On clean energy, too many Republicans keep forgetting that batteries exist. Conservative critics of renewable energy keep claiming that solar and wind are useless at night and during calm skies. That’s not even close to being true. Trump has routinely repeated the same familiar mistake.

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/clean-energy-many-republicans-keep-forgetting-batteries-exist-rcna230304

by mafco

35 comments

  2. And that wind power is built at an altitude where the wind almost never stops blowing. When you see a windmill stopped, look at the others nearby. They’re always moving. Only time I’ve ever seen them stop all at once is during off-peak hours when they aren’t needed.

  3. It’s not a “mistake”.

    They have been propped up by huge money from the fossil fuel industry–they’ll lie and grasp at any straw to put renewables down. The latest horseshit is that the offshore wind farm they shut down is at risk from “undersea drones”…I’ll give them points for wild imagination at least.

  6. They willfully ignore that batteries larger than AA’s exist.

  7. Trump has totally captured the media and is “flooding the zone with sh*t” 24 x 7. It doesn’t matter what the facts are, whatever Trump and his ilk are braying is what Americans will hear.

  9. They are also ignoring the fact that (with the exception of Texas, Hawaii, and Alaska) there is a national energy grid and the concept of energy trading to make certain that everyone has power without regard to how it is primarily produced. The Republican scenario applies to someone in Appalachia who doesn’t want to be on the grid.

  11. Why is storage for solar and wind always separated from the cost of generation? Oil and gas require storage as well, but it’s never a separate cost when comparing prices of different energy sources. I recognize oil&gas is extremely vertically integrated but fossil fuel incumbents, who have had a 100 year head start on wind and solar, have to store and transport their energy even more than wind and solar!

  13. Trump is mentally retarded and this comes as no surprise.

  14. The first railroad in China was built by an English consortium near Shanghai. The railroad was removed by Chinese authorities after a year of operation. It was widely cited at the time as an example of the backwardness of the Qing Dynasty.

  15. With republicans we are not dealing with the sharpest knives in the drawer! They believe if it pollutes it is good and it also makes them a lot of money from the oil and coal industry.

  16. So how did Germany reach 65% renewable share before the battery boom and with the largest manufacturing sector in Europe? They know you can just turn the old plants back on during the time when there’s neither sun nor wind.

    Wind power during winter was the reason why the Russian gas stoppage didn’t do even more damage

  17. The interplay between wind and hydro is ignored as well. Wind supplies substantial electricity and Grand Coulee makes up the short fall. The water is stored kinetic energy. Pumped hydro is also a thing.

  18. This is dangerous thinking. It’s not forgetfulness or dumbness. It’s intentional strategy to make money and keep power. Full stop.

    And yes, they take advantage of lots of people’s ignorance and human nature. But that’s different than assuming they just don’t understand the economics of energy.

  20. You presume factual reality has some impact here

  21. Some are stupid and others are corrupt. Most are both. (see RFK jr.) To say it is a mistake, rather than a lie, is misinformation too.

  22. They do it, so their followers will repeat it. So their followers will be afraid of anything but oil.

  23. They are just repeating brain rot from their facebook handler.

    You see them on reddit too.

  24. Because they are shortsighted luddites who won’t do anything unless there is something in it for them. The fossil fuels industry puts money in their pockets. Renewables puts money into research and investment.

  25. Batteries have their own set of environmental issues. Rare earth minerals, waste disposal.

  26. Or all of a sudden they’ll become environmental stewards by regurgitating a conservative think tank talking point like “but… but… lithium mining bad”

  28. It’s not a mistake. It’s deliberate bad faith weaponized stupidity. They know batteries exist. They don’t care. If Democrats are for it, they’re against it, period end of story. They’d rather their great great grandchildren rule over the barren corpse of a 12C Earth than admit they were wrong about anything (and realistically, everything).

  30. Facts, schmacts. They don’t care. It’s very simple. Them bad, us good.

  32. The key is ignoring things that are inconvenient for them

  34. They also forget that when. The sun shines and the wind blows, the grid is less reliant on fossil fuels, thus reducing CO² emmisons.

    Not that they care, the orange fat one keeps calling them windmills, unless they are making fuck loads of flour for bread I think the retard means wind turbines.

  35. On clean energy, too many Republicans *pretend to not know* that batteries exist.

    FTFY.

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