Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by coryrc 44 days ago
> I'm asking why anyone else listened to them on this topic alone

First, it wasn't this topic alone; whaling too. You also don't need 100% of people to listen. You just need to shift from 45% to 55%. If people were already skeptical about nuclear because they conflate nuclear weapons and nuclear power, then they only need to shift ~10% on the issue. And money gets their message out much stronger.

> That had the double benefit of keeping their hands clean while discrediting future environmentalists.

Washington State had I-732, which would make taxes less regressive and efficiently tax carbon. Both issues liberals pretend to care about. Most state environmentalist groups fought against this! It got defeated because of that opposition, then those groups put up a different carbon tax initiative which would funnel the money to them to spend as they want. Also shot down with a shift of who voted for and against. Environmentalists are sometimes the villains.

1 comments

> And money gets their message out much stronger

And yet you blame the messenger more than the money. If environmentalists didn't exist do you think fossil fuel wouldn't have found a different way to get the message out there? When money talks, people listen.

They weren't able to prevent solar, wind, and EV subsidies.
They're doing that this very moment in the US.

https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/trump-administration...

And they've been working steadily against solar and wind the whole time.

This is just one example:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solyndra#Aftermath

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americans_for_Prosperity#Fundi...

The fact that solar and wind are rolling out at unprecedented speed despite these headwinds is proof that its economics are better than nuclear, which could not overcome the same headwinds.