Why the U.S. electric grid isn’t running on 100% renewable energy yet

Because we don't really have a good answer yet for doing this. Even if we waved our magic wand and had everyone using solar wind and batteries, where are you getting the batteries? Out of the ground, mined nickel and cobalt and lithium, all from poor countries with poor safety standards, all non-renewable resources. At least we can plant more trees.

How are you going to build all those transmission lines? Probably through your backyard? Certainly not mine, and my neighbors likely agree. They're ugly, loud, and potentially dangerous. But the whole point of them is to bring power from where it's being generated to where it's needed, and where it's needed is where tons of people live and don't want to see them.

There is no answer. Anyone who says there is is lying or really really doesn't want to face the truth. We can try to have our cake and eat it too. We can try to have a modern society and also have it come "for free", without consequences. But it's a lie we tell ourselves.

You really want bang for your buck to save the planet? Take public transport. Stop eating meat. Stop getting on airline flights. Oh and stop listening to the radio too because you're supporting people who are spending a bunch of coal fired energy just pumping radio waves into the air. Don't get on your phone anymore because charging your phone costs energy. Stop posting to Twitter or Mastodon, because doing so requires both the sender and the receiver to burn coal in order to talk to each other. (Looking at you, Greta Thunberg.) Nobody does any of this though because it's uncomfortable.

It's the biggest hypocrisy of our age. We worship the planet and listen to our prophets who command us to take care of it while they drive around Teslas filled to bursting with rare Earth elements that permanently scarred at least a few people's lungs to get it out of the ground so that they could plug it into a charging station so that they didn't have to notice that half of the power they're using came from a coal-fired power plant 50 mi away.

Each. Word. Lights. A. Thousand. Monitors. with dirty electricity. C'mon, we don't have to go to zero to make progress. Start with the low-hanging fruit, and bit, by bit, the carbon efficiency will go up.

Sorry, that I write this as I throw stones from my glass (gas fueled) house. I'm getting better.