Rockland County, NY, gave a $77 million data center tax break to JP Morgan Chase to create exactly one job. On a dollars-per-job basis it appears to be the costliest subsidy in U.S. history, possibly even a world record nysfocus.com/2026/04/20/d...

America’s largest bank is expanding its data center in Orangeburg, NY, near the New Jersey border. In exchange for $77 million in tax breaks from the state and county, the bank promises to create exactly one permanent job. My story in @nysfocus.com: nysfocus.com/2026/04/20/d...

NEW: In return for nearly $77 million in tax breaks, the expansion of a JPMorganChase data center in Orangeburg, NY promises to create exactly one permanent job. The subsidy is the largest of its kind, per job, in the country.

Rockland County IDA approved $77M in tax subsidies for a JP Morgan data center expansion in Orangetown that creates 1 full-time job — by far the largest subsidy for a single job in history. See our in-depth analysis, as covered in @nysfocus.com today: buff.ly/qkVOhCj

"JPMorganChase applied to the IDA ... in January 2024, providing only vague justification of why the nation’s largest bank needed subsidies to expand on its existing site, 25 miles from its brand-new global headquarters in Midtown Manhattan ... it got the exact tax break it requested."

this is more than Tesla got for its car factory in Austin which employs 16,000+ people

Sunday scoop from me before Burgum testifies in the House tomorrow: heatmap.news/energy/total...

I cover downstate tax breaks a lot at Newsday. A data center getting a $77 million subsidy in exchange for just one permanent job? Unheard of. Worth a read!!

America’s largest bank is expanding its data center in Orangeburg, NY, near the New Jersey border. In exchange for $77 million in tax breaks from the state and county, the bank promises to create exactly one permanent job. My story in @nysfocus.com: nysfocus.com/2026/04/20/d...

“We are facing war against clean energy from Washington Republicans,” Hochul said when the DEC permitted the pipeline after 3 previous rejections. Some of those Washington Republicans celebrated on her turf today. www.thecity.nyc/2026/04/14/t...

Wow, Zeldin, Burgum, *and* Wright all came to NYC today to break ground on the NESE pipeline, the first major pipeline project in NY in over a decade. I’m told Nassau County exec & GOP gov candidate Bruce Blakeman was there as well. Hochul by all indications was not and has not made any statement

www.politico.com/news/2026/04... "Yet another [email] suggests residents would forget about the data center controversy as soon as they find out the city is getting a new Olive Garden restaurant."

OPEC+ "Great 8" production just ever so slightly off plan for the month.

After being shut out for years, are new gas plants poised for a comeback in New York? That depends in no small part on what happens with the state’s climate law in the next few weeks, and gas interests are throwing their weight into the fight. nysfocus.com/2026/04/10/c...

Goldman Sachs: oil crisis creates "bullish case for solar" and will lead to "structural solar surge"

you know what, sure

US electric vehicle sales dropped 27% in the first quarter, compared to last year www.businessinsider.com/ev-shakeout-... VW announced it would stop manufacturing its top selling EV in the US www.reuters.com/business/aut... Meanwhile, gas prices in the US inflated by 40% this month.

WSJ: Oil executives sold $1.4 billion in personal stock between January and March, making a fortune on the war www.wsj.com/business/ene...

We’re on strike today! Support our fight for a fair contract by NOT visiting the @propublica.org website or engaging with ProPublica stories today. Tell ProPublica’s management you won’t cross the picket line: actionnetwork.org/petitions/te...

separate events, same time

New York’s politically powerful hotel workers’ union is endorsing democratic socialist Illapa Sairitupac for an open state Assembly seat in Manhattan, continuing its streak of boosting left-leaning candidates allied with Mayor Zohran Mamdani. www.politico.com/newsletters/...

India graveyard raid uncovers hidden cooking gas canisters amid shortage reut.rs/4mhtHLJ

Electricity prices are essential to the US economy. But it’s very hard to get recent, granular data on them. We’re changing that. Today, @heatmap.news and MIT released the ELECTRICITY PRICE HUB, a new tool breaking down local power rates and bills going back to 2021. electricity.heatmap.news

For those trying to understand where things are at in New York’s climate law fight, here’s the latest from @rebeccaclewis.bsky.social on the other site:

🚨 BREAKING: The European Commission has urged people to work from home, drive and fly less, and for EU countries to urgently roll out renewables, as it warned of a prolonged energy crisis as a result of the conflict in the Gulf. Full story: www.politico.eu/article/euro...

“New York cannot keep walking itself up to the start line with a solid plan, only to back out of the race at the last minute.” Interesting perspective here from NYSERDA’s chief of staff during the scoping plan years: acadiacenter.org/climate-and-...

Kind of incredible how far ahead of the rest of the country California and Texas are on battery storage. CA hit 12 GW of storage on the grid at one point this weekend (42% of load); Texas 8 GW (16%). New York and all of the other ISOs/RTOs are functionally at zero.

Stories about cucumbers are inherently funny but food price inflation is no joke UK growers warn of cucumber and tomato shortages as gas prices surge - as.ft.com/r/ff6b3740-9...

NEW: Mayor Zohran Mamdani is haggling with Albany over every cent he can get for New York City in the state budget. But he is raising no objections as the state embraces eliminating state income taxes for tipped wages.

NBC: Under intl law, hitting civilian infrastructure is prohibited. Why is POTUS threatening war crimes? LEAVITT: POTUS has made it quite clear to the Iranian regime their best move is to make a deal or else N: Which objectives would destroying a desalination plant help? LEAVITT: Haley, go ahead

Since the headline is a bit confusing, the NYT is reporting that on the same day we hit the girl's school in Minab, we also sent a missile full of tungsten steel pellets at a girl's volleyball tournament hundreds of miles away in Lamerd. Twenty one dead. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/29/w...

Interesting piece. The pitch here is to abandon GWP metrics altogether (which strikes me as ambitious?) but, if we’re going to keep them for now, at least switch to the 100-year metric over 20

NYC has its first residential battery! A 20 kWh system under a solar canopy in Chinatown. “Eight years in the making,” per press release from Brooklyn SolarWorks. A bill currently pending in City Council would make it easier to build more. www.solarpowerworldonline.com/2026/03/broo...

Two wins in court this week for all-electric buildings. Federal judges in DC and Maryland said local mandates are *not* preempted by federal energy law — the same law at issue in the NY case currently on appeal. So far, afaik, the Ninth Circuit is the only one that has ruled the other way.

Is it socially valuable? No. Is it economically valuable? No. But is it fun? Also no. as.ft.com/r/4b8e2109-7...

Crazy graph in today's piece on wild gas bills in NYC this winter in @citylimitsnews.bsky.social $340 average gas bill in February! buff.ly/tt69t1m

NEW: If you were in Albany on March 8, you might have felt the ground shake under your feet as 15,000 public sector union members chanted: “Fix Tier 6!” It’s a cry for state leaders to boost the pensions of government employees. nysfocus.com/2026/03/23/b...

👀

It’s done. American taxpayers will pay $1 billion to TotalEnergies to *not* build new electricity generation capacity in America. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/23/c...

They really did it

CATL, BYD and Sungrow add $70bn in market value "Neil Beveridge, who leads Bernstein’s energy research, expects China, the world’s biggest oil importer, to double down on its plan to “electrify everything”." www.ft.com/content/b122...

Marie French, as usual, has the most detail so far on Hochul’s proposed climate law changes. At its core, this debate really seems to be about whether New York will continue to have binding, enforceable emissions targets or just goals. www.politico.com/newsletters/...

First you laugh, then you cry. no01.substack.com/p/march-19-2...

Just seeing — the NY solar industry cheered the AG for suing one company last week over ”false promises.” “When individual companies act in bad faith & rip off customers, it hurts consumers, undermines [those] playing by the rules, & erodes trust in NY’s otherwise successful clean energy programs”

Under Hochul’s proposal, New York’s most concrete deadline for climate action would be pushed out past the end of her potential second term. My quick rundown: nysfocus.com/2026/03/20/h...

Amazing detail caught by @danclarkreports.bsky.social on the other site:

Today on Volts: NY governor Kathy Hochul wants to delay or roll back her state's landmark climate law in the name of affordability. State activists say more clean energy would bring costs down & Hochul is just making excuses for her past failures. I get into it with one of those activists.

don't get me wrong I too think carpooling is a good idea but...

Hochul’s big reveal on proposed climate law changes: She wants a seven-year extension on issuing rules to meet emissions targets, tied to a new 2040 target instead of 2030. And she wants to change how NY counts emissions. Still working on getting more details but here it is in Hochul’s words:

NEW: Attorney General Letitia James alleges Attyx “built its business by defrauding consumers.” James filed a lawsuit claiming that the company used false promises to lure customers into solar contracts, leaving them on the hook for tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars in loans.