Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

US blocks all offshore wind construction, says reason is classified

arstechnica.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 585 posts

Re: US blocks all offshore wind construction, says reason is classified

#111

Post by techgnosis »

blahedo wrote: post #28

I've been wondering all year about what happens when an executive-branch office issues orders that it is not legally qualified to issue; by and large everybody has just... followed them. This may be another example (I don't know quite enough of the legal specifics in this case, though there are certainly others that are more slam-dunk-y in this respect). What are the enforcement mechanisms here if the states in quest…

I would imagine that most if not all will comply with illegal orders out of fear of retaliation, which is a very valid fear.

Re: US blocks all offshore wind construction, says reason is classified

#112

Post by bakies »

heavyset_go wrote: post #60
schmuckonwheels wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Now do per capita emissions and consider where 90% of anything you buy is manufactured. The world launders its manufacturing emissions through China.

  #  Country        CO2/capita  CO2 total (2022)   Population
  -  -------------  ----------  ----------------   ----------------
  1  China               8.89   12,667,428,430     1,425,179,569
  2  United States      14.21    4,853,780,240       341,534,046
  3  India               1.89    2,693,034,100     1,425,423,212
To save others the google search I did

Re: US blocks all offshore wind construction, says reason is classified

#114

Post by sieabahlpark »

tony_cannistra wrote: post #21

I looked into this a little because I was curious. I guess the ostensible "national security" rationale (which clearly is not the only reason!) for this is that turbines severely degrade the utility of radar surveillance along the coastlines. This is particularly relevant for low-altitude incursions and drones. Now, other large governments (UK) have resolved this in several ways, including the deployment of additiona…

[dead]

Re: US blocks all offshore wind construction, says reason is classified

#115

Post by jandrewrogers »

tony_cannistra wrote: post #21

I looked into this a little because I was curious. I guess the ostensible "national security" rationale (which clearly is not the only reason!) for this is that turbines severely degrade the utility of radar surveillance along the coastlines. This is particularly relevant for low-altitude incursions and drones. Now, other large governments (UK) have resolved this in several ways, including the deployment of additiona…

Even if it is a pretense, it is pretty obvious that this would allow ship-borne drones to use the wind farms as an effective screen. Putting radar platforms beyond the wind farms that are as capable as the existing land-based radars would be quite expensive in both capex and opex. Some of the existing land-based radars would likely need to be moved, ideally. No one was really thinking about this type of threat a decade ago.

That said, Democrats have also been trying to stop offshore wind farms for years (e.g. Vineyard Wind), so there is probably bipartisan support.

Re: US blocks all offshore wind construction, says reason is classified

#116

Post by delfinom »

jrmg wrote: post #79
blahedo wrote: post #28

I've been wondering all year about what happens when an executive-branch office issues orders that it is not legally qualified to issue; by and large everybody has just... followed them. This may be another example (I don't know quite enough of the legal specifics in this case, though there are certainly others that are more slam-dunk-y in this respect). What are the enforcement mechanisms here if the states in quest…

Short term punishment for states: ICE and the National Guard get sent into cities to make people feel unsafe, under the guise of an ‘immigration emergency’. Perhaps also Marines! To punish more fully, just illegally withhold federal funds for whatever is most hurtful. Highways? Education? Healthcare? And to your direct point, I’m sure someone could whip up a reason for the military to take over and shut down the site…

[flagged]

Re: US blocks all offshore wind construction, says reason is classified

#117

Post by techgnosis »

alecco wrote: post #107

Occam's Razor: offshore wind requires a lot of rare earths for their magnets and whatnot. US military-industrial complex needs the little remaining global supply not under China's export controls.

This feels extremely plausible. I don't see anyone else saying this yet, well done.

Re: US blocks all offshore wind construction, says reason is classified

#119

Post by breakyerself »

vntok wrote: post #75
breakyerself wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure. We can always imagine an excuse to avoid dealing with the obvious reality. I don't think it's productive though.

Yet Sweden did it too ( https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2024/11/11/why-swe... ) and they quote these defense-related reasons. Are they lying, do you believe that Sweden of all countries is under Trump's direct influence re: wind aversion?

Sweden is worried about a hostile neighbor. They're freaked out enough that they joined NATO after generations of non-alignment.

Who are we afraid of? If ICBMs are incoming to the Continental United States the world is ending. Regardless of whether we prevent wind farms in any of the 12,000+ miles of coastline.

Are we expecting missiles to come from the Gulf of Mexico? People always bend over backwards to justify this administration. It's tiresome.

Re: US blocks all offshore wind construction, says reason is classified

#120

Post by sieabahlpark »

beembeem wrote: post #56
tony_cannistra wrote: post #21

I looked into this a little because I was curious. I guess the ostensible "national security" rationale (which clearly is not the only reason!) for this is that turbines severely degrade the utility of radar surveillance along the coastlines. This is particularly relevant for low-altitude incursions and drones. Now, other large governments (UK) have resolved this in several ways, including the deployment of additiona…

Result first (kill anything not carbon-based), find rationale later. Same applies to how this admin forced layoffs at the green energy (hydro + nuclear) behemoth BPA [1] (which was funded entirely by ratepayers, not the federal government) then claimed an energy emergency to keep open coal plants serving the same geographies, coal plants that were already uneconomical and planned for shut down (or re-tooling to gas i…

[dead]
Post reply on HN