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Wind is outpacing coal as a power source in Texas for the first time

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Re: Wind is outpacing coal as a power source in Texas for the first time

#31

Post by m463 »

tracker1 wrote: post #14

One thing I'm amused (not in a good way) by, is that there's so much FUD and marketing around the use of Coal etc. for energy and alternatives (Nuclear, wind, solar) ... I'm not necessarily knowledge enough to favor some over others. But I always felt, "because pollution," should be enough reason alone to look at alternatives, and considering the impact of building/supplying/disposing of the materials in the alternat…

> my eyes burning when I drove through eastern tx

The father of a friend of mine lived in texas in a refinery area. He was a reasonably healthy guy, but died quite young (~50) of a brain tumor. I couldn't help but wonder.

Re: Wind is outpacing coal as a power source in Texas for the first time

#32

Post by Cactus2018 »

The United States Wind Turbine Database (USWTDB) provides the locations of land-based and offshore wind turbines in the United States, corresponding wind project information, and turbine technical specifications.

https://eerscmap.usgs.gov/uswtdb/viewer/

Re: Wind is outpacing coal as a power source in Texas for the first time

#33

Post by cma »

chiefalchemist wrote: post #29
icebraining wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oil is more profitable for other stuff like vehicles and plastics, it'd be a financial waste to burn it for electricity.

Oh. Right. Oops. I did mean to say oil/natural gas.

Natural gas is cheaply transportable for heating which is probably a more efficient use of it than in electricity production (I think for electricity it is mainly used in peaker plants that need to start up quickly)

Re: Wind is outpacing coal as a power source in Texas for the first time

#34

Post by jwr »

bit_logic wrote: post #21
tracker1 wrote: post #14

One thing I'm amused (not in a good way) by, is that there's so much FUD and marketing around the use of Coal etc. for energy and alternatives (Nuclear, wind, solar) ... I'm not necessarily knowledge enough to favor some over others. But I always felt, "because pollution," should be enough reason alone to look at alternatives, and considering the impact of building/supplying/disposing of the materials in the alternat…

For coal, maybe the focus on climate change and CO2 is the wrong way to fight this. Tell people to reduce coal to reduce CO2 for climate change and you will get a strong split along D and R lines. Tell people we need to reduce coal to reduce NOX, SO2, particulates, smog, things that people can see, breathe, and has universal agreement that it hurts lungs and health and suddenly D and R doesn't matter. Everyone can ge…

> Tell people to reduce coal to reduce CO2 for climate change and you will get a strong split along D and R lines.

Why? Seriously, for someone outside the US, why in the name of anything that is holy to anyone, would people actively try to destroy the planet and justify it with their ideology?

I mean, I get that you can have shares in a fossil fuel company, and you don't care if your children and grandchildren will have a place to live on. But I honestly do not understand why the split is "along D and R lines" — how does this have anything to do with political affiliation?

Re: Wind is outpacing coal as a power source in Texas for the first time

#35

Post by erikpukinskis »

tootie wrote: post #28
tracker1 wrote: post #14

One thing I'm amused (not in a good way) by, is that there's so much FUD and marketing around the use of Coal etc. for energy and alternatives (Nuclear, wind, solar) ... I'm not necessarily knowledge enough to favor some over others. But I always felt, "because pollution," should be enough reason alone to look at alternatives, and considering the impact of building/supplying/disposing of the materials in the alternat…

It's kind of nuts that there's a lobby in favor of more car exhaust. Car manufacturers had to negotiate directly with California after Trump rolled back Obama's CAFE standard. Corporate interests are now to the left of America's federal government.

The ICE auto industry is well aware that it’s game over for all but maybe one or two of them who can survive the transition to electric+autonomy.

It behooves the others to try to minimize expenses and ride the company into the ground. Basically, revenue is going to zero so they want to maximize profits in what’s left of this little corner of the curve.

Lowering emissions standards, even for 5 years, let’s them squeeze out a few more millions.

Re: Wind is outpacing coal as a power source in Texas for the first time

#36

Post by WhompingWindows »

tracker1 wrote: post #14

One thing I'm amused (not in a good way) by, is that there's so much FUD and marketing around the use of Coal etc. for energy and alternatives (Nuclear, wind, solar) ... I'm not necessarily knowledge enough to favor some over others. But I always felt, "because pollution," should be enough reason alone to look at alternatives, and considering the impact of building/supplying/disposing of the materials in the alternat…

How should climate change or air pollution or any of it be partisan? When Republican voters are polled, many say they love the environment and the outdoors too. The truth is fossil fuel has bought and sold most R politicians and many D politicians too. Until we get money out of politics or make the energy companies go bankrupt, they will continue to pay politicians to prevent the cleaning of our environment and energy system.

Re: Wind is outpacing coal as a power source in Texas for the first time

#37

Post by Fej »

The majority of the US electorate is underinformed and/or misinformed.

The most popular cable news network is Fox News, which pushes straight-up falsehoods as propaganda for the right. That's not to say the left-wing networks are innocent, just that the most popular one is also the most dishonest. It has a wide reach and many voters get all of their news from only this network.

The right-wing party is completely bought out by the fossil fuel lobby, which has peddled the "global-warming-is-a-myth" narrative since the early 80's. Both the party and this lobby push that narrative through the right-wing media, which uninformed voters eat up, as the left-wing party has been completely demonized to them via that same media.

Those who trust these right-wing media outlets often do so on principle since these outlets are not "leftist" and the "left-wing media" is "out to get them". As a result, they often do not trust other media sources.

There is also the poisoning of the well that is filter bubbles on social media platforms (particularly Facebook) but I won't get into that as this comment is quite long already.

Hopefully this explains our problems to an extent. (I love explaining/ranting to non-Americans as they can empathize with my incredulity.)

Re: Wind is outpacing coal as a power source in Texas for the first time

#38

Post by [deleted] »

tracker1 wrote: post #14

One thing I'm amused (not in a good way) by, is that there's so much FUD and marketing around the use of Coal etc. for energy and alternatives (Nuclear, wind, solar) ... I'm not necessarily knowledge enough to favor some over others. But I always felt, "because pollution," should be enough reason alone to look at alternatives, and considering the impact of building/supplying/disposing of the materials in the alternat…

[deleted]

Re: Wind is outpacing coal as a power source in Texas for the first time

#39

Post by caseysoftware »

Fej wrote: post #37

The majority of the US electorate is underinformed and/or misinformed. The most popular cable news network is Fox News, which pushes straight-up falsehoods as propaganda for the right. That's not to say the left-wing networks are innocent, just that the most popular one is also the most dishonest. It has a wide reach and many voters get all of their news from only this network. The right-wing party is completely boug…

> The majority of the US electorate is underinformed and/or misinformed.

It starts long before that.

Most of the US is poorly educated and lacks critical thinking capability. That is the fault of a broken education system focused on the lowest common denominator instead of helping the top or even just supporting the middle.

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