Comment on 40% of US electricity is now emissions-free
sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 10 months agoSure, WA is an outlier because of its geography (more consistent rivers), but other states that are very similar to each other have huge differences. So it’s not something that’s easily explained by geography or local politics.
I see two possibilities here:
- US stagnates at some percent because the bottom states refuse to change
- bottom states follow their neighbors’ lead and renewable adoption accelerates
KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 months ago
ultimately, it’s going to be economic, if for example, nuclear becomes the cheapest form of energy, it’s going to become really popular, spread rapidly, develop quickly, become cheaper, safer, and eventually any state with some amount of sense in it is going to switch over, regardless of political status.
It just doesn’t make sense to support coal when energy is cheaper and safer coming from another source.
The only other way it would go is federal regulation or subsidies.
sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 10 months ago
In my area, the lack of nuclear has been largely due to FUD. I’m in Utah, and every time nuclear has been suggested, the public has shot it down, despite having the perfect geography for it. The plant could be placed on the west side of the mountains where few people live, so even if there’s a disaster, it’s not going to impact the populated valley, and there’s a ton of space in the desert to bury the waste. Also, coal ash is more radioactive than nuclear waste, yet we have coal plants here.
KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 months ago
yeah, for some reason the public is just incredibly apprehensive about anything that would be beneficial if it might even moderately inconvenience them. I will never not be amused by the time that germany shut down a brand new nuclear plant before it even went online. I’ve made a lot of bad decisions in my life, but burning millions, potentially even billions of dollars is not one of them. Not yet at least.
sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 10 months ago
Wow, that’s ridiculous, especially given the recent energy issues due to the Russia-Ukraine war.