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A comment on Plunging costs make solar, wind and battery storage cheaper than coal. Parent comment

Re:Plunging costs make solar, wind and battery storage cheap... by spullara on Monday January 29, 2018 @12:34PM (#16259041)
With a very broad definition of subsidy. By this definition roads are subsidy for cars (turns out, Greenpeace agrees with this one! https://www.thebalance.com/government-subsidies-definition-f...)

"Undercharging for global warming accounts for 22% of the subsidy in 2013, air pollution 46%, broader vehicle externalities 13%, supply costs 11%, and general consumer taxes 8%."

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Re:Plunging costs make solar, wind and battery storage cheap... by cromulent on Monday January 29, 2018 @12:38PM (#16259079)
Call the negative externality costs whatever you like, but the coal industry doesn't pay it, which makes it seem cheap compared to solar. Which is why this article is news.
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Re:Plunging costs make solar, wind and battery storage cheap... by notatoad on Monday January 29, 2018 @12:48PM (#16259163)
how can you possibly say roads are not subsidized for cars? if i wanted to build a railway, and the government built the track for me wouldn't that be a subsidy?

just because the government normally pays for it, doesn't make it somehow not a subsidy.

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