Second cup of Coffee Talk

[dare2be]

That's where the politics and lobbyists come into play. They make sure it doesn't become more cost effective and less money will be spent to make it more reliable.

 

[forty_three]

That's where the politics and lobbyists come into play. They make sure it doesn't become more cost effective and less money will be spent to make it more reliable.

All evidence to the contrary of late, politics cannot alter reality:
Renewable energy will be cheaper than fossil fuels by 2020, according to a new report

We love the free market. And the free market will kill coal before long.

 

[dare2be]

politics cannot alter reality

Unfortunately, too often politics creates reality. See: all Trump tweets and the people who gulp it down.

 

[forty_three]

Unfortunately, too often politics creates reality. See: all Trump tweets and the people who gulp it down.

Jedi mind tricks only work on weak minds.

-Wayne Gretzky
-Michael Scott

 

[dare2be]

Ah, well, the problem is too many weak minds who tend to also be alpha males, thus bullying the rest of the free-thinking populace.

Also, I know what you were getting at regarding West Virginia's adoption or lack thereof of wind power, but their generation capacity and percent of total generation is higher than Ohio's.

 

[Bloody Brian Burke]

We should pay higher taxes. Reagan reduced taxation levels drastically and they have remained roughly at that level since that time. Since then, we have massively increased the government's debt (31% of GDP when Reagan took office to approximately 107% today) due to constant revenue shortfall and social stratification has worsened with most of the wealth being concentrated in a small group of people. It was a disastrous mistake out of lockstep with taxation levels in similarly developed nations. It's not the only factor (foreign competition, transition to mgmt/info economy, automation, etc.) that has been ruinous to the middle/working classes in America, but it's one of the them and one entirely within our control.

Carbon taxes compensate for market failures. Sure when the Valdez spills Exxon had to pay to clean it up. But are they paying for the real costs of daily poor air quality, oil runoff in our rivers, etc. from gas and oil? Nope. We all are sharing that hidden cost at present. So the market has failed because as often happens, markets do not account for long term and systemic costs, especially when you can't legally hold a party responsible for those outcomes. It's easy to blame a company that poisons a well and make them liable for the people using that well. What about when it's all of us, and it's not dramatic, but subtle. So market corrections have to be made. And the markets will adjust. Yes, gas and oil will become more expensive, but it will be more akin to their real market/costs. And alternatives will adjust to compensate with green energy sources becoming lower and lower.

So I don't know what the exact best level of carbon taxes is (where the matrix of ideal cost/benefit is), but they are going to help. And if our taxes go up... good. Maybe they will encourage some more responsible behaviors from our citizenry of fucking idiots who got a little scared during the gas crisis and bought more sensible cars, and then went right back to leasing that big ass SUV a few years later. And maybe it will help correct the economy toward wider scale use of green energies that are better for all of us.

Gas taxes, automobile taxes, road tolls, sales tax on automobiles and auto-related goods & services (maintenance, insurance etc.), municipal vehicle registration taxes, wheel taxes, the god damn Chicken Tax...

Seems to me like people who drive already pay their fair share without throwing a carbon tax onto it.

/Canada never really had that whole slash and burn tax cut era (our version of Ronald Reagan actually introduced a 7% national sales tax) so our taxes are pretty much where they should be. The only reason the carbon tax is being implemented is because Trudeau promised every freebie he could think of to win an election and plunged a balanced budget into long-term deficit because "taxing the rich" only provided a small bump of additional tax revenue.

 

[dash]

Ann Coulter: No female is more hated in America than me.
Laura Ingraham: Hold my beer

Fox host regrets mocking Florida survivor

 

[esls79]

Ann Coulter: No female is more hated in America than me.
Laura Ingraham: Hold my beer

Fox host regrets mocking Florida survivor

Coulter pees standing up

 

[forty_three]

Also, I know what you were getting at regarding West Virginia's adoption or lack thereof of wind power, but their generation capacity and percent of total generation is higher than Ohio's.

For now. The giant wind farms in Van Wert (NW Ohio - the super flat part) have at times driven prices into the negative because they were producing more power than we could consume.

And they are still building.

Ann Coulter: No female is more hated in America than me.
Laura Ingraham: Hold my beer

Fox host regrets mocking Florida survivor

"I regret that advertisers are dropping my retarded ass"

 

[sbb122]

Great movie and what it feels like we live in.

 

[forty_three]

Great movie and what it feels like we live in.

When it came out, it felt like a comedy.

It's inching towards documentary now...

 

[puckhead]

 

[dare2be]

When it came out, it felt like a comedy.

It's inching towards documentary now...

If that's Idiocracy, I thought it was too close to documentary already when it came out.

 

[dash]

Make American Cars Great Again

E.P.A. Prepares to Roll Back Rules Requiring Cars to Be Cleaner and More Efficient

 

[dare2be]

and...

The E.P.A. Says It Wants Research Transparency. Scientists See an Attack on Science.

The bottom line, critics say, is that if the E.P.A. is limited to considering only studies in which the data is publicly available, the agency will have a narrower and incomplete body of research to draw on when considering regulations. “It sends a pretty chilling message to scientists that their work can’t be used or won’t be used,” said Sean Gallagher, a government relations officer with the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a nonprofit science advocacy organization.

Mr. Pruitt laid out his plans for the new transparency policy in an interview last week with The Daily Caller, a conservative news site. The proposal is based on legislation named the Honest and Open New E.P.A. Science Treatment Act, also known as the Honest Act, a bill sponsored by Representative Lamar Smith, a Texas Republican. The bill has failed to gain support in Congress for years despite having the support of the energy, manufacturing and chemical industries.

 

[thedddd]

Coulter pees standing up

Oh didn't you know Ann Coulter was in a movie:

 

[Darkstone42]

and...

The E.P.A. Says It Wants Research Transparency. Scientists See an Attack on Science.

The bottom line, critics say, is that if the E.P.A. is limited to considering only studies in which the data is publicly available, the agency will have a narrower and incomplete body of research to draw on when considering regulations. “It sends a pretty chilling message to scientists that their work can’t be used or won’t be used,” said Sean Gallagher, a government relations officer with the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a nonprofit science advocacy organization.

Mr. Pruitt laid out his plans for the new transparency policy in an interview last week with The Daily Caller, a conservative news site. The proposal is based on legislation named the Honest and Open New E.P.A. Science Treatment Act, also known as the Honest Act, a bill sponsored by Representative Lamar Smith, a Texas Republican. The bill has failed to gain support in Congress for years despite having the support of the energy, manufacturing and chemical industries.

It's an especially dangerous proposal because it masks its intention behind words that sound like they favor good science. But it intentionally obscures that individual health data is necessarily not public.

"Oh, you don't think scientific data should be public so people can independently verify it?"

No, I don't think we should have to decide between developing life-saving regulations and keeping people's personal health information private.

I mean, I guess we could just spend the tens to hundreds of millions of data to carefully redact all personal information in those records, but who the hell is going to pay for that, Scott?

 

[Comeds]

Fun fact:

A scientific poll of over 4000 prison Mad Libs games finds that "shank" is by far both the most popular noun and the most popular verb used in the game.

This, in my opinion, is my best post in a while and neither this post or the tweet has gotten me any sitcom writing offers. This is not a good Friday.

 

[Comeds]

This, in my opinion, is my best post in a while and neither this post or the tweet has gotten me any sitcom writing offers. This is not a good Friday.

Does anyone want to read my spec script for Cheers called "Cliff Gets The AIDS"? It's a bit dated but I think it holds up. He gets the AIDS, I mean AIDS, from delivering mail to a homosexual couple. That might have to change now, but at the time we thought that's how you got it. The B story was about the gang watching the Bruins and then discussing how bad they sucked.

 

[thedddd]

Ted Nugent: Parkland students protesting gun violence are 'soulless'

Where is Laura Ingraham? Should she say he should just shut up and play guitar.