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/

Timeline of U.S. Presidents firing Board members of the Tennessee Valley Authority: 1938: Roosevelt fires original director Arthur E. Morgan (his own) 2020: Trump fires chairman Skip Thompson (his own) and Richard Howorth (Obama's) 2025: Trump fires Michelle Moore (Biden's) 🧐

TVA has notified SEC that Board member Michelle Moore, appointed by Biden, was fired by Trump. TVA Board now has 5 of 9 seats, all Biden appointees. 1w ago TN GOP Senators attacked Board for focusing on diversity not new nuclear-- unfounded accusation. d18rn0p25nwr6d.cloudfront.net/CIK-00013769...

Hot take: NYPA has *12* gas-powered generators in NYC, not just the 10 at the peaker plants. Of the other two, one owned by NYPA, one long-term PPA. Both produce way more power - and more pollution - than the peakers and both in Astoria, Queens. But the enviro left, and new law, ignores them.

'Environmental' groups including Sierra Club & Sunrise write to Colorado Governor Polis, urging a veto on legislation that would classify nuclear energy as 'clean energy'. The bill is seen as a lifeline for coal communities wishing to transition to nuclear 🔌💡 www.aspentimes.com/news/gov-jar...

Knox News covers op-ed from TN GOP Senators, calls some bullshit. Eg, Sens demand new TVA board apply for DOE SMR grant but don't mention Biden created grant & TVA applied in Jan. IBEW reiterates call for new *big* nuclear at existing site, not just SMR. www.knoxnews.com/story/news/p...

Abundance ignores TVA. Abundance critics either ignore TVA or ignore it *in the present*. Who will stand up for public power as TVA positions itself for nuclear-powered growth with zero financial help from Congress even as Congress lies about the problem?

🚨 for TVA. TN's two GOP senators pen op-ed blaming TVA for caring about DEI instead of new nuclear & regional workforce. What've they done to raise TVA's debt limit that precludes financing new nuclear? To not put huge FOAK cost solely on Valley workers' bills? 1/ www.powermag.com/americas-nuc...

🚨 for TVA. TN's two GOP senators pen op-ed blaming TVA for caring about DEI instead of new nuclear & regional workforce. What've they done to raise TVA's debt limit that precludes financing new nuclear? To not put huge FOAK cost solely on Valley workers' bills? 1/ www.powermag.com/americas-nuc...

Trump Admin: FAFO with Canadian tariffs and now nuke-heavy Ontario is imposing an export tax on all electricity sales into U.S. Also Trump Admin: @SecretaryWright heralds TVA collab with Ontario's public power agency on small modular reactor project as "Operation Warp Speed"

NLRB employees line the sidewalk to welcome back Board Member Gwynne Wilcox at HQ this morning after a federal judge ordered her reinstatement. Trump fired Wilcox Jan 27 in what the judge ruled was an illegal removal.

NERC, North America’s grid reliability watchdog, says that restricting the flow of electricity between the U.S. and Canada risks blackouts. on.ft.com/4kwcWv9

Progressive world like Volts has utmost praise for CT utilities commission (PURA). But uncertain financial env created by PURA has led to lower credit ratings for CT IOUs. That in turn means ↗️ costs for necessary grid investments and ↘️ pressure on wages. Here's IBEW: ctmirror.org/2025/03/05/l...

On Cuomo

And you thought there were interconnection delays before!

I'm obligated to say that after listening to 99pi's A+ episode about TVA, you should buy my new book, VALLEY SO LOW. (The New Yorker named it one of the best books of 2024!) But here's a reading list of insightful pieces on TVA: