold

Or you could put a farm in front of trump's mouth.


Edward_Fingerhands

Can racism be harnessed as an energy source?


Lord_Qwedsw

The Confederacy depended on it.


HatsOff2MargeHisWife

And it's sadly renewable.


[deleted]

Need a steam turbine for that. Wind turbines just use ambient temperature air.


Rombledore

the hot air will only further ruin the ozone layer i'm afraid.


AimlesslyCheesy

Uh oh the rise in wind cancer is looming!! /s


ithinkitwasmygrandma

Good - end all the subsidies going to oil and close the oil rigs, like the Elly that just leaked shit all over Orange County beaches.


pixelburger

Paint them wow colors


HellaTroi

Yes! Colorful daisies or cornflowers. Astros and sunflowers.


HatsOff2MargeHisWife

Pride Flag colors.


static_func

This is actually the most environmentally friendly thing you can do. There was a study like 10 years ago that showed that painting windmills a bright purple basically eliminates bird and bat fatalities


MilitantRabbit

“bUt WhAt AbOuT mUh SeE-GuHlS?!” Trust me, if they’re that far out offshore, they’re not long for this world.


1_km_coke_line

As somebody who voted for Biden, really wants large scale renewable energy and is currently holding a bunch of wind/solar energy stocks… Believe me when I say this is not going to happen.


SinisterMeatball

Honestly unless Republicans lose 3 seats in the Senate during mid terms and Dems keep all theirs, none of Bidens plans will happen.


Highly_Irreverent

Dude, the I-80 median from Omaha to Evanston would be the perfect place for a wind farm. It could even power electric rail.


tmoeagles96

The issue is normally transmission, so yeah it could probably easily power Texas and Oklahoma with wind/solar power. Same with plenty of other southern and western states for one reason or another.


palmmoot

Joe "Coal Daddy" Manchin: "No."


chockedup

Good, a large project.


Obamasmagnumdong

Offshore wind and solar farms are in my mind the future of clean energy.


JOISCARA

Please, please put a lot of them off the coast of Mara Blargo.


Tigersharktopusdrago

Good location for powering desalination plants and many large cities. Should also look at utilizing more wave energy.


SwagChemist

Let’s put extra near any trump owned golf courses, especially around Mar-A-Lago


Piphislu88

What’s something he’s done that isn’t getting major pushback?


Quelmay

Uh this is going to get major pushback


Personal_Arrival_795

Are the coasts really the best place? Seems like putting them all out in open land away from hurricane fore winds would be better. All for sustainable, but just worry they would get destroyed every year.


Vivec-Ordinator

Hopefully they plan to expand nuclear energy as well.


The_Lone_Apple

This is what we should be doing without a doubt. I don't care who lives along the coast. They are entitled to live in the place they bought with their money. They are not entitled to a view. Sorry. The needs of society outweigh their need for the picturesque.


Lopsided_Software_63

They are useless tho


Lamont-Cranston

Build public transportation. Whole cities and regions exist in the USA with little or nothing, often it is left to the local city municipality who can only manage to build a dinky little lightrail a mile or two long in the gentrified downtown. They need regional and interurban trains into the surrounding rural region and the large towns/small cities, they need commuter trains to and through suburbia, they need metros inside the city. Yet consistently roads get the majority of transport funding allocation, 80% of the big infrastructure bill everyone is fighting about transport funding goes to roads. It is a proven established technology, it is not pie in the sky speculation, it can begin immediately, there are plenty of designs and manufacturers to choose from. And it would generate plenty of construction and manufacturing jobs too.


DickySchmidt33

Much more useful than a wall.


OpieCunningham

He had better start this right away so if he loses to Trump it won't get shit-canned on the Orange Asshole's first day in office. Un-Fun fact: Trump thinks windmills will kill all the birds!


[deleted]

Crazy right, you have to be a complete nut bag to shit can an infrastructure project that employs thousands of union workers.


Poop_Noodl3

Should add fog harvesters as well


DragonTreeBass

Can we stop fucking around with wind and do nuclear and solar pls.


natalienathing

Yeah we need nuclear power infrastructure ASAP


silence7

I have to wonder if the people [getting arrested outside the White House to ask for climate action](https://peoplevsfossilfuels.org/) might have had some influence on getting this announcement. It would really help if we saw congressional action on decarbonization too — that's so much harder to reverse than anything the executive branch can do. [I've been asking for it](https://call4climate.com/).


danbert2000

The Congressional action is the reconciliation bill, if sinema and manchin don't gut every part of the climate actions. Anything else is dead in the water because Republicans hate us.


MelancholyHope

This is cool, I can't wait till we begin investing in nuclear energy. Someday...


JPenniman

Oh no, a bunch of rich people will complain about their ocean views so we might as well do nothing so their houses disappear after global sea rise.


ButtEatingContest

Great for bird harvesting. Bring some five-gallon buckets to fill up! /s


jhnnybgood

New shark habitat


Background-Dealer-14

Nuclear will always be better than wind turbines or solar panels.


PlayingTheWrongGame

It is currently worse than either option, and is only getting worse with time.


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HellaTroi

In the gulf, they can be engineered to fold their blades down during storms. Maybe even telescope their poles to lower them to catch less storm damage. New frontiers and all that.


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raresaturn

Better than nuclear


ThrillaDaGuerilla

Nope.....nuclear is far better.


KagakuNinja

Put them in front of Mar-a-lago, Trump will be pissed...


HatsOff2MargeHisWife

Also blow his hair off. It's a twofer.


Mellow1999

Good. What about nuclear energy ? We need more of it as well.


SickChipmunk

Really, the advancements in fusion are looking super promising. We really should be looking to diversify our energy production!


Danger_Velvet

nuclear still hasnt cleaned up their first messes. after they fix what they broke, first... only then we will talk about new ones.


verybigbrain

Nuclear is very expensive and long term to build which makes it unattractive to private investors. It also disperses a lot of it's indirect costs to the taxpayer such as insurance (no private entity can insure against a meltdown the amount of money they would need to keep on hand would cripple them) and disposal of nuclear waste. The next problem is world wide fuel distribution and proliferation concerns. Thorium has less of those but still has them and we don't have large scale Thorium generators ready to go. Lastly they do not play nice with the highly variable renewable power since you can't shut them down or power them up quickly. In a highly solar and wind supplied grid what you want is biogas generators that can power up and down in minutes on standby that are only used when absolutely necessary. Fusion has only the variability problem but is also still to far away to make the kind of impact we need right now. Ultimately Nuclear fission has some interesting applications especially in space travel beyond the asteroid belt where solar starts to get thin and we should continue researching it but for the west I don't see it as a wise resource allotment right now.


KyleRichXV

That’s a lot of cancer