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Environment & Energy

hatrack

(64,293 posts)

2. I'd argue that it's inverted . . . .

Reply to Auggie (Reply #1)

Wed Jan 14, 2026, 08:58 AM

5 hrs ago

Utility companies aren't planning new plants and keeping old ones open so that we can "win the AI race". AI exists as a stock market pump and dump bubble, certainly. But more fundamentally, AI exists as an excuse to keep fossil fuels alive, particularly coal.

It's not a long-term plan, and mostly likely the whole AI bubble thing goes tits-up by the end of next year at the latest, but if the energy companies don't care about wrecking the only habitable planet we have, why would they care about some incidental economic damage along the way?

The main thing is More Money Right Now Line Go Up. Just one more profitable year, just one more profitable quarter, just one more stock bonus before I retire to my bunker, oh please, please, please, please . ..

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Highlight:

Thanks, AI!! At Least 15 US Coal Plants Set For Retirement Are Online "For The Forseeable Future" [View all] hatrack 7 hrs ago OP

California's Diablo Canyon nuclear facility also is staying open ... Auggie 6 hrs ago #1

I'd argue that it's inverted . . . . hatrack 5 hrs ago #2

PG&E wanted to close the plant Auggie 5 hrs ago #3