Idiocracy has arrived in the US. I wish it was just stupidity. We need to coin a new term for this adminustration. I suggest Evilocracy.

They said its not windy at night!

This is incorrect, large-scale energy storage is an unsolved problem.

They just try to tell us any old thing, but what else would we expect from the "they're eating the cats, they're eating the dogs" adninistration?

This is fucking pathetic.

We have solar panels. It’s a real drag to have to wait until the sun comes out to turn on the lights!

Our crime levels have quajillioned since we got our new solar streetlights. At least somebody is saying something about it… /s

It's also quite unlikely to have zero wind over the entire damn continent...

You should put a little windmill turbine on it so you can operate it when you leave your house. If there's no wind you can just run sprints.

My phone doesn’t work when I’m out of the sun.

NPR intern: "Mr. Wright, can we interview you for the stupidest thing a government official of any country has ever said?"

🤦‍♀️

That post felt like a Trump tweet.

Why are these people so flipping stupid?

Next time it is dark, pls can I buy all the solar panels?

Anybody with an gas powered automobile want to speak up. Aww, how do you start it. Turn the key or push the button and if your "⚡️ storing battery" isn't dead it'll start! 😉

*a gas

LIES

And their main job? Overseeing nuclear facilities. What could go wrong?

Don’t you guys dare mock their common sense jeanyus!!!

Total dummies, these MAGAs.

Battery was invented in 1800. Thought that was their favorite Century.

Dumbest people with dumbest lies, and the dumbest base for believing them.

Those sources also allow hydro dams to reserve water release for high demand periods, and can be used for "pump back" systems to store kinetic energy. The willful ignorance of Trump acolytes is terrifying.

Their stupidity has no limits

@papst-ny.bsky.social

Wait till they find out the earth isn't flat, minds blown.

OMG, electricity is stored, sent through interconnects to the power companies or why would it exist??? Ever wonder why the windmills keep turning without wind? Idiots.

🤣

What a concept! It's an old fashioned word, batteries, it's like when you put a bunch of energy into a container to keep it there...

Our plumbing infrastructure figured this out with water towers generations ago; people drew more water in the evenings so they set up large water storage to help with the draw, same concept works with power and battery banks.

That's so sad. A lot of children get this concept. Either they are not competent, they are lying to deceive, or they are completely brainwashed. There is a scenario when all three of these things are true together.

Words fail to describe the utter incompetence of the Trump cabinet, and I get downright wistful thinking about the many top notch folks in Biden's (my faves were Yellen and Haaland).

Wonder how water comes out of the tap when it's not raining 🤔

People touting batteries as a means of backing up wind and solar power have no clue about the scale of what would be required to provide a reliable grid.

Power, it's all about choosing between batteries, sharks, and magnets getting wet.

Sand batteries. Salt tanks. Gravity lifts. Giant flywheels. Pumped hydro. Lithium cells. Hydrogen splits. Even compressed air in caverns. Energy isn’t scarce—it’s stored in every element we’ve taught to hold a spark. The trick is building what lasts, not what burns.

Also, wind still blows when its dark out. It actually blows harder when its cold out.

Imagine being that dumb. It’s incredible.

But how many AA's will it take to store the electric output of a wind turbine?

How do electric cars work when they’re not plugged in?

They have backup, the truck monkey gets out a start pushing

Really long extension cords.

You have to pedal in such adverse weather conditions.

My brain is in agony at the idea we are being run by Neanderthals. I am beside myself….

Morons Are Governing America

Yes!

Even when it’s cloudy (including days with light rain), my solar panels generate more than enough electricity to power everything in the house, including AC. All unused electricity that is generated goes to the grid. Such nonsense these people are spewing.

I don't understand. How would you use a cell phone when you're not connected to a charger?

This is what happens when you fail science,history, English, etc. The and still get to be in positions of power. Yikes.

Did they put RFK Jr. in charge of the DoE?

Batteries like the ones in phones, don't really work in the absolutely massive scale that a nation, or indeed the world, needs. But, there are other means of storage, and those guys should know it...

We are in the dumbest timeline

. Batteries are not the future.

Republicans spout planned stupidity

Is the US Dept of Energy that fargging stupid? Or just their social media spokesperson? Not many years ago, the US was know for its a science. Now it appears to be know for its ridiculousness.

You all are gonna look real stupid when you realize that the sun doesn't set in China, because the constant wind there keeps it from going down. ♟️#kingme

Do these morons understand how solar-charge hand calculators work? I've had a palm-sized SHARP calculator on my desk for twenty years, and it hasn't failed yet. [rolled eyes]

They'd likely order NASA to launch a starship to the sun at night. When it's not working.

Please stop it. Start thinking like them, or you'll keep losing!!

They should stop being so negative. Be more positive about green energy.

These may be the dumbest people in the world. A meteor strike at the White House would raise the average IQ of the US by 50 points.

Meanwhile

Imagine somebody inventing a solar phone charger. 📱 🤣

I have one in case of emergencies

Next thing the DOE will demand is that candles are more efficient than LED bulbs‼️😳😳🙄🙄🙄

Pitiful

fucking morons running the country

We could just use all the hot air coming from this administration and power the universe. These are the same people that painted one side of the border wall black to make it hotter,not taking into consideration that the sun does go down and the side they painted faces north.

Somebody in Mexico already shot a video of him climbing it anyway.

Not to mention that they painted the US side!

You need a longer cable.

You elected these liars. They know what batteries are but they are compulsive liars and need something new to lie about. So they create a new level of stupid to communicate the lie. Sadly, some ppl believe it.

In places like Texas, CA, even the great plains - when the sun isn’t shining, the wind is almost always blowing. Same thing for both coasts. The fact that the wind is always blowing is how ships got here in the first place. This is an ignorance. It’s gaslighting. And oh yeah batteries.

In Germany, the right wing parties (CDU/CSU and AfD) say the same thing .. their level of stupidity is exactly the same as that of the GOP/MAGA. The AfD has even been labelled as "officially proven right wing extremists" by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution.

The CDU/CSU don't want to try and ban the AfD (even though a lot of people are demanding it). They claim, that they'd need votes from the leftist party, to do so and they don't want to collaborate with them for anything, whatsoever.

The real offense here is that the dweebs at the Trump Department of Energy know damned well how it all works. Their paid job is to con the Extremely Fucking Stupid.

Someone at doe needs to go back to school

DM me your number George and I'll try calling you when it's dark to see if it works 😁

DUMB DUMB DUMB

As if yours isn't dilithium powered, sure. Pull the other one.

I bet Elon Musk has community notes in his crosshairs

It will be shocking news to them over the nights fire

The most unintelligent timeline, I swear.

Batteries aren't the answer as there are no batteries with enough capacity to store enough energy for mass consumption. However you can tell the idiots who say wind doesn't yield in the absence of wind, that neither does fuel in the absence of fuel. DERG.

trump's been spewing this b.s. since 2016. Telling " darling" ( there's that word again) about how a husband and wife are sitting down together after dinner to watch tv and the tv isn't working because it's dark outside. I'm sick of hearing this b.s. still being given a platform.

What's more insulting? That they said it or they think we'll believe it? Liars without shame.😠

The stupidity we have to tolerate with this current admin.

Same problem like all other departments.

..........

Got it, the wind only blows at daylight.

I love when community notes are ELI5 style.

Is there a Dumber and Dumber University? Oh wait Trump had one.

🤣🤣🤣🤣

🫡 Curious what they do when they put sunglasses on, do they just sleep where they stand?

The creep of MAGA AI (Abandoned Intelligence, spreads like bread mold.

@samd.bsky.social 👀

*Stares in overnight storms* This dumb fuck thinks that weather stops when the light turns off, fucking hell are they dense.

The Tr^mp-led stupidity and incompetence in this administration is off the freaking charts!!!

That’s their brains on MAGA!

Coal plants are essentially worthless when they run out of coal.

I think they know. But they also know that many MAGA's do not understand how batteries work.

BurCHUMP is nuts! Renewable energy, rechargeable batteries already cost competitive with hydrocarbons (oil, gas, coal, etc.)…that milestone crossed in last few years. China leading the way now, not because they want to be green, but they don’t have oil. USA Peak Oil is happening now. THEN WHAT?

What a time to be alive.🙄

I broke my arm the other day hand cranking my car. If only there was a way to crank a car with motors or something. Many places store energy in water reservoirs. Water is pumped up to a higher reservoir and is gravity fed into hydroelectric generators when power is needed. It's quite efficient.

Gravity battery

OMG, our society is uneducated and biased enough to believe this crap 😳

They don’t seem to know how wind and solar energy work either.

Brilliance is not part of the DNA of Republicans.

science math common sense decency empathy American ideology not the strong uits of this chaos clown regime

They seem to know only how the energy of sucking up works. 🤢🤢🤢

To be fair, the ones in charge probably think gas nozzles are really just prehensile subterranean dino wangs that naturally shoot gas & will never run out ever.

Also, isn't energy provided by the grid not necessarily local?

It amazes me that there are people that are so stupid that they have to have the basics that they have used throughout their lives explained to them, batteries store energy, and inverters take that energy and turn it onto AC power to feed into the grid, both techs have been around for decades!!! 🤦‍♂️

There are edge cases where batteries wouldn't cover a few weeks of high demand and low production. EG, A still and cold mid-winter. That's why we keep the gas and coal power stations, for those edge cases. Overall we could cut consumption by 90%

If you don't want things to change it's easy to throw bricks at a 90% solution.

Totally.

To be fair, the statement is actually correct, what it doesn’t state is that battery power infrastructure takes over (although there is a long way to go with battery storage).

Batteries are part of wind and solar infrastructure.

there is no need to be fair here, they are incapable of that type of reasoning. Dumb af and running the country, we should all be very afraid and call them out for their stupidity

Exactly.

No, it is a good way to show them they are sort of expected to be capable of that type of reasoning. As always: sarcasm is a way to insult stupid people without them realizing.

Notice, all of trump's cabinet and their employees qualify for the scarecrow role in the Wizrd of Oz

Or the Tin Man, who craves oil and has no heart.

Yikes.

There are more than 17,000 wind turbines in Texas , maybe cruz and abbot could explain it to him .

Toss it out anyway. It is just in the way and not needed. I am sure Shatner can get in touch with you some other way.

Perhaps "Pictures" will help these morons understand. Apologies that it is not drawn in Crayon. System Generating more that it can use right now, so excess is going back to Power Grid for credit. Battery is 100% for those times it is cloudy or heavens forbid night.

More Exported to the Grid than Consumed YTD so far.

I thought I could only use my cellphone when it's plugged in. Duh! I feel so stupid now

Oil is worthless when it’s in the ground and unrefined

I never go out at night. There is no light.

And amazingly went it is 6 pm on the east coast it still will be sunny in California and power will be generated.

They think (perhaps rightly) that their voters are this stupid.

JFC

Yeah *we know* solar doesn't produce at night. The point is that during the day you don't have to pay for fuel. So it's a bit like saying that free breakfast on Monday is worthless on Tuesday... Not even wrong.

How can Solar be worthless? Even at night, those solar cells have future value because the Sun ALWAYS rises EVERY morning. Most reliable source of free energy, ever! DOE also has no concept of capitalized assets and basic accounting for what is "worthless".

Wow the whole cabinet with a negative IQ. VOTE.

Chuckle chuckle.

The DOE knows about batteries. They also know their magat base is stupid...

Not to mention creative “batteries” like wind and solar being used to pump water into basins that can later be converted to hydroelectric power.

I hope no one tells them about hydroelectric dams, they run 24/7

what do you mean by "charge"? I thought you can only use a phone while the sun is out and the wind is blowing

Batteries kill birds and whales. 😜

I think this is where they got their information. This is a page from a fourth grade textbook published by Bob Jones University for homeschoolers. It explains a lot more than electrical ignorance.

Anyone giving this utter garbage to children needs to be locked up for abuse and neglect. I think some of my brain cells committed suicide because I read that...

The rest of the textbook is equally as bad. A lot of evangelicals are home schooled. Have you ever watched “Jesus Camp”?

Nope. Things like that just piss me off.

Yep. Anybody that hurts a child is my sworn enemy.

We’re so screwed! 😳🤯🪫💨☀️

It's Trump's confederation of dunces guiding the government into a state of complete incompetence so there will be no resistance to his dictatorship. It's amazing that the Dems had the tools to stop it but never bothered, are they in on it?

And your house is powered by oil not wind. Wind is not overpowering batteries to the point its stored lol. You know so little about the things you cheer for.

Entire countries are switching to renewable just fine. Wtf is wrong with these people?

wtf!?!

🤦🏽‍♀️ how do we combat this level of stupid?

If not a general strike, then we need to SLOW DOWN WORK SLOWER JAM UP THE SYSTEM

Maybe consult with RFK Jr. and see what he thinks.🤔

Investment in basic education and reasoning.... Not going to happen in god fearing Murika, ignorance is a virtue.

buy a gun and wait

2-5 generations with proper education and maybe some of them will be saved...

We have similar bollocks from Westminster telling us our Scottish wind power is useless not only when it's NOT windy but when it's TOO windy! Of course it is this same wind turbines powering their electricity in England (esp. in London and the SE) where their energy bills are half that of Scotland.

The Department of Energy is actually the Department of Big Oil — ONLY‼️

Say this is true, batteries don't exist. What this ass clown of a fail neglects is when the sun is shining and the wind blowing the electricity generated reduces the demand on fossil fuel power plants reducing carbon emissions. But there's no Stoopid like The MAGA Stoopid.

Have they changed the name to Department of Digging Stuff out of the Ground and Setting it on Fire yet?

To store electricity on a large scale, batteries might not be of much use. Storage is in fact the biggest problem when it comes to solar and wind energy. Pumped hydroelectric energy storage is part of the solution; but those are huge plants.

And Batteries have been around since before the invention of the Generator.

Changed the department of defense to the department of war, why not change the department of energy to the department of protection for the oil industry!

The level of stupidity is astounding! Truly astounding!

Another representation of the trump administration Which is an accurate facsimile of the maga party #magarepresentation #magacharacter

Even if you give their argument an ounce of credence, which I don't. Just because solar can't generate at night does not mean you shouldn't utilise it during the day. You're still halving your Co2 emissions.

First of all, the Washington Examiner 🐟🌯

This is why Trump loves the uneducation. It fits perfectly in his obligation to fossil fuel. My grandson learned solar is a storage of energy system in 4th grade science class.

You see, that’s the problem, SCIENCE and CLASS. Both super woke, so woke they will blind you if you look in their general direction 😆

Using the Washington Examiner as a source is like choosing to gargle with Drano. How did America get so fucking stupid

Wow, the new dept of energy doesn't understand batteries!!

Moreover, how does the lack of sunlight prevent wind from functioning. The morons within the cute t administration should be denylisted for any future role requiring any semblance of cogent thought.

Your phone won't work at night. Because it's dark

Hang onto that phone! Our Energy Secretary also doesn't realize the power goes into the grid when produced to be used where its needed at that time. I don't know which grids in country are interconnected.

If you bought a solar phone recharger .... you *could* recharge it while out of the house! (at least during the day 😉)

Reminds me of Plato's Allegory of the Cave.

Because they refuse to see reality as it actually is, or because a cave is the one place they’d be factually correct about wind and solar power?

You pick. I'd say all of it. Plato's Allegory simply popped into my head when I read the post. Relevant then and still relevant now. I'm grateful for the education that exposed me to it.

there are also great ideas like using the solar and wind energy to heat and liquefy salt in existing coal fire power plants that would be modified for this purpose. Then when it is dark or the wind is not blowing use the heated salt to create steam electricity instead of coal.

You cannot fix stupid.

This administration breeds incompetence.

Breeds, nurtures, and promotes.

1. Corrupt 2. Ignorant. 3. Low intelligence 4. Cult I'm choosing 1 and 4.

These idiots don’t get it. They can’t think for themselves.

if they don’t “know” about batteries- why are they in such a resource battle for rare earth minerals!!??

There are many other technologies to store generated energy from solar and wind power. One of the largest of these is the Bath County Pumped Storage Station in Virginia. This is just one technology, with many others available or currently in development. Using batteries for storage is expensive!

Yes, batteries are expensive but in the past year they've dropped in price by about half. For example, you can get a lfp kit battery pack holding 15 kwh for under $1.9k. 6 months ago, it was $3k. youtu.be/rRqV8BHE8lY?...

Your Department of Energy… Sticking their finger in the plug to make sure it works.

Texas has whole fiels of wind and solar. Talk about a disconnect. ember-energy.org/latest-updat...

Our country is super dumb.

Alex, I’ll take What do batteries do for $500.

So, I can charge my phone when it runs down? I bet that’s cheaper than buying new ones every time..

Why don't they use Brawndo? It's got electrolytes.

It's got what plants crave!

That's just an outright LIE!

Dumbassery at its finest!

Wow

bsky.app/profile/ever...

Fuck sticks

You see when the sun disappears - It has gone elsewhere - how it ever returns🤷 Meanwhile fossil fuels are, of course, forever!!!

😂

I think I am being made dumber by these people.

These people have never ever Touched 👅 on a two pin battery 🪫

Batteries? What the heck are THOSE thingies,?

The absolute dumbest people on the planet.

No, the dumbest people on the planet are the people they're writing this for.

Sounds just like MTG’s comments. They must have formed their own special Mensa group.

Also, famously, it's never windy at night.

Especially on the costs... the air just sits there...

That's fine if you only use it while the sun is shining.

With the U.S. being so dump and Putin wanting to rule the world, why is Putin wasting time and energy invading Ukraine? With the present admin's intelligence level, the U.S. would be an easier target. The Orange-Dump would probably not put up a fight welcoming Putin with open arms!

I left my car sitting for a week while I was away, yet it started right up. Please tell the Nobel committee that, after they finish with Trump’s Peace Prize, I’m waiting for Physics. 🏆 “I’d like to thank the Academy.”

See. I knew cellphones operated untethered via magic and nothing else.

Just when I thought this administration could not say anything dumber, they prove me wrong Once again

This administration has intentionally put the absolute worst and most destructive people in charge We are a nation run by idiots

youtu.be/eTXGbgQfCH4?...

C'mon people, they have to be trolling Elon. Tesla does big business with their Megapack batteries for storage. Did Elon get his tongue cut out??

It's ok for Star Trek people like you to understand that [checks notes] batteries exist. But remember, for us average Joes, such technology surely can't be real. Being able to store electricity in some kind of box or whatever. Yeah, right. Whatever next? Stairs that automatically move up or down?

Longer charging cords! Come on George, we can corner the market! Offer Auto-Retractable reels or Manuel versions.

Dark and no wind huh? These liars are scraping the bottom of the barrel.

They're just recycling Faux News talking points. It's pathetic.

You nailed it :-)

So if the Department of Defence has been given the opposite title, should the Department of Energy be given the same treatment. Department of Lethargy?

Trump thinks energy is what he has to produce to shit his pants.

This is what happens when MAGA is used for education.

If you start from the premise that MAGA really wants to ruled by a malign Idiocracy, then MangoMussolini’s regime starts to make a sort of twisted sense.

And these geniuses are running the country!

The STOOOOOPID is truly overwhelming here!

No, do not toss your cellphone, only do not expect it will work in dark non-windy conditions. But this is what paper mail was invented because bat post (less known brother of pigeon post) works best in dark non-windy conditions.