AT&T was effectively a government-supported monopoly
It was certainly a monopoly. But hardly government supported. The government has issued major sanction against the company no less than three times.
The Kingsbury Commitment, which forced AT&T to divest its stake in Western Union, stop acquiring competing independent local phone companies, and allow other companies to connect to its long-distance network
The 1956 Consent Decree, requiring AT&T to stay out of the emerging computer/data processing market and license its transistor patents royalty-free
The 1984 Bell System Breakup, which formally split the comment company eight ways.
Solar R&D was hardly private. You’re completely excluding things like the U.S. National Science Foundation’s Advanced Solar Energy Research and Development Division.
The NSF has always languished in funding and has historically failed to deliver major breakthroughs, much less any kind of physical rollout, of a public solar/wind energy grid.
If anything, it has operated as an echo chamber of the fossil fuel industry, downplaying the efficiency and ultimate profitability of a renewable grid.
Hardly a subsidy.
And yet, my point is, even they’re still subsidizing solar orders of magnitude more than nuclear!
Show me the solar powered submarine.
Show me the solar powered aircraft carrier.
Show me any meaningful federally contracted project to implement solar power for domestic or international consumption.
At the very least, I can point you towards Georgia’s Vogtle 3 and 4. Nothing like that exists in the renewable space.
This is complete distortion that tries to repeat the last two sentences of my first paragraph. Every one of these times that wasn’t a breakup was a concession because the law says that a vertically-integrated monopoly such as AT&T should be broken up. These settlements, commitments, consent decrees all have the government officially recognize AT&T as the natural monopoly. The government straight-up set AT&T’s rates. Bell Labs then had very little to show after the government broke up the Bell System.
And again, one of these conditions was to have Bell Labs release inventions’ patent rights into public domain. Ma Bell rates were effectively a tax, Bell Labs was effectively a public institution.
The NSF was historically heavily funded. The fossil fuel industry had extremely little power towards fossil fuel adoption in the 70s due to a series of events starting with OPEC’s embargo, and the vast majority of that redirection went towards renewables.
Show me the solar powered submarine.
Show me the solar powered aircraft carrier.
These applications make no sense. An aircraft carrier needs armor and there’s no fucking sunlight in submarine territory. Show me the nuclear helicopter and the solar smartphone.
Vogtle 3 and 4 had no federal funding unless you count the loan guarantees, in which case I easily found Ivanpuh which has loan guarantees for 72.7% of its funding compared to Vogtle 3 and 4’s less-than-25%. Vogtle was also an unfair example as a notable case of mismanagement resulting in cost overruns like Crescent Dunes.
It was certainly a monopoly. But hardly government supported. The government has issued major sanction against the company no less than three times.
The NSF has always languished in funding and has historically failed to deliver major breakthroughs, much less any kind of physical rollout, of a public solar/wind energy grid.
If anything, it has operated as an echo chamber of the fossil fuel industry, downplaying the efficiency and ultimate profitability of a renewable grid.
Hardly a subsidy.
Show me the solar powered submarine.
Show me the solar powered aircraft carrier.
Show me any meaningful federally contracted project to implement solar power for domestic or international consumption.
At the very least, I can point you towards Georgia’s Vogtle 3 and 4. Nothing like that exists in the renewable space.
This is complete distortion that tries to repeat the last two sentences of my first paragraph. Every one of these times that wasn’t a breakup was a concession because the law says that a vertically-integrated monopoly such as AT&T should be broken up. These settlements, commitments, consent decrees all have the government officially recognize AT&T as the natural monopoly. The government straight-up set AT&T’s rates. Bell Labs then had very little to show after the government broke up the Bell System.
And again, one of these conditions was to have Bell Labs release inventions’ patent rights into public domain. Ma Bell rates were effectively a tax, Bell Labs was effectively a public institution.
The NSF was historically heavily funded. The fossil fuel industry had extremely little power towards fossil fuel adoption in the 70s due to a series of events starting with OPEC’s embargo, and the vast majority of that redirection went towards renewables.
These applications make no sense. An aircraft carrier needs armor and there’s no fucking sunlight in submarine territory. Show me the nuclear helicopter and the solar smartphone.
Vogtle 3 and 4 had no federal funding unless you count the loan guarantees, in which case I easily found Ivanpuh which has loan guarantees for 72.7% of its funding compared to Vogtle 3 and 4’s less-than-25%. Vogtle was also an unfair example as a notable case of mismanagement resulting in cost overruns like Crescent Dunes.