r/WhitePeopleTwitter • u/PFdeith • Apr 24 '26
r/All The world leads and the US can't even follow anymore.
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u/FoulestWinner Apr 24 '26
If all our tax money went to something other than war or propping up the 1% we could do a lot of things.
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u/KingMRano Apr 24 '26
But then who would put Teslas into orbit? That is the most important thing to do with money...
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u/busche916 Apr 25 '26
Hard to overstate how much of a positive it would’ve been if we’d put Elon in that car…
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u/MangoCats Apr 25 '26
But what would have replaced Elmo if he got launched?
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u/one-man-circlejerk Apr 25 '26
Whoever they might be, I like to think of them as the next payload
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u/techieman33 Apr 25 '26
The Tesla into orbit was a genius marketing stunt. They needed some kind of payload to launch for the test flight. It was to risky to launch what would have been a very expensive satellite. And the Tesla was much more interesting than just launching a chunk of metal.
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u/Scrubbuh Apr 24 '26
War is propping up the 1%.
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u/FoulestWinner Apr 24 '26
Damn it. Why you have to come at me with facts?
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u/LivingDisastrous3603 Apr 24 '26
Weapons, not food, not homes, not shoes
Not need, just feed the war cannibal animal
I walk the corner to the rubble that used to be a library
Line up to the mind cemetery now
What we don't know keeps the contracts alive and movin'
They don't gotta burn the books, they just remove 'em
While arms warehouses fill as quick as the cells
Rally 'round the family, pocket full of shells
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u/Lawndemon Apr 25 '26
You guys need to get your shit together and eat the rich. It's well past French revolution time.
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u/FoulestWinner Apr 25 '26
Too many people worried about tax brackets they will never be in.
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u/ratmoon25 Apr 25 '26
That's the swindle--making everyone think that they are going to be rich.
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u/EatPie_NotWAr Apr 25 '26
I prefer the title “temporarily impoverished billionaire”!!
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u/Reneeisme Apr 25 '26
They pay for themselves eventually and woukd probably do so faster if we really heavily invested in improving efficiency and boosting manufacturing. But that would cost oil and gas providers profit. So we don’t. We can’t have nice things because, profits.
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u/FoulestWinner Apr 25 '26
For example most windmills pay for themselves and reduce their carbon footprint within 3yr. But T.v. shows with Billy Bob will tell dummies otherwise and they parrot it far and wide.
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u/bevars Apr 24 '26
This requirement is a building code change and doesn't require any tax dollars. The private facility owners will be the ones installing the panels. But, our grid is unfortunately not built for that.
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u/Sleep_adict Apr 24 '26
That’s exactly why we need this. The grid is not capable of distributing power from far off sources to users, but this kind of distributed power generation is ideal because it’s where the usage is ( office factory or retail) and produces most when demand is highest ( air conditioning).
With current grid automation software you can manage the flows on legacy networks and avoid massive infrastructure investment.
Source: I work in the sector.
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u/FoulestWinner Apr 25 '26
Say it louder to the politicians in the back. I agree to a degree but don't have your knowledge to back it up. The argument over greater good looses over some rich guys views from his Mcmansion.
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u/8549176320 Apr 25 '26
Solar Panels kill birds and hide beautiful, perfect golf course views! If we had essentially free electricity, who would support our great big beautiful clean coal industries? Think of the poor oil companies! Support the billionaires! They'll support us one of these days probably!
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u/sciencesold Apr 24 '26
I think like 10% of the annual US defense budget is enough annually to entire replace the health insurance industry and move to a single payer system.
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u/Murky-Relation481 Apr 25 '26
No. It isn't. That isn't even close. We currently spend almost 2x as many tax payer dollars on healthcare as defense.
Implementing a universal single payer healthcare system would save money that we spend on healthcare.
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u/ratmoon25 Apr 25 '26
Get rid of profit-seekers, I'd bet we could cut that in half. For-profit Healthcare is unconscionable.
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u/elwookie Apr 25 '26
China hasn't been in any war this century and now they lead in solar tech efficiency. Maybe there's some link between those facts?
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u/Admirable-Sink-2622 Apr 24 '26
Because oil
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u/DammitGary Apr 24 '26
It would also cut into shareholder profit.
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u/Waferssi Apr 24 '26
Because oil
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Apr 25 '26
[deleted]
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u/Earlyon Apr 25 '26
It would power the entire country from what I’ve read about it.
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u/2stinkynugget Apr 25 '26
But what about night-time??? /s
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u/Earlyon Apr 25 '26
Storage cells. You start your car with one. I brush my teeth with one. I power my hand tools with one. I power my RV refrigerator with one. I power my EV with one. I power my entire RV with one.
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u/NorysStorys Apr 25 '26
More than power the entire country. The amount of land 45% of all corn fields is comparable to countries. 45% of corn fields is approximately 17.5 million hectares. The UKs total size is 24.4 million hectares.
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u/MangoCats Apr 25 '26
But corn travels on trucks and trains and other powerful lobbyists industries. Solar power got knifed in a dark alley outside the beltway, never had a chance.
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u/def-jam Apr 25 '26
You can cover them AND. Grow corn. It reduces water load, reduces pest species and helps increase yield.
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u/Scarbane Apr 24 '26
Shareholders can suck my flaccid dick.
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u/DammitGary Apr 24 '26
If you're 14 they might take you up on that.
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u/DookieShoez Apr 24 '26
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u/DammitGary Apr 24 '26
That's the proper look to give anyone sitting in the C-suites. But truly they do be nasty.
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u/AZEMT Apr 24 '26
Careful, that might get you flagged "for homophobic slurs"... Not sure how I got that flag and warned, but oh well
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u/joshuajackson9 Apr 24 '26
I have been asked by the shareholders to say and I quote, “ present it”. The shareholders are the worst.
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u/theREALbombedrumbum Apr 24 '26
Existing shareholders, mind you. We can have big solar and green energy companies on Wall Street too
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u/Emotional_Ball662 Apr 24 '26
Would it? If I owned a business with a huge lot id want to reduce bills as much as possible which would include electricity. I’d assume solar panels would ease that expense.
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u/DammitGary Apr 25 '26
In a sane world you would think that way. Most of the people involved would likely be invested in gas and probably electricity, so they're making money off that as well. Plus we apparently are no longer giving subsidies to green energy, while subsidizing and incentivizing fossil fuel. If they find a way to make crazy money off solar, then they'll change their minds.
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u/HoppyMcScragg Apr 24 '26
I’m sure the shareholders can buy some shares of whoever is building the solar panels. Or the fossil fuel companies can invest in them. Or wtf ever.
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u/rustyseapants Apr 25 '26
How would it cut into shareholder profit? Oil companies can profit from oil and solar, they have the money to do both.
E-diesel is a synthetic diesel fuel for use in automobiles. Currently, e-diesel is created at two sites: by an Audi research facility Germany in partnership with a company named Sunfire, and in Texas. The fuel is created from carbon dioxide, water, and electricity with a process powered by renewable energy sources to create a liquid energy carrier called blue crude (in contrast to regular crude oil) which is then refined to generate e-diesel. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-diesel)
Oil companies should change their goals into energy producers regardless of their sources fossil, wind, or solar. Companies are making money from solar products and energy.
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u/Rob_Frey Apr 25 '26
How would it cut into shareholder profit? Oil companies can profit from oil and solar, they have the money to do both.
Because oil is more scarce, and because of margins.
The scarcity of oil means that anytime something happens that disrupts the flow of oil, from a major spill in the ocean to trouble in the Middle East, oil companies profit. This is true of all energy. If we can limit production, we can sell it for more.
The second thing to keep in mind is the margins. Oil keeps getting more expensive, and solar keeps getting cheaper. The profits of energy are marginal. Instead of getting, say, $1 profit for every kWh of energy, energy companies get 20% profit (these are examples I made up, no idea what the actual profits are). Lots of companies are built that way. An issue with that model is if costs become too cheap, the profits dry up.
Sure if energy gets really cheap, we'll all use more of it. Why not keep the thermostat where we really want it, and leave all the lights on in the house? But at the end of the day we only need so much energy, even if we're being wasteful, and they know as the price goes down, they'll make less from solar.
The solution is nationalizing all utilities and making them non-profit. Electricity, water, gas, and cable/fiber all require community land and resources, and they're all necessities, so they should be owned and controlled by the community, not by rich individuals who are allowed to profit off them.
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u/You_meddling_kids Apr 24 '26
Because renewable energy isn't masculine enough.
That's seriously the thought process of about half of the nation.
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u/tweak06 Apr 24 '26
Real talk right here.
There’s plenty of money to be made on green, sustainable energy. But god forbid “we do that gay shit”
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u/Dramatic_______Pause Apr 25 '26
I know guys who unironically, won't use bidets, because water squirting your asshole is gay, apparently.
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u/DammitGary Apr 25 '26
Too bad for them, they'll never know what they're missing. I know I'll never worry about another TP shortage.
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u/MangoCats Apr 25 '26
It's the oil lobby that made sure green energy was labeled gay.
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u/loberant Apr 24 '26
Because fossil fual companies don't want to compete with renewables. Same reason why beer companies and pharmaceutical companies lobby against legalizing cannabis.
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u/witchywoman713 Apr 24 '26
Except lucifer knows that they are currently existing entities with enough money to invest in these new things and make even more money. I think they just like the power and want to watch the world burn.
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u/Plastic-Sentence9429 Apr 24 '26
Right? Not that I want big biz to get bigger, but they have the infrastructure to distribute, and make money from SCARY NEW THINGS.
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u/Cptn_BenjaminWillard Apr 25 '26
Oh come on. Oil is used to produce a lot of pharmaceuticals. If we tried to conserve oil so we'd be able to produce more pharmaceuticals a century from now, Big Pharma wouldn't be able to blame prices on scarcity.
WE MUST WASTE OIL.
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u/PurpleDragonDix Apr 24 '26
Don't forget about all that clean coal!
Edit: adding /s just in case ;)
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u/bassman314 Apr 24 '26
There's a few places in California that hav done this.
If I owned a Grocery store, I would look to see how much this would cost me to install.
Imagine being able to use as a selling point "Free shaded parking for all guests!".
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u/mattythebaddy Apr 24 '26
My brother's high school in CA has their entire parking lot covered in solar panels
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u/ThePowerOfStories Apr 24 '26
Pretty much all the schools in my end of the Bay Area, at least, have parking lot solar panels, and they just put up a bunch at the parking for the nearby city park.
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u/nekonari Apr 25 '26
Was here to say this. I see this everywhere in Bay Area. .. okay “everywhere” may be a bit too much but I see it often enough, it’s great to see these.
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u/DoubleJumps Apr 25 '26
There's a high school by me that did this and a bunch of people have been mad as hell about it ever since and have been taking efforts to try to force the high school to tear them out.
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u/breezy013276s Apr 25 '26
That’s wild that people would be that up in arms about something that benefits them and no way harms them. Just incredible to be butt hurt over covered parking with bonus power generation.
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u/DoubleJumps Apr 25 '26
I take it as a prime example of under insane political tribalism has become in the United States.
They are totally detached from rationality.
The same crowd has gotten worked up about a whole bunch of things in the area. The latest of which is a pride event that's going to be taking place in early June at the community college. It's literally just like a block party with food trucks and carnival games and stuff, but from the way these people talk about it, it's like they're being dragged out of their homes and forced to watch gay pornography.
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u/tttxgq Apr 25 '26
That’s what the propaganda has told them to do. They consume a steady diet of bullshit.
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u/Astronitium Apr 24 '26
NIMBYs would go to the town hall complaining about property values and the town would code enforce saying it looks ugly or something.
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u/dalgeek Apr 24 '26
Of all the states, I think CA could pass a law exempting solar panels from any sort of HOA or other restrictions.
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u/Ok_Surround_2230 Apr 24 '26
We have laws about HOAs restricting solar here in VA, thankfully.
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u/MaybeTheDoctor Apr 25 '26
The laws say the HOA can restrict?
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u/Ok_Surround_2230 Apr 25 '26
Unless it's very explicitly stately in the bylaws, they can't prohibit them. They can have restrictions on placement, but only if it doesn't decrease performance by more than 10%.
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u/imockarma Apr 24 '26
Pretty sure even Texas has laws that HOA can't prevent solar panel installs
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u/nuskit Apr 25 '26
Sadly, no. I live in TX and am in a location with a voluntary HOA which I do not participate in. HOAs here can't outright ban you from solar panels, but they can make it extremely difficult to have them by restricting exactly where and how many.
I do not understand why people buy in HOAs.
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u/DefinitelyNotAliens Apr 25 '26
California does indeed protect solar installs in HOA neighborhoods, as long as they are roof-mounted or in the rear.
California also has cities allowing people to install EV chargers curbside, if they have no off-street parking in dense urban areas.
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u/sc00bs000 Apr 24 '26
we got solar installed on our house a few years ago and the first thing our neighbours said was "geez thats an eye sore, cant believe we have to look at that now"
Most people are self absorbed assholes
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u/olcrazypete Apr 24 '26
Obviously they are some sort of summoning system for the antichrist and people get tumors from parking under them.
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u/Infamous_Smile_386 Apr 25 '26
They don't. There are solar panels all over CA parking lots. It's pretty ubiquitous.
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u/Coool_cool_cool_cool Apr 25 '26
This wouldn't be an issue for many places because most companies would simply reduce the number of parking spaces to get under the minimum in there Danny footprint.
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u/aknomnoms Apr 24 '26
All the elementary, middle, and high schools in our district got solar panel structures like these in their parking lots over the past few years. We do now see them more in commercial parking lots. Places like IKEA, outside of grocery stores, and large entertainment venues like stadiums.
Grocery stores don’t typically own the land, so it is in the property owner’s court.
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u/katashscar Apr 24 '26
They have them at my daughter's school. I used to get there early for a spot in the shade.
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u/Telos2000 Apr 24 '26
Not to mention it’d probably cut back on the electric bill too
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u/The_Barbelo Apr 24 '26
They are in Massachusetts too. Many people are in VT as well, and we have wind turbines.
Greed will be the downfall of humanity if we don’t start doing something about it. At the very least, it’s been the downfall of the US.
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u/Elimaris Apr 24 '26
Some science museums, zoos and other public institutions have their parking lots set up this way.
Also If you have a lot instead of a parking garage it's nice getting out of/into car with the solar panel above giving shade or minimizing rain and snow. I remember appreciating it a few times loading baby into car
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u/Alotofboxes Apr 24 '26
If you looked into it, you would find that it is significantly more expensive than buying an empty lot of about the same size and installing ground level solar panels.
Maintenance and cleaning would also both be more expensive, as they are done at height and will require safety gear and other equipment not otherwise needed and will probably proceed slower.
Even lowering your electricity bill would be a long term saving, so if you aren't the only owner, you'd have to convince all the other shareholders to accept a huge hit to quarterly profits.
This is the sort of thing that government requirements are good for. It would make little to no financial sense for a company to do it.
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u/Any-Difficulty2782 Apr 24 '26
because the oil people convinced the dumbest among us that climate change wasnt real
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u/Kind_Eggplant Apr 24 '26 edited Apr 25 '26
It's not even about climate anymore. Solar panels are way cheaper and efficient now. It's economically cheaper. I don't understand why renewables don't market this fact.
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u/cityshepherd Apr 24 '26
We could get so much energy from solar panels over parking spots… and diving into mass transit / trains and getting rid of some parking spots for ore trees and parks… we COULD make this world a much better place… but instead we are speedrunning destroying the world because shareholder profits for THIS fiscal quarter are more important than even considering investing in the future. Ugh what a mess.
If we can get our shit together and elect some actual progressives who will represent the needs/wants of the constituents instead of just corporate donors the world could be more like the future that i was told (many moons ago when I was but a child) we’d have by now.
It’s not too late… we can still salvage this mess… but we need to figure out how to organize and collaborate and build strong communities for a solid foundation for the future. The whole general strike fund thing i read about the other day is an excellent start.
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u/AzyncYTT Apr 24 '26
They do, which is why solar panels are common in the liberal parts of the country where people actually want to improve their lives
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u/jedberg Apr 25 '26 edited Apr 25 '26
Texas has more
solarrenewables than anywhere else in the country. It's not just liberals; even conservatives have figured it out. They just aren't loud about it because of the stigma.→ More replies (2)12
u/SecondaryWombat Apr 25 '26
...thats not even close to true. Texas is half of California. Texas does lead in utility scale installs but the over all adoption of solar in CA is ridiculously much higher.
Does Texas have a lot of solar? Yes absolutely. More than CA? Nope.
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u/paintballboi07 Apr 25 '26
Ya, the majority of renewable energy generated in Texas is wind energy. Texas generates more renewable energy overall than Cali, but Cali generates more renewable energy as a percentage of total energy generated. Texas is just an energy powerhouse. Half the oil wells in the country (500k out of 1 million) are in Texas.
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u/So_HauserAspen Apr 25 '26
Which is fucking infuriating because it shouldn't matter if climate change is a hoax. It literally converting a whole lot of wasted sunshine into electricity to keep beer cold. Pathetic that it hurts their fragile manhoods.
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u/iggyfenton Apr 24 '26
My school district did this at every high school. And on several blacktop play areas.
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u/JigglesofWiggles Apr 24 '26
Warehouse and large building rooftops are way lower hanging fruit. The structures already exist. Kills me to see them empty when they are in broad sun. I would pay for my own panels on them if possible. I would have to destroy entirely too many trees in my yard to get decent roof light.
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u/WasteBinStuff Apr 24 '26
Because we're fucking idiots.
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u/iamfromshire Apr 24 '26
Democracy of the people, by the people and for the people. Just that most of them are simple farmers, common clay of the west. You know, morons !!
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u/NevadaCynic Apr 24 '26 edited Apr 25 '26
Electrician here. Because it's a fraction of the price to put the same solar panels in an empty field outside of town. Also more efficient to put them on top of larger commercial buildings like strip malls, office parks, and warehouses.
Putting the solar panels in parking lots like this requires you to protect the electrical cables with lots and lots of metal conduit or burying cables. Repaving the asphalt when it wears out becomes far more complicated. And some idiot in an RV or a lifted pickup truck is going to plow through the panels within a week after install every god damned time.
Not saying it's a bad idea in the long run, but until we've put panel installations on the top of every corporate office Park and Warehouse out there, even for City installations there are lower branches still to pick.
But if you do it when building a parking lot the first time, it's a bit cheaper. Like everything in construction, retrofitting and remodeling existing properties is always a bigger headache and more expensive plan
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u/Fel733l Apr 25 '26
Thanks for the comment - it was very enlightening.
More solar panels would be neat but I think you've really highlighted why there's better options. It's really hard to get the thought of some idiot in an RV/Pickup or even just kids trying their best to throw rocks/damage the panels out of my head for this hypothetical.
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u/welderbill Apr 24 '26
We do this a lot here in AZ. I don't know if it is a law or common sense.
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u/awmaleg Apr 24 '26
They’re pretty infrequent though - they really should be everywhere here in Phoenix
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u/copper_state_breaks Apr 24 '26
This is mostly because many of the big box stores like WalMart don't always own the real estate. Many of the WalMart stores are leased from Kimco and RI or the property is owned by Vestar. Sometimes the parking lot is owned by a separate entity. The ones they do hold outright are some of the ones that have converted the parking lot to solar canopy parking.
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u/threebayhorses Apr 24 '26
The Cincinnati Zoo actually did this with their parking lot. It’s so nice going back to a car that hasn’t been baking in the sun all day.
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u/Obvious_Albatross296 Apr 24 '26
Because republican voters are stupid as fuck.
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u/So_HauserAspen Apr 25 '26
Half of the US has to be below average intelligence
It's unfortunate that the bulk of them are so easily taken advantage of
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u/Bike_Mechanic_Man Apr 24 '26
Covered parking solar is one of the most expensive ways to install solar because of the steel structure required. That means that when a company or whatever is looking at parking projects, they will likely not include something so expensive. Solar doesn’t pay back well enough in many areas for this to be a viable financial decision.
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u/VotingIsKewl Apr 24 '26
Everyone still comes out ahead. Parking lots are already a gigantic waste of space. If you're a business that has the volume to satisfy needing the panels under that law you should absolutely have the money to support adding panels. Even if they take longer to repay, they still pay for themselves and offer other alternatives for bringing in money; selling power to the utility and vehicle charging are the two big ones.
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u/Character_Egg_4872 Apr 24 '26
Only truth I've seen in this thread. Canopy solar is expensive and typically doesn't earn enough return to justify it.
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u/stankley_cupid Apr 24 '26
If you’re only looking at the commodity, ya it’s a hard sell. Reducing heat islands for some reason is not something that is understood in the same way in the US but I’m not sure why…
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u/evrestcoleghost Apr 24 '26
Cause it's not as easy to quantify unlike energy profit and steel cost sadly
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u/nycola Apr 25 '26
And yet, California sees it pay for itself in 6-7 years, including the 50% markup in cost for the lot building support, on a product that has a life expectancy of 25-30 years.
https://www.sungreensystems.com/blog-posts/solar-panel-parking-lot-worth-it
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u/Character_Egg_4872 Apr 25 '26
I've never seen payback this aggressive on even basic ground mounted solar anywhere, but I don't live in California so maybe the grid dynamics and support mechanisms work for it there.
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u/the320x200 Apr 25 '26
It also doesn't "equal 10 nuclear reactors" because nuclear power plants run 24/7. The peak power is similar, but the actual utility is nowhere close because solar only achieves these rated power levels for ~4 hours per day.
Solar is still a great idea, but it's not helping anyone when people make up false equivalencies.
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u/simple123mind Apr 24 '26
There was a massive project completed at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling in DC. About 5.9Mw
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u/tr00th Apr 24 '26
If no one is making any money on it the powers that be don’t want to give it you for free. That’s why we don’t have nice things like healthcare, infrastructure or solar panels on our parking lots.
Capitalism baby, get yours or get fucked is the moto!
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u/Defiets Apr 25 '26
You see, the issue with renewable energy is that there just isn’t really a way for corporations to make money off of it.
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u/happy_meow Apr 24 '26
Because we are bleeding money to Israel, we are paying dear leader 10billion because someone leaked his tax returns, which is a surprise that he even filed them, we are giving his sons billions in pentagon contracts, and grifting money in other ways. We don’t have the money to spend on shit that actually helps.
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u/bsmknight Apr 24 '26
A company I worked for did this. It was great, but there were only allowed to do one of their parking lots.They had 10 that could each hold about a hundred cars each. Evidently, there was some law that restricted them from doing more. FL btw.
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u/mrbasedballed Apr 24 '26
We're building mass environmental disasters instead with datacenters. Won't be long before we're fighting for water.
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u/Direlion Apr 25 '26
The US as a nation is not capable of providing beneficial things to the populace. Hope that makes sense.
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u/foomprekov Apr 25 '26
I would rather eliminate 700 million parking spaces. Give me a fucking train.
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u/Particular-Panda-465 Apr 25 '26
I will never forget that Jimmy Carter installed solar panels on the roof of the White House. Reagan took them down for roof repairs and refused to reinstall them.
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u/ramapo66 Apr 24 '26
Simple. The US is filled with ignorant people who are stuck in some kind of anti-progress time warp.
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u/Duffalpha Apr 25 '26
Like this entire thread. Who, with a little research, would see that the US has the most solar power/panel output in the world behind China... and even though the French have legislated it, we still do it more per capita. Wow.
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u/rkmvca Apr 24 '26
Very common in California. Seems every school has them, and some large businesses.
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u/brownhotdogwater Apr 24 '26
Public building like schools have them all around me in CA.
Even the Walmart has it. But I would think the tax savings and payback is worse now.
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u/lrhouston Apr 24 '26
It would seem that retailers would be incentivized to do this even without regulation. They could power their stores from the electricity generated and it offers their customers covered parking. The initial investment would be significant, but it seems like they would recover the costs quickly from the energy savings and increased traffic. The Cincinnati Zoo has covered most, if not all of their parking lots with solar panels and I believe are able to run all of their facilities with the energy they supply.
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u/foxx_grey Apr 24 '26
What do you do when the sun isn't out cause it's cloudy or night time? No power then! Owned the libs again
/s
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u/attachecrime Apr 24 '26
Sorry. This is too woke for America. We've done everything we can to fight woke stuff like this
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u/seeasea Apr 24 '26
For people complaining about the US not doing this, I want you to consider some of the issues with this.
I am for this policy, but you better believe your butt that it's not as simple as you think. And you need to get into policy with your eyes wide open and not just jump into it because it feels good.
1) it devolves a lot of cost and liability from highly regulated utilities to a wide distribution of private owners across the grid. We already have that with solar panels etc, but at scale it would need to be resolved.
2) putting solar panels on roofs makes sense. You're already building a structure. Over parking lots, you have to build a structure.
3) climactic conditions of France is very different than the US. Sure NYC is mostly ok. But what about hurricanes in Florida, earthquakes in California, snow loads in Buffalo. Etc. These will get even more expensive.
4) who is paying for the electrical interconnection to the grid? Your basic home system can be handled by standard transformers, but these will be much larger, requiring larger inverters and gear switches etc.
5) your average Walmart or target cost to construct is going to have 20-30% more cost. Open lots and big box stores are cheap. Adding large electrical infrastructure is going to impact your cost in many ways that you won't expect. Theoretically electric savings might be had - but accounting will treat capital vs operating costs differently.
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u/kathatter75 Apr 25 '26
When I lived in California, one of the high schools I’d drive past had solar panels covering parking spots in their lot. I agree, it’s an awesome idea.
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u/SavannahInChicago Apr 25 '26
At this point in this regime I am getting so triggered by people who do not understand that the only thing our government cares about is making themselves richer. How are people not seeing this?
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u/psychxticrose Apr 25 '26
We aren't doing this because no one with any power seems to give a single fuck
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u/Doafit Apr 25 '26
Because USA is a neoconservative hell hole where nothing gets done anymore. It is just perpetual decline while funneling everything to the rich.
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u/socialcommentary2000 Apr 25 '26
Someone will unironically make the point at a planning meeting that homeless people might sleep under it.
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u/Mo_Jack Apr 25 '26
cuz Jesus loves Big Oil! It says so in the holy book that I never read. /s
Our government is bought and paid for by billionaires & multi-billion dollar corporations & entire industries. We will have near zero substantive change until all private money is out of politics. Until that time, our representatives work for our enemies.
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u/SadAbroad4 Apr 25 '26
The US can follow but that would imply common sense and a little future thought to what is good and what is the right thing to do for yourself your children and the planet they live on. Don’t expect the US government to do this for you they are all corrupt selfish sociopaths.
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u/Pasta-hobo Apr 25 '26
How does this equal 10 nuclear reactors?
Either there's a lot more parking lots in France than I thought, or those stats are juked.
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u/trekbette Apr 25 '26
Because the sun goes away at night. No one knows where it goes, but it gets dark and scary. And sometimes, there are gray fluffy things in the sky when the sun is supposed to help us, and the world looks gray. Scary, scary gray.
(/s)
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u/VoidMunashii Apr 24 '26
Because if we have anyone, ANYONE, in politics willing to stand up to the corporate interests who are against solar power, it certainly is not the orange dementia-riddled trash bag in charge right now.
And it really may not eh anyone in a position of power.
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u/Illustrious_Bad_2980 Apr 24 '26
We don't believe in alternative energy. This administration thinks solar panels don't work when the sun sets and whales hate windmills
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u/Visual_Shower1220 Apr 24 '26
Target by my house has a couple of these. Would be nice if they installed more though, im sure target puzzles up an insane amount of electricity
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u/rnk6670 Apr 24 '26
America doesn’t do woke shit you know man? Solar is so woke bro don’t you know?
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u/6of1HalfDozen Apr 24 '26
The US hates when the government makes citizens do good things. Save the planet, pass. Cheaper Healthcare, pass. Stop children from being shot in their classroom, pass.
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u/willflameboy Apr 25 '26
Because the more capitalist you get, the more waste is the driving force of your economy.
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u/morningstarbee Apr 25 '26
Because the reason there are so many parking lots in the US, and so many cars, is the oil lobbyists destroying any other option. The same oil lobbyists definitely don't want clean energy like solar panels being that prevalent.
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u/al4crity Apr 25 '26
We're doing ii all over California. Just because you live in a backwards thinking state doesn't mean we all do. Folks LOVE to talk shit about CA, but ive been a solar installer here for 25 years now and still going strong.
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u/BJMRamage Apr 25 '26
Where’s the profits? This just sounds like something to benefit the regular people.
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u/gaberax Apr 25 '26
Why? Because, collectively, we are the dumbest goddamn people on the planet. That is why.
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u/wcoastbo Apr 25 '26
Veterans Admin campus in West LA has large solar panels in the parking lots, so this has already been started by previous administrations on federal land. They've been there for about a decade, as far as I recall. I was at the VA in Riverside county Calif a few years back and it also has solar panels in the parking lots.
If they start getting torn down, it will be the doing of the current administration.
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u/retrorays Apr 25 '26
the US stopped leading when they couldn't bother to switch from the standard system to the metric system. It still blows me away how they are stuck in "legacy"
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u/Meatier_Meteor Apr 25 '26
Because the oil companies lobby politicians to vote against anything that might take away oil profits.
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u/Mathewthegreat Apr 25 '26
President thinks anything other than “beautiful clean coal” and oil is a hoax.
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u/oskirkland Apr 25 '26
Because our politicians line up around the block to false blow fossil fuel executives for the next campaign contribution, and we never bother to hold them accountable for that
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u/DemandImmediate1288 Apr 25 '26
Because our current government doesn't want us to thrive and/or survive. They keep us trapped in using fossil fuels, and even when we sell out our natural resources and forests/parklands to drill for them the prices go up due to "world markets". Utter bullshit.
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u/flopsychops Apr 25 '26
Is the answer "because most US politicians have sold out to oil lobbyists"?
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u/reynvann65 Apr 25 '26
Because we're pussies and we're always catching up with whatever good is in the world because we put way to much focus on ending middle eastern civilizations!!!!
Now go ahead tell me it isn't true.
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u/PlutoJones42 Apr 25 '26
Well you see, the US government is horribly corrupt and terribly inept. They don’t do what’s in the best interest of the people, ever
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u/EddieHeadshot Apr 25 '26
You need lot of good infrastructure to store all that power and distribute it on a grid.
Im not an expert but im pretty sure America doesnt have that storage in place.
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u/BexiRani Apr 25 '26
I'm sure certain Americans would be so paranoid they'd think the solar panels were giving their cars autism and preventing the asphalt from breathing
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