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Comment by gnarlouse | Hacker News Reader

It floors me that the whole world is pretty content saying “okay cool solar/wind/renewables” and then theres the uneducated states of america who is rejecting all of it

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This is performative. If it were economically viable there'd be panels in parking lots. They're not because the land isn't the expensive part. It's the installation, maintenance, and ancillary equipment that makes solar expensive these days.

If you look at it as a way of disincentivizing wasting land on parking lots, it makes a lot of sense

It's probably not going to do that either. The number of spaces per lot will move to below the limit and more lots will be created to make up the difference. The net will likely be less efficient utilization of lots leading to more overall land usage

Sometimes we do things that the market has failed to price properly because there is still value not captured in the economics. That is not performance, that is internalizing unpriced externalities. The free market, perfect information, and perfect prices do not exist.

France has similar legislation.

https://www.pv-magazine.com/2024/11/18/france-publishes-new-...

Yes, because the fossil fuel and energy markets are famously free of political/economic manipulation, and military and ideological intervention .. by both state and private actors.

Urban planning, too.

I wish it was a matter of education. Unfortunately that has little to do with the problem.

Don't worry, the US is actively trying to export that rejection, too, so it won't be alone. See Trump's messed up rant at the UN, and the policies and proposals of his conservative allies here in Canada.

Alberta was the the fastest growing renewable producer in Canada due to high winds and long solar days and low cloud cover. The provincial government in the pocket of the oil industry banned renewable developments for months under the excuse that it was "destroying farmland" and then came back months later with a policy that hamstringed future development.

to these people, renewables are a threat because they can't be a parasite off it.

The astonishing thing to me is that the production of solar panels is a huge source of mining and manufacturing jobs. Just like heat pumps. If we were serious about the objectives stated by the conservatives, Canada could easily be a world leader with Alberta and Saskatchewan profiting handsomely.

Very unlikely to be able to compete with China at scale however - especially since China is already at huge scale.

As always, the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. And if we take Conservative talking points in good faith, proctective trade policies buttress the economy in the long term. Right?

But I think you're wrong about the extractive side -- Canada has huge rare earth reserves, and while tapping into them does require an investment of time and effort, there's no reason we couldn't compete with China there.

And don't even get me started on how unattractive Canadian oil is on the international market. The same "can't compete with China" flavor of argument should apply just as well there if it makes any real sense.

Rare earths aren’t required for cheap solar.

Massive silicon crystal growth factories are. And they are a major capital investment. A capital investment China did almost a decade ago at large scale.

> the uneducated states of america

It's really not cool to insult people, you know. This is in just as poor taste as when smug Americans say "Europoors".

As an American, we deserve the derision. Please, continue shaming us, maybe some day people will get sick enough of it to try to prove them wrong.

That's probably asking too much, though.

As an American who usually gets mistaken for a Canadian while traveling, I know that some of us know they aren’t talking about us, but also that the people who they are talking about aren’t even in the conversation.

It’s effectively talking about people behind their back which is not that useful.

When I say "the uneducated states" I'm referring to general trends:

- lack of technological fluency

- lack of mathematical/scientific fluency

- lack of financial fluency

- lack of political fluency

- lack of critical thinking skills

- willful engagement with streaming psy-op platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Netflix, Tiktok

Agreed. And one of those six maybe applies to me. So I don’t sweat it, unless someone is being very broad and loud with the finger pointing.

Netflix a wild one to include in that list, imo. What makes you think it's on the same level? If you're making some reference to "cultural importance" I would wager that ABC/CBS in the 90s had just as strong a pull as Netflix does today culturally.

The right wing nut jobs are most definitely in the conversation here.

> "Europoors"

A term I don't think I've ever heard. Insulting America, on the other hand, is by orders of magnitude the favorite sport of the Internet.

You aren't here often, then? https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...

OP here. I am American. We are the Uneducated fucking States.

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