This is the latest in the line of excuses/distractions made up by the fossil fuel industry. This one seems particularly stupid to me. Once you have purchased your solar panels, I don't see how they offer any control to anyone other than yourself.

"Don't worry too much about planet-warming emissions, the US Energy Secretary has told the BBC, because within five years AI will have enabled the harnessing of nuclear fusion – the energy that powers the sun and stars."

That is straight up embarrassing.

I mean technicality this is possible .

Solar panels are simply the collectors for the best fusion reactor we know of. It’s safely positioned 93M miles away. The thermal and radiation isolation is about perfect. A tad high in the UVA,B but a thin cloth mesh and cheap protective glasses are sufficient protection.

A series of distributed fusion collectors across our unused roof space could easily provide all of our power needs. Also due to its distributed nature, the project can be implemented in millions of segments simultaneously in project with segment costs measured in tens of thousands of dollars and can deliver results immediately as each segment is completed (in the timeframe of months). Furthermore grid resilience is a trivial byproduct. Since the collectors are already distributed we can give each one a standalone failover by co-deploying power caching stations onsite. This plan would virtually eliminate the risk of grid outages.

All this can be achieved with minimal government investment. By simply saying this is a priority, and providing some modest tax credits we could be 80% fusion powered in five years given existing technology and minimal government investment.

That would truly make America strong, resilient and energy independent.