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America Is Backsliding Toward Its Most Polluted Era

(www.theatlantic.com)
150 points pmags | 1 comments | 10 Apr 25 12:48 UTC | HN request time: 0.256s | source
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energy123 ◴[10 Apr 25 13:40 UTC] No.43643670[source]▶
One side effect of the tariffs will be that oil and gas will be more attractive to developers relative to renewables. Oil down in price due to recession, and solar and storage up in price due to tariffs, and added political risks and harder permitting on federal lands.

Last year, the US nearly stopped installing fossil fuels on a net basis thanks to Wright's Law price declines and federal incentives (IRA).

replies(1): >>43644020 #
1. chneu ◴[10 Apr 25 14:17 UTC] No.43644020[source]▶
This is false. The cost of building is going up because of tariffs. It isn't going to be profitable to build new wells. Wells, right now, are about 30% more expensive to build vs pre-tariffs, but this is likely to keep changing.

Add in that oil is dropping in price to the point where many wells are going to be shut down because it isn't profitable to operate them, and this is going to have the opposite effect. ~$60/barrel seems to be that point right now. We're trading at/around $60 right now.

Oil and Gas are going to become less attractive to investors because of this. Solar and wind are already dirt cheap, tariffs aren't really going to change that THAT much. They'll still be cheaper and a better investment than Oil/Coal/Gas.