And what a half it was 🤌 #cf97

rough Dallas Fed Survey "We have begun the twilight of shale...The U.S. isn't running out of oil, but she sure is running out of $60 per barrel oil. $100 per barrel? $150 per barrel? Price likely must cover for less-than-optimal geology over time." www.dallasfed.org/research/sur...

Happy Sun Day! Good to be with lots of partners and neighbors at the Chicago Sun Day event. We’re out building support for instant solar permitting, and opposition to wasteful gas utility spending and rate hikes.

Energized to be with a great group of students at Loyola on a beautiful evening getting involved with our campaign for Safer, Cleaner Energy.

The problem? Board members @sumsung.bsky.social, LG and Bosch Home - that make induction stoves - have all acknowledged publicly gas stoves emit pollutants and are dirtier. When asked for comment by Grist, Samsung quickly pulled these pages from their site and were unresponsive.

ugh, residential demand charges are a thing again? bad for consumers, bad for rooftop solar 👎👎👎

ZINKERNAGEL FROM GUTIERREZ! 1-0. #cf97 #CHIvNYCFC

Unsurprising given a) the significant local impacts of these facilities and b) widespread (and often justified) distrust of the tech industry. heatmap.news/politics/dat...

My latest for @blockclubchi.bsky.social AI Use And Data Centers Are Causing ComEd Bills To Spike — And It Will Likely Get Worse blockclubchicago.org/2025/08/27/a...

Up the toffees!

Maters

Indeed. Yet Illinois is chasing data centers for "econominc development"

Congrats to my colleagues at PennPIRG and PennEnvironment, and to our counsel, coaltion partners, and allied parties for reaching a proposed settlement with Philly Gas Works that limits the rate hike and drops the proposed revenue guaruntee. Onwards in our campaign for Safer, Cleaner Energy

You can tune in to the Illinois Senate Insurance Committee subject matter hearing on insurance rates here. We asked to testify, but were told no. They are hearing from 6 industry voices and 1 from NAIC. No consumer advocates or the Department of Insurance. www.ilga.gov/Senate/Audio...

The fact that the thing we're calling artificial intelligence *can't do math* and yet we're jamming it into programs that successfully *have done math* for decades, then warning people against using the AI to do math, seems like an excellent summary of where we are.

as an expert in illegal military occupations justified by the barest of pretexts which will poison civ-mil relations for decades,

Gov. JB Pritzker signed a proposal into law Friday to ban companies from manufacturing, selling and distributing firefighter protective gear that contain forever chemicals.

Today is the day State Farm's $523M homeowners insurance rate hike goes into effect for existing customers. If you are one of the almost 1.5M Illinoisan's whose home is insured by State Farm, your rates could go up 40% Tell your legislator we need Insurance Reform Now pirg.org/illinois/tak...

This is one of the most beautiful things I have witnessed, the craft here is impeccable.

A cyclist rides through the flooded bike lane on Clark Street amid heavy rainfall and thunderstorms this afternoon. 📍 Lakeview, Chicago #OnAssignment for @blockclubchi.bsky.social #ILWX

New Research: Skyrocketing Homeowners #Insurance? It’s often more expensive to have a low #CreditScore than to live in an area with a high #Disaster risk. @cplusc.bsky.social

Having a low credit score can double your homeowner’s insurance cost, report finds @consumerfed.bsky.social chicago.suntimes.com/the-watchdog...

REPORT: Home insurers care more about consumers’ credit score than disaster risk pirg.org/illinois/med...

California Supreme Court sides with environmental groups in rooftop solar case

Al Hollenbeck, AARP Illinois volunteer state president with some 🔥for Nicor at tonight’s public comment hearing in Elgin.

Cat models are *not* forward-looking predictive models. They represent *near-present* risk They are explicitly *not* assessing future wildfire risk. This is routinely misreported, and it means that everything we're seeing in CA now? It only includes the climate change that has happened *so far*

While Peoples Gas made some small steps towards transparency in the workshop it held on its new risk assement methodology, the fundamentals of the methodology and how the utility will use it in its decision making process remain opaque. pirg.org/illinois/upd...

Chicago officially has the worst air quality in the world. No other major city in the world had air pollution worse than Chicago as of midday Thursday.

Normally a #cf97 red, today a #coyb blue c/o #BBN @meninblazers.bsky.social

Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias announced an advocacy campaign aimed at ending the practice of insurance companies using socioeconomic data — such as credit scores and ZIP codes — to set car insurance rates.

here's a useful critical annotation of zuck's "superintelligence" memo sonjadrimmer.com/blog-1/2025/...

Rising auto insurance rates have state officials and lawmakers considering regulatory remedies.

Speaker Welch and Senate President Harmon join Gov Pritzker in calling for insurance reform www.chicagotribune.com/2025/07/30/o...

On September 23rd, Bruce Springsteen's birthday, the PJM states are holding a conference in Philadelphia to give the grid operator a piece of their mind. #masteroftheartofelectricity #energysky mailchi.mp/gpisd/pjm-mu... (Not quite in Long Beach, NJ, sorry @jessedjenkins.com)

What's happening with home insurance rates in Illinois, and what does the future hold for an insurance industry and homeowners dealing with increasing costs? We talk about it with @abescarr.bsky.social and @giesbusiness.bsky.social's Lynne McChristian.

Illinois homeowners could soon face a higher insurance bill as State Farm is raising its rates by 27% starting Aug. 15. Abe Scarr, director of the Illinois Public Interest Research Group, talks about legislation his group is trying to pass to review rate increases. to.wttw.com/3IN28ug

State Farm is raising home insurance rates in Illinois next month by an average of 27%, pointing to severe weather risks and home repair costs. We'll talk about that today with a meteorologist, an insurance expert and a consumer advocate. We're live at 11: will.illinois.edu/am/willplayer

Tune in now to the @21st.show - about to be on discussing the massive State Farm homeowners insurance rate hike and the need for the General Assembly to heed the call from @govpritzker.illinois.gov to implement basic consumer protections

“... rate increases of this size shouldn’t be allowed to go through without some scrutiny from public institutions. This makes the case quite clearly for the need for Illinois to adopt very basic consumer protections that almost every other state has.” news.wttw.com/2025/07/24/s...

Tomorrow we'll be talking about State Farm's home insurance rate hikes in Illinois -- which will average 27 percent. What do you think? If you've shopped around for insurance recently, how did it go? Reply here, and we might share your response on the program.

I’ll be on @wttw.bsky.social Chicago Tonight at 5:30 to discuss the massive State Farm homeowners insurance rate hike and the need for legislature to enact reform.

On Tuesday the Susequehanna-1 #nuclear reactor in #Pennsylvania was manually scrammed at full power after the main transformer experienced a cooling loss. The reactor is still down today. Should be a warning to Amazon about the reliability of this plant to power its data center.

Illinois legislators are looking at ways to regulate homeowners insurance after State Farm announced it was raising rates by 27.2%.

🫡

I am also calling on the General Assembly to enact a legislative solution during the veto session that prevents insurance companies from taking advantage of consumers through severe and unnecessary rate hikes, such as those proposed by State Farm.

“It’s time for the General Assembly to act. At a minimum, Illinois should empower the state Department of Insurance to reject or modify excessive rate hikes, a basic consumer protection that residents in almost every other state enjoy." pirg.org/illinois/med...

“The impending 27.2% rate increase would add about $746 per year to that total for Illinois homeowners who have State Farm insurance.”