(It’s not a great article - it is surely quite motivated in a certain direction - but I do not think it should be flagged. Not sure if it’s possible to register a vote against flagging.)
“Energy-source politics” often reminds me of the Condorcet voters paradox. That paradox is where Voter 1 prefers A>B>C, Voter 2 prefers B>C>A, and Voter 3 prefers C>A>B. If A were to be declared the winner, one can point out two voters have “C>A” in their preference and only one voter has “A>C”, so C should be elected - but two voters have “B>C” and only one has “C>B”, so B should be elected - but two voters have “A>B” and only one has “B>A”, so A should be elected…
It’s important to note this paradox is stronger than just “it’s a tie”. The meat of the paradox is that for any chosen winner, the majority actively prefers a different winner.
The three candidates are fossil fuels, renewables, and nuclear. Alice prefers fossil fuels > renewables > nuclear (she wants airconditioning at night and watched Chernobyl recently). Bob prefers renewables > nuclear > fossil fuels (he has a live feed of IPCC predictions and updates). Chuck prefers nuclear > fossil fuels > renewables (he is a techno-optimist who runs a Bitcoin mining farm 24/7).
In this situation, if Georgia the governor announces a billion dollar subsidy for fossil fuels, Bob and Chuck (a majority of her constituents) will write her complaint letters suggesting nuclear instead; if she puts that billion towards renewables, Alice and Chuck (again, a majority) oppose her and demand she support fossil fuels instead; if she allocates it to nuclear, Alice and Bob (a majority) vote her out of office in favor of her opponent who will subsidize renewables.
Into this dynamic you put Larry the lobbyist (a stand-in for Robert Bryce, the author of the article). Larry’s motivation is simple: he gets paid for every dollar of government funding he directs to the industry he is employed to lobby for. If he is employed by fossil fuel companies, his best tactic is simply to criticize renewables (as this will activate a majority support for fossil fuels).
Comments
(It’s not a great article - it is surely quite motivated in a certain direction - but I do not think it should be flagged. Not sure if it’s possible to register a vote against flagging.)
“Energy-source politics” often reminds me of the Condorcet voters paradox. That paradox is where Voter 1 prefers A>B>C, Voter 2 prefers B>C>A, and Voter 3 prefers C>A>B. If A were to be declared the winner, one can point out two voters have “C>A” in their preference and only one voter has “A>C”, so C should be elected - but two voters have “B>C” and only one has “C>B”, so B should be elected - but two voters have “A>B” and only one has “B>A”, so A should be elected…
It’s important to note this paradox is stronger than just “it’s a tie”. The meat of the paradox is that for any chosen winner, the majority actively prefers a different winner.
The three candidates are fossil fuels, renewables, and nuclear. Alice prefers fossil fuels > renewables > nuclear (she wants airconditioning at night and watched Chernobyl recently). Bob prefers renewables > nuclear > fossil fuels (he has a live feed of IPCC predictions and updates). Chuck prefers nuclear > fossil fuels > renewables (he is a techno-optimist who runs a Bitcoin mining farm 24/7).
In this situation, if Georgia the governor announces a billion dollar subsidy for fossil fuels, Bob and Chuck (a majority of her constituents) will write her complaint letters suggesting nuclear instead; if she puts that billion towards renewables, Alice and Chuck (again, a majority) oppose her and demand she support fossil fuels instead; if she allocates it to nuclear, Alice and Bob (a majority) vote her out of office in favor of her opponent who will subsidize renewables.
Into this dynamic you put Larry the lobbyist (a stand-in for Robert Bryce, the author of the article). Larry’s motivation is simple: he gets paid for every dollar of government funding he directs to the industry he is employed to lobby for. If he is employed by fossil fuel companies, his best tactic is simply to criticize renewables (as this will activate a majority support for fossil fuels).