America: privatized profits, socialized costs.
How much longer y’all just going to keep taking it in the ass?
We really don’t have much say in it. Sure we vote but there’s an entire segment of the country that’s afraid of immigrants whose influence is very disproportional to the percentage of the population.
Why doesn’t the government just give the loan to Constellation to restart the reactor? What’s the point of Microsoft in this.
So when their AI prospects don’t prove as fruitful as they hope, they’re not holding the liability? Sounds about Reagan.
Microsoft has cash reserves of $75 billion.
Microsoft - If you really want to convince us that nuclear power is part of the future, why can’t you use some of your own money? Why does every single nuclear suggestion always rely on bailouts from taxpayers? Here’s a thought, if you can’t pay for it yourself - just pick the cheaper option that taxpayers don’t have to pay for - you know renewables and grid storage? The stuff that everybody else, all over the world, is building near 99% of new electricity generation with.
Companies should EVER get tax payer money unless the taxpayers actually ask for something to be done by them.
If a company asks, it should be immediate denial since these companies don’t pay shit for taxes to begin with.
Proposals like this are exactly why corporations don’t pay much tax. They have tons of deals and situations like this that offset their profits/tax burden
Which is precisely why it should be an instant, guaranteed, “no”.
The headline makes no sense to me and the article crosses over 2 problems in the energy transition.
Microsoft is only involved in purchasing the power, not the facility itself. In my understanding, that means that Constellation is the only party here involved in the government backed loan. Noting also that the loan itself is not malicious, nor is its use to restart the facility - if nuclear facilities should not be funded or have any special tax status then that should have been considered in the government’s legislation.
The 2nd part about the power from the plant going to grid, and not to Microsoft’s data centres directly is a known issue which close to all companies exploit by buying green certificates which I understand are currently done monthly in some areas. That means we do not trace that each electron provided to a user was from renewables, instead we aggregate that a company (via purchasing “green” certificates) shows that enough “green” electricity, anywhere on a connection, was produced to cover their usage for that month. This has nothing to do with Microsoft, their data centres, or this facility in general but is currently being dealt with. It will be clear in the power purchasing agreement how much power Microsoft will purchase from the facility directly and how it is delivered.
Am I missing something?
And no, I don’t think nuclear power is overly helpful given the exorbitant cost, time and waste aspects
I appreciate your post but I disagree with your premise on cost. It is not worth it if you are a company looking for a quick turn around, but it is still the cheapest long term. Also waste is not the issue it once was, though it is still an issue.
The biggest issue with nuclear is NIMBYism and stigma. (And going with lowest bidder contractors)
Well, who woulda thunk?
