DOE cancels $3.7 billion in demonstration projects aimed at cutting emissions — a couple big carbon capture demos, but also cement, glass, iron, chemicals projects. Calpine and Exxon Mobil were hit, as were startups like Sublime and Brimstone. (Full list in story.) www.nytimes.com/2025/05/30/c...

Latest House GOP bill has faster phaseout of IRA clean electricity credits—need to start building wind/solar/battery/geothermal before 60 days after law passes and finish by end 2028, or no credit. Nuclear gets an exception—a new reactor can get the credit if it starts construction by end 2028.

DOE's super useful guides to commercializing key technologies are back! You can find the collection of "Pathways to Commercial Liftoff" reports here: yardsale.energy/liftoff-reports Plus check out my amazing graphic design skillz!

Since the IRA passed, companies have made plans to invest over $843 billion in clean energy projects. But just one-third of that has actually been invested, new data shows. Much of the rest is now at risk. On the new House Republican plan to dismantle the IRA, with @harrystevens.bsky.social

Not an exaggeration to say this was pound-for-pound the most effective piece of US public diplomacy in China. Twitter was blocked, but U.S. embassy pollution tweets forced Beijing to start publishing its own pollution data, which fed public outrage. Result: millions breathing vastly less toxic air

More than 300 workers at the National Nuclear Security Administration were told they were fired on Thursday. Now many of them are getting contacted and told to come back to their jobs: www.nytimes.com/2025/02/14/u...

New York Times is hiring for two climate reporter jobs — descriptions/how to apply at the links: 1) Climate policy reporter: nytimes.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/NYT/de... 2) Climate adaptation reporter: nytimes.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/NYT/de...

Update 2/2: Dept of Justice memo directs all agencies to comply with Friday's federal Court injunction prohibiting any arbitrary suspension of federal grants & assistance due to OMB memo or Trump's Executive Orders! Effective Monday 9am. Hat tip @benjaminwittes.bsky.social & @azevin.bsky.social

“These are real human beings. We have one woman in her 80s who lives alone, and if she does not get her roof fixed, well, we’re going to have a senior in her late 80s who is homeless." More on the human cost of this illegal freeze of obligated grants www.nytimes.com/2025/02/01/c... 🎁🔗

I've seen stories about how DeepSeek is upending expectations of rising demand but is that what the market's saying? Maybe things evolve further, but right now most of these stocks are back to… early January levels. A correction, sure, but doesn't seem like the big picture has hugely changed. No?

New Interior memo orders a 60-day pause on new approvals for all renewable energy development on federal land—not just wind, this one also affects solar. www.doi.gov/document-lib... (Very similar to an early Biden DOI memo ordering a 60-day freeze on new fossil fuel authorizations on public lands.)

Could the big VC Summer nuclear project in South Carolina come back from the dead? Santee Cooper is looking to sell the unfinished plant to buyers who might be interested in building two AP-1000s: www.wsj.com/business/ene...

Desalination for drinking water is surprisingly affordable. Desalination for agriculture probably doesn't make a ton of economic sense apart from some high-value crops. Really interesting post by @hannahritchie.bsky.social www.sustainabilitybynumbers.com/p/how-much-e...

FID status is one way to break it down. Another is by which projects actually have federal permits, which I track. Federal permitting status courtesy of permits.performance.gov. I have 5.8 GW of #offshorewind under construction (surprised some have no FID) + another 8.1 GW w/ all fed permits. /1

A few early things jump out on Trump's crackdown on wind power: — may affect wind projects on private lands, since many still need federal permits. — several approved offshore projects face lawsuits, Trump could decline to defend  — possibly puts chill on investment even past the next four years.

Appreciate the opportunity to chat w/ @nytimes.com about how we can build smarter (and to code!!) after these wildfires. Suspending wildfire building codes only kicks the can down the road and invites another disaster. Hardened homes and defensible space for the win. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Pretty big blow for efforts to make low-carbon steel in the U.S. (Also a strong possibility that $500 million won't be repurposed under Trump's DOE and will go unspent, though I guess we'll see...) www.canarymedia.com/articles/gre...

Nice brief history of prescribed burning (and why we don’t do more of it to reduce wildfire risk): jabberwocking.com/why-dont-we-... by @kdrum.bsky.social

What are the arguments that utility wildfire prevention measures (which have broad societal benefits) should be funded by ratepayers and higher electricity rates instead of out of general budgets? It seems like an odd system with some downsides but maybe there are good reasons for it.

“We’ve forecast peak coal at least three times,” said Rory Simington, a coal analyst with Wood Mackenzie, a natural-resources analytics company. “We keep getting surprised.” www.wsj.com/business/ene...

Really great thread. A key part: “But I also know that you can rebuild and manage the land so that next time the houses won't burn down. I've seen it work.”

Global climate change worsens disasters, but blaming climate change alone deflects responsibility from effective local governance, infrastructure, and warning systems to multinational corporations and international climate mitigation efforts. Time to re-read @frediotto.bsky.social.

This is pretty interesting. An attempt to electrify an entire home without needing to upgrade the electrical panels (which can cost $3,000 or more).

“1.5C was never the difference between safety + ruin, between hope + despair. It was negotiated by govts trying to answer a big q: What’s the highest global temp increase — and associated level of dangers — societies should strive to avoid?” Well said @zhonggg.bsky.social & @bradplumer.bsky.social

The quotes above are from the @nytimes.com article by @zhonggg.bsky.social and @bradplumer.bsky.social with visualizations by @rjnskl.bsky.social (and quotes/data from bluesky users @ingerandersen.bsky.social and @carlobuontempo.bsky.social and @robbieandrew.bsky.social ) To read for free 👇5/5

2024 was Earth's hottest year on record. "The previous hottest year was 2023. And the next one will be upon us before long: By continuing to burn huge amounts of coal, oil and gas, humankind has all but guaranteed it." @zhonggg.bsky.social @bradplumer.bsky.social: www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Really excellent story, as always. "What if many Republican constituents simply don’t like these new investments, in spite of the promises of jobs or tax benefits? What happens if Republicans in Congress are primaried simply for allowing solar and wind to keep getting federal tax breaks?"

Emily Grubert (@gruberte.bsky.social), Wilson Ricks (@wilsonar.bsky.social), and I wrote a short piece on the role of methane offsets in the final § 45V hydrogen production tax credit rules. tl;dr safeguards in the new rules will avoid the worst-case outcomes, but offsetting remains open for new H2

Arguably the biggest policy in the IRA — the technology-neutral clean electricity tax credits — were designed to attract support from so many different industries that they'd be hard to kill. Now that theory is about to be tested. Story w/ Lisa Friedman: www.nytimes.com/2025/01/07/c...

Wild story: A TVA dam was famously halted in the 1970s over fears that it would threaten a rare endangered fish known as the snail darter. (Congress later approved the dam anyway.) Now, new genetic evidence suggests the snail darter was never even a real species: www.nytimes.com/2025/01/03/s...

Interesting thread on the risks of the IRS relaxing the "additionality" requirement for H2 projects in California. Further down, Sara speculates that when utilities' agreements with existing wind and solar expire, they'll have to bid against the H2 industry, spiking prices.

Interesting take on the hydrogen rules by Mathias Zacarias of CSIS— if the coming AI data center boom is as big as hyped, there's going to be scramble for 24/7 clean power, and hydrogen producers using electrolysis may struggle to win out, even with hefty subsidies: www.linkedin.com/posts/mathia...

After many months, Treasury finished guidance for the lucrative 45V hydrogen tax credit—kicking off billions in subsidies for green hydrogen. Early reactions suggest industry and enviro groups seem fairly happy with the end result? But it's also 400 pages long, so... www.nytimes.com/2025/01/03/c...

2023 was a remarkably 'normal' year for CDD, which these days means it was unusual.

In 2024, hot weather might’ve been been a bigger driver of increased US electricity demand than AI? Per EIA, overall electricity use rose 1.8%, but that was mostly residential. Commercial use (includes data centers) barely went up. And the number of cooling degree days rose ~10% compared to 2023.

Sounds here like a permitting reform deal was never really that close at the end of last Congress — key House Republicans and a few big electric utilities weren’t on board with the provisions to make it easier to build transmission: subscriber.politicopro.com/article/eene...

Nice piece by @mliebreich.bsky.social on what AI means for the grid: for all the excitement about small reactors and carbon capture, near-term US demand growth will mainly be met by gas/wind/solar/batteries. Question is how much extra gas gets burned (possibly a lot). about.bnef.com/blog/liebrei...

The NYT climate team is looking for a graphics editor — come work with me!! nytimes.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/NYT/jo...

There's really no easy way to just re-follow everyone you were already following on Twitter, huh?