Request for public power historians, esp in TVA area: Can anyone recommend any articles, dissertations, etc that shines light on the Public Power League of Chattanooga that formed in the 1930s? Please RT to signal boost. 🙏

See my debunking of many arguments Romm makes in his new paper against new nuclear in New York, a paper full of misrepresentative citations to research literature and a glaring, shameful misfire on one major argument. Of course Green NGO ppl eat it up tho. www.publicpowerreview.org/p/debunking-...

It’s small in get grand scheme but I worry the data center back lash will turn into a broader one against any investment into the electrical grid unless there are major changes in how we fund the system and compensate IOUs.

See my debunking of many arguments Romm makes in his new paper against new nuclear in New York, a paper full of misrepresentative citations to research literature and a glaring, shameful misfire on one major argument. Of course Green NGO ppl eat it up tho. www.publicpowerreview.org/p/debunking-...

It was really fun to go on Vivek Chibber's "Confronting Capitalism" podcast to talk about socialism and abundance. Listen up! podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a...

The climate left when conservatives trot out an academic who argues anthropogenic climate change isn't happening: "he's an outlier whose work is highly disputed!" When they trot out this guy to argue gas worse than coal: "it's science and you're a fossil fuels shill to disagree"

Decided to post something on substack for the 1st time (partially b/c of dissatisfaction with this place & the other place, it must be said). My first post is a response to @simonpirani.bsky.social's critiques of my work with @fredstaffordcs.bsky.social on electricity politics (link in next post).

Now online today, a feature from our latest print issue: Bob Leighninger, author of my fav New Deal infrastructure book, on the administrative and political importance of bureaucratic efficiency in the era of public works. Subscribe to read! $20 digital, $40 btfl print. damagemag.com/2025/12/15/h...

I’ll just add the NYPA lost fewer of their projects to tax credit cuts than most developers which should say something.

My case for Kathy Hochul as the champion of public power today: www.publicpowerreview.org/p/new-york-g...

My case for Kathy Hochul as the champion of public power today: www.publicpowerreview.org/p/new-york-g...

This guy is incredibly disingenuous

In which I got two Cuomo-endorsing industrial unions to praise Zohran Mamdani on something he said about the state's energy needs, and it's exactly what Governor and NYPA want too. Unfortunately it's also the thing the environmental left he's been close to refuses to budge on!👇

It's election day in New York City. Should he win, writes @fredstaffordcs.bsky.social, frontrunner Zohran Mamdani will have the chance to buck the left's increasingly nonsensical stance against nuclear energy development. Read more in this piece from our Ideas section ⤵️:

Really good op-ed by @fredstaffordcs.bsky.social on why Zohran Mamdani should embrace nuclear power. heatmap.news/ideas/zohran...

I've been profoundly depressed seeing so many leftists either joke about or celebrate the murder of someone for political speech. Glad to see this political clarity from @benburgis.bsky.social and Meagan Day in @jacobinmag.bsky.social. jacobin.com/2025/09/char...

Some thinkers on the left have convinced everyone there's nothing to see here, the ideas expressed in Abundance are just neoliberalism rebranded, etc. They're wrong. Read our review essay to understand what left critics miss, what problems they conspicuously refuse to recognize.

Recommend @matthuber.bsky.social @leighphillips.bsky.social @fredstaffordcs.bsky.social in @jacobinmag.bsky.social as a key intervention on abundance. Both private market interests + an NGO-govt-legal bureaucracy hinder abundance. Class struggle must overcome both to deliver a plentiful future.

A really nice engagement with our Abundance piece (in the context of a stale/toxic debate). "I’ve seen so much online discourse devolve into purity tests, tactical pessimism, and knee-jerk hostility. This piece cuts through that." stephnakhleh.substack.com/p/jacobins-s...

"Those of us... who come from the Left and remain connected to industrial labor — can tell you plainly: it’s both unaccountable markets *and* an unaccountable NGO-academia-legal bureaucratic class that are stalling public progress."

I was confused by the wholesale Left rejection of "Abundance" both bc it's central to the general socialist project & bc the book itself has valuable insights. So here finally is our sympathetic/critical review of the book & its critics (w @leighphillips.bsky.social & @fredstaffordcs.bsky.social).

Abundance is the precondition of socialism, but socialism is also the precondition of abundance.

@fredstaffordcs.bsky.social knocks it out of the park with this. The NYPA nuclear announcement should be celebrated as one of the most critical experiments in rebuilding state capacity in the country. The way we win is with big public investment at all scales: jacobin.com/2025/07/hoch...

2. Decarbonization as a longterm goal = eventually need to replace the gas (nuclear, geothermal, gas+CCS, hydrogen). That something’s big competitor is precisely the solar/storage/gas combo. Establishing the clean alternative to gas probably requires reshaping market rules favoring solar/gas today.

For more neoliberal center-left Abundance stans: 1. Private independent solar power producers’/asset managers’ interests are not going to be neatly aligned with clean, reliable energy abundance. Be warned.

Part of me has been feeling the time is approaching for a reckoning with the implicit solarmaxxing of both much of the Abundance movement *and* its critics. The next 10 yrs is when these political groups must grapple deeply with the grid and power markets. 🧵

Scoop on @latitudemedia.bsky.social: Utah is betting on a new developer to revive its nuclear dreams a year and a half after the NuScale deal collapsed. Holtec is setting up a permanent hub in the state to train a workforce and deploy projects to build its SMR-300 reactor across the Mountain West.

1/ NEW from me & @matthuber.bsky.social from the new Damage Magazine print issue, Responsibility: WON'T SOMEBODY PLEASE THINK OF THE GRID? Now online for all to read. 🧵 damagemag.com/2025/04/28/w...

Great new piece from @matthuber.bsky.social @fredstaffordcs.bsky.social in @damagemag.bsky.social Are we optimizing for GW of wind/solar by 2030, CO2 by 2050, or degrees C by 2100? Rather we strive for a society more fair, just, free + prosperous, now + in the future. damagemag.com/2025/04/28/w...

1/ NEW from me & @matthuber.bsky.social from the new Damage Magazine print issue, Responsibility: WON'T SOMEBODY PLEASE THINK OF THE GRID? Now online for all to read. 🧵 damagemag.com/2025/04/28/w...

Good thread 👇

A generation of liberals have abandoned the core financial tool that America's flagship public power system uses to grow, seeking privately procured renewables instead. For America and for its own decarbonization, it's time for TVA to go nuclear again. www.thenation.com/article/envi...

Democrats have spent a lot of political capital to restart Palisades nuclear plant in Michigan. The Environmental Law and Policy Center, based in Chicago, is trying their hardest to slow it down. Why? www.nrc.gov/docs/ML2506/...

I want to preface by saying that broadly I agree with Tyler's aim that if the datacenters can connect to the grid with a far greater amount of volumetric sales than infrastructure upgrades that they drive, then they can be greatly beneficial to all ratepayers and the costs of the system.

Unpopular post below but it needs to be pointed out to all the liberals rightfully angry that Trump and GOP are futzing with TVA in a way that may - emphasis on *may* - be precursor to breaking it up somehow. Your fav industry has been ready for it.

As fate of TVA hangs in the air, consider one group that might be licking their chops at prospect of breaking it up: the renewables industry & cheerleading enviro nonprofits. In recent report on TVA, industry group ACORE floated privatization of TVA transmission as good for renewables. 11/

traveling in and reporting on the Nordics has really soured me on American style subcultural bohemian leftism. actually existing egalitarian institutions rely on a lot of dutiful, virtuous, boring ass bureaucrats

TVA has submitted SEC filing about this 2nd Board member departure and about the lack of quorum. They summarize what this means below. If GOP called on TVA to do something new with nuclear, then they cannot do any such thing until Trump appoints and Senate confirms someone. 9/

Unclear why Trump is breaking TVA; he's said nothing this term. But local GOP argued, absurdly, TVA Board cared more about DEI than building new nuclear needed by Valley. Is it about nukes? Or do they just want to break up our largest public power? 2/ bsky.app/profile/fred...

On the flip side, liberals & the left have ignored TVA entirely, except for misleading accusations that it's a bad, dirty, monopoly utility, thanks to environmental NGOs and those concerned more with rooftop solar individualism than electricity grids. 2/2 www.publicpowerreview.org/p/why-tvas-g...

It'll take months for Trump to appoint, Senate to confirm, a new TVA Board member for quorum. Any decisions about new projects, nuclear or o/w, won't happen soon. Hopefully in meantime, hostile GOP & disinterested Dems in Congress will pass leg enabling TVA to build again. 8/

🚨 Trump has now broken the Tennessee Valley Authority 🚨 Having now fired 2 board members & after starting with only 6 of 9 seats filled, Trump has decimated TVA's independent board of directors. They no longer have quorum needed to decide anything. 1/ www.knoxnews.com/story/news/p...

🚨 Trump has now broken the Tennessee Valley Authority 🚨 Having now fired 2 board members & after starting with only 6 of 9 seats filled, Trump has decimated TVA's independent board of directors. They no longer have quorum needed to decide anything. 1/ www.knoxnews.com/story/news/p...

GOP continues its attack on TVA and TVA Board independence. This local Congressman is neglecting to mention that the independent Board hiring a CEO to manage the utility is precisely the arrangement his party set up in 2000s.

Big milestone: X-energy -- the reactor company Amazon backed -- and Dow Chemical just submitted a construction permit to build what could end up being the first nuclear-powered industrial site in North America. x-energy.com/media/news-r...

Annual ⚡️ of some NYPA projects (2023): Original St. Lawrence dam: ⚡️ 7.1 TWh, 1 project Fitzpatrick nuclear plant (no longer NYPA): ⚡️ 7.4 TWh, 1 project Zeltmann gas plant in Queens: ⚡️ 3.4 TWh, 1 project 2030 renewables plan scaled to 15 GW, est: ⚡️ 19.6 TWh, ~185 projects 1/

genuinely feel insane

Good writeup on Trump's unprecedented firing of a TVA board member without any public comment. Critical point: "The TVA board now has only five members out of nine. If it loses one more member, it will no longer have enough to conduct its business." 1/

Annual ⚡️ of some NYPA projects (2023): Original St. Lawrence dam: ⚡️ 7.1 TWh, 1 project Fitzpatrick nuclear plant (no longer NYPA): ⚡️ 7.4 TWh, 1 project Zeltmann gas plant in Queens: ⚡️ 3.4 TWh, 1 project 2030 renewables plan scaled to 15 GW, est: ⚡️ 19.6 TWh, ~185 projects 1/