We’re at a breaking point.
And we’re going to have to choose one or the other.
If we want clean, carbon emission-free energy at a scale that can provide for baseload power requirements, it must be nuclear power. There is nothing else.
In the last several decades, Germany became the poster child for the tug-of-war between having clean energy… and needing to keep the lights on and the factories running.
Despite having a growing and thriving nuclear industry since the 1960s, it reversed course after the 1990s. It chose to shut down all its “dirty” nuclear power plants. Its final plant was shut down in 2023.
What happened?
Germany initially hoped to turn to natural gas, a fossil fuel, to make up the electricity deficit. Then the U.S. government blew up the Nord Stream pipelines as an act of economic sabotage against Russia.
Germany was then faced with a simple dilemma, one easy enough for a child to understand.
The choice was either energy austerity or to build coal-fired power plants – the dirtiest of all energy sources.
Germany chose coal.
And it’s not just in Germany.
I was reminded recently of Germany’s nuclear plight when reviewing some news of nuclear power deals being restricted by the U.S. government.
This March, Amazon’s cloud services division, Amazon Web Services (AWS), spent $650 million to acquire a 1,200-acre data center campus from Talen Energy in Pennsylvania.
It’s an ideal location situated right next to Talen’s Susquehanna Steam Electric Station – a nuclear power plant.
The purpose of the AWS acquisition was to gain direct access to carbon-emission-free energy to do something about meeting its clean energy goals.
In other words, Amazon was trying to make a real and material impact on its clean energy goals, not just buying greenwashed carbon credits. The acquisition enabled its access to 960 watts of carbon-emission-free clean electricity.
Sounds great, right?
And yet, on Monday, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) ruled against Amazon to block it from expanding its power consumption from the Talen Energy plant. The FERC will only allow Amazon to access 300 megawatts of electricity and no more.
The industry has been aggressively working to invest in and build clean energy solutions to meet the increasing demand for clean electricity, and federal regulators are blocking it.
And the Amazon/Talen deal isn’t the only example.
Meta intended to catch up to nuclear power deals put in place by Microsoft, Alphabet, and Amazon. Its plan was to build the largest AI-specific data center facility powered by carbon-emission-free nuclear energy.
Meta was hoping to jump ahead, in fact, by striking a deal with a nuclear power plant and building its AI facility right next door…
But hope is a great falsifier, as famous playwright Karel Čapek – the man who coined the word robot – said.
“Let it die out, and you will see things as they are.”
It was a great plan. Again, Meta was trying to do something positive… to invest in and power its data centers with carbon-emission-free, clean energy.
And then, environmental regulators discovered a “rare” species of bees living on the land Meta was set to use to build its data centers.
Please, don’t get me wrong. I love bees and honey. And I understand the vital role bees play in our ecosystem.
However, surely there’s a solution to ensure there’s a habitat for the bees? Let’s say one or two hundred acres in one direction or the other. After all, the bees were there before the nuclear power plant was built.
What’s it going to be? Clean energy or some bees on roughly 1,000 acres of land?
This kind of cognitive dissonance and government outreach has plagued progress in the last number of years. And it’s only gotten worse.
There’s no better example of regulatory and federal overreach – and, in this case, politically motivated attacks – than what’s been happening the last couple of years to Elon Musk’s companies.
The chart below pretty much sums it up…
Musk’s Attacks from the U.S. Government | Source: Jonathan Corum
If we understand the companies, their missions, and what they have achieved, the political attacks are that much more absurd.
Tesla is a clean energy company. Electric vehicles, battery storage, solar panels, and soon, battery-powered, autonomous robots.
Tesla manufactures some of the safest cars in the world. And it also produces the most American-made cars in the U.S. The Tesla Model Y has been the most made-in-America car for the last three years in a row.
It’s also the world’s leader in both electric vehicles and autonomous vehicle technology. And yet, it wasn’t invited to a U.S. government-sponsored electric vehicle summit. And as we can see above, it’s the target of multiple government agencies.
SpaceX is an entirely American company that has transformed the aerospace industry. It has single-handedly enabled the burgeoning space economy. And it’s the only company capable of safely getting NASA astronauts back and forth to the International Space Station (ISS).
Boeing literally stranded two astronauts on the ISS due to technical failures in its spacecraft. With Boeing unable to recover them, SpaceX will bring the astronauts home.
SpaceX is the only company that will empower NASA to return to the moon and establish a lunar base. And it’s the only company that will be launching Starships to Mars within the next two years.
And despite SpaceX going out of its way to collaborate and problem-solve with the U.S. government and having saved NASA billions in costs because it is so efficient and good at what it does, just look at the attacks from government agencies.
It’s not even subtle at this point…
Just a few weeks ago, as SpaceX was preparing to catch a Super Heavy Booster returning from space with the Mechazilla tower (The Bleeding Edge – The “Impossible” Catch), we had to suffer such headlines as this:
California officials reject more SpaceX rocket launches, citing Musk’s X posts
– The Los Angeles Times
SpaceX continues to wait for federal approval for its Starship’s sixth test flight in which it will try to catch a Starship in the arms of a Mechazilla.
Not a rocket booster – the actual Starship.
Neuralink? Musk and his team have empowered two quadriplegic patients to control computers with their minds. Just with their thoughts. And Neuralink is under investigation? Come on. How about we ask those two patients what they think of Neuralink as a company?
Of course, we all know what this is about. It’s about X and Musk’s stance on freedom of speech. He believes in one simple truth – that all voices should be heard.
Musk believed in this constitutional right so much that he was knowingly willing to overpay for Twitter when he bought it for $44 billion. In the end, faced with the fact that platform user numbers were inflated, he didn’t care that he overpaid. The value of a free society and free markets is worth far more than that. He paid anyway.
And yet, “they” prefer censorship and total government control over progress.
Why would we want to stifle progress?
Why would we want to stop clean energy deals with Amazon and Meta?
Why would we want to hold back history’s most prolific builder and businessperson, someone who I predict will become the world’s first trillionaire?
We shouldn’t. Just imagine what Musk and his teams will build during the next 20 years. Let him run. Let him build. Let him usher in an abundant future.
Let him show other innovators the path forward.
He may break the “rules” on engineering design, but he’ll stick to the law and help to establish reasonable regulations for industry.
It’s clear that’s what the majority of the U.S. wants, as well. There’s no ambiguity. And with Musk at the helm of the soon-to-be-created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) – with the help of Dr. Ron Paul and with RFK Jr. tasked with cleaning up the corruption in the FDA, CDC, and HHS – we’re in for an abundant future.
Time for clean energy. Time for common sense. Time to accelerate.
We have so much to look forward to…
Jeff, E/ACC
The Bleeding Edge is the only free newsletter that delivers daily insights and information from the high-tech world as well as topics and trends relevant to investments.
The Bleeding Edge is the only free newsletter that delivers daily insights and information from the high-tech world as well as topics and trends relevant to investments.
