AcceptingGirl
20681
542
30
#SolarPanels
Feb 23, 2026 5:55 AM
AcceptingGirl
20681
542
30
#SolarPanels
veronicablood
Jimmy Carter had forty feet of garden hose in the Rose Garden, and Nancy Reagan sucked a golf ball through it.
Jimmy Carter had a trailer hitch attached to the Presidential Limo, and Nancy Reagan sucked the chrome off of it.
Bossco20
And then Trump destroyed the white house
Sparkmateriality
When I had a house I worked so hard and went into so much debt getting solar panels. Any little thing I do for the environment has no effect compared to all the bad all the rich people do. They have 0 thought about the future other than how they can destroy it.
FortifiedWhine
Interesting that the two worst Presidents the US has had have been showbiz clowns. And very ironic that one of the best leaders around is also literally a showbiz comic.
Jamnew60
Reagan is one of the reasons we have Trump now. Reagan opened his campaign in Philadelphia, MS, a long known KKK stronghold. His message about a black welfare queen that didn’t exist got him a lot of support. He went on to sow distrust in the government by insisting that government is the problem.
varonicaED
They were actually solar thermal panels for hot water heating, not photovoltaic for electricity, some of them were re-used on the Unity College cafeteria roof to heat water, I believe on ended up in a museum. https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2023/02/the-forgotten-story-of-jimmy-carters-white-house-solar-panels/
NickNoltesDrinkingShack
Gd Regan was just one aching pile of shit.
Munchman347
After several nasty calls from Big coal and oil 'donors'...
CASchoeps
To be fair, the roof was being reworked, so it had to be removed. But he also did not put it up again... for whatever reason you want to imagine.
torokunai
they were thermal panels and kinda sucked LOL
https://lakevillejournal.com/local-power-norfolks-link-to-jimmy-carters-white-house-solar-panels
but the people running the gov't in the mid-80s did kill solar in the USA just like they killed it again in 2005 and a gain in 2025. They're like cicadas.
Beardedgeek72
Ronald Reagan is the core cause of 95% of America's problems. And the number of registered Dems voting for him condemned the nation forever.
varesya
Yeah, it's basically that the shit he did was so popular it infected the country. He struck at just the right time, and rode the 80s wave of recovery from the stagflation seventies. And he successfully saddled Carter with the blame for that, despite it being engineered by Nixon's and Ford's policies, while Carter put the changes in place to fix it even though they were painful at first. Reagan further juiced things by cutting taxes and engaging in massive deficit spending, so...
somnif
Kinda? It was a solar water heater, not power gen, and the roof under them wasn't really rated for the mass of the unit. Fuck Reagan tho.
netutoring
It was still a nice symbolic step. Also bear in mind that solar panels in that age would have still been very new. Energy efficient houses were still a relatively new idea moving into the 1980s. There was a whole season of This Old House (Bob Vila era) where they built an energy efficient house. Fascinating look back in time.
PigsWeGetWhatPigsDeserve
People hate it when this is pointed out, but Reagan picked up where Carter left off. A lot of policies that were drafted under Carter were effectuated under Reagan.
wqpsu
Operation Cyclone, for one. Funding the Islamist rebels in Afghanistan in order to prolong the war and increase the death and destruction. This is a lesson Reagan would learn well and apply to the Iran-Iraq War. Oh, and it would also lead to the founding of al-Qaeda. That, plus Carter's assistance with the East Timor Genocide, make him just another imperialist butcher.
Nanntuckett
It’s free energy but they don’t want it because their fossil fuel donors say so
meme2zombie
All other power generation requires constant extracted fuel. Solar just needs the equipment and when it wears out it can be recycled back into solar panels and batteries again, no need to mine more.
Beardedgeek72
Time to remind people that Jill Stein is owned by Russia and has oil stocks and weapon stocks (for Manufactures who's guns are used by Israel). She is just as much in the pocket of Putin as Trump is and has spent all the time since 2016 spreading lies about the war in Ukraine.
Reason I bring it up? Virtually everyone in Washington or who wants to be in Washington are owned by big Oil OR big Guns or Israel. Including 95% of Democrats and the Green candidates.
Sebastopol140
Hey it could set a bad example... like showing that it's possible to use less coal/oil. Don't do that!!! /S
TheElderBowls
It's not free energy, every solar panel needs to be manufactured for a cost and then additionally upkept and eventually replaced. All of these steps cost money. The best alternative energy source we have by far is nuclear compared to anything else.
Sebastopol140
Sure it has an initial cost, but if it's better for your wallet and better for the planet, the cost is reduced.
And btw... the things you need to use other forms of energy also have a cost. You need a car to use gas. You need electrical appliances to use electricity, generated by nuclear or coal.
At least THAT cost will reduce the bill in the end.
TheElderBowls
i was just addressing the "free" part, nothing is free (regarding energy)
illegalacorn
Nuclear takes 40 years to get online meanwhile winter turbines will pay back the cost of their construction within one year
TheElderBowls
Only because of over-kill regulations, just ask any nuclear engineer or research why it costs so much and takes so long to build a nuclear power plant. In the 60s-90s they basically killed the industry by giving them near to impossible standards and safety protocols that aren't actually rational.
JohnBigboote74
If Orange Asshole's ballroom ever gets built, I hope his successor puts a windmill right on top of it.
CASchoeps
Nope. Turn it into housing for colored or muslim refugees.
Although that might violate geneva conventions, it probably will be easier to just tear it down.
Evenmoreuselessname
Bulldozer and wrecking ball.
Ezzy666
Put a taco stand on every corner too
BryanTenn
Anything built in his name needs to be renamed The Trump Memorial For Sexual Assault Victims.
Sebastopol140
Have a Drag Queen show for the inauguration of his successor.
HandFireWeapon
'Muricans and their windmills... There are better ways to mill your grain.
TungstenOrbital
Harnessing wind energy
HandFireWeapon
Indeed, use wind turbines to produce electricity and then use that to mill grains and other things. Much more efficient than the windmills the US apparently use.
Also heard that the US windmills produce a noise that causes cancer! I can't even imagine how that would work.
WaterUnderTheRocketAppliances
Turn it into the national museum of gay and trans porn
Chaapai
We'll have a Lindsey Graham wing.
TungstenOrbital
With windmills
tinwhiskerSC
Point of clarification. The solar panels weren't photovoltaic. They were actually black water pipes used to heat water. They were removed under Reagan during a plumbing upgrade but never put back.
meme2zombie
Don't frame it as they just were too old or something. They were intentionally removed because they didn't want to prove that solar anything could work.
MoominPoop
even today much more efficient way to heat water rather than generating electricity to heat water.
NotAllowedToArgueUnlessYouPay
For quite a while this was the most cost-effective way to employ solar power. For a number of years we used solar this way to heat a pool. Extended the season by over 2 months very cheaply.
Thorketil
That was the technology developed at the time. Although primitive, these panels still saved energy.
dirtyketchup
Thank you. Came here to bring this contexts. It’s not like he just ordered them removed. They had to be removed when the building was under repairs.
meme2zombie
And somehow they just magically didn't get put back in?
That's just having them removed with a flimsy excuse instead of blatantly. AKA how the GOP has functioned for decades before Trump.
dirtyketchup
Jeez. Slow your roll there. I know the GOP does some crazy shit, but that doesn’t mean you have to assign malicious intent to every single thing you don’t like. There could have been some very logical reasons not to reinstall that system, and not everything is politically motivated.
meme2zombie
Really? You assume that removing a big symbol of how green energy can work, under the Reagan administration especially, was just random chance? Just a coincidence?
How the fuck are you still this wilfully ignorant after everything we're forced to confront every day?
whoatherebigfella
Why so angry? Why weren’t they put back in at some point after Ronny left office then?
Sebastopol140
marquettegoldeneagles
Evil, evil fucking man. Im glad he's dead. Regan not Oliver lol
MrsBeansDad
Wow, John Oliver, he was never very funny in the UK. Good to see he still isn't.
Chaapai
Ronald(6) Wilson(6) Reagan(6). Elderly dementia patient that nearly destroyed the world.
WhoWantsAMustacheRide
I see you enjoy a steady diet of boot. Very nice! Low calorie but abundant.
MechKelly
A career spanning multiple decades in stand up comedy, movies, voice acting, and now this. I'd say he makes a great number of people laugh.
DemonKysho
LifeIsADanceOfMinds
Recall what happens to Johnny soon after?
I would post the image... but thanks to the asshole earlier today, I wont.
netutoring
Speaking of someone who has issues with their business daddy...
fubizdaddie
What about them?
netutoring
You've never heard John Oliver going off on HBO or HBO Max or...?
fubizdaddie
I have. I just don't get how anyone was speaking of business daddy problems.
netutoring
Imgur uses that phrase a bunch, too. I guess it was too oblique a reference. Oh well:) My fault.