Okay, folks: The big El Niño update is now out on Weather West! This sure looks like it's going to be a dramatic year from a global climate perspective, and there are major implications for extreme events (across California, the U.S. West, & well beyond).

We have some really cool jobs open right now at EPI, if I may say so. An early-career fellowship, a data engineer position, and a CA-focused research manager. My colleagues are amazing. We have fun and we make a difference. energyandpolicy.org/jobs/

For years, CA climate progress has been crippled by many advocates' insistence on giving state officials the benefit of the doubt as "climate leaders," regardless of their actual actions. In a Becerra-v-Hilton world, there's no longer any excuse. CA advocates must organize to fight.

In April I reported on some concerning conduct within the GHG Protocol. Now, Danny Cullenward, a member of its oversight board, has resigned in protest, accusing GHGP of handing standards development over to “a secret, industry-dominated drafting process.” heatmap.news/carbon-remov...

I have resigned from the Greenhouse Gas Protocol's Independent Standards Board. The Protocol is openly violating its own rules and has effectively delegated forest carbon accounting standards to a secret, industry-led working group. ghgpolicy.org/s/2026-06-08...

BLOG: After two years of work to develop technical standards that prescribe how carbon crediting methodologies will operate, implementation of the PACM is focused on the development of methodologies and their supporting methodological tools. Read more from Danny Cullenward (@ghgpolicy.org):

🧨 NEW ARTICLE 🧨 If gas distribution utilities compete with co-located electric distribution utilities, how can both be natural monopolies? This is no idle, academic question. Josh Lappen (@jlappen1.bsky.social) and I think it spells trouble. Here's the link: www.eba-net.org/wp-content/u...

AND WE ARE LIVE... Time for a live-skeeting of the @nationalacademies.org "State of the Science" address by Marcia McNutt. One time I pissed off all the Big Dawgs ™️ in science because I called orgs "stodgy" and they aren't beating the allegations with this waiting music.

welcome to the resistance, @kylemeng.com (and thank you for the good work)

As more rain has fallen, people have looked for something to blame. Many have landed on umbrellas. (this is a really good article.)

A judge has temporarily blocked the National Science Foundation from dismantling a globally significant weather and climate research center in Colorado.

It’s bizarre being a policy-oriented researcher in an environment where evidence and public opinion are basically irrelevant to what happens. We’re not informing policy any more, friends; we have to make politics.

If you live in California and haven't decided how to vote, please indulge me as I share why I voted for Tom Steyer. I'll share some more pragmatic thoughts below, but to be honest the the thing I keep coming back to is that he was endorsed by the best candidate in the race, Betty Yee.

I succumbed to fandom and wrote about why I love AOC, which is that she is not primarily out to be loved but to get things done.

Some personal news — I’m excited to continue my work with the @kleinmanenergy.bsky.social, now as a Schleifer Senior Fellow. I have never had better or more supportive colleagues, and am so grateful to have a home base for public interest policy research.

I love you Dave, but don’t make excuses for liars and cowards. CARB could have kept the prices low without giving away all the money. The refiners will be make the same demands again tomorrow, safe in the knowledge that the more goes unsaid the more they can ask for.

I think at this point you have to treat statements from CARB staff like you do statements from US DOJ prosecutors. They will say anything. They might even believe it.

I'll say this about Governor Newsom and CARB Chair Lauren Sanchez: At least Governor Hochul had to decency to say she wanted to roll back New York's climate laws in public. Here in California we do the same in private and call it climate leadership.

Good morning, California! 🌄 On this thread, we will provide live coverage of the California Air Resources Board meeting for item 26-3-3: Public Hearing to Consider Proposed Amendments to the Regulation of the California Cap on Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Market-Based Compliance Mechanisms.

I went deep on RCP8.5, and how a climate scenario that's well over a decade old became the subject of a ridiculously bad-faith culture war newrepublic.com/article/2108...

I've got to say that I'm really disappointed in the recent discourse surrounding the RCP8.5 scenario. The lack of context and understanding is something I expected from the usual suspects, but it's frustrating to see such bad takes from people and outlets who should know better.

We have a new preprint this week. When CO2 emissions stop, warming in the pipeline is controlled by two big opposing effects - thermal response to energetic imbalance *and* carbon sink evolution. We assess their roles in the flat10MIP ensemble /thread/ egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/20...

Some notes now that I’ve seen the transcript of the hearing, thanks to @lizdye.bsky.social . First: the government dismissed the felony count in an effort to convince the judge not to make them produce full transcripts, knowing they showed serious misconduct.

People have asked me what I think, so... Scenarios, schmenarios… www.realclimate.org/index.php/ar...

The difference between Becerra and Steyer is that Steyer isn’t funneling $$ to influencers through established Dem networks. Steyer is an outsider, doing it directly, and getting called out on it. 🧵

Worth paying attention to the evolution of climate denial Carney is innovating here. First wave: deny climate change is real Second wave: admit it’s real, but downplay its significance or ability to address it Third wave: reframe fossil fuels as a climate solution

I’m all in favor of scientists making grounded criticisms of one another’s work, but everyone involved in this debate needs to ask themselves: am I sharing my views in a way that undermines external confidence in my field, and is that necessary to make my technical point?

Bad faith actors will always use the legitimate critiques of good faith actors to further enable the bad outcomes bad folks want. The solution isn’t to stop providing critiques, it’s to point out the bad faith and build durable coalitions for participatory democracy.

I'm going to collect a few reactions to this thread for comment, as it's an instructive moment in the politics of climate science (however niche). 🧵

CAISO nighttime gas usage is dropping to a couple percent. We're almost all renewable + some imports all day. California energy knowers, is the duck curve disappearing here?? We also just got daytime TOU rates that promote 10 am - 2 pm usage. 🔌💡

Alright, lets do another live skeet react to the actual text in the Canada Alberta agreement: www.pm.gc.ca/en/news/news...

While chatting with some friends, it occurred to me that other people could benefit from a summary understanding of what's going on in the oil and gas markets. Here are some little pictures to give you the big picture. 🧵

By gutting the Voting Rights Act, the Supreme Court is killing the Second Reconstruction. The first Reconstruction shows how Congress should respond. Me and Daphna Renan in the NYT on the tools we have to save democracy from a hostile Court.

This might be the most insane story about the US EPA that you’ll read.

There is a huge shift in climate politics happening RIGHT NOW in Santa Marta, Colombia. Countries are meeting to discuss a treaty to phase out fossil fuels -- the one issue that #UNFCCC has studiously avoided for 30 years. 🧵

Please take a moment to read this important story, featuring the experience of University of Melbourne lecturer Kate Dooley — one of the scientists volunteering to support the development of forest carbon accounting rules under the Greenhouse Gas Protocol.

I submitted an independent scientific response to California's SB 1383 livestock methane RFI. No industry funding. 12 questions, 141 citations. The science on enteric methane mitigation is more complicated and more urgent than current policy reflects. ww2.arb.ca.gov/form/public-... #GreenSky

There's a global race to secure EV battery gigafactories & reduce reliance on China. But not all clean-tech projects are created equal. Some generate good jobs & domestic capacities, others produce ecological harm & low value-added enclaves. New paper & thread 👇 www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Can we finally agree that burning wood for energy is a terrible idea and won't be carbon neutral, let alone carbon negative, in our lifetimes? BECCS using wood certainly shouldn't qualify as CO₂ removal (CDR).

I wrote about how Trump is making America's terrible biofuel policies even worse - and how most Democrats and environmentalists are too afraid to fight back. @canarymedia.com www.canarymedia.com/articles/foo...

Climate policy and consumer protection update: The Environmental Defense Fund is promoting a bill in California that would practically eliminate greenwashing liability for carbon-credit buyers. They are also making the same arguments in court.

Long-term studies are vital to understanding how species and ecosystems are responding to climate change and other environmental stressors, but difficult to sustain under typical short-term grant cycles. LTER has been funding these since 1980. This is breaking something that can’t be replaced.

The biggest problem with the food system is that it is no longer a *food* system. More than half the calories we grow on croplands aren't food; they're lost in inefficient feedlots or to biofuels. Project Drawdown scientists highlight this disturbing trend: sentientmedia.org/more-crops-g...

We are still feeling the effects of some of the carbon dioxide from the Titanic, from the first Model-T, from the first steam engine. This chart is the most important chart in climate policy and yet most folks don’t know about it. Carbon dioxide is forever.

I just resigned from NASA. It breaks my heart to leave, but I’ve become convinced the best path forward is to do the best science I can, and that can’t be here anymore. I’m still in love with the promise of those four magic letters. Ad astra per aspera, and remember: Earth is the only good planet.

Middle East war is set to reprise 2022's fossil fuel price crisis — and its war windfalls for oil and gas shareholders. Will governments redistribute those profits this time? Our op-ed in @theguardian.com

it's a real mindfuck to see the leadership of a publication creating some of the most important journalism of a generation trying to screw the people doing the work

California's experiment in trying to build a Nordic-style safety net on a Norquist-style tax system is not working and I don't think it's responsible for gubernatorial candidates to call for taking it to the next level

What happens to the climate system when global CO2 emissions reach zero? We all know that the temperature stops rising (stays approximately constant), but there are a few implications... rdcu.be/e73i4 1/

Now that everyone’s paying attention to global energy markets and effects of faraway events on prices and decision-making, is it a good time to talk about the indirect land use effects of dedicating cropland to biofuel production or nah?