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1. Embed this notice
   Charlie Stross (cstross@wandering.shop)'s status on Sunday, 10-Nov-2024 02:27:55 JST Charlie Stross

   Two key turning points were passed in the 2022-24 period:

   1. The USA now has more jobs in renewable energy than coal/oil/gas. (Which means lobbying muscle that wasn't there a decade ago.)

   2. PV roll-out worldwide is rising fast: we install as many solar panels in five days now as were installed in the whole of 2004, and the rate is doubling every 18 months or so.

   The petrochemical industry wouldn't be panicking and lobbying this hard if they weren't in mortal peril!
   https://mastodon.online/@iinavpov/113454004193477394

   • Jan Wildeboer 😷:krulorange: and Anthk repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     Charlie Stross (cstross@wandering.shop)'s status on Sunday, 10-Nov-2024 02:37:55 JST Charlie Stross

     in reply to

     • Nemo

     @iinavpov I'm also readying a bowl of popcorn for the inevitable fireworks when Trump tries to ban EVs (which he hates) after putting Dilbert Stark in charge of "right-sizing" the US government. If Musk isn't completely brain dead I can see the EPA's budget unaccountably tripling for some reason …

   • Embed this notice
     Charlie Stross (cstross@wandering.shop)'s status on Sunday, 10-Nov-2024 03:08:02 JST Charlie Stross

     in reply to

     • Nemo
     • His Holiness-Adjacent Gregly

     @gregly @iinavpov Biden already imposed harsh tariffs on imports of cheap Chinese EVs, which implicitly favours Tesla. (China is currently slaughtering the European and Japanese car makers with EVs costing $10-40K. Meanwhile the US auto industry has given up making anything with a price tag under $50K.)

     Ultimately this hurts working-class Americans, but if you're Trump or Musk, who gives a shit?

   • Embed this notice
     His Holiness-Adjacent Gregly (gregly@retro.pizza)'s status on Sunday, 10-Nov-2024 03:08:03 JST His Holiness-Adjacent Gregly

     in reply to

     • Nemo

     @cstross @iinavpov Realistically he’ll ban EVs for all companies except Tesla, granting him an explicit monopoly.

   • Embed this notice
     Charlie Stross (cstross@wandering.shop)'s status on Sunday, 10-Nov-2024 03:36:36 JST Charlie Stross

     in reply to

     • Nemo
     • Methylzero
     • Isaac Ji Kuo

     @isaackuo @Methylzero @iinavpov The only GOOD thing I can see possibly coming out of this Trump administration, with Dilbert Stark on board, is that Trump will probably move (at Musk's prompting) to kill SLS. Which is a turkey that should have been slaughtered years ago, and everybody knows it.

     Tesla, when it's not pursuing boondoggles like the Cyberdumpster, makes not-unreasonable EVs like the Model 3 and Model Y. (Cybertruck is just a ketamine hangover from that one time …)

   • Embed this notice
     Isaac Ji Kuo (isaackuo@spacey.space)'s status on Sunday, 10-Nov-2024 03:36:37 JST Isaac Ji Kuo

     in reply to

     • Nemo
     • Methylzero

     @Methylzero @cstross @iinavpov I think what you state is accurate. It shows to me how he's not a serious businessperson, and treats SpaceX as a plaything regardless of what makes business sense.

     Arguably Musk bought Twitter in order to influence political power, and this was successful. So maybe that one's not just a plaything ... except why rename it "X"? That's a very unseriousness decision.

     And as for Tesla ... I mean. Come on. Cybertruck? How much less serious could he get?

   • Embed this notice
     Methylzero (methylzero@mast.hpc.social)'s status on Sunday, 10-Nov-2024 03:36:38 JST Methylzero

     in reply to

     • Nemo
     • Isaac Ji Kuo

     @isaackuo @cstross @iinavpov I think a reasonably consistent thread in Musk's actions has been "how can I get the hundreds of billion USD required for a Mars expedition shoveled into SpaceX?". Tesla, Starlink, Twitter, Trump are all arguably tools to feed the white-hot furnace of cash burning he calls Starship. Eg. Tesla stock has substantially been buoyed by his statements (eg. promises and sale of FSD) that are either fraudulent or microns away from fraud.

   • Embed this notice
     Isaac Ji Kuo (isaackuo@spacey.space)'s status on Sunday, 10-Nov-2024 03:36:39 JST Isaac Ji Kuo

     in reply to

     • Nemo

     @cstross @iinavpov If that's a hopeful thought for you and others, hold onto it.

     I'm less optimistic. I mean, I don't think Trump cares about the size of the government, nor does Musk care about Tesla Motors. They both have the same shared vision - recreating good old South Africa white supremacy.

     Firing all the non-white supremacist employees of the EPA is fine. Hiring triple the number of employees is fine so long as it's stuffing the government with white supremacy.

     1/2

   • Embed this notice
     sbi (sbi@toot.berlin)'s status on Sunday, 10-Nov-2024 05:03:08 JST sbi

     in reply to

     @cstross See here for the stats: https://toot.berlin/@sbi/112235865952642075
     Apparently, PV grows faster than all the other electricity producers combined.

     Charlie Stross repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     Graydon (graydon@canada.masto.host)'s status on Sunday, 10-Nov-2024 05:34:56 JST Graydon

     in reply to

     • sbi

     @sbi @cstross Solar PV is solid-state quantum witchcraft; it's nigh-impossible for anything with moving parts to compete.

     I think a lot of the "but nuclear?" is emotional difficulty with "nothing competes". (With a significant sideline in "but it's cool! and shiny!")

     Magic glass and a battery bunker aren't cool and shiny, but they are distributed and incremental and make it easier to design for resilience.

   • Embed this notice
     The Penguin of Evil (etchedpixels@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 10-Nov-2024 05:51:54 JST The Penguin of Evil

     • Jan Wildeboer 😷:krulorange:

     @jwildeboer @cstross Something approaching 75% reduction in cost per watt in ten years. Not quite comparable to microprocessors but huge by most industrial standards.

     What also astounds me is how global it is - the numbers from places like Pakistan are just mind boggling