this post was submitted on 18 Dec 2024
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Unpopular opinion: we need to ration electricity consumption as well as fuel today, even in capitalists countries. Because that stuff actually has incredible impact on the planet, and will (must) drive consumption down, so that companies / individuals start integrating "efficiency" into their thinking
I don't see any other solution to the "exponentially growing power consumption" problem.
In the U.S., at least, power generation has been roughly flat for the last 20 years, not growing exponentially:
That's excluding our hard on for AI the last few years. Would love to see this updated.
Power usage levels in the US, though, are insane compared to mother countries.
I'm surprised by how much natural gas makes up the mix.
electricity is only a tiny fraction of energy use.
c/selfhosted has entered the chat
Power for the power god
time to self-host a powerplant?
Pigouvian taxes are a traditional solution to negative externalities, and they are often better received by the public than rationing.
It's expensive to be poor - the lights turning off a few days before the end of the month will incur even more costs than a higher electricity bill.
Taxes raise money for other programs, instead of costing money to enforce rationing.
Higher taxes in general will also help reduce inflation.
Tax revenue can be spent on stimulus checks to offset the cost for people who use less energy than average.
Rather than stimulus checks we need to be using the money to subsidize alternatives. And we can just switch subsidies. Some examples of that include that by reducing cattle subsides we can subsidize lower emissions meat alternatives or even offer free classes on how to cook meals that happen to be lower emissions, and we can stop funding airports and put that money into rail systems, similarly by removing mandatory minimum parking and reducing road funding that money can be put into transit solutions that enable less car centric lifestyles.