"EV owners don’t have to spend as much on repairs, plus they don’t have to buy gas. And while they have to pay for electricity to charge the cars, that tends on average to cost a lot less."
And we never, ever have to wait in line for a pump at the gas station or pump any smelly gas. Just plug it in when we get home. It’s great! It takes about 15 minutes longer to drive from my home in San Diego to my mom's in Tucson because of charging, but that's still a big net gain in time over the year.
People need to understand that we have been driving an extinction event that is causing the decline in wildlife populations faster than that at the end of the Permian era, a few hundred years versus 60,000 +/- 48,000 years. The GOP has been actively destroying the environmental movement since Reagan in their effort to end regulation of the rich who they believe should be allowed to rule the world at the expense of all else.
The GOP and their supporters are THE enemy and will collapse all ecosystems on earth if they are not stopped and this will also end us, we will not survive. Really, read about previous extinction events to get an idea as to what to expect when the GOP succeeds.
We need to build solar arrays over parking lots. Raised. Coverage for shoppers. Harnessing the energy , helping not heat up the earth more by doing this over pavement. I’m sick of seeing the solar arrays put on farmland here .
Of course this regime doesn’t care but maybe some corporations would? I mean it’s a win win. Shoppers get shaded dryer areas to walk to Walmart or wherever. Maybe Costco could do this? It’s up to us now.
Thank you for this article. Yeah, this comment perfectly sums up the short sighted stupidity of this administration and their polluting agenda, “We are at risk of losing hundreds of thousands of jobs, hundreds of billions of dollars in manufacturing investments and in clean energy projects, and ceding innovation on a global scale.”
Thank you for writing such a clear and detailed explanation of what is going on and what is at stake.
Trump's policy reflects the dead hand of the 1980s, when early attempts at conservation and renewable energy were labeled unmanly, un-American, and impractical by the rising far right. "Vote Democratic and freeze in the dark!"
At this point most people have moved on for a long list of reasons, including the widespread understanding that climate change is real and technological advances which have made "alternative" energy both cheap and practical (although perhaps still unmanly!).
Trump has not moved on. He's taking us back to the 1980s and the 1890s. All of which should have been clear to both the voters and his corporate supporters. What do you think you get when you support a candidate who believes that climate change is "a Chinese hoax?"
Environmentalists wanted you to live in the dark in caves without electricity. I still hate Ronald Reagan. Just to spite his corpse, I use the com-moo-nist metric system for all my measurements. I'm a grudge holder.
I'm an outlier, but my personal number one reason for supporting Harris, and Democrats in general, is climate change. Every other thing Trump does, short of nuclear war, is recoverable from. Climate change isn't. Every carbon molecule released into the planet's one and only atmosphere, a very thin blanket that among other things is our world's thermostat, is going to be there for decades. Maybe centuries.
I'm an ecologist. I see the changes already started. We don't know how bad this might get, or how fast, but we know it is reckless. I wish people would wake up.
I really hope someone(s) are keeping a list for 2028 - we need to hit the ground running with EOs and followed up by enacting *laws* that prevent this BS in the future... There are so many places that are being damaged. :-(
I'm an environmental scientist, and while climate change isn't my specific specialty, it is something I know quite a bit about. This is one of the most digestible write-ups on the current situation and history of climate change policy I've read in a long time-- thank you for taking the time to research and publish this, its crucial for Americans of all stripes to understand what is at stake. Slowing climate change has been a long, arduous process, and any progress lost will take decades to make up. It's difficult to watch the the administration attempt to destroy the EPA and my sector as a whole and not feel a little hopeless, but maybe the companies with long-term investments in renewable energy will successfully lobby to stop these rollbacks. I'm not holding my breath.
Thank you so much, seriously. We work hard on articles like this. ("We" because it's very much a collaboration with my fantastic editors.) Really gratifying to hear.
The environmental regulations are a political issue, not a business one. As the article points out business has already found a way to make money producing renewable energy and it has changed specifications and factory set ups to meet the regulations. They aren't going to suddenly reverse everything and divest from renewable energy. That would cost money. The regulation horse has left the barn and the door is closed. No going back.
Climate change currently presents possibly the most existential threat to mankind in the far term. As can always be expected, the Republicans not only continue to kick the can down the road, they refuse to even kick the can at all. Citizens United, at the end of the day might be responsible for the destruction of the Earth's atmosphere so long as it keeps Republicans in office. Talk about the Law of Unintended Consequences!
Land of the Flaming Rivers - new name for what used to the United States of America. Joins the Gulf of America in the new lexicon of the T. Rump criminal enterprise. Now if they can only get Nature to play along...
That national security implications of fighting electrification are huge. Future war machines are going to be small, cheap, disposable drones. The asymmetry of a $500 drone sinking a multi-million- or billion-dollar ship, or destroying a fighter jet on the tarmac, or destroying a bridge we've seen in Ukraine and Russia prove this out.
If you don't know, by the way, none of those drones have combustion engines. It's all electrified.
Climate change is an existential threat, let's specify that. But fighting electrification is also an existential threat. They keep talking about more ship building as we enter an era where if we ever got into a shooting war with China, they'd be sinking our destroyers and carriers with drones that cost 0.00004% of what it costs to put the ship into the water and then the bottom of the Pacific.
"EV owners don’t have to spend as much on repairs, plus they don’t have to buy gas. And while they have to pay for electricity to charge the cars, that tends on average to cost a lot less."
And we never, ever have to wait in line for a pump at the gas station or pump any smelly gas. Just plug it in when we get home. It’s great! It takes about 15 minutes longer to drive from my home in San Diego to my mom's in Tucson because of charging, but that's still a big net gain in time over the year.
Unfortunately, not all of us live in free-standing homes with garages. Some of us live in apartments or condos with street parking only.
People need to understand that we have been driving an extinction event that is causing the decline in wildlife populations faster than that at the end of the Permian era, a few hundred years versus 60,000 +/- 48,000 years. The GOP has been actively destroying the environmental movement since Reagan in their effort to end regulation of the rich who they believe should be allowed to rule the world at the expense of all else.
The GOP and their supporters are THE enemy and will collapse all ecosystems on earth if they are not stopped and this will also end us, we will not survive. Really, read about previous extinction events to get an idea as to what to expect when the GOP succeeds.
We need to build solar arrays over parking lots. Raised. Coverage for shoppers. Harnessing the energy , helping not heat up the earth more by doing this over pavement. I’m sick of seeing the solar arrays put on farmland here .
Of course this regime doesn’t care but maybe some corporations would? I mean it’s a win win. Shoppers get shaded dryer areas to walk to Walmart or wherever. Maybe Costco could do this? It’s up to us now.
Thank you for this article. Yeah, this comment perfectly sums up the short sighted stupidity of this administration and their polluting agenda, “We are at risk of losing hundreds of thousands of jobs, hundreds of billions of dollars in manufacturing investments and in clean energy projects, and ceding innovation on a global scale.”
Thank you for writing such a clear and detailed explanation of what is going on and what is at stake.
Trump's policy reflects the dead hand of the 1980s, when early attempts at conservation and renewable energy were labeled unmanly, un-American, and impractical by the rising far right. "Vote Democratic and freeze in the dark!"
At this point most people have moved on for a long list of reasons, including the widespread understanding that climate change is real and technological advances which have made "alternative" energy both cheap and practical (although perhaps still unmanly!).
Trump has not moved on. He's taking us back to the 1980s and the 1890s. All of which should have been clear to both the voters and his corporate supporters. What do you think you get when you support a candidate who believes that climate change is "a Chinese hoax?"
Oh well. Nature bats last.
Environmentalists wanted you to live in the dark in caves without electricity. I still hate Ronald Reagan. Just to spite his corpse, I use the com-moo-nist metric system for all my measurements. I'm a grudge holder.
King Coal. https://bsky.app/profile/opsan.bsky.social/post/3lti6qt573s2w
I'm an outlier, but my personal number one reason for supporting Harris, and Democrats in general, is climate change. Every other thing Trump does, short of nuclear war, is recoverable from. Climate change isn't. Every carbon molecule released into the planet's one and only atmosphere, a very thin blanket that among other things is our world's thermostat, is going to be there for decades. Maybe centuries.
I'm an ecologist. I see the changes already started. We don't know how bad this might get, or how fast, but we know it is reckless. I wish people would wake up.
I really hope someone(s) are keeping a list for 2028 - we need to hit the ground running with EOs and followed up by enacting *laws* that prevent this BS in the future... There are so many places that are being damaged. :-(
This is a really excellent summary on the clean energy movement!
I'm an environmental scientist, and while climate change isn't my specific specialty, it is something I know quite a bit about. This is one of the most digestible write-ups on the current situation and history of climate change policy I've read in a long time-- thank you for taking the time to research and publish this, its crucial for Americans of all stripes to understand what is at stake. Slowing climate change has been a long, arduous process, and any progress lost will take decades to make up. It's difficult to watch the the administration attempt to destroy the EPA and my sector as a whole and not feel a little hopeless, but maybe the companies with long-term investments in renewable energy will successfully lobby to stop these rollbacks. I'm not holding my breath.
Thank you so much, seriously. We work hard on articles like this. ("We" because it's very much a collaboration with my fantastic editors.) Really gratifying to hear.
The environmental regulations are a political issue, not a business one. As the article points out business has already found a way to make money producing renewable energy and it has changed specifications and factory set ups to meet the regulations. They aren't going to suddenly reverse everything and divest from renewable energy. That would cost money. The regulation horse has left the barn and the door is closed. No going back.
Very positive view!
What a great summary of the dangers inherent in this administration’s energy agenda. Thank you for this!
Climate change currently presents possibly the most existential threat to mankind in the far term. As can always be expected, the Republicans not only continue to kick the can down the road, they refuse to even kick the can at all. Citizens United, at the end of the day might be responsible for the destruction of the Earth's atmosphere so long as it keeps Republicans in office. Talk about the Law of Unintended Consequences!
Land of the Flaming Rivers - new name for what used to the United States of America. Joins the Gulf of America in the new lexicon of the T. Rump criminal enterprise. Now if they can only get Nature to play along...
That national security implications of fighting electrification are huge. Future war machines are going to be small, cheap, disposable drones. The asymmetry of a $500 drone sinking a multi-million- or billion-dollar ship, or destroying a fighter jet on the tarmac, or destroying a bridge we've seen in Ukraine and Russia prove this out.
If you don't know, by the way, none of those drones have combustion engines. It's all electrified.
Climate change is an existential threat, let's specify that. But fighting electrification is also an existential threat. They keep talking about more ship building as we enter an era where if we ever got into a shooting war with China, they'd be sinking our destroyers and carriers with drones that cost 0.00004% of what it costs to put the ship into the water and then the bottom of the Pacific.
Trump wants to be Obama SO bad, it's almost hilarious.