Comment by im3w1l | Hacker News Reader

Comment by im3w1l | Hacker News Reader

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> Ban construction (...) and let the economy and market forces compete to find the cheapest alternative

This sounds nice and unbiased on paper, but often this means that rather than expanding alternatives, the poor are simply made to go without and then they will scream at politicians for relief until they get it and you are right back at square one.

As a fellow Swede you will know how the price of gasoline has become a hot topic and how politicians campaigned on bringing the price down again by reversing climate policies.

Personally I think the solution is to make a commie-style 5 year plan and then work backwards to what kind of incentives would be needed for that plan, probably involving industry leaders in that discussion. Then you can make sure that the incentives are technology neutral. This ensures that if nothing better comes along the "free" market will execute 5 year plan but they do have the option of gambling on alternatives if they so choose or if some wonder technology emerges out of a secret lab.

A commie-style 5 year plan or even 10 year plan would be kind of great. Electricity is one of those products that we know what we want long term and should be willing to budget for it in a reasonable way. We need to double the production while eliminating emissions, while at the same time restore rivers and prepare for more extreme weather. We also need a stable energy market without shortages, as week/month long shortages makes citizens and businesses go to the government for solutions. As the last energy crisis illustrated, people can't just stop going to work because the market price for electricity is too high. People need to eat and pay rent, and those needs is why they go and scream at politicians to fix it.

The price of gasoline is a actually a good example of an fairly open debate over what the costs should be on a national level for a global product. We are currently paying one of the highest electricity prices in EU, not because the energy is expensive to produce at the wind farms, but because construction of new transmission from the place of production to the place of consumption is carried by the consumer. There is very little political discussion on what a fair price is for electricity, and how the cost of the grid should be fairly paid.

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