> Because it sounds to me, speaking of "punchy but not particularly realistic" that you have some idea in your head of how our politics and economics work, that is contrary to even a cursory examination of material reality, and is laughably naive. And I earnestly want to hear it, because I could use a laugh today.

Could you please not.

You are presenting a false dichotomy. It’s not “bribe vs. use this tech”. It’s also not really about bribing at all. Fossil fuels are important. That sucks, but we do need them in the short term.

If this tech works, and the government is willing to pay for it to some extent, it’s probably a lot cheaper to build caseload gas plants and peak daytime load renewables than it is to try and build excessive green power and batteries to tide the night over.

Or just, you know, worst case run this profitable service independently of externalities