Hawaii Decarbonization Settlement 2045

[HiloJulie]

Agreed that recycling is still very, very new, and methods and automation will need to grow exponentially, and it will.  The problem that I project is that the need for those raw materials will not be as valuable when alternative energy and storage sources are so readily available, and the megatons of waste we create are less profitable or feasible to recycle, and they become mountains in the desert Let's face it: Nuclear can easily replace all domestic power needs today if we choose to do it. For vehicles, hydrogen is about less than 10 years out of the mainstream. If we are being honest with ourselves, the only reason it isn't further along is due to the massive worldwide oil cabal.

I would say that extolling the virtues on nuclear power as replacing all the power needs today is a bit disingenuous as well.

First, and while not specifically for Hawaii, but construction of a nuclear power plant takes an average of 10 to 20 years. The last 2 nuclear units just recently brought on line - Unit 4 in April of this year – at Plant Vogtle in Georgia, cost 34 BILLION. Construction started in 2013, so it took 11 years to build it. But then there was VC Summer – the plant in South Carolina started in 2010 that was problem after problem from day one – with Westinghouse (the reactor maker) even going bankrupt stopping the construction then restarting the construction back up and having billions in cost overruns on top of the billions already spent, finally was just stopped altogether.

Let’s also remember, that back when nuclear power first gained traction and as units started being built and going on line back in 1965, no one knew what they would be doing with the eventual stockpile of contaminated waste and while being protected of course, more or less sat on the power plants land for several decades as everyone scratched their heads as to what to do with this stuff.

Then, the amount of labor, education, training and so on needed to run a nuke does not come cheap. Or at least it shouldn’t. In as much as a 19 year old high school dropout might easily get – and deserve that job at either an oil, coal, gas or now solar or wind – and even possibly geothermal, I don’t think they should be near a nuke under any circumstance.

And then, of course there is safety. And while, for the most part, the US has been pretty safe with regards to nuclear power accidents, the possibility of one “oh, shit” moment exists – that at a minimum and upside could cost billions, but even worse yet, an explosion and meltdown that would make Chernobyl look like someone just lit a candle.

And of course, there is always the potential of the terrorist threat.

And yes, there is promise in hydrogen fueled vehicles, but again, the biggest obstacle to that as I can see, is the distribution of hydrogen o be able to fill your tank. Which is a good 10 plus years away from fruition.

In the short term then, I’d say that EV and solar is worth investment in right now, as the window for alternatives to burn baby burn is slowly closing and I’m pretty sure there is no “god” going to open a door once that window is closed!

So then you post a mere 800,000 years worth of data?  The co2 500 million years ago was 9000 ppm.
And if you look at the warming data over millions of years, it can be argued that rising temperatures cause co2 to increase, not the other way around.  In the 1970's the "science was settled", and they told us we'd be in an ice age right now.  I didn't panic then, and I'm not going to panic now.  I'm certainly not sending any plastic to China.

https://earth.org/data_visualization/a-b...ry-of-co2/

Yeh, life was a bitch for humans back then wasn’t it? Oh, wait…..

50 years you say?

https://cei.org/blog/wrong-again-50-year...edictions/

I don’t think much of your sources, namely:

“Academic research has identified Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) as one of the think tanks funded to overturn the environmentalism of the 1960s, central to promoting climate change denial. It was involved in assisting the anti-environmental climate change policy of the George W. Bush administration. CEI promotes environmental policies based on limited government regulation and property rights, rejects what it calls "global warming alarmism", and denies the science of climate change.”

You actually remind me of the guy in the YT clip I posted from 1984 who stated that he will have to detour Richland Village on his way to Kalamazoo due to Richland Village’s mandatory seatbelt law!

PS: Did you by chance notice that virtually everyone in that clip was smoking? 1984. Try light up a pipe, cigar, cigarette or vape at Ken’s next time and let’s see what happens!