warren buffett on utilities from his berkshire hathaway 2023 annual letter

NEW on SHIFT KEY: 2025 isn't quite over yet, but we've already moved on to 2026! On this week's episode, Heatmap's @robinsonmeyer.bsky.social, @emilypont.bsky.social, @zeitlin.bsky.social, and @goodjillian.bsky.social share their predictions for next year: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...

Google is spending tens of billions of dollars a year on its data center buildout and its hiring some human capital too: some of America’s most prominent energy wonks heatmap.news/energy/googl...

darkly appropriate that this essentially all goes back to a lack of appropriate compliance practices at Bear Stearns www.nytimes.com/2025/12/16/m...

Federal energy regulators order the country's largest grid to make its rules make sense. Read more from @zeitlin.bsky.social: heatmap.news/energy/ferc-...

we'll see what happens, but my reading of history is that when affordability (ie inflation) is a problem, it's harsh, austere, right-wing "sado-monetarist" or "neoliberal" responses that get rewarded. thatcher and reagan won huge majorities after economic crashes because they crushed inflation

seems bad

Zillow made headlines pulling climate risk data off their platform. Data on Redfin users, though, shows that potential homebuyers only click a listing's flood, wildfire risk for a short time after catastrophic disasters: More from Ruby Mellen and I here: 🎁 wapo.st/4pX8MhE

one reason why dems do well in minnesota despite it not being *that* democratic at the national level is that candidate selection works out for them

Interesting that EIA is seeing slower growth of large load aggregate demand , but that is a poor indicator of grid strain. Need to understand peak demand relative to available supply, some of which is intermittent. www.utilitydive.com/news/energy-...

I wonder if North America's low-voltage power supply is the original sin driving a ton of inefficiencies in our electrical codes compared to the rest of the world's, in the same way that light wood frame construction is. Inspired by reading the AFCI Wikipedia page en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arc-fau...

this is all that matters

This might be the wildest "pivot to data center" story I've seen. A supersonic aircraft startup that hasn't delivered a single plane raised $300 million to make natural gas turbines to power data centers techcrunch.com/2025/12/09/b...

can't stop watching this clip of a tesla Optimus teleoperator taking his headset off before properly logging out the robot

it turns out there's more than regulatory issues preventing the kei car from taking over america heatmap.news/politics/tru...

great @michaelcaley.bsky.social blog www.expectinggoals.com/p/how-zohran...

New play space has something fun for adults: a coned substation

Ruben Gallego has an energy plan, some highlights -- bring back IRA tax credits -- invest in advanced nuclear/SMRs + geothermal -- permitting reform for everything -- transmission www.gallego.senate.gov/wp-content/u...

TODAY IN THE BROOKLYN DEMOCRATIC PARTY

you don't need to do a lot of fancy footwork around baselines and discount rates to show that climate change is imposing costs right now heatmap.news/economy/clim...

someone is very concerned about the cantilever situation

"New England may be cold and dark in the winter, but it’s liberal all year round." Here's @zeitlin.bsky.social on why cold weather is becoming an increasing problem as northeastern states decarbonize: heatmap.news/energy/winte...

huge news: a key house committee just advanced a major bipartisan permitting deal that would block future presidents from rescinding permits for political reasons good for anyone who wants to build renewables, bad for anyone who wants to block pipelines via @heatmap.news

what if simply told utilites that they were going to make less money heatmap.news/energy/calif...

New Jersey's rate freeze could happen the easy way or the hard way heatmap.news/energy/new-j...

not the carhartt x WiP, no one can say he doesn't represent (some of) his district

We’re shoveling money to the coal industry while its plants keep on shutting down heatmap.news/energy/coal-...

Coal is the least reliable energy source in the U.S., according to a new analysis by @envdefensefund.bsky.social shared exclusively with Heatmap. Here's @zeitlin.bsky.social with more: heatmap.news/energy/coal-...

we need a mulligan on The Alienist, by far the best book about this period and an unfortunately meh tv series

an unfunded IZ mandate didn't work? not only did it not work to increase affordably housing production, it almost killed it off entirely? wow

brooklyn bridge park is the best thing that happened to new york since...????

The IEA has had to adjust its forecast of electricty use upwards because from last year becuase of artificial intelligence and air conditioning heatmap.news/energy/iea-w...

The @iea.org just released its latest World Energy Outlook projecting growing natural gas demand into the 2030s — "due mainly to changes in U.S. policies and lower gas prices." Here's @zeitlin.bsky.social with more: heatmap.news/energy/iea-w...

now that she's a big deal media executive surely we're going to get some fresh sun valley photos eventually. that's the point of sun valley after all — to provide file photos of media and tech bigshots

who cares

Battery have had an up-and-down year. But one startup, Quino Energy, thinks it can break through with an old idea: flow batteries. Here's @kbrigham.bsky.social on what sets Quino apart and why it's deploying in India: heatmap.news/climate-tech...

Great @jael.bsky.social story on the right-left pincer movement against data centers heatmap.news/energy/data-...

reposting because I love drama

always be testing your ads to find out that a relentless focus on cost of living can be effective for progressive candidates

great @robinsonmeyer.bsky.social piece on zohran: how the "proud ecosocialist" who said we needed to fight trump with renewables clammed up about climate change on the campaign trail heatmap.news/politics/zoh...

How Mikie Sherrill took New Jersey's high and rising electricity prices and turned it to her advantage heatmap.news/politics/mik...

what if texas could build data centers the same way it builds wind, solar, and batteries (ie with permissive interconnection but accepting the risk of curtailment) heatmap.news/energy/texas...

good morning new york city heatmap.news/ideas/zohran...

Falling down the rabbit hole of online estate sales and folks it is going great over here

In NYC, recess sometimes looks like preschoolers excitedly waiting for the Franklin Avenue Shuttle to pass underneath them.

dems have been having debates about "social issues" vs "economic issues" and how that interacts with class and education for my entire life, what i think is genuinely new is the prominence of climate change and the priortization gap on climate change between college+ dems and everyone else

I talked to an ex FERC chair who helped stiffarm Rick Perry's efforts to get FERC to write the rules he wanted, but now Neil Chatterjee thinks Secretary Wright will have a far easier time of it heatmap.news/energy/chatt...

"Hurricane Melissa has been astonishing to watch — even as someone who studies how these storms are impacted by a warming climate," @andrajgarner.bsky.social told @zeitlin.bsky.social. Here's more on the storm that is battering Jamaica — and astounding researchers:

This is funny – the argument against bike lanes used to be that they slow down emergency vehicles. Now that the lanes are wide and clear enough to accommodate them, it’s that the emergency vehicles will use the bike lanes to drive too fast brooklyneagle.com/articles/202...