I work at a factory that makes components for electric vehicles, and also sells some stuff to defense contractors on the side. Two years ago, the Trump Administration completely fucked over my company by threatening previously-guaranteed CHIPS money and magically deleting Inflation Reduction Act measures intended to encourage adoption of EVs. Our demand dropped like a rock, we laid off 80% of our workforce, raises got frozen, equity turned to dust, etc. Then the US did Israel’s bidding and started this asinine war with Iran. For a month there was nothing. Then the defense orders came trickling in. Then we couldn’t keep those tools running fast enough. Finally, two months later, the EV stuff showed up like a flash flood in the Grand Canyon. Insane we were almost bankrupted by his stupidity, then saved by it. For my part, I’m going to try to upgrade my gas furnace to a heat pump before it gets cold.
Christ I wish housing wasn’t so fucked in the UK. The odds of my landlord replacing the ancient gas boiler with a heat pump is nil, not when we’re still fitting millions of new gas boilers, even to the few new builds that make it through planning ffs. Even if I owned my house a heat pump might not be feasible for various reasons, many of them down to our housing stock just being totally naff in various ways.
Don’t get me wrong the Russians love to exaggerate our problems, but the best thing we can do to fuck the Kremlin over is getting the natural gas needle out of our collective arms which we’re just not that interested in doing. Sure the grid is decarbonising but the majority of heating is still natural gas, and the grid can’t be upgraded to fix this due to our genuine economic self-harm of discretionary planning where bored retirees and self-interested QUANGOs can delay everything to the point of non-viability.
Are photovoltaics an option for you? I can buy a pallet of 32 of them for about $5k and from what I understand, this is despite hefty tariffs. They’re approaching impulse buy territory. That said, I’m capable of installing them myself, which is a big part of the cost for most installations.
it’s the solution for white people. china has been steaming along at a breakneck pace towards renewable energy for years now. if it wasn’t for their production capacity for photovoltaic cells and batteries, there wouldn’t be a solar revolution right now.
of course, they also released a ton of oil when the Iran war started picking up, so that wasn’t great, but it also maybe saved our asses as well.
while the plight of the Uyghur and other minority groups, and the deeply state-enforced Han supremacist policies are something to criticize China for, it has nothing to do with the recent move towards solar and renewable energy, and is a good example of whataboutism.
also, it’s a bit racist to think of the Uyghurs and assume that they must be Arabs or Persians. the Uyghurs are native to central and east Asia, not what Westerners would refer to as the “Middle East”, or West Asia/Eastern Africa.
Yeah, all the current events making diesel more expensive suck, and will hurt everyone’s budget regardless if they drive. But we all know we need to use less diesel, right? We’ve just found the worst possible way to reduce the world’s reliance on diesel.
Can you imagine if this is Trump’s deal, all along? Take the fall for being a douche, while waging war on Iran, making oil scarce, forcing us all to rely less on it, saving the planet?
Oh my god someone slap me out of this shit. I need to recenter myself. 🤚🫱😳💨
You know, I’m convinced with the right person in his ear, he could be convinced to play that angle…Pysch! I was just doing this to save the world. Now we’re going fully renewable! He just needs to believe that he’ll be hailed as a hero.
Might have been an understandable (albeit crass) geopolitical play if the West was leading in renewables but instead it has pushed low and middle income countries further into China’s sphere of influence and also into purchasing more Russian oil.
History will see this as an accelerant in the process of global power shifting from West to East. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, the West has been resting on its laurel’s for a bit too long now, so this was likely an inevitable transition.
The Iran War is going to decrease fossil fuel consumption globally for the first time since COVID.
Shame we’re locked into ten more years of escalation. But we’ve actually turned a corner, believe it or not.
I work at a factory that makes components for electric vehicles, and also sells some stuff to defense contractors on the side. Two years ago, the Trump Administration completely fucked over my company by threatening previously-guaranteed CHIPS money and magically deleting Inflation Reduction Act measures intended to encourage adoption of EVs. Our demand dropped like a rock, we laid off 80% of our workforce, raises got frozen, equity turned to dust, etc. Then the US did Israel’s bidding and started this asinine war with Iran. For a month there was nothing. Then the defense orders came trickling in. Then we couldn’t keep those tools running fast enough. Finally, two months later, the EV stuff showed up like a flash flood in the Grand Canyon. Insane we were almost bankrupted by his stupidity, then saved by it. For my part, I’m going to try to upgrade my gas furnace to a heat pump before it gets cold.
Christ I wish housing wasn’t so fucked in the UK. The odds of my landlord replacing the ancient gas boiler with a heat pump is nil, not when we’re still fitting millions of new gas boilers, even to the few new builds that make it through planning ffs. Even if I owned my house a heat pump might not be feasible for various reasons, many of them down to our housing stock just being totally naff in various ways.
Don’t get me wrong the Russians love to exaggerate our problems, but the best thing we can do to fuck the Kremlin over is getting the natural gas needle out of our collective arms which we’re just not that interested in doing. Sure the grid is decarbonising but the majority of heating is still natural gas, and the grid can’t be upgraded to fix this due to our genuine economic self-harm of discretionary planning where bored retirees and self-interested QUANGOs can delay everything to the point of non-viability.
Are photovoltaics an option for you? I can buy a pallet of 32 of them for about $5k and from what I understand, this is despite hefty tariffs. They’re approaching impulse buy territory. That said, I’m capable of installing them myself, which is a big part of the cost for most installations.
Probably not, I’m renting and I doubt I can convince the landlord!
Why is the solution always killing brown people?
Because white people feel entitled to take their shit.
it’s the solution for white people. china has been steaming along at a breakneck pace towards renewable energy for years now. if it wasn’t for their production capacity for photovoltaic cells and batteries, there wouldn’t be a solar revolution right now.
of course, they also released a ton of oil when the Iran war started picking up, so that wasn’t great, but it also maybe saved our asses as well.
https://youtu.be/BkA0bkb6ZO0
Or China doing all those things and killing brown people (Uyghurs).
while the plight of the Uyghur and other minority groups, and the deeply state-enforced Han supremacist policies are something to criticize China for, it has nothing to do with the recent move towards solar and renewable energy, and is a good example of whataboutism.
also, it’s a bit racist to think of the Uyghurs and assume that they must be Arabs or Persians. the Uyghurs are native to central and east Asia, not what Westerners would refer to as the “Middle East”, or West Asia/Eastern Africa.
China pivoting is doing the most I think
Yeah, all the current events making diesel more expensive suck, and will hurt everyone’s budget regardless if they drive. But we all know we need to use less diesel, right? We’ve just found the worst possible way to reduce the world’s reliance on diesel.
That’s Market Forces for you.
Making everyone feel the pain all at once in the worst way possible
Holy fuck.
Can you imagine if this is Trump’s deal, all along? Take the fall for being a douche, while waging war on Iran, making oil scarce, forcing us all to rely less on it, saving the planet?
Oh my god someone slap me out of this shit. I need to recenter myself. 🤚🫱😳💨
You know, I’m convinced with the right person in his ear, he could be convinced to play that angle…Pysch! I was just doing this to save the world. Now we’re going fully renewable! He just needs to believe that he’ll be hailed as a hero.
He’s not that stupid, and he’s also not that smart
Thank you, I needed that.
Might have been an understandable (albeit crass) geopolitical play if the West was leading in renewables but instead it has pushed low and middle income countries further into China’s sphere of influence and also into purchasing more Russian oil.
History will see this as an accelerant in the process of global power shifting from West to East. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, the West has been resting on its laurel’s for a bit too long now, so this was likely an inevitable transition.
Idk about Russia, given how much of their infrastructure is being demolished.
But China has competitors in the green energy industry globally. The US just isn’t one of them.
Hegemonic Shift