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   Gerry McGovern (gerrymcgovern@mastodon.green)'s status on Saturday, 22-Mar-2025 04:33:00 JST Gerry McGovern

   So, we hear all these stories about 'renewable' energy reaching record highs.

   Then, we hear all these stories about coal reaching records highs.

   About oil and gas reaching records highs.

   About nuclear roaring back.

   How could this be?

   Wasn't 'renewable' energy supposed to replace all these other energy forms?

   There is no Energy Transition. That was always a Big Lie. In the Growth Death Cult, there is only an Energy Addition, a Greed Transition.

   It's not an energy production problem

   • Embed this notice
     Anne Ominous (rustoleumlove@mastodon.online)'s status on Saturday, 22-Mar-2025 04:32:57 JST Anne Ominous

     in reply to

     • Official Kakistocracy Jester 🪓
     • Cian O'Connor

     @cian @OGjester @gerrymcgovern

     good points

     the thing about solar power that ppl tend to ignore, which really bugs me, is what rare earth mining has done to places like the Congo. truly horrific.
     a river in Zambia was just 'killed' the other day when a tailings pond for a Chinese mine collpased

     & copper.. lmao. not enough copper at the current rate to feed demand. so i shudder to think what'll happen at the supply level to meet it (spolier alert: it wont be recycling)

     https://news.umich.edu/copper-cant-be-mined-fast-enough-to-electrify-the-us/

   • Embed this notice
     Anne Ominous (rustoleumlove@mastodon.online)'s status on Saturday, 22-Mar-2025 04:32:58 JST Anne Ominous

     in reply to

     • Official Kakistocracy Jester 🪓

     @OGjester @gerrymcgovern

     sure, the actual data agrees that there is way less coal being mined in the US.

     but there is also still a lot of coal being mined -- 800,000 thousand 'short tons' in 2023

     maybe a better statement is in the middle - the energy transition that is happening is slow and may be too slow to mitigate climate change at the current transition rate, as demand also accelerates.

   • Embed this notice
     Cian O'Connor (cian@post.lurk.org)'s status on Saturday, 22-Mar-2025 04:32:58 JST Cian O'Connor

     in reply to

     • Anne Ominous
     • Official Kakistocracy Jester 🪓

     @rustoleumlove @OGjester @gerrymcgovern

     This relates to 3 things:
     1) Natural gas is cheaper/more flexible than coal in the US for electricity production.
     2) Coal has become more expensive in the US has the cheap/good stuff has been largely mined out.
     3) The heavy industries that require coal are mostly not based in the US anymore (e.g. steel).

     You can't make solar cells, or wind turbines, without fossil fuels. Which seems like a big problem that everybody's ignoring.

     And electricity is a fairly small part of the energy mix, and energy is not fungible. You can't just replace oil/gas with electricity.

     Steve's Place repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     Official Kakistocracy Jester 🪓 (ogjester@stranger.social)'s status on Saturday, 22-Mar-2025 04:32:59 JST Official Kakistocracy Jester 🪓

     in reply to

     @gerrymcgovern Railroader here… I know this is anecdotal, but I have a front row seat to the amount of coal moving on the rails out of the big coal mines in Wyoming and Montana. For one of the large western railroads (the orange one), current coal volume is at a 30-year low. The only country in the Americas where coal use is currently increasing is Canada; in Europe, it’s dropping through the floor. I don’t think the statement “There is no Energy Transition” is a fair one.

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