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

bbc.com

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

#791

Post by jfengel »

nozzlegear wrote: post #564
RobotToaster wrote: post #318

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Can't help but roll my eyes every time an election between a guy who campaigned on locking up his political enemies and throwing out all the Mexicans, and an awkward black woman, is described as choosing "between two evils." Give me a break.

A lot of people cited Gaza as an example of "evil" by the last administration.

I can have a small amount of sympathy for that. What was happening there was indeed harrowing.

But only a small amount. It's one issue of many, and the other party was even more against Gaza. I'm hard pressed to see it as sincere to present that single issue as the only one that mattered, and overwhelmed all else.

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

#792

Post by tencentshill »

IceHegel wrote: post #649

In my opinion, it was always crazy to build a wind farm in the most scenic part of the Pacific coast. The neo-industrialist in me thinks it would have been cool to see that driving the 1. But you can hardly call dredging and filling all that open ocean habitat conservationist.

Don't make excuses for this destructive policy.

A visualization of turbines at different distances: https://archive.nytimes.com/green.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/...

Turbines are all but invisible at 21 miles out, the minimum distance the california RWE project would have been installed at. Beyond that, they are hidden by the earths curvature.

https://www.northcoastoffshorewind.org/post/how-visible-woul...

https://www.boem.gov/renewable-energy/state-activities/humbo...

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

#793

Post by jfengel »

CivBase wrote: post #406
janalsncm wrote: post #375

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Roughly 1/3 voted for the winner, 1/3 for the loser, and the rest didn’t vote. A majority did not choose this.

I even wonder how much of the 1/3 who voted for him now regret it.

Not many. And even fewer would make a different choice, given the opportunity.

Change will rely entirely on people who sat out 2024. The question is how much regret they feel. Cynically, I assume most people would rather alter their world-views to justify their choice, than admit that they had made a mistake.

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

#794

Post by glaslong »

sajithdilshan wrote: post #767
glaslong wrote: post #480

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes as everyone loves to retort, the planet will survive! We might not, the current ecosystem wont, no one and nothing we love or care about or cherish is likely to. But a very lovely species of bug may at some point look down and marvel at the beautiful new world they've conquered. And I guess we've collectively decided we're happy to give them that.

Isn’t everyone and everything we love or care about gonna die or go away in 100-500 years anyways? Also hasn’t earth already survived many mass extinctions and came back stronger? Maybe this is just the next mass extinction event and the cycle repeats. It’s quite arrogant to think that everything on earth revolves around humans don’t you think?

Individually for sure, as a People I like to think we could do more than another 500 years if we don't fuck it up too bad.

Selfishly, as a human, I do kinda hope humans get to exist longer than only 500 more years too. I also like cats, so I hope cats get to live longer than that. Maybe whales, they seem chill.

I like the Sagan passage that "the cosmos is within us. We are made of star-stuff. We are a way for the universe to know itself."

And to star-stuff I'll happily return, but like.... Lemme use these atoms for a minute, and let a few generations of cats, plants and other people form from the recycled atoms after I'm done. "For Those Who Come After."

Let this phase of life on Earth enjoy it's time for a little. Why rush it? The bugs will get their turn eventually. They can wait.

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

#795

Post by gs17 »

nozzlegear wrote: post #551
snarf21 wrote: post #445

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not voting against evil is indeed voting for evil and that is what the net majority did. The minority doesn't have a charismatic leader to rally around so we don't have a "movement" that can fight back against the corruption at scale. Democrats need to stop taking the high road and start thinking "WWRD?" and out do them.

What Would Reagan Do?

I mean, Reagan won 489 electoral votes and then followed it up with another 525, they could try doing some of that.

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

#796

Post by glaslong »

bryanlarsen wrote: post #653
glaslong wrote: post #534

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Forgive the ignorance, what drives the demand for offshore wind instead of on land anyway? Shorter power run to coastal cities vs longer transmission loss from exurban environments? And with solar, I can't imagine that would be fast to stand up production for... but we're attempting the Herculean task with modern chip fabs. Would panels be harder than that? They both seem existential needs for the future of the count…

Offshore wind is far more reliable than onshore wind. Geography ensures that some ocean locations pretty much always have wind blowing. North Sea wind turbines have a capacity factor of about 60%, approximately double that of onshore wind turbines. The other advantage of offshore is that it can support the truly massive wind turbines. Onshore wind turbines are a lot smaller.

I have much to learn, thanks!

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

#797

Post by gs17 »

delecti wrote: post #576
zeezer0 wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not a majority at all. it's a manipulating minority.

I don't think "manipulating" is valid. A bit over a third voted one way, a bit under a third voted another, and a third didn't vote. The third that didn't vote was saying "sure, whatever".

I'm not sure it's fair to say it's "sure, whatever" on a national scale. The electoral college means you're most likely saying "sure, whatever" to the majority in your state. My vote in TN was the same outcome as if I sat home, and even if a third didn't show up there either, I imagine many knew Trump would win the state regardless and wanted that outcome.

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

#798

Post by newyankee »

tedggh wrote: post #697
winter_blue wrote: post #536

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s kind of amazing and horrifying at the same time that a democratic country like the U.S. is doing all these shenanigans like blocking clean zero carbon energy, while a communist authoritarian country is massively moving towards clean energy. Based on what our media and our education system teaches us, one would have assumed that common sense and sound logic would prevail in a democracy, but rather what we see is…

I work in renewables in the US. The current picture is actually a lot more positive than people believe. But good news are usually boring at not good for click bait, so they aren’t covered by the media. There’s a lot of work on solar energy currently and the forecast is VERY good. We do have some issues like grid connectivity and shifting policies but the market economics are working extremely well. The fact is solar…

all the US needs is Australia like pricing and combine it with individual energy independence branding + clean long term financing like mortgage and there is no better place in the world to harness the urban sprawl and single family homes for rooftop solar. This assumes utilities and their business models can be quietly upended which is probably the biggest bottleneck

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

#799

Post by dzonga »

tencentshill wrote: post #738
dzonga wrote: post #613

everyone on this board - is now aware the US gvt is working against your interest unless you're sama & crew. invest in your own solar, or other forms of renewable energy - get an ev.

Energy independence still remains a rich mans hobby. Neighborhood sized micro-grids are the future.

I just learnt about Virtual Power Plants using big batteries i.e 40Kwh+ - so yeah that could work.

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

#800

Post by glaslong »

iso1631 wrote: post #254
rapind wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish. Look up "coal rolling".

Coal rolling is done to spite the holier-than-thou sanctamonious bullshit that people who say "we need to eat lentils and live in a cave" come out with. It's an illogical reaction, but it's human. We need answers, not revert to a world of catholic sin Change your car to run off electric, great Change your city to transport 1000 people by train rahter than 1000 separate cars, great Power your AC from your off-grid roo…

Personally, I'm ok with all of those things. But I draw the line at whining about whining.
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