President Biden: The NEW one and only politics thread

Because maybe it's not as windy in California as in Texas, Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas and the other tornado alley states?

 

Gimme a second! Sheesh, mine re: California being "irresponsible" was a joke.

Texas and California dominate all other states in solar/wind production. I know little about the tradeoffs between one or the other, but I suspect there's a reason (distribution of populations, landforms, climate, etc.) why Texas does much more wind and California does much more solar.

That Texas has in total more such generating capacity than California puts a bit of a dent in the so-easy-to-peck-out narrative of Texans suffering in this heat because they're so committed to their fossil fuels.

And, again ... to circle back ... it's kinda ironic that Texas is bumping up on capacity limits because right now it's not as windy as it usually is.

 

Every apple is rotten in that barrel

The Missouri GOP establishment is aghast at Greitens. They’re the ones who made him

 

And I wasn't angry

I'm guessing, but relatively flat Texas seems much more suitable to wind?

In my opinion, Texas is suffering in the heat because they're so committed to their de-regulated THE FREE MARKET WILL SAVE US! energy solutions.

 

Also - Texas is a weird outlier anyway, because it has its own energy grid. So yeah, it's not surprising to me that it generates the most electricity - it kind of has to, because the state decided X years ago to fuck off from sharing agreements that other states had, and also because there are dozens of companies here that you can get your power from. Free market, huzzah! (Well, kind of - Because in an actual emergency, we're mostly fucked, instead of able to get it piped in from somewhere else, or, if you don't read the fine print of the contract you're signing, subject to market price for electricity.)

 

Well, it's also hot as fuck right now, too.

One last thing ... I was looking at California's total electricity production as compared to Texas' and thought, wow, California doesn't produce all that much. I didn't realize how much of California's electricity is generated elsewhere.

 

It's for sure interesting. Texas makes a LOT of electricity. I'm guessing there's wayyyyyy more areas in California that don't need - for instance - months of constant A/C.

 

States that should be generating much more wind and solar, like Wyoming, the Dakotas, etc., which have a perfect combination of both, aren't, for political reasons mostly. Some company wants to put a solar farm or turbines (can't remember which) south of Laramie, down by Tie Siding in the middle of freaking nowhere. The 20 or so people that live in that huge area are fighting it.

I'm probably wrong but I think Cali gets a ton of power from the Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River.

 

This is a huge thing in liberal states as well, and frustratingly, with my parents, who usually vote D. Plenty of people are fine with getting their energy from burnt coal, because they don't really give a shit about miners in West Virginia, or about the areas where fracking is done. However, you can fuck right off if you want to turn undeveloped land into a solar array, or build an offshore wind farm.

 

Just heard a story on NPR about rooftop solar in Australia. With government subsidy to encourage it, homeowners can pay off rooftop solar and one of Elon Musk's home storage batteries in five years. Around 25% of homes have rooftop solar now. Due to differences in regulation the systems cost about a third of what they do here.

The difference is that they're emphasizing renewable energy, which also means finding a deal on rates that the power companies and the government can agree on.

In my state, between the cost of the panel and installation and the pittance that Alabama Power pays for excess power returned to the grid, solar is not economically viable. This is because the state Public Utilities Commission is basically a wholly owned subsidiary of Alabama Power. BIG campaign contributions and lobbying.

 

Does NewsMax have a Christmas tree?