“The Trump administration “is telling American manufacturers, ‘You guys go build gasoline cars again,’” he said. “The Chinese government is telling its manufacturers, ‘You go build the advanced vehicles that are going take over the world.’”

Working on climate makes me think a lot about language that is accurate but also at the scale of the problem - this shows why “concentration camps” is the right term for the US, in exceptional prose.

NEW: Alarmingly low snow levels across a wide swath of the West augur nothing good for the coming wildfire season; @mollytaft.com reports

In what is arguably the World's Best News, it looks like India is going to spend much less time in the "fossil fuel detour" than the US or China. It is moving much more directly to clean electrification. ember-energy.org/latest-insig...

Unchecked Greenhouse Gas Emissions Trap Heat, Destabilizing Global Weather Patterns And Putting Millions Of Lives At Risk vs. No They Don’t

Today, a federal judge granted a preliminary injunction allowing construction to resume on Sunrise Wind offshore Long Island. With the ruling, all five under-construction offshore wind projects halted by the Trump administration have been allowed to resume work.

Next time someone asks you about energy and land use, maybe remind them that the ~35 million acres that currently grow corn for ethanol in the US could produce ~15 PWh per year of electricity from solar photovoltaics. That's ~3.5 times more than *total annual generation from all US power plants*.

To miscapitalize Gov Landry (R-LA): “ICE on the road is not only dangerous, it is deadly”

I feel so aged by this IHOP kids menu.

This looks like an indictment. It is. But I see it as a reason for optimism. We don’t need to be exceptional to transform Americans' lives. We need to become average. The solutions exist. We see them working. We have to choose them. And that means fixing our democracy so that it delivers.

If there's one empirical insight I'd want everyone to understand about American politics, it's this: America's problems are solved problems. Just not here. What would change if the US simply matched the average of 31 peer democracies? Not Denmark or Norway. Just the middle of the pack. 🧵

Great - Now do gender-affirming care!

There has never been a moment when ending the oil industry has been more urgent or important. Here is a thread of seven tools that can help. Brief, readable 2-pagers, and a 30-page overview from @michealpodgers.bsky.social at @clicabedu.bsky.social.

Fascinating bit of history in this thread

trump’s been sued by dominion energy over the offshore wind freeze

One thing Massport can’t steal is our revolutionary spirit! Rather than waiting for Hanscom Field's would-be developers' hearts to grow 3 sizes, submit a public comment on their upcoming impact report (SDEIR) to save all future Christmasses. Sign our petition @ SPJE.org/sign for SDEIR email alerts!

21. And before team Yglesias responds by saying "yeah, but it's bad politics to run on climate and energy"... I'd point out that I've won 4 elections in a very purple district running on climate and energy. Pro-tip: leadership is possible! You don't have to be stupid to win!

This Yglesias piece in the NYT is horrifically bad. Almost every "fact" it cites is provably false. At best it is cocktail party banter from a pundit who knows nothing of energy. At worst, it was cut/paste from oil industry talking points. So, a rebuttal: www.nytimes.com/2025/12/18/o...

The name "Popular Science" doesn't mean we shift our coverage depending on public opinion. It means we cover relevant subjects that are rigorously researched, reliable, and grounded in reality. And trans lives are grounded in reality. We see y'all. No matter what. www.popsci.com/science/tran...

It’s the stuff you marinate in that shifts your views, intentionally (follow more trans folks and urbanists!) or not (RW background radiation)

This is incredible (good news too): “After a 40% fall in 2024 in battery equipment costs, it’s clear we’re on track for another major fall in 2025…The economics for batteries are unrecognizable, & the industry is only just getting to grips with this new paradigm” www.pv-magazine.com/2025/12/12/b...

Reposting because this really is an excellent thread.

In addition to all of the other benefits already reported about NYC congestion pricing, "In the first six months of the program, air pollution – in the form of particulate matter 2.5 micrometers and smaller – dropped by 22% in the Congestion Relief Zone (CRZ)" news.cornell.edu/stories/2025...

The networked geothermal effort here in MA is a win on so many levels, and my favorite unique local innovation story (among some options). Congrats on this doubling grant!

Congrats to HEET for a segment on national news about the Framingham geothermal project. If you haven't heard of this trial of decarbonized district heat, have a look. We should be adopting this where ever it's feasible. @zeynebmagavi.bsky.social www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAxe...

Hiring Dr. Nelson is only a thing you do if you're serious about governing.

A Sharon Begley byline, almost 5 years after her death. Upon hearing the news James Watson had died, a STAT reporter said in our Slack, "I wish I could read what Sharon would have written." Incredible news: Sharon in fact did pre-write a Watson obit. And it is masterful and excoriating. 🧪🧬🧫

The truly maddening thing is that, unlike when I was a young man in science and the materials and engineering just weren’t there yet, the future is *right there.* The problem is *solved*. What’s holding us back is not just greed, but this bizarre nostalgia, an obsession with petro- masculinity.

What we know so far, 9:30pm —Dems flip VA-Gov & VA-LG. —BIG Dem gains in VA House —Dems win NJ-Gov —Mamdani up —Dems seem to flip 2 statewide offices in GA —JD Vance's half-brother loses in Cincy. —Dems sweep Orlando council —PA: Dem justices up big —Maine anti-mail vote measure down —Krasner wins

YES YOU SHOULD VOTE IN LOCAL ELECTIONS TOMORROW EVEN IF MAMDANI IS NOT ON THE BALLOT WHERE YOU LIVE

Bill Gates hasn’t made sense on Climate since he teamed up with Bjorn Lomberg in 2009. This is just a restating of Bjorn’s book from this year about how we have a finite amount of money and we shouldn’t use it for climate. What they get wrong is that climate solutions are now fully profitable.

“Now Scientific American has updated and re-released what it calls the “classic graphic” that shows that a human on a bicycle—able to coast, or freewheel, without pedaling—remains the world’s most energy effecient traveler.” @carltonreid.com on the re-release of the iconic graph in @forbes.com.

Wyoming is by an order of magnitude the US's largest coal producer (and produces more than the whole of the northern Appalachia and Midwest states *combined*). Nearly all of that comes out of the Powder River Basin. Coal is a dead industry.

SB79 is a big (wonky) win 🎉 Every one of those should come with explainers like this - clear, illustrated, and with important nuances, caveats, and motivations called out.

Western Alaska was hit hard by the recent storms. Houses floated away in Kipnuk, houses flipped over, people lost everything from the flooding that came with the storms. Please donate if you can. This group has a long history of supporting AK communities. alaskacf.fcsuite.com/erp/donate/c...

I've been following Aaron since before the latest ICE immigration stuff and he is one of the most valuable ones you can have. True professional context and experience of the headlines. He's not just bloviating he actually understands the full legal case history.

Picture how big the Hoover Dam is. An absolute unit. The Hoover Dam has a power capacity of 2 gigawatts (GW). The solar farm that the Admin just cancelled could have produces 6.2 GW of power. That's more than 3 Hoover Dams.

Political violence is evil, killing people is evil, a country with more guns in it than people is broken, and what the government is saying about political violence right now being a primarily leftwing phenomenon is factually, statistically untrue. They are using this moment to rewrite history.

ICE must stop using a facial recognition app to identify people on our streets. These technologies are inaccurate, dangerous, and threaten our right to privacy and free speech. I’m leading my colleagues in demanding answers. www.bostonglobe.com/2025/09/11/m...

This is so crucial. When people think about these land comparisons, they don't think about the entire sprawling infrastructure behind FF.

Charlie Kirk called me a ‘lunatic’ and a ‘prostitute’ and demanded I be deported. Nothing, *nothing*, justifies killing him, or robbing his kids of their dad. We don’t know the identity or motive of the shooter but murder can *never* be the response to political disagreements.

The slow boring of hard boards at a local level (and a lot of double meanings not quite intended!). Congrats!

A judge in Massachusetts today issued what I think is the first judgment against the DOJ's attempt to subpoena doctors who treat trans patients. The judge quashed the subpoena the DOJ issued against Boston Children's Hospital, home to the country's first gender clinic for adolescents.

Some people maybe want to see automation, more powerful weapons, scientific agriculture, or computers as hallmarks of modernity. That’s all rich people stuff. The bright line for everyone not-rich is public health. That’s why these guys in power hate it.

Until the 20th century the United States had repeated epidemics of *cholera.* in the mid 1960s nearly half of Americans smoked. Now it’s just over 10%. Until the last couple years, measles was basically eliminated in the US. In 1952 more than 3000 people in the US died of polio; there 58k cases.

The biggest scandal in US public life *ought* to be that we are the richest country in history & yet our infrastructure sucks, our transportation choices suck, our cities suck, our healthcare sucks, our public administration sucks, & in dozens of little ways, our daily lives suck.

hi, cis folks! this is present day reality for UK trans folks. it’s outrageous someone should have to have taken this journey to live as themselves, participate in society, & be with who they love. hi, cis americans! this is a future trans americans see that starts with “we need to compromise.”

On one hand, reducing car use reduces urban pollution. But on the other, everyone likes it and cities become more livable

1. "'Trusting the experts is not a feature of either a science or democracy," Kennedy said." It's literally a vital feature of both science and of representative democracy. I've written a fair bit about trust in expertise as a vital mechanism in the collective epistemology of science.