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US strikes $1.2B deal to pay German firm to halt offshore wind projects

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511–520 of 933 posts

Re: US strikes $1.2B deal to pay German firm to halt offshore wind projects

#511

It's really depressing to know my own taxes are going to shit like this and feel so helpless to stop it.

Many such cases..... this is up there. But I gotta say, the one that really got to me was watching videos of people from my old neighborhood getting dragged into the street, disappeared and murdered, by government agents paid from my taxes.

But there are truly so many options to choose from which add up to more and worse still. Maybe we'll put our heads together and discover something to stop it eventually.

Re: US strikes $1.2B deal to pay German firm to halt offshore wind projects

#512
post #352

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Older generation has lead poisoning from all the leaded gasoline burned

The concerning part is that peak lead exposure was with Gen X. We're still being led by boomers and silent generation. So any contribution from lead stands to get worse before it gets better.

The younger generation is way less cognitively developed, to use a bland term. What we find find next, that lead was actually good?

Re: US strikes $1.2B deal to pay German firm to halt offshore wind projects

#513

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find something very refreshing in this, reading from Europe where we get told "gas" is the big bad, even threatening to make condensing gas boilers illegal from time to time [0], despite over 95% of homes (in the UK) being heated by this method. That said most of Europe doesn't heat or cool adequately, Spain and Portugal barely heat their homes in winter and boy it gets cold with 41F/5C nights. Then Germany/Switzer…

> Reading from Europe where we get told "gas" is the big bad, even threatening to make condensing gas boilers illegal from time to time Long-term this is true, and it makes sense to ban gas boilers (potentially with some exceptions): electric heat is significantly more efficient, and can run on renewable energy. But that requires a big investment in infrastructure build-out (heat pumps) which will take decades, and w…

Yes, most households don't have the 25-30k available to switch to heat pumps. If we dig deep I think we partially solved why people don't have kids anymore in Europe: for that you need optimism, and to be told every few years even something basic as your heating system is due to be illegal (!) doesn't really fill people with optimism. Same thing with banning internal combustion engined-cars, which was reversed too... Europe as a whole needs to manage these tech transitions very differently in my opinion.

Re: US strikes $1.2B deal to pay German firm to halt offshore wind projects

#514

Meanwhile China is becoming entirely energy independent and electrifying their economy. I don't understand how the US doesn't see that they won't be top dog forever especially in this multipolar age.

As a proportion of total energy use, the US is ahead of China in moving away from fossil fuels by about 5 full percentage points. Most of the "energy independence" that China has is just based on burning coal.

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/energy-mix?tab=stacked-di...

Re: US strikes $1.2B deal to pay German firm to halt offshore wind projects

#515

Can a lawsuit stop this absolutely ridiculous deal?

Maybe. Check with a lawyer. I would for starters be looking at the angle that Congress needs to approve spending money, and I doubt this was in any budget.

There also needs to be a conversation of if the executive branch should even have the powers to stop this. A a YIMBY person I believe their power should be limited to verifying the permits were filled out correctly (and I believe in reducing paperwork for them), that is they cannot say no to this if the process was followed.

Re: US strikes $1.2B deal to pay German firm to halt offshore wind projects

#516

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We also need to use less total energy, regardless of source. That number doesn't have to always go up.

That number directly correlates with life quality in almost every country on earth. More energy per capita means higher life quality, without a doubt in every high quality place.

In rich countries, energy usage for a middle-class lifestyle isn't really rising anymore, and in some places is falling significantly (homes are _way_ more thermally efficient than they used to be, all appliances are more efficient, cars are more efficient, and so on).

Energy use per capita will continue to rise in the medium term globally, but it's stable to slightly down over the last few decades in the US, say.

Re: US strikes $1.2B deal to pay German firm to halt offshore wind projects

#517
post #370

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Never attribute to stupidity what can be attributed to self-interest. It sure looks stupid when you look at America or the Roman Empire as a whole. But when you look at the specific individuals doing these "stupid" things, and the individuals enabling them, it is perfectly aligned with their own best interests.

It's almost as if acting solely in one's own self-interest is stupid.

More like acting without a sense of civic duty is stupid. Or acting without a basis in evidence is stupid.

Re: US strikes $1.2B deal to pay German firm to halt offshore wind projects

#518

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, we're not expecting someone else to stop it. We voted for this. The evil is not imposed on us. It is us. Not everyone, but a majority. The minority is looking for ways to stop it, but it requires getting literally everyone else to work together. Which means any disagreement among them results in a loss, and more of the same evil.

Less than half of people who voted voted for Trump, and turnout was 64%. Being allowed to chose between two evils every few years isn't democracy.

Democracy is people's power and the people in the US (and frankly most of the western world) are refusing to exercise it.

Democracy is not a legal framework but a cultural outlook that requires a sense of civitas. Which is mostly lost in the west (and in most other places, too) where deference to individual power has been allowed to become fully ascendant.

We rightfully decry the state authoritarianism in places like China, but their current seemingly superior ability to accomplish broader community betterment goals seems less to do with their political structure and more to do with still having some sense and confidence and optimism that people can in fact work together.

Meanwhile official small-l liberal ideology in North America fundamentally does not believe in this at all, and the ascendant far right is openly aggressive against this concept and an explicit "might makes right" ethos is becoming more and more triumphant and embodied in Trump.

Trump will eventually die and rot but the Stephen Millers of the world will still snake around in the background looking for the next pseudo-strong man to stand up and smirk all over a compliant population that has lost its desire to work together and just wants to submit to the loudest asshole in the room.

No constitution or election or political party saves the country from this. People's power does.

Re: US strikes $1.2B deal to pay German firm to halt offshore wind projects

#519

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Common sense" might also mean "do the simple thing" which, given how cheap it is to invest in renewable energy sources like solar farms, and how much room we have to build daytime capacity that way without large scale storage, might mean installing a lot more solar. Don't pretend the current US admin is anything but corrupt and stupid.

Day time . And what of the night? Freeze in the dark.

> And what of the night?

Nuclear.

Re: US strikes $1.2B deal to pay German firm to halt offshore wind projects

#520

Earlier quoted context omitted.

North Americans mostly do not use electricity for heat in the winter. Around 60% use natural gas with forced air furnaces. Something closer to 80% have the option, but 20% don't bother to use it. Some of the deep south get by with electric heat, but they aren't in places where the cold is a typically a legitimate danger to health and safety.

I find something very refreshing in this, reading from Europe where we get told "gas" is the big bad, even threatening to make condensing gas boilers illegal from time to time [0], despite over 95% of homes (in the UK) being heated by this method. That said most of Europe doesn't heat or cool adequately, Spain and Portugal barely heat their homes in winter and boy it gets cold with 41F/5C nights. Then Germany/Switzer…

So we should only address the symptoms and not the cause. What are you saying?

Modern AC units are heat pumps the same box cools in summer and heats in winter, more efficiently than a gas boiler.

What is your stance on heat pumps? Conservatives here, who use the same talking points as you, are against them and they prefer to use oil and gas.

And is 5c a extreme night temperature? Where are you from? I'm not from Europe I think.

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