The focus on food additives is a boon to food manufacturers and retailers because they can take out all the dyes and preservatives, but leave the sugar, fat, and salt, and call it "food you feel good about." www.wegmans.com/news-media/p...

The calculus on regulations like SNAP is always the same. Regs too loose, it's too easy to commit fraud. Regs too tight, it's too hard for people who qualify to get the benefit. You err on one side or the other, and I think basic human decency dictates that we err on the side of feeding people.

It's not just billionaires who try to influence politics for their best interest, the rest of us be damned. www.canarymedia.com/articles/sol...

USDA says it's simply due diligence, but Indiana U. plant biologist who's been locked out of his lab thinks the US government is punishing him. www.science.org/content/arti...

Unearthed reports reveal that RFK Jr. fired every full-time CDC cruise ship sanitation inspector ahead of the Hantavirus cruise ship outbreak. www.cbsnews.com/news/cdc-cru...

FWIW, I don’t think the major problem in my field, or related ones, is that people need to move faster & produce more. I read a lot of papers as part of the job, and I’m increasingly convinced we’d benefit from fewer papers and better ones, not more mediocre work produced ever more “efficiently.”

Hold on. We the taxpayers are going to pay companies $900 million, which is more than 6x what we spend on wind power R&D, to NOT build wind power at a time when electricity prices are spiking and we need more clean power?

I'm amazed that SoCal Gas is still allowed to give out ratepayer-funded rebates for new gas appliances that save little or no energy. Just to lock in natural gas use. Sounds like a job for @buildingdecarb.org, @mattb505.bsky.social and @brucenilles.bsky.social www.socalgas.com/savings/reba...

If you live in a condo building in D.C. and your condo association is trying to figure out how to meet D.C.'s standards for energy efficiency (BEPS), I'd love to hear from you. This is for a story I'm writing. Chat is open.

2020s tech for the tractor, 1800s tech for the tillage. #conservationAgriculture is the way to go.

The contrast between the methods to measure methane in oil & gas vs. livestock is pretty hilarous. Oil & gas: We're using satellites, drones, helipods, vehicles, and airplanes to get a multi-scale picture of emissions. Livestock: We are putting three cows in a tent 🎪

The solutions aren't just buying electric widgets. We can also shift from car-dependent sprawl to attached housing in dense multi-use neighborhoods with frequent public transit and protected active transit. This can reduce energy demand by >half while improving convenience and public health.

France passed a law requiring solar panels on every parking lot with more than 80 spaces. Equals 10 nuclear reactors Reduces heat island, shades cars The US -- 800 million parking spaces. Most of them are uncovered asphalt sitting in direct sunlight. Why aren't we doing this?

It’s amazing to me, how quickly progressives have shifted their views on this issue. And encouraging!

Surprised myself with this story. Went into the desert expecting to write about a terrible solar project that would harm bighorn sheep...and ended up writing why California should maybe approve it anyway. In the Anthropocene, there are no easy choices: www.climatecoloredgoggles.com/p/soda-mount...

Orbán's electoral crushing is a far greater achievement than most people outside Hungary realise. He systemically consolidated power for 16 years, fixed the electoral map, abused govt power for political purposes & censored media. The hurdles that Hungarians overcame for this moment were immense.

Most food consumed in the US is already produced here. We were a net ag exporter for 60 years & only since 2019 net importer, bc we like access to tropical products & off-season produce. Also, we waste ~40% of the food we produce, and use the majority of our corn & soy for animal feed and biofuels.

NEW US electricity data ⚡️🇺🇸 In March, renewables produced more than a third of US electricity for the first time ever, even overtaking gas generation! Wind and solar combined reached over a quarter (26%) for the first time.

“We’ve lost out on the ability to continue to improve this work to make it more effective, and to explore how to apply it to other areas…There are a lot of different ways that genetics has been used to justify prejudice and…that human-made social categories interface with biological categories“🧪

Whatever happens, this is a deeply shameful episode in American history that will leave a permanent stain on the country. Repeatedly vowing to commit war crimes against millions of innocent civilians is beyond the pale.

So! Geothermal heat pumps strain power grids less than air-source. They save money on upsizing power grids by spending money (hopefully less!) digging holes instead. Networked geothermal - digging shared holes connected by pipes - may have some advantages over conventional, hole-by-hole geothermal.

Walked across the Mall this afternoon in the warm spring sun surrounded by people from all over speaking tons of different languages, flying kites, riding bikes and scooters, tossing footballs and frisbees, chilling with friends and family, jogging and walking, and enjoying free museums. Still hits.

The historic "snow drought" in the Western US this year is scary for water supply in CA and the CO River, and basically everywhere else in the West. Climate change is an undeniable factor, and we will see more of this going forward. Don't invest in ski areas. www.climatecentral.org/climate-matt...

Yes to everything in this @mattyglesias.bsky.social post about the downsides of most new townhouse developments www.slowboring.com/p/make-townh...

Even new urbanist townhouses that get the street grid and the architecture right fail on imo the most important thing—they’re in neighborhoods that are not even close to dense enough to support real walkability

📊 Explore updated data on how consumer prices have changed in the United States— Since 1997, the price of college tuition in the United States has more than tripled. Over the same period, the price of televisions has fallen by 98%. You can see these and other trends in the chart.

Townhouses are the cheapest type of construction to build. American cities contain many beloved historic townhouse neighborhoods. So why do new townhouse projects generally suck? Can’t we do better? www.slowboring.com/p/make-townh...

As a baseball fan of many years, I’ve never seen anything like this before. I love it. Normalize giving your fellow humans hugs.

This story does not mention the big blackout of April 2025 but the ENTSO-E report that came out on Friday said voltage control was a key factor in the outage. Things like this, affecting how the Spanish grid is managed, could help avoid a repeat of the blackout. www.pv-magazine.com/2026/03/25/s...

WABA — who sued the feds over the planned removal of the 15th Street NW protected bike lane — says the Justice Department reports the project won't begin today as previously announced, but rather on or after March 30. Don't miss @maustermuhle.bsky.social's reporting on the bike lane brouhaha:

Beautiful day yesterday. Biked past the Tidal Basin, up the 15th Street bike lane, with many other happy people. Our anti-bike federal officials now have ordered this lane removed. Reportedly starting today. Here's a petition to support the bike lane. waba.org/action-page/...

Austin’s surge of new housing supply drove down housing prices across the board, with the largest benefit going to renters in the lowest cost buildings: “Rents declined about 11% in older non-luxury buildings that cater to lower-income renters, known as Class C buildings.”

The administration is using our taxes to pay companies to worsen climate change

Live in NYC? Might want to check this out. Looks like an interesting way to test out more virtual power plant like approaches and potentially save you some money.

We're about 25 new members away from reaching our goal to be able to expand The 51st's newsroom! If you've been waiting for a sign to join, this is it!

One big missing piece in this plan: There's no decent route for bikers and pedestrians to get to the stadium from the east, coming across the river! (The ridiculously tiny pedestrian walkway on the East Capitol bridge has long been one of my pet peeves.)

Update: I now have a six-point plan to lower food prices. 1. Stop the war.

Certainly my experience with universities. Sustainability offices are great, but emissions really start to fall when the facilities department is well funded, staffed, and directed.

If you, like me, are incredibly annoyed by Gemini insisting on summarizing your emails -- it IS possible to turn off that "feature."

Seed oils are fine. GMOs are fine. High-fructose corn syrup is bad but no worse than cane sugar. Pasteurizing milk is good. Glyphosate is not causing a disease epidemic. I wrote about RFK’s food and farming insanity. It’s related to his vaccine insanity! www.thebulwark.com/p/robert-ken...

Nice new piece by Brian Potter on what went wrong with Operation Breakthrough, including this kind of scary anecdote: open.substack.com/pub/construc...

Ethiopian leaders must be looking at the price of oil and feeling reassured about their decisions. 🎁🔗 www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

March 8, 2026 - Tehran at sunrise today. But the sun is hidden behind a sky filled with smoke. After a night of intensive strikes on oil facilities, thick black clouds now hang over the city, turning morning into something that feels like night.

Important and chilling reporting by the @wsj.com www.wsj.com/us-news/immi...

Our country is being run by adolescent boys

Owners of even the cheapest fleabag motels know they must keep track of how many rooms they have and whether they are empty or full. But today, the year’s busiest shopping day, most retail areas won’t be tracking how many parking spots they have and whether they are empty or full. 🧵/1

If anyone is friends with any Georgian air traffic controllers, buy them a nice bottle of wine. As guardians of pretty much the only narrow gap still available between Europe and Asia that avoids both Iran, the Gulf, Ukraine and Russia, they are under some substantial pressure.

For months now, I’ve been watching heavy equipment hammering and hauling rock at a residential construction project down the street from my house. Huge expense. All to provide a home for cars!

In any normal week this would be a huge story. France moves toward extending a nuclear umbrella over European allies-- a major sign of declining credibility of US extended deterrence. www.defensenews.com/global/europ...