This is totally crazy, why would we set up an Environmental Policy framework that results in solar projects getting constantly blocked.
This is absolutely insane. Listening to what Russian politicians think is going on in the US will tell you more about what's going on in Russia and Europe than in the US.
Noah Smith's refrain on this is "China is fighting a proxy war against Europe."

It's nice when thinks work correctly.
Longer Reads
• Long article from Tim Lee about problems in tech journalism (src)(cached)
Flotsam and Jetsam
– The Philippines has banned use of genetically modified crops, which seems absolutely insane, late last year they were still aiming to move 10% of their rice crop to GMO Golden Rice, which can treat Vitamin A deficiency. So I guess that's not happening. (src)(cached)
– Germany's nuclear phase-out is the EU's version of Brexit. (src)(cached)
– Thread detailing a report on India's economy and whether they'll be able to maintain or even beat their current strong 6% GDP growth (src)(cached)
– Texas had 5.7% GDP growth in 2023, way ahead of the nation as a whole, at 2.5%, California is held back because we don't allow homes to be built. Also California's property tax level is way too low. Instead California legislators are wasting time trying to regulate compute. (src)(cached)
– Paper on the economics of generative AI (src)(cached)
– Remote work has been good for workers and companies (src)(cached)
– E-Bike categorization can be tricky, argument that ebikes whose throttle allows them to go over 25mph should probably not be categorized with those that go 20. (src)(cached)
– Does not seem great how beholden Musk is to the Chinese government, both to build and also to allow purchase of his cars. (src)(cached)
– Details on how OpenAI's Sora footage had to be improved to make a cohesive story for the baloon head video. (src)(cached)
– The Iraq War was bad, arguably the worst failure of the US Government in the 21st century, but by any reasonable measure, the US won the war. It's just that in the modern age, winning a war is not particularly good for the victor. (src)(cached)
– Wording is super important in polling about Gaza. (src)(cached)
– America's military costs so much because we're constantly keeping it active, mostly doing useful stuff. (src)(cached)