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virissimo 2 hours ago

Does your hypothesis predict that Texas would be one of the most renewable-energy-heavy states in the U.S.?

bix6 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

That’s just economics. That doesn’t excuse what the current admin has done in terms of prioritization.

HeyLaughingBoy an hour ago | parent [-]

That "just" is really doing a lot of heavy lifting.

Economics is what makes this country work. If converting to renewables makes more money, that's what will happen and the people making the money will find a way to justify it politically.

idontwantthis a minute ago | parent | next [-]

You are ignoring the fact that the Trump administration has taken proactive steps to interfere with economics and prevent people and companies from building cheaper clean energy. They have tried to ban offshore windfarms and when that didn’t work they straight up paid Total $1billion to build fossil fuel plants instead. They spend millions to tear out already installed chargers from federal property. They illegally clawed back funding states and companies were already spending on clean energy. They eliminated tax benefits for electric cars, causing car companies to spend several billion dollars to completely reverse their production strategies.

schubidubiduba an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Economics only make the country work when societal costs are not externalised by those that cause them. Which they have been, always, by fossil fuel companies.

agentultra 25 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

In an ideal world where the market is perfect, maybe.

But in reality entrenched market players have access to political influence that lets them stay entrenched. They’ve spent a lot of money since the Industrial Revolution to make sure we need them.

It’s not a perfect free market. There’s no such thing. Politics has a huge influence in economics and vis versa. They’re intertwined.

datsci_est_2015 an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Which makes it all the more remarkable given the century+ headstart fossil fuels had in entrenching itself in our political process and power structures.

Texas is doing something right, that’s for sure. But it’s not so clear what that thing is that the topic can be considered settled without debate.

an hour ago | parent | prev [-]
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smt88 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

It’s not a hypothesis. It’s an observation of reality. The current administration canceled massive renewable projects and has incentivized reopening coal plants, subsidized fossil fuels, and opened government land to oil drilling.

maxdo an hour ago | parent | next [-]

China is doing it the right way : use fossils but pouring that money into renewables. Use economic forces to cut the dependency . Everything else is just pipe dream building never happened utopian communism 2.0 .

BarnabyQJones an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

How many degrees hotter will it get as a consequence? How many windmills will it take to make the world a degree colder?

Serious question.

44 minutes ago | parent [-]
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beej71 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

The almighty buck wins at the end of the day. But how long the day is, that's political.