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Comment by toomuchtodo

Not upsetting. It interesting, really. Finding ways to economically rationalize good climate behavior. You no longer need to ask people to install renewables to save the planet; it just makes plain economic sense [1] [2].

Utilities need electrical usage growth to offset consumption stagnation (and occasionally, structural and energy efficiency declines). That growth will occur moving ground transportation off of oil. If that creates an unexpected coalition, why not roll with it? It'll increase the EV uptake rate, it'll ensure transmission infrastructure still sees necessary upgrades and investment, and because vehicle charging can be structured around time of day metering, they're a perfect mix for more renewables being added to the grid.

EDIT: OP I replied to should not be downvoted. The situation really is dire [3]. At our current renewables deployment rate, it will take 400 years to swap out all fossil fuel generation; we can and must do better, but we're going to have to properly incentivize action and rapidly increase the replacement rate of fossil fuel generation.

[1] https://i.imgur.com/FCYT1xa.jpg

[2] https://www.lazard.com/perspective/levelized-cost-of-energy-...

[3] https://www.technologyreview.com/s/610457/at-this-rate-its-g...

parent toomuchtodo 8 years ago

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