Wednesday, March 27, 2024

Fwd: Green tidbit



---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Joyce Segal <joyceck10@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, Mar 27, 2024 at 9:19 AM
Subject: Green tidbit
To: Kim Cooper <kimc0240@gmail.com>


EDITOR NOTE: Prices too high for EVs now you know why, Protectionism

China has filed a complaint against the Biden administration's EV incentive policy with the World Trade Organization (WTO), Bloomberg reports.

New rules for the federal EV tax credit enacted in 2022 as part of the Inflation Reduction Act are "discriminatory" and "seriously distorted" the global EV supply chain, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said Tuesday in a statement announcing the move.
Supply-chain requirements that went into effect at the beginning of this year have already limited the number of EVs that qualify for the full $7,500 tax credit. But the rules also specifically seek to block EVs with battery components or raw materials sourced from businesses controlled by "foreign entities of concern"—including the Chinese government—from getting incentives.

The foreign-content limitation, applying to organizations "owned by, controlled by, or subject to the jurisdiction or direction of a government of a foreign country that is a covered nation" might potentially also cause issues for Polestar, or even Volvo—companies that are turning to U.S. assembly but have an ownership chain that tracks back to China, or a combination of China and shareholders.

Automakers will face two different proposals to shield the auto industry from China in this election year of 2024: Biden's supply-chain-focused approach, or Trump's tariff-focused approach. The former president and presumed challenger to Biden earlier this month announced at a campaign rally that he would apply a 100% tariff to Mexico-built cars from Chinese companies, EV or not.

The U.S. isn't alone in curtailing EV incentives for Chinese-made vehicles. France also acted to exclude China with its new EV incentive, and the European Union is expected to impose additional tariffs on EVs imported from China, Bloomberg notes.

--
Joyce Cooper
CEO SunSmartPower
650-430-6243
SunSmartPower.com

Tuesday, March 26, 2024

ANS -- Ohio’s largest solar farm will also be the US’s largest agrivoltaics project

Here is a very short article about one of the things happening to help slow climate change and use farmland wisely. 
--Kim


ohio solar sheepPhoto: Erich Burnett/Oberlin College

Ohio has green-lit what will be the state's largest solar farm – and the US's largest agrivoltaics project.

The $1 billion Oak Run Solar Project, approved by the Ohio Power Siting Board last week, will sit on over 6,000 acres in Madison County, west of Columbus. Bill Gates owns some of that land.

The 800-megawatt (MW) solar farm will have two 3.5-mile-long transmission lines. It will also be paired with a 300 MW battery energy storage facility and create enough electricity to power 170,000 households. Kansas City-based Savion, a Shell Group subsidiary, is Oak Run's developer.

Nearly 90% of Madison County is designated as farmland, and Oak Run has faced a lot of local opposition. So as part of the approval conditions, Oak Run will graze at least 1,000 sheep and grow crops on 2,000 acres after the first year of operation. Within eight years of operation, at least 70% of the farmable project area, or at least 4,000 acres, will include agrivoltaics.

That will make it the largest agrivoltaics project in the US. According to the Ohio Power Siting Board, it will also be a first-of-its-kind utility-scale solar energy plan for livestock grazing and row crops.

Nolan Rutschilling, Ohio Environmental Council's managing director of Energy Policy, said, "As climate change continues to disrupt Ohio's agriculture practices and yields, the practice of agriculture in tandem with solar panels represents a unique and bold opportunity to act on climate."

Oak Run will generate $7.2 million in revenue annually for the county, local governments, and schools and will create 1,500 union construction jobs.

Read more: Texas installs another big solar + battery storage project





Monday, March 25, 2024

ANS -- The Dreaded Trump-Biden Rematch is Here. Or Is It?

This one is more positive and upbeat.  You'll like it. 
--Kim


The Dreaded Trump-Biden Rematch is Here. Or Is It?

What I Thought About Biden's Electrifying State of the Union

umair haque
Eudaimonia and Co
·

·

Image Credit: Andrew Harnik

The dreaded Trump-Biden rematch is here. Or is it? We've been discussing all this over at the Issue, my new little publication. Come on over, have a read, click around — there's tons to read there already, and I'd be delighted to see you there. For now, here are some thoughts about…

If you watched the State of the Union — and if you didn't, give it a few minutes of your time — someone very different appears to have entered the building. Biden, they said, was old, frail, confused, an elderly man with one foot in the grave.

But the figure who showed up to give the State of the Union was anything but. Razor-sharp, whip-smart, lightning-fast. Angry, vocal, funny, humorous, sinking the knife into the GOP, and then twisting it, again and again. Taking no prisoners. His ratings soared, and for good reason. This Joe Biden? People loved him. Embraced him. Cheered him on, like they didn't for that other guy also named Joe Biden, lately — because this time, they were electrified.

Who was this guy? Where has he been? You won't often see a figure like Ezra Klein eat his words — but just a few weeks ago, he loudly called for Biden to step down, using his New York Times pulpit, or maybe misusing it. Now he's walking it back. Joe Biden made them all eat, crow, in other words, which is sort of delicious, even if you're not a die-hard Biden fan. I'm not — I question him on everything from Gaza to debt, but I do have to give credit where it's due.

Here's a secret. It isn't a Trump-Biden rematch. Not really. It's something very, very different. Let's begin with Trump, and then we'll come back to Biden — or who this new persona is, this Joe Biden, the one who showed at the State of the Union, electrifying people, pundits, and frightening the opposition into bewildered silence.

The Trump part of the Trump-Biden rematch…isn't quite right. This isn't yesterday's Trump. This is Turbo Trump. Next level Trump. Put it however you like. This figure is one aspiring openly to dictatorship. Vowing vengeance, using the machinery of government, on anyone who pursued or opposed him. Who's staring down a hundred criminal charges, and needs to win, to continue being a free man. Someone who's led a coup, inspired and united fanatics and lunatics in the cause of treason and violence, and still touts insurrection. A figure whose contempt for democracy is up there with the worst demagogues of history.

This Trump is different from last time around. He's hardened. More sophisticated. Not the veritable rube he was before. And his side has evolved and matured, too. Last time around, they blundered into power, they knew it, and didn't have a plan, even for what to do with the vast machinery of government they inherited. This time? There's a 1000 page plan to install a totalitarian state, from day one.

All of that matters, and it matters intensely and intently. In leadership terms, there are thresholds that are to be passed, for leaders to become more and more effective. You try to turn around an organization, you fail. You try to build coalitions and unite people, you fail. You attempt a vision and agenda, only to find limited buy-in. From all those, you learn. And in this "crucible," as the great leadership scholar Warren Bennis called it, a true leader is born.

Or, perhaps, a true demagogue. The last few years have been something like Trump's dark night of the soul, which was Bennis's great insight into leadership. He didn't win again. The Big Lie began to flop. Justice pursued him. He slid into irrelevance. And then, astonishingly, he pulled it all back from the brink.

How did he do that? Trump honed his message. It became more severe, overt, constricted, inflammatory, and vengeful. Where before there were hints of the tyrant's aspiration, now it's in the open. Where before there was a tinge of vengeance, now it's explicit. Before, there was demonization, but now, the fascist appeal is blunt and brutal, wrapping itself in a totalitarian vision for a society in which modern notions of freedom have ceased to exist, not just for those who aren't "real Americans," but for plenty of "real Americans," too, from women to minorities to the LGBTQ to non-traditional families and relationships to anyone in the opposition and on and on.

Trump's message now? It's incredibly bleak, not just "apocalyptic," as pundits will say, but more to the point, cloaked in the pretense of the inevitability of a cleansing apocalypse. That is how the pure and true are revealed to be the chosen ones, and the rest discarded as subhuman, not people, liabilities, contaminations. It's indistinguishable, in its outlines, from all those demagogues who wished destruction on their own societies, in the name of saving them.

But that's not the only reason this message was so effective that it brought Trump back from the brink of irrelevance. There was another reason, too, and that was…the old Joe Biden. That's unfair, so let's say: the ham-fisted Democratic machine that…seemed to have…as we know now…constricted him…was afraid to let the real one out of the carefully constructed, climate-controlled box they kept him in like some kind of prize.

Is it any wonder, then, that people basically thought he was a mummy? They'd barely let him out for air, give him room to say a few words, and then back into the tomb he'd go, like he was a pharaoh already preparing for the afterlife, or something.

That created a vacuum. And a vacuum is a terrible thing, when it's a political contest you're trying to win. Who was Joe Biden? Why, he was old, elderly, frail, doddering, said the opposition, in far unkinder terms. If all you had to see was a picture, why, you might have even believed it. What did Joe Biden want, stand for, believe in, anyways? They'd let him to say the same old foolish lines — "the economy's great!" Hand-wave, fist-bump, bye bye — and back into the box he'd go. Then everyone'd roll their eyes, because unless you're Elon Musk, the last few years in human history have been many things, but "economically great" is emphatically not one of them. Why else is it that living standards are falling for the majority of people in the world now? So all that cost Biden seriously, and then some.

Nobody should have been losing to Donald Trump, the figure slinking into irrelevance — but amazingly, Joe Biden was succeeding at that task.

But now, things look — suddenly, and pretty happily — different. Can this Joe Biden beat Trump? Biden somehow seems to have fought his way out of the box that the Dems have kept him locked up on for the last year and more. He ripped off the mummy bandages that kept him sealed up tight and barely able to move a muscle.

This guy? He's a serious politician, who gave a masterclass on how to roast the fascists, and make them run for cover, and more to the point, which is the Big One, because of that, he's finally crossed a Rubicon: he's at last being accepted as a leader. By more and more people. That's what those soaring ratings are beginning to say. No, that's not fan-boyism — it's just reality. There's a long, long way to go, yet. One good speech by a Guy That Isn't a Mummy anymore is a striking beginning — or rebirth, maybe — and yet these are still early days, as far as these things go.

So who is this Joe Biden? He's equal parts Dark Brandon, with a dash of great Presidents before him, who wanted to reinvent America — and didn't quite succeed. He's also himself, too, which is somebody who's learned. From the failures of the paradigms he once embraced, like neoliberalism, striking out in a new direction, plowing new ground, in which to plant democracy's seeds. The world's democratic leaders — those few left — are taking notes, intently, I guarantee you, awestruck by this Joe Biden.

So. The question isn't: can Trump beat Biden all over again? It's different, now, if you really want to understand it. Can this Joe Biden beat this Donald Trump? This Joe Biden, who's still learning, maturing, growing, which is remarkable for a man his age, and puts us younger ones who aren't to shame, really — fierce, defiant, loud, electrifying. That Donald Trump — the one whose sneer has become a snarl, and who's holding not a switchblade, this time, but history's flamethrower in his hand. This time's different, though it looks the same. The candidates aren't the same men. Nor are we, as much as we've gone through in these last few years, a decade and more stuffed into them, the same people.

So you tell me: what have we, collectively, learned, and which choice will we make?

Come on down to the Issue, have a read, peruse the many reads, join the conversation. I'll see you there.


Sunday, March 24, 2024

ANS -- Three Transformations, or Why Our Civilization’s Beginning to Shatter

Here is umair haque's latest rant.  He says that the Dems aren't acknowledging the problems of the middle and working class, and that's why they are being abandoned. 
--Kim



Three Transformations, or Why Our Civilization's Beginning to Shatter

Our Civilization Is Undergoing a Series of Shocks — And None of Them Are Good

umair haque
Eudaimonia and Co
·

·

There's a funny thing I've noticed. One of the things I do wearing my economist hat is to…pore over reports. And these days, even mighty CEOs are beginning to feel the pain. Even they seem to be in a little bit of shock. Funnily, almost every report they sign off on now uses the same five words over and over again, in lament and panic, trying to explain everything from falling profits to growing layoffs. This isn't about them, though — it's about us, our world, civilization, and the future. To me?

Those five words are a lens into the world we're living in now: three transformations our civilization's undergoing, and none of them are good.

By the way, come on over and join us at my publication, the Issue, if you haven't already. We've already discussed this and more this week. There's tons to read there, so have a browse, peruse, join the conversation. I'd be delighted to see you there.

Ready for the five words? "Macroeconomic risks and geopolitical tensions." Now. Don't let that bore you — like I said, CEOs and investors and so forth are beginning to say these five words over and over again, in a mantra of mounting panic. But what do they mean for the rest of us? And if even they're getting things wrong now, what does it mean for the future, too?

We now live in a world where the economy is now shatteringIt's going through a profound transformation, made of a series of "shocks," meaning sudden and dramatic discontinuities, ruptures. We used to have stagnant economies, and that wasn't good. Now, though, we have extractive stagflationary economics, and those are far worse.

What do I mean by those two words? You already know, in a sense, because you're living the pain every time you go grocery shopping or buy new stuff. Prices have skyrocketed, dramatically, and while "inflation has fallen," sure, that's a little like saying your disease is progressing a little less rapidly. Prices are still sky-high, and perpetually creeping upwards.

But that's hardly all. This upwards climb of prices leaves living standards cratering at the median — for the average person. Yet that's not sharedAs in, it'd be one thing if everyone were growing worse off, but that's not the case. The rich are going from super rich to ultra rich — we could see the first trillionaires by decade's end. And when we see that inequality growing while the average person's growing worse off — the majority of people in the world are now getting poorer — then we know a game of extraction is afoot. As in, wealth is being siphoned by some, from others, and in this case, it's a wealth transfer upwards, one of the largest in history, if not the.

Hence, the second transformation that's afoot. The working and middle classes are in the process of deserting liberalism, and even democracy altogether. I often discuss what's one of the most dire statistics in modern history, and should be much more widely known: democracy's more than halved, from over 40% of the world, to under 20%, in two decades. That's a profound, shattering political transformation–a true rupture.

Why is this happening? There are many reasons, but one of the chief ones is that people feel cheated, abandoned, neglected, and betrayed. Their living standards really are falling, and sadly, the center left refuses to acknowledge it, and thus can't really connect with them. Hence, voters have deserted what used to be stable coalitions between liberals and left, even in places like mature European social democracies.

And instead, they're defecting to the lunacy of the far right. The far right offers them the wrong solution. It points the finger at scapegoats, by and large innocent ones, for the woes of the average person. The working and middle class, in despair, believes them — because at least it acknowledges there is a problem. The center left, meanwhile, not acknowledging much of a problem at all, is met with suspicion, hostility, and distrust.

Now think of the modern era. How much of a rupture is it that working and middle classes — and in America's case, former ones — have turned to the far right? They used to be the bedrock of modern democratic politics. If not liberal in the sort of Ivy League sense, then at least leaning towards higher levels of investment, greater redistribution, a more expansive social contract. But now the situation's gotten so bad that the far right's making inroads and converting not just the former working and middle classes — but even young people (which is how it's winning in Europe.)

Think for a moment how little orthodox politics has to offer when even young people are turning to the far right. Of course, that's underscored, in many cases, by failures like Biden's on Gaza, or debt, or what have you.

So: two transformations. Our economies are now shrinking in real terms, for the average person, precisely because having turned extractive, the wealthy are growing richer at their expense. "Tech" like AI will only make that situation worse. Climate change, of course, will ravage our economies, and that process has already begun — it's already responsible for probably 30–50% of recent inflation, and will cause much, much more as the planet heats up.

Two: our polities are now broken. We often say "politics" is broken, but I wonder if we recognize how so. It's not just that it's sclerotic or bureaucratic, but rather, that the fundaments of politics in the modern era are now shattered. The center left can no longer rely on middle and working classes reliably, because they are turning to the far right. That's becoming true for young people, too, and if that trend continues, then of course democracy as we know it is truly finished. Orthodox liberal slash conservative politics now appeal to a shrinking number of people, and that fissure is only growing by the day, leaving demagoguery and fanaticism on the swift, sudden rise.

That brings me to the third transformation. What really underlies all this? A sense of despair. I often say that a shockwave of anguish is pulsing through the world. When we look at the statistics, they're dire. In America, young people are "completely overwhelmed," "numb, and "can't function" — the majority. China's got a "lying flat generation." Negative sentiments like depression, loneliness, anger, and rage have skyrocketed. Pessimism is at all time highs.

We should take all this incredibly seriously. Because of course people who are destabilized don't use their rational minds very well. And yet you'll hardly see this end of the story discussed anywhere. For media, it doesn't sell ads and generate clicks. For politicians, it's a no-go zone. But the fact is that when people are in this much anguish, and they don't feel anyone takes them seriously, of course, that's precisely not just when, but also why, they turn to conspiracy theories, lunacy, scapegoating, spite, and revert to us-vs-them fight-or-flight forms of trauma response.

This is the story of our world at this juncture in history. We're a civilization losing our hold on democracy, whose economy is sputtering, and which is pulsing with despair and hopelessness. The future is a shockwave, for most of us — right down to even those CEOs numbly reciting their five word mantra, and wondering why it's all starting to go so wrong. So let me ask you again: are we on the brink?

Come on over and join us at the Issue. I've been working hard to set it up, and there's essay after essay there for you to take in, reflect on, discuss. Thanks for reading, and I'll see you there.