Lone Candle
Champion of Truth
Coal plants release more radiation into the world than nuclear plants.
Building nuclear plants would be a lot cheaper if you built many of the same ones repeatedly, as every piece along the way gets easier when you build many, with the high number planned in advance.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jXCFCecO7Y
The same workers who can build gas and oil facilities can build wind and solar facilities, so Texas had a workforce ready to build renewables.
Texas’s electricity system allows the cheapest producers to win the bid, so as long as someone built the wind or solar, they could beat out the pre-existing facilities.
Texas built a lot of transmission lines.
Texas had a lot of natural gas power plants, and these plants can ramp up fast, so they can turn on at night after the sun goes down.
Texas also had both good sun and wind to harness in the first place.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hled_zkh44
Critics have exaggerated the electricity and water costs of data centers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Q6t2PxZxDE
The Genius Trap of “What if the Wind Doesn’t Blow?”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIAwR4z7qdc
Green energy technology got better faster than most people expected. All new energy demand is now being met by growth in renewables.
However, the damage of climate change appears to be bad.
We would have been even further ahead in renewables if Reagen hadn’t ripped up Carter’s green energy investments.
China is the world’s biggest driver of electric tech. In 2025, in China and India, fossil fuel generation fell.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogAZS7_RhhA
People don’t realize how widespread and how good renewable energy has gotten.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgBTARXEfxU
Drone-delivered graphite bombs allow Ukraine to shut down Russian electricity without permanently damaging power plants.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSHZTnxm3OY
Small modular nuclear reactors may not have a large enough market to gain from the advantages of mass production, especially when there are multiple companies trying to do it around the world, splitting the market further.
Renewables combined with storage may be getting cheaper faster than progress on making small modular reactors profitable.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TeAE7rW_6s
“The Trump administration will pay $1 billion to a French company to walk away from two U.S. offshore wind leases as the administration ramps up its campaign against offshore wind and other renewable energy.”
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/french-company-stops-us-offshore-172230712.html
Compared to the alternatives, coal is worse for air pollution, worse for ocean pollution, worse for global warming, uses more water, is less efficient, and costs more. Coal was a competitive source of energy before we had modern gas plants.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfvBx4D0Cms