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Interestingly there has been a lot of discussion about hydrogen lately[0] because the Inflation Reduction Act provides a tax credit for production of clean hydrogen (e.g. hydrogen not from methane). Nuclear is one of the best possible methods to ways to generate this (high electricity, high heat) given that its operation does not generate carbon (just like renewables). The problem? Nuclear power generates $30/MWhr and will make between $60-$70MWhr producing hydrogen. Sounds like a win, but reactors are already at 90% capacity and supply ~20% of the US's energy and half of our zero emission energy.

Variability isn't that much of an advantage. Excess energy can often be sold off as well, reducing other areas' reliance on fossil fuels. France, Norway (almost all hydro), and Sweden (also a major nuclear player) and the main energy exporters in Europe (also lowest energy based carbon emitters)[1,2]. We see a similar thing with Quebec (major nuclear). But it is concerning given that nuclear is the main source of zero emission energy in the American South East[3]. Gates probably isn't concerning himself with the variability since there's no shortage of regions where selling a zero emission source isn't going to help reduce its neighbors energy emissions. The only areas where there is a shortage is where regions already rely heavily on either nuclear or hydro (or a combination).

There's no reason to not run at max load. You either sell the energy or your produce hydrogen. This is…

1786171869 | Amazon behind private gas plant for new data centers | https://finance.yahoo.com/energy/articles/amazon-behind-massive-private-gas-210211828.html | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49219445

1786121329 | Scoop: Amazon Is Behind One of the Largest Planned Gas Power Plants in the US | https://www.distilled.earth/p/scoop-amazon-is-behind-one-of-the

1786014051 | AWS eyes potential data center development at 4.5GW natural gas plant in Pennsylvania | https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/aws-eyes-potential-data-center-development-at-45gw-natural-gas-plant-in-pennsylvania/

1786181141 | 'Better ways to use gas': Amazon finances massive US plant for data centres | https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united-states-canada/article/3363393/amazon-finance-huge-us-gas-plant-data-centres

1786202472 | Amazon plans massive Texas AI campus and an enormous gas power plant | https://www.chron.com/news/article/amazon-texas-data-center-nation-s-polluting-power-22380078.php

1784098800 | Amazon to install hundreds of gas-fired generators at Bucks County data center site | https://whyy.org/articles/amazon-data-center-bucks-county-pa-gas-generators-impact/

1786140583 | Amazon Is Building America's Biggest Fossil Fuel Plant to Power AI | https://heatmap.news/energy/amazon-gw-ranch

1786173935 | Amazon Backs 7.65-GW Gas Plant in Texas to Power New AI Data Center Campus |…

A friend who pays more attention WUI and wildfire stuff told me that none of the cost estimates of climate change include the costs dues to smoke. That seemed hard to believe but the source was this interview. In many ways living in the West the smoke in east doesn't seem that far from the normal of the last 5, maybe 10, years. But I have to remember how much denser the east is and how many more people are impacted.

Even if you ignore the question of climate change and put the blame on wildland fire practices and our approach to forests over the last century this is going to be a long term problem. And an expensive one. There seems to be such a barrier to get over to get back to relatively healthy balance of fuels. Listening to old timers say what worked 50 years ago isn't clearly a solution because we put our thumbs on the scale and now the consequences are getting hard to tamp down.

https://heatmap.news/climate/wildfire-smoke-east-air-quality

> Solar, wind, and battery, even without the grants, is already quite cheap. You'd have to fine the industries to really slow down deployment at this point.

Hence the other part of this Evil Sinister Traitor plan, denying & rescinding permits for green energy blanketly:

> The Interior Department released a new secretarial order Friday saying it may no longer issue any permits to a solar or wind project on federal lands unless the agency believes it will generate as much energy per acre as a coal, gas, or nuclear power plant.

https://heatmap.news/sparks/interior-department-wind-solar-land-use

Renewables aren't dense power! But America has land, and if we switch to renewables, maybe maybe the oceans won't rise & we won't lose a ton of land.

God these people are literally the worst Captain Planet supervillain shitheels. Literally the worst hive of scum and villainy.

> From photos, Tokyo can look almost unplanned, with neon signs everywhere and a huge variety of forms of architecture. You expect it to feel messy. What I experienced, however, was a city that felt almost like being in a futuristic village. It is utterly calm, in a way that is actually rather strange.

> And it took me a little while to realize why. There is simply no traffic noise. No hooting, no engine noise, not even much of the noise of cars accelerating on tarmac. Because there are so few of them. Most of the time you can walk in the middle of the street, so rare is the traffic. There are not even cars parked at the side of the road.

https://heatmap.news/economy/tokyo-anti-car-pedestrian-paradise