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Court orders restart of all US offshore wind power construction

arstechnica.com

171–180 of 446 posts

Re: Court orders restart of all US offshore wind power construction

#171

If a country changes course every four years, how can the success of a long-term project be ensured? And what of its negotiating credibility? How can the other side trust that an agreement will hold in the future? This is not a critique, but a genuine curiosity, because there's an obvious drawback with a system with opposing world views. Unless, of course, something still unites them in the first place, with acceptab…

> how can the success of a long-term project be ensured? Well, for one by ensuring that 'long-term' means it starts at the start of a term and ends before the end of that term. At most that only rules out nuclear, at least wrt long term energy projects. And it's not like recent dem administrations were unfriendly towards nuclear. Vogtle 3/4 were approved early in Obama's term, and finished under Biden's.

"Long term" means decades when it comes to energy strategy, major infrastructure initiatives, and decarbonization. Four years is woefully inadequate for strategic planning, you’re operating on a tactical level at best.

Re: Court orders restart of all US offshore wind power construction

#172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you set up a durable judicial system, and give them their own army. That's the only way to work around Trump. According to the Constitution, no one can actually make the executive branch do anything it doesn't want to do.

No, that's not accurate. The courts frequently make Trump and his cronies do things they don't want to do, and prevent them from doing things they do want to do. Multiple such cases are described in the source article.

you should have learned by now what trump et al are doing… these “cases” they are “losing” are just smoke&mirrors for the general public to go “see, they obey the law” on things they do not particularly give a hoot about. the ones they do care about no one is “stopping” - the way you can tell which one is which is when they completely ignore the constitution and any existing law(s) or when they hit up the judicial extension of their party - the scotus - to rubberstamp something. even there, once in a while, they’ll make a call to (often temporarily) “lose”

Re: Court orders restart of all US offshore wind power construction

#173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you’ve landed on the core of politics the shape of how things actually work is what’s left when constant churn (and now budget blocking) is a fact of life

No, this is the core of a particular brand of politics: neoliberal politics. Where the financialization of everything is what's most important. There was a time, still in lived memory, where the US government was able to complete many types of projects and it also coincided with the period of lowest economic inequality (the great compression), the expansion of civil rights, and had the highest taxes against the elite…

Tax rates are not the same as effective taxes paid, and US taxes as a percent of GDP are at an all time high. This is besides the fact that gdp is many times higher, growing geometrically.

It is an interesting question of what changed in terms of ability to execute, but lack of funding isn't the answer. I suspect it is a combination of scope creep, application to intractable problems, and baumols cost disease at work.

Re: Court orders restart of all US offshore wind power construction

#174
post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The sad truth is that it's millions of people. These people just want to see the world burn due to nothing but narcissism and hate of the imaginary "other side".

There are not in fact millions of people who want to burn the world just to spite others. If you truly believe that then you have really failed to understand people around you, and should try to better empathize. As a rule, people do what they do because they believe it to be the right thing. They might be misguided in that belief, of course, but the idea of millions of people deciding on a cartoonishly evil course o…

If not evil, then we must admit magas are insane.

Re: Court orders restart of all US offshore wind power construction

#175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you set up a durable judicial system, and give them their own army. That's the only way to work around Trump. According to the Constitution, no one can actually make the executive branch do anything it doesn't want to do.

No, that's not accurate. The courts frequently make Trump and his cronies do things they don't want to do, and prevent them from doing things they do want to do. Multiple such cases are described in the source article.

> That does not end the Court’s concerns, however. Attached to this order is an appendix that identifies 96 court orders that ICE has violated in 74 cases. The extent of ICE’s noncompliance is almost certainly substantially understated. This list is confined to orders issued since January 1, 2026, and the list was hurriedly compiled by extraordinarily busy judges. Undoubtedly, mistakes were made, and orders that should have appeared on this list were omitted. This list should give pause to anyone—no matter his or her political beliefs—who cares about the rule of law. ICE has likely violated more court orders in January 2026 than some federal agencies have violated in their entire existence.

https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mnd.230...

This is absolutely nuts to read, and yet isn't the first time we've read such kind of language in court opinions and publications with this administration.

Re: Court orders restart of all US offshore wind power construction

#176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not advocating their system, but here's one pro for China obviously.

China doesn't have flip-flopping like this with its attendant massive waste. Instead it has endemic corruption which siphons off funds all over the place, perhaps with the exception of the big projects that command the full attention of central leadership.

Yet somehow they've managed to eliminate extreme poverty and challenge the U.S. in GDP. Sounds like cope to me. They couldn't do that with extreme corruption like we tolerate in U.S. allies.

Re: Court orders restart of all US offshore wind power construction

#177

If a country changes course every four years, how can the success of a long-term project be ensured? And what of its negotiating credibility? How can the other side trust that an agreement will hold in the future? This is not a critique, but a genuine curiosity, because there's an obvious drawback with a system with opposing world views. Unless, of course, something still unites them in the first place, with acceptab…

you’ve landed on the core of politics the shape of how things actually work is what’s left when constant churn (and now budget blocking) is a fact of life

[deleted]

Re: Court orders restart of all US offshore wind power construction

#178
post #162

If a country changes course every four years, how can the success of a long-term project be ensured? And what of its negotiating credibility? How can the other side trust that an agreement will hold in the future? This is not a critique, but a genuine curiosity, because there's an obvious drawback with a system with opposing world views. Unless, of course, something still unites them in the first place, with acceptab…

Which is largely why presidencies do not mess with the order they inherit too much (subjective statement I know). Most institutions and projects are not stressed and the government branches just keep doing what they always did. The current administration is an outlier, but we all know that.

The problem is that the outlier might mark a beginning.

Seeing what's possible in this position, I doubt future US presidents will hold back.

Re: Court orders restart of all US offshore wind power construction

#179
post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US president just today said that Republicans should "nationalize the voting" in future elections.

It certainly gets us to keep talking about him. Which seems to be his primary skill. It does not have any basis in reality, however.

This is what people keep saying until the administration does something and then dares the courts to stop them.

Re: Court orders restart of all US offshore wind power construction

#180
post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is largely why presidencies do not mess with the order they inherit too much (subjective statement I know). Most institutions and projects are not stressed and the government branches just keep doing what they always did. The current administration is an outlier, but we all know that.

The problem is that the outlier might mark a beginning. Seeing what's possible in this position, I doubt future US presidents will hold back.

the aphorism that comes to mind with that prospect these days is: "populism is like cigarettes, it's not the first one that kills you, it's the last"
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