[ExI] Trump Is Obsessed With Oil, but Chinese Batteries Will Soon Run the World

[Keith Henson]

": a big Diesel loco can produce 4 MW each."

Spike, do you have any idea of what it would take to connect those
locomotives to the grid?  Some of them even make DC.  There are
reasons, particularly economic, why oil was phased out of power
production 40 years ago.  If you want more power rapidly, the least
expensive way is gas turbines burning natural gas.  That's what Musk
did in Memphis to the dismay of the locals.

"Coal plants can be brought online faster"

I don't know if the skills exist here anymore.  Might get the Chinese
to build them if you absolutely insist on coal and can get the
permits.

Keith

On Fri, Jan 23, 2026 at 7:15 AM spike jones via extropy-chat
<extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
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> From: John Clark <johnkclark at gmail.com>
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> >…And currently China has 40 nuclear power reactors under construction, the US has none….
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> I agree we should get on that.
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> >…Meanwhile our Mad King is tilting at windmills and thinks that will Make America Great Again….
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> Note that last week the federal court overturned the mad king’s stop work order.  Revolution Wind’s project offshore is expected to be fully operational this year.  Some imagine the office of president to have powers it does not have, then accuse POTUS of abusing powers POTUS does not have.
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> >  put them in Greenland, power AI from there.  Put the data centers right there next to the plant, so the huge power cables are short.
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> >…There is absolutely nothing preventing a company from doing that right now if they think it makes any economic sense, there is no need to go to war with Denmark and conquer Greenland to get it done!
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> Clearly investors do not trust the government of Denmark.  Imagine that.
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> > John, everything isn’t about the current POTUS.
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> >…The current POTUS would very strongly disagree with you….
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> I know that, however I very strongly disagree with him.  The constitution carefully and intentionally limits the power of that office.
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> >…Experts have told corporations that some of the best places to put wind turbines is out at sea, there is no logical reason not to do so….
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> I can think of some logical reasons to not do so.  Investors will be in a constant battle with boaters, with environmentalists, with locals if the project can be seen from the shore.  It would be vulnerable to attack by hostile military forces and greens.
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> >… We are far behind so we should be doing everything possible to catch up, but instead our Mad King is throwing up roadblocks in our way. Do you really think this will Make America Great Again?
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> > Put them on privately-owned land, privately financed.  Done.  [...]  Federal government has no jurisdiction on wind turbines on privately-owned land,
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> >… a very long list of permits from the federal government; for example FAA clearances, wildlife permits, environmental permits, permits that allow a wind farm to connect to transmission lines that cross state lines, and many others…. John K Clark
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> Every form of energy production must have those permits.  FAA clearances are easy if you don’t locate near an airport.  Environmental permits, well that will be a challenge, I agree.  Greens never met a prime mover they didn’t hate.  Environmentalists have a very powerful federal lobby and will fight every step of the way on wind power.
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> John as an S-alpha, one might think you would be more interested in power projects which can be fired up much more quickly than wind power.  I can think of some examples: a big Diesel loco can produce 4 MW each.  They can burn high sulfur fuel if located east of the border between California and Nevada.  There are locos currently available, not new ones, but good enough and ready to go.  Coal plants can be brought online faster than most alternatives, which is why those are so popular in China: their middle class is demanding a lot of power as it climbs into the middle class.  Nukes are great, and even the greens are warming to them, since they take very little footprint and don’t produce CO2, however… they take longer to build.
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> I see a bright future for coal, with plants along the state line on the Nevada side, since CO2 is not a pollutant there.  It still is in California, but it is not in Nevada.  So… put the coal plants over on that side, burn the plentiful Wyoming subbituminous coal, sell the power to California where it is worth a lot of money and park the server farms over on that side.
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> Wind power has its advantages, but it makes very expensive power, as Californians have seen.
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> spike
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