I'm going to collect a few reactions to this thread for comment, as it's an instructive moment in the politics of climate science (however niche). 🧵

No. Liberty Utilities -- which delivers electricity to 49,000 homes and businesses in the Lake Tahoe area -- needs to find a new supplier. Liberty knew this was coming. It is conducting an RFP. Everything will be fine. But yes, NV Energy wants to provide the energy it generates to data centers.

My paper on utility regulation with Karl Dunkle Werner is now published in @jpube.bsky.social. We examine whether energy utility companies have been allowed to earn excess profits and what the implications are for both utility investment incentives and consumer costs. (1/6) 🧵 🔌💡

FTC is co-hosting an event on the state of consumer finance at George Mason's law school. There are layers here. 1) This is ostensibly announcing a CFPB rpt. But I guess now that CFPB is basically shut down, the FTC is...taking over consumer finance? ... www.ftc.gov/news-events/...

Just learned that there is a "North American Wood Pole Council." It promotes "up-to-date scientific and economic information" about wood utility poles. "Wood poles are part of our overall culture." It has a coloring book. woodpoles.org

The Future of Heat Initiative is hiring. If you're a lawyer who wants to make waves with state utility commissions -- or if you know a worthy lawyer who might be interested -- go ahead and check out the posting: thefutureofheat.com/s/Regulatory...

Today’s Daily Cartoon, by Kyle Bravo.

Nice piece by @robinsonmeyer.bsky.social in the NYT. Draws readers in by leading with AI data centers (timely, newsworthy, hot) but then pivots to regional transmission governance, a topic no one reads about by choice. Also has fancy graphics. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Coincidence that I filed a comment in this docket yesterday and then FERC announces the very next day that it's taking action? Yes. Yes it is.

I have two pieces today on how a 1990s FERC policy intended to spur competitive markets is being understood to prevent data centers from covering their transmission costs. FERC Comment: elibrary.ferc.gov/eLibrary/fil... UtilityDive: www.utilitydive.com/news/ferc-tr...

I'm tracking 5 cases filed under Executive Order 14260: Protecting American Energy from State Overreach. What am I missing? -VT and NY climate superfund laws -HI and MI (dismissed) to prevent filing complaints against fossil fuel cos. -Morris Township, NJ ban on fossil fuels in new buildings

What should I do in the Bay area in April with kids 11 and 6? Thank you!

youtu.be/4BPU5mKipNo?... Was listening to They Might be Giants for Kids this weekend while driving with the fam, and now this worm is firmly lodged in my ear.

I just noticed that the domain wecansolveit.org is up for sale -- www.youtube.com/watch?v=qi6n...

I regret my decision to watch the White House / Big Tech press conference about their "ratepayer protection pledge." The highlight was when he went off-script and admitted that this is all about providing "PR help" to Big Tech companies.

Who's excited to read more briefs today about FERC Order No 1920?

The cost of datacenters is getting expensive. Therefore I will build them on the Moon. Where I'll also be building my satellites. That I'll be yeeting into Earth's orbit with a giant space catapult. Because I'm all about low cost.

I will never understand the fascination with coal. who are you, thomas the tank engine?

In Ep. 269, @aripeskoe.bsky.social rejoins us to review Trump’s attacks on the energy transition in the US and explore the legal options for defending it. Wind farms, solar farms, coal plants, regulations,Venezuela, UN climate bodies, oh my! xenetwork.org/ets/episodes...

I filed a brief for the Organization of PJM States (OPSI) in defense of FERC Order No 1920, which requires long-term regional transmission planning. The brief emphasizes that protecting consumers requires coordinated fed-state action. It's free! statepowerproject.wordpress.com/wp-content/u...

The Trump admin’s push to force-run aging coal plants has entered a new phase: ordering two broken-down coal units in Indiana and Colorado that could take months and millions of dollars to bring back online to run under 90-day emergency declarations: www.canarymedia.com/articles/fos... #energysky

Good lord.

Do you wish you could spend New Years reading 6 newly filed briefs about federal/state responsibilities over resource adequacy? Do you also want to learn why DOE's orders keeping coal plants open are very illegal? OK, this is for you - statepowerproject.org/challenges-t...

One of my most delightful academic experiences this semester was our reading seminar on infrastructure. Here were the ground rules: 1. we all read 12 of 15 books new to us 2. no laptops or phones 3. read widely bc of our polycrises Reading books was just great. Here's what we read and reactions:

Market inefficiency? Outdated property right? Neglect? A shiny plaque at my local library notes that this dilapidated reading bench is sponsored by a bank that was merged out of existence in 1988.

Wow. How'd these people get such a good deal? I wish my day care had cost only $20k per year.

Omg Travis Kavulla on odd lots! podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/o...

My latest for @law360.bsky.social: A federal judge refused to block @ferc.gov’s $1B enforcement case against an #energysky efficiency aggregator, saying the company hasn’t shown that it violates their 7th Amendment rights to a jury trial. www.law360.com/articles/241...

BREAKING: FirstEnergy hit with $250 MILLION in fines for bribing politicians in the HB6 scandal. $180M goes back to customers starting in December. We're finally getting money back from the HB6 scandal! ⚡ ⚡ ⚡ https://bit.ly/47Qi8FV

I filed an amicus brief at the Supreme Court on behalf of 11 former FERC Commissioners. The brief seeks to preserve Congress's authority to maintain bipartisan ratemaking commissions and prevent direct Presidential control of ratemaking. www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/25... Summary below:

WHOA. Via @decisiondeskhq.bsky.social, it looks like Democrats just flipped BOTH *statewide* Public Service Commissioner seats in Georgia. That seems...significant.

State regulators are allowing Kentucky’s largest power companies to spend $3 billion on two new gas power plants, which LG&E/KU say are needed for future data centers. www.lpm.org/news/2025-10...

Cheating with an LLM is the easiest thing in the world for a student to do, but it creates a massive, laborious headache for a prof, if you intend to take it seriously. There’s meetings, emails, discussions, moral dilemmas. It’s just incredibly burdensome, on top of everything else right now.

What To Know About Data Centers https://theonion.com/what-to-know-about-data-centers/

NV Energy Files Request to Join EDAM. The addition of NV Energy to EDAM would give the market footprint a strategically located balancing authority. @yes-energy.bsky.social @rtoinsider.bsky.social www.rtoinsider.com/118055-nv-en...

Only legislators can do the job. They're who we empower to structure our criminal justice system. It's simple: “Criminal verdicts shall be reached by human jurors, unassisted by artificial intelligence." The time to decree this is now, before we’re seduced by the lure of the next release. /end

A lawsuit with Star Wars references! Have they considered -- -Our client has the high ground. -The court should have a bad feeling about the government's actions. -The government's chilling of free expression is no phantom menace. -This is how liberty dies.

Looks interesting!

It's mostly because of utilities and their decisions to spend more on poles and wires. The thing about this story is that there's so much data on market prices, T&D spending, etc. And the "reporting" on it basically ignores the data.

Thread ranking the 17 amicus briefs filed in support of ending independent federal agencies (plus 2 supporting neither side) based on: 1. The brief's fidelity to the Supreme Court's formatting rules and 2. Whether I found the brief's formatting deviations to be aesthetically pleasing --

Does anyone have a chart (or data) of Lower-48 coincident peak demand over time? EIA reported a new record peak this past summer. www.eia.gov/todayinenerg...

there are SO many more inflatable costumes tonight. clearly we have settled on a motif

Jane Goodall, from a March 2020 Paste Magazine interview: www.pastemagazine.com/article/jane...

Its like the great countdown. This year is 2.0? Looks like 2030 will be 0.0.

SCOTUS grants cert in a case about whether the President can fire an FTC Commissioner, in which it may soon overrule a 1935 case that held the President may not fire and FTC Commissioner. It's possible for the Court to hold the President may fire an FTC com wo technically overturning that case...

God fucking dammit. Marissa Gillett is a hero. She pushed back against piratic, insular, greedy utilities and so they went after her -- badgering her, slandering her in the papers, suing, complaining to her boss. And they won. The utilities won. She has resigned. Fuck this world.

What's taking the DC Circuit so long? They supposedly fast-tracked this case back when they heard oral argument on May 18! The court has already written extensively on these issues earlier this year.

By the way, the excellent group PowerLines is holding a briefing about this election tomorrow, if you're interested:

Meanwhile, those of us on Humphrey's Executor watch, reload the DC Circuit's opinion page everyday in anticipation of a ruling on the merits in Wilcox. (Every DC Cir and SCOTUS opinion on who the President can fire has been about prelim injunctions)

Law skeeps: can someone explain what’s going on with the the lawsuit between EDF/UCS and the DOE. Why did DOE disband the CWG? Was it to avoid having to turn over documents? What are the implications for the report itself?