The clock is ticking toward a deadline to meet renewable-energy standards. But USA TODAY's analysis finds local governments banning wind turbines, solar plants.

Across America, clean energy plants are being banned faster than they’re being built::The clock is ticking toward a deadline to meet renewable-energy standards. But USA TODAY’s analysis finds local governments banning wind turbines, solar plants.

  • PuddingFeeling [she/her]@lemmy.caEnglish
    3·
    9 months ago

    “But a wave of disinformation in 2023, falsely claiming offshore wind projects killed whales, resulted in a sharp decline in public support for offshore wind.”

    I can’t believe people fell for that.

    • Asafum@feddit.nlEnglish
      1·
      9 months ago

      My dad was absolutely one of them… He mentioned it out of nowhere and I couldn’t refute it because I had never encountered that lunacy before then…

      • Duamerthrax@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        9 months ago

        He already wanted to hate wind then and this is just his justification. I once encountered someone telling me that wind turbines cause global warming. I told them the only part generating heat was the copper in the motor and that’s the same in every power generation. Turn out Faux News misrepresented a study that showed the turbulence caused by wind turbines brought warm air to the ground level.

        • SkyeStarfall@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
          1·
          9 months ago

          Except physically speaking, that warmth from the motor is still just from the energy the wind has… energy that would get transformed to heat from friction eventually anyway. It’s just that this way we get useful work for our own purposes in the form of electricity.

      • Dark Arc@social.packetloss.ggEnglish
        1·
        9 months ago

        I hate that. They’ll just say something like “well how can you support solar panels when it kills the rare ballet fork bird?! Or when the solar panels kill the nearby trees!? Or when the toxic chemicals leak into the streams and the kill the river!?”

        It’s just like this slew of crap and you can’t possibly know it’s totally crap when you start talking to them. Then you go back research it and it turns out it’s from some (typically CCP or Russian financially backed) fake news website “pRoMOTinG fReeDoM aNd tHe AMeRicAn wAY.”

        Then they just don’t want to hear about how freedom4everything.scam is a scam and think you’re being political and close minded for insisting they check these things out and look for collaborating sources with more credibility, NYTimes, Washington Post, WSJ, etc.

        Then that turns into a whole “but the NYTimes is too liberal to ever mention mutant fish caused by renewable energy” … and it just goes on and on…

        • Asafum@feddit.nlEnglish
          1·
          9 months ago

          I don’t know how well it works in the end, but when I see that kind of stuff from people I usually say “I’m not going to tell you who to listen to, but try not to use sources that are named anything politically charged. No “patriot.grift” site no “RealMuricanDaily.bs” no “StarSpangledReport.asshat” anyone who chooses a name like that is broadcasting a political bias.”

        • kent_eh@lemmy.caEnglish
          1·
          9 months ago

          They’ll point to articles on Breitbart and other sites that are even less trustworthy.

    • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      9 months ago

      I can. There is a reason why only two new nuclear reactors have been built since 1972 in the nation that figured the technology out first. It takes almost nothing to scare people out of being smart

      • XTornado@lemmy.mlEnglish
        1·
        9 months ago

        I mean… it’s quite different for nuclear there has been some big international incidents and it’s something that hurted people directly plus invisible stuff that can kill you usually is terrifying. Knowing that a similar technology is used for bombs that cause terrible destruction didn’t help either.

        So even though it can be done with no risks… Is quite understandable people being afraid of it.

        Like the whale thing is nothing in comparison.

        • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          9 months ago

          Everything you just said can apply to coal. There are monthly incidents involving coal mines and plants. It puts out plenty of stuff that is invisible and can kill you. Plus hydrocarbons are the lifeblood of all warfare almost as much as gunpowder.

          Go spend a few years of your life building scrubbers for coal and low grade diesel then get back to me about how nuclear is dangerous. Bunch of rednecks with screwdrivers and drunk ex-Sovits with wrenchs. I have seen them do some scary stuff. At least with a nuclear plant you can’t wipe your butt without ten PEs signing off on it.

          • WideEyedStupid@lemmy.worldEnglish
            1·
            9 months ago

            The total death toll and the number of people suffering health issues (past and present) due to coal are orders of magnitude larger than those due to nuclear power (not to even mention the damage to the environment!). The problem is that people respond more to one-time big disasters than to numbers over time. Something like Chornobyl is terrifying and a big deal, so people remember it. They don’t remember every Tom, Dick and Harry that’s died over the years due to black lung or accidents or other stuff from coal.

            You can even see this attitude in other ways too. It seems like a lot of Americans are still suffering mass trauma from 9/11 and accept the most horrific Patriot Act-type shit because of it. But in the end, it was less than 3000 people who died in the attack (and don’t get me wrong, it was terrible!), but waaaaaaay more people die (and have died) from lack of (access to) healthcare, and it seems that still barely anyone is actually trying to fix that. Or a mass shooting that kills 11 people, that’s a big deal, right? But the fact that over a million Americans died due to Covid didn’t really register as a disaster for a lot of people.

            Nuclear power is such a no-brainer to me, but it sounds ‘scary’ and lots of people don’t understand it, which makes it even more scary. Plus, of course the fossil fuel industry propaganda and lobbying, and the memory of people who know other people who used to work in coal towns and had pretty decent lives. Or the “what about nuclear waste!”-crap that always comes up. Yes, nuclear waste is a thing, but let’s put it next to all the damaging crap that coal mines produce, accumulated. It’s way worse.

            Anyway. It’s hard to fight all that, even when rationally, statistically, nuclear power should be a no-brainer. Edit: and there is no political will either, it seems. Whether it’s because they love their fossil fuel bribes or because they’re too scared to lose some voters… they’ll never do good things just to do good.

            Edit: just to be clear, it’s definitely not a USA-exclusive problem. I currently live in Germany and their weird relationship to nuclear power is also batshit. All based on fear and bullshit.