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from the what-do-I-do-with-all-these-burner-inserters? dept.
Submitted via IRC for Bytram
U.S. greenhouse emissions fell in 2017 as coal plants shut
Greenhouse gases emissions from the largest U.S. industrial plants fell 2.7 percent in 2017, the Trump administration said, as coal plants shut and as that industry competes with cheap natural gas and solar and wind power that emit less pollution.
The drop was steeper than in 2016 when emissions fell 2 percent, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said.
EPA acting administrator Andrew Wheeler said the data proves that federal regulations are not necessary to drive carbon dioxide reductions.
[...] While Wheeler gave the administration credit for the reductions, which mainly came from the power sector, the numbers also underscore that the administration has not been able to stop the rapid pace of coal plant shutdowns.
[...] Natural gas releases far less carbon dioxide when burned than coal and a domestic abundance of gas has driven a wave of closures of coal plants. In 2017 utilities shut or converted from coal-to-gas nearly 9,000 megawatts (MW) of coal plants.
[...] The trend of U.S. coal plant shutdowns is expected to pick up this year, with power companies expecting to shut 14,000 MW of coal plants in calendar year 2018.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 18 2018, @05:00PM (11 children)
Calling the Nazis the "good guys"?
Geez. I knew you were a scumbag, VLM but really?
(Score: 2, Informative) by requerdanos on Thursday October 18 2018, @05:28PM (9 children)
This good guy/bad guy stuff is tricky because the metrics vary widely, and neither side was free of either evil or good.
The side that did not develop and use radiation-spewing highly destructive nukes on civilian populations? That's the Nazis [britannica.com].
The side that developed rocket technology that ensured the triumph of the nominally democratic west over the nominally communist east in the race to the moon? Nazis again [xkcd.com].
Life's funny sometimes.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 18 2018, @06:21PM (7 children)
Yeah, sure. The US and Britain had their own Einsatzgruppen [wikipedia.org]. Not.
Yes, the US had relocation camps for Japanese-Americans [wikipedia.org], but AFAIK, none of them died due to deliberate maltreatment, disease, starvation, and overwork, or executed as unfit for labor. What's more, none of them were subjected to poison gas unlike the Nazi camps [wikipedia.org], which became sites for medical experiments. Eugenics experiments, freezing prisoners to determine how downed pilots were affected by exposure, and experimental and lethal medicines
Yup. the Nazis were *definitely* the good guys. (that's sarcasm, for you Poe's Law impaired folks).
You make me sick. Don't try that revisionist history bullshit with me.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by bob_super on Thursday October 18 2018, @06:51PM (6 children)
That spot rapidly vanishing in the distance ? That was the point you missed.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 18 2018, @07:45PM (5 children)
Nope. I didn't miss any point. Intentions are just as (if not more) important than the actions they engender.
Yes, the US developed nuclear weapons, *before* the Nazis. Had Hitler and his flunkies really understood what a game-changer that was, they might have beaten the US to the punch. But of course, they *never* would have used them. Certainly not against civillian [wikipedia.org] targets. [/sarcasm]
Were the US, Britain or the USSR knights of good? No. However, they were *forced* into war by the Nazis, despite Britain [wikipedia.org] *and* the USSR [wikipedia.org] signing treaties with the Nazis. Who conveniently ignored such agreements when it suited them.
The Nazis had an expansionist, bigoted agenda that caused enormous suffering within their own borders and they then chose to export that suffering to their neighbors. It was their aggressiveness, torture and cruelty that let the Allies to fight against them.
So, no. I don't think the US or any of their WWII allies were completely good and wonderful, and some of the acts (Dresden [wikipedia.org], Hiroshima/Nagasaki [wikipedia.org]) committed by them were reprehensible.
But calling the Nazis "the good guys" is not only ridiculous, it demeans the memory of the millions *murdered* (not killed in battle) by them. Study a little history, you might learn something. I won't hold my breath.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Thursday October 18 2018, @07:58PM (4 children)
> Study a little history, you might learn something. I won't hold my breath.
I do. Geography, too. We can compare one day, if you dare, dear AC.
But I have studied humans too. So when someone makes a point via an obvious joke, I don't look like a fool for taking the words literally and out of context.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 18 2018, @08:01PM (3 children)
You do realize it was VLM who called the Nazis "good guys." Coming from him, I know it's no joke.
You've been around here long enough to know better too. Or haven't you been paying attention?
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Thursday October 18 2018, @09:22PM (2 children)
Even VLM occasionally deserves the benefit of the doubt, especially on a post that reads like a joke.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday October 19 2018, @12:50AM
That didn't read like a joke and he's said shit like that with the deadly seriousness of a black mamba bite far, far too many times to be given the benefit of the doubt. When someone shows you who he is, believe him the first time.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 19 2018, @03:19AM
Umm, exactly what part of "In the real world coal to syngas and syngas to gasoline is more "fun". The good guys used that tech in WWII. I suspect we'll burn most of our centuries worth of coal in our cars, not our power plants." is a joke? VLM is known for being the alt-right fanboi of Soylentnews, why would we give him the benefit of the doubt when that "joke" wasn't even funny and lines up with his general biases?
Please, explain to me why we should give shitty fucking worldviews the benefit of the doubt? I wouldn't suggest punishing people for "wrong think" but I sure as hell won't cut such assholes any slack or ease them into thinking I even slightly accept such bullshit.
If VLM isn't a racist neo-nazi piece of shit then he should stop trolling everyone with racist neo-nazi "jokes".
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 18 2018, @06:21PM
Yeah, sure. The US and Britain had their own Einsatzgruppen [wikipedia.org]. Not.
Yes, the US had relocation camps for Japanese-Americans [wikipedia.org], but AFAIK, none of them died due to deliberate maltreatment, disease, starvation, and overwork, or executed as unfit for labor. What's more, none of them were subjected to poison gas unlike the Nazi camps [wikipedia.org], which became sites for medical experiments. Eugenics experiments, freezing prisoners to determine how downed pilots were affected by exposure, and experimental and lethal medicines
Yup. the Nazis were *definitely* the good guys. (that's sarcasm, for you Poe's Law impaired folks).
You make me sick. Don't try that revisionist history bullshit with me.
(Score: 3, Informative) by c0lo on Thursday October 18 2018, @05:55PM
Scientifically, he's an idiot in the first place, scumbag in the second (maybe as a consequence of the first).
Synthetic fuel comes with a high energy cost, reducing the overall efficiency of directly burning that coal.
On top of that, large coal electrical plants will be able to squeeze more efficiency than an ICE.
Even if you'd use the energy produced by a coal plant to reduce alumina to aluminium and then "burn" that aluminium back to oxide into an aluminium-air battery [wikipedia.org] you'll be better off in energy efficiency and environmental cost than going from coal to synthesis fuel to ICE.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford