Utah Leaders Are Hindering Efforts to Develop Solar Despite Energy Supply Goal | Hacker News Reader

Utah Leaders Are Hindering Efforts to Develop Solar Despite Energy Supply Goal

propublica.org

30 pointshn_acker11 comments

The US will be dragged kicking and screaming to renewables, it has no other option.

Issues like this are so wild to me. It's not like Utah is Rich with coal or oil and there is fierce competition for energy.

This is an opportunity to bring dollars and jobs to their state and the only reason they're resistant is to stick with party lines.

I don't know if that's true. It's important to consider that most of the state is US government owned (military, national park, national forest). A large portion of the rest is used for mining which is, I think, still the largest industry in the state, employing a formidable share of workers and fueling related industries (trucking, concrete, gravel, salt, etc.).

Combined, these put a strain on land as a resource, and solar is the one energy source that demands that same resource the most.

Follow the money.

Leasing land for solar pays very little. The only reason people do it is because the land has no better use and solar doesn’t permanently damage it the way mining or farming could. Other industries aren’t being priced out.

The USA is one of the largest countries by landmass on the planet. We are not short on space anywhere in any capacity except immediately surrounding major cities.

Right so tell the US to give that land to Utah so that it can use it.

Note that when Trump returned Bears Ears to state control, everyone was upset.

Did you support it?

I think the only way we're going to see that happen is if first we do exactly what the right-wing hivemind truly believes to be the only solution: eliminate any and all environmental regulations. They're going to fight tooth and nail until they're made to understand that the "rivers-literally-so-polluted-they're-on-fire" era wasn't so great. So they're going to have to re-live it, the unbreatheable air in any populated area near industry; extremely loud and dirty diesel engines dumping soot everywhere, no limits on emissions from things like the paper/steel/oil industry, etc.

I have a theory about this, I gave it a name at one point but forgot what I called it.

And I think it relates to the idea in the Declaration of Independence where it says "people are disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable".

A generation experiences pain (like Cuyahoga, the river-on-fire), acid rain, ozone holes, etc... Struggle happens politically solutions help resolve some of the worst effects (if not outright), and people forget there was a problem.

"Why do we have these laws, this isn't even an issue" (this is for things that are obvious, not long term difficult to explain CO2 rise that people don't see easily (or explain away with industry provided excuses).

So we get a new generation falling for the corporate line because they don't see a problem, and ... yeah.

It doesn't even have to be a "solved" problem, just that it appears to be solved or mostly solved. Or people accept a new equilibrium, which is also the sad part.

Ehhhh we are pretty dumb

We are, but luckily, we’ve backed ourselves into a corner that acts as a forcing function. Coal generators are too expensive to keep running forever due to reaching the end of service life. LNG export expansion means US electrical consumers using fossil gas for power will be competing with global LNG consumers. ~90% of new power additions in the US are renewables. This is likely to continue because fossil generation is simply more expensive, even when considering capacity factors and subsidy sunsets.

Economics cannot fix stupid, but in this context, it can route around it.

(think in systems)

The original title is:

> Utah Leaders Are Hindering Efforts to Develop Solar Despite a Goal to Double the State's Energy Supply

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