[jtr1]

"But the economy" is an out-of-date framing. The cost of renewables has been plummeting for well over a decade. New renewables are now cheaper than new fossil fuel plants in most of the world, and in many regions they're already competitive with or cheaper than simply running existing fossil fuel infrastructure. As modern wars in Ukraine and now Iran are increasingly demonstrating, they are not only cost effective but rapidly a matter of energy sovereignty and national security.

That's not to say we won't need treaties and supranational entities for some aspects of decarbonization. Methane emissions outside of agriculture are notably a problem of enforcement.

We're badly in need of a collective update to our priors regarding renewables. In the US, a hostile policy toward renewables is not only shooting ourselves in the foot environmentally, we are now actively impoverishing ourselves due to entrenched economic interests across the fossil fuel industry and the cultural inertia they actively worked to develop.

[goatlover]

A new US administration and Congress need to be voted in. There is one party who backs fossil fuel interests and denies anthropogenic climate change. They're currently in charge. The American public didn't see that as an important enough issue in 2024.

[lokar]

They are forcing power companies to run coal plants that they don’t want to run (at a loss).

[hdgvhicv]

And invading countries to take the oil which the oil companies don’t want

[FrinkleFrankle]

They need a complete reworking of the government. The fact is that bum-fuck states with a handful of citizens can use their senate seats to hold the country hostage. Nothing will ever get better until that is resolved.

[Aerroon]

>"But the economy" is an out-of-date framing.

Then why is my electricity and gasoline both so much more expensive than they used to be?

[jtr1]

For many possible reasons, depending on where you live.

[breakpointalpha]

In principle, you are right. Cheaper than coal renewables are winning. Don't forget though, that fighter jets can't operate on batteries.

[hdgvhicv]

Every mile you drive in an f150 steals fuel that should be going to American planes

Patriotic red blooded Americans use renewable energy

[mr_toad]

> fighter jets can't operate on batteries

Gas turbines can run on a variety of fuels, natural, synthetic or a mixture of both. It’s actually one of the reasons that a turbine was chosen for the M1.

[carabiner]

Yeah but gas turbines by definitions run on "gas" kerosene based fuel. If you're talking about a battery powered fan or prop that's very different.

[Nevermark]

Kerosene is a mundane chemical.

It is made with from water, carbon dioxide and energy. Use green energy and atmospheric CO2, and it is carbon neutral.

[lokar]

They don’t contribute enough to matter

[NewJazz]

And using more electrics powered transport in other sectors frees up fossil fuels for other sectors.

[UqWBcuFx6NV4r]

That’s a red herring. It’s not worth mentioning.

[Supermancho]

Except for the industries where it does matter. Trivializing the needs of complex and energy hungry supply chains, is bad faith. They are one of the many reasons fossil fuels are so widely used.

[kulahan]

It's not really bad faith when we could make enormous progress in an enormous number of industries, and this in no way stops any of that progress in those economies.

It's specifically bad faith to say it as if it does somehow matter in the grand conversation, when the actual fallout is extremely small. Pretty much nobody is saying we must remove 100 PER CENT OF ALL FOSSIL FUEL USAGE EVERYWHERE FOREVER, just that we need to move off it.

[317070]

In the end, the industries that cannot run on biofuels are rare to non-existant. It's not fuel which is the problem, but fossil fuel!

You totally can fly on biofuel, but it is not cheap compared to fossil fuel without externalized costs.

[bryanlarsen]

If we stop using fossil fuels for the >90% of usage where fossil fuels are easy to replace, it'll make it much easier & cheaper for the <10% where it's difficult.

[BLKNSLVR]

So we won't be able to fight air wars over the last remaining pieces of arable land.

I'm convinced.