US Politics Mega-thread - Page 7782

Renewable energy capacity around the world was boosted by a record amount in 2016 and delivered at a markedly lower cost, according to new global data – although the total financial investment in renewables actually fell.

The greater “bang-for-buck” resulted from plummeting prices for solar and wind power and led to new power deals in countries including Denmark, Egypt, India, Mexico and the United Arab Emirates all being priced well below fossil fuel or nuclear options.

Analysts warned that the US’s withdrawal from the Paris climate change agreement, announced last week by Donald Trump, risked the US being left behind in the fast-moving transition to a low-carbon economy. But they also warned that the green transition was still not happening fast enough to avoid the worst impacts of global warming, especially in the transport and heating sectors.

The new renewable energy capacity installed worldwide in 2016 was 161GW, a 10% rise on 2015 and a new record, according to REN21, a network of public and private sector groups covering 155 nations and 96% of the world’s population.

The new record capacity cost $242bn, a 23% reduction in investment compared to 2015, and renewables investment remained larger than for all fossil fuels. Subsidies for green energy, however, are still much lower than those for coal, oil and gas.

New solar power provided the biggest boost – half of all new capacity – followed by wind power at a third and hydropower at 15%. It is the first year that the new solar capacity added has been greater than any other electricity-producing technology.

“A global energy transition [is] well under way, with record new additions of installed renewable energy capacity, rapidly falling costs and the decoupling of economic growth and energy-related carbon dioxide emissions for the third year running,” said Arthouros Zervos, chair of REN21.

“Trump’s withdrawal of the US from the Paris agreement is unfortunate,” said Christine Lins, executive secretary of REN21. “But the renewables train has already left the station and those who ignore renewables’ central role in climate mitigation risk being left behind.”

Vivien Foster, global lead for energy economics at the World Bank, said: “Over 2016 there has been a dramatic and sustained improvement in the competitiveness of renewable power generation technologies. The most spectacular renewable energy prices were revealed through auctions that are gaining in popularity in many countries.”

Renewable energy capacity in 2016 rose 17% to 921GW, excluding hydropower, and rose 8.7% to 2,017GW when including hydropower.

At the end of 2016, more than 24% of global electricity was produced by renewables, dominated by hydropower and with wind contributing 4.0% and solar 1.5%. For all energy, renewable energy – excluding traditional wood-burning – contributed 10%, overshadowed by the 80% coming from fossil fuels such as oil and gas.

On June 07 2017 13:15 LegalLord wrote:
And here I thought the gaffe machine would stop without ol' Crazy Uncle Joe (Biden).

On June 07 2017 12:55 Plansix wrote:




This is so fucking depressing.

On June 07 2017 13:49 Plansix wrote:
My twitter feed is filled with scum bag Odo jokes(deep space 9).

On June 07 2017 14:11 Mohdoo wrote:


...I must be missing something. What? lmao

On June 07 2017 13:30 ChristianS wrote:

Sometimes I forget Paul Ryan was almost our vice president

On June 07 2017 14:35 TheTenthDoc wrote:


I think I need to refresh my memory of Biden-Ryan debates. I remember quite a vigorous dumpstering.

Recent news reports detail that Secretary Clinton and her staff allegedly pressured the
government of Bangladesh, including its Prime Minister, Sheik Hasina, to terminate a corruption
investigation into a Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) donor, Dr. Muhammad Yunus.

Reports also indicate that State Department officials threatened the Prime Minister’s son, Sajeeb Wazed, with
an IRS audit if he did not attempt to get his mother to terminate the investigation.

On May 11, 2017, Prime Minister Hasina confirmed that Mrs. Clinton called her office in March of 2011 and
demanded that Yunus be restored to his position of chairman of the Grameen Bank.

This new evidence of pay-to-play and special treatment reinforces the appearance that donations to the
Clinton Foundation resulted in favorable treatment by Secretary Clinton’s State Department.

As I wrote in my August 2016 letter to Department of Justice, federal law requires that
executive branch employees be disqualified from matters that have a direct and predictable effect
on the employee’s own financial interests or the financial interests of those persons or
organizations with which the employee is affiliated, such as those of a spouse, unless the
employee first obtains an individual waiver or a regulatory exemption applies.5

Once again, Secretary Clinton’s actions have raised reasonable suspicions that she violated these rules and undermined the public’s confidence in the integrity of the State Department.

On June 07 2017 16:07 CorsairHero wrote:
i think the banner in the op needs to be updated to reflect more current times

On June 07 2017 06:28 Mohdoo wrote:


rofl. kinda interesting case. For what its worth, I believe a president should be allowed to have a totally off the rails twitter account. if the president feels like shitposting, he should be able to shitpost and block haters.

More broadly, I think social media and people's cell phones have become an integral part of our personalities, social lives and a lot more. Limiting what someone can do on social media is almost always terrible in my eyes. Social media is becoming a part of who we are.