Xcel Energy Says It Will Close Two Coal-Fired Power Plants a Decade Early

Re:Xcel Energy Says It Will Close Two Coal-Fired Power Plant... by xwdv on Wednesday May 22, 2019 @12:09PM (#19982669)

It doesn't get bipartisan support because Green New Deal comes mixed in with a bunch of other controversial welfare crap (universal healthcare, basic income, guaranteed jobs, free college) that makes it too hard to swallow. Thus, you can easily oppose GND even if you are not opposed to climate change policies. If we want to get serious about climate change we need to propose legislation specifically to target that and nothing else, otherwise you just add fuel to all the "fixing climate change is a wealth redistribution plot" conspiracies.

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Re:Xcel Energy Says It Will Close Two Coal-Fired Power Plant... by dclowd9901 on Wednesday May 22, 2019 @03:42PM (#19984716)

First off, the GND is just a framework for lowering CO2 emissions while creating new jobs in an industry in transition. There's no inherent legislation in it, so I'm using it as a framing for any actual bill that would be drawn up in its framework.

And I think you're right about "riders" convoluting such legislation too much to make it too political. But there _is_ an inherent problem to transitioning to clean energy, and that's: What do we do with all those people in the "dirty" energy world? The original New Deal sought to employ people as a primary effect of building US infra. If it had just been focused on infra, it may have never got off the ground.

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Re:Xcel Energy Says It Will Close Two Coal-Fired Power Plant... by xwdv on Wednesday May 22, 2019 @05:26PM (#19985716)

Let them figure that out. Let’s not hold the climate hostage because a few people are going to lose their jobs, otherwise we are no better than companies pumping CO2 into the atmosphere.

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