Will more Americans embrace renewable energy after the latest oil price surge? - PBS NewsHour

[Rhiannon12866]

As the impact from the war in Iran grinds on, Americans are feeling it at the gas station. Evangelists for clean energy say the oil shock is an opportunity to embrace the transition to renewable power like wind and solar.

With energy prices on the rise, Horizons moderator William Brangham explores if Americans are open to a new way of powering our world with Bill McKibben and Jigar Shah. - Aired on 04/10/2026.

[NNadir]

1. So called "renewabale energy" has nothing to do with replacement of fossil fuels but the myth persists that it does.

People do not live in the dark at night.

I know, I know, I know, batteries, hydrogen blah, blah, blah... I've been hearing this for half a century.

I consider battery blather and hydrogen hype to be borderline insane, but that's just me.

It is true that the class of people who can afford homes, a subset of people, can put solar cells on their roofs to, at a considerable investment cost, and studied indifference to the future, recover costs over a period of time for their electricity bills, assuming they live in an area with lot of sun, generally areas that paradoxically have water problems.

This of course, is valuing the lives of the wealthy over the poor, not that the bourgeoisie care much for the impoverished. In these times there's less and less concern for people living in poverty. However the costs to the future, when all of these solar cells become electronic waste, will be born by future generations, who will also be paying the price of landscapes ravaged by mining.

The "oil is expensive" so let's go "renewable" is an old tired game. The so called "renewable energy" scam is totally and completely dependent on access to fossil fuels, not that we ever stop lying to ourselves.

[thought crime]

2. Renewable energy has EVERYTHING to do with replacing fossil fuels such as coal.

You are trying to create a myth that it doesn't. That's misinformation.

But that's just you.

[thought crime]

3. The crisis should lead to a greater embrace of renewable energy.

Unfortunately, there is a very intentional effort to undermine the transition to renewable energy in the United States. Fossil fuel interests load the arguments against renewables, seeding online discussions with naysayers and outright deniers.

We may even be seeing some of that here.