How would that differ from current policy?

Ninth Circuit revives tribal challenge to energy transmission line If constructed, the SunZia transmission line will carry wind energy 550 miles from New Mexico to California — but also destroy cultural and historical sites across Arizona’s San Pedro Valley.

It's astonishing to me that it could have been completed so quickly. Here's an article from less than a year ago that gave me the (perhaps totally false) impression that construction hadn't yet begun. www.courthousenews.com/ninth-circui...

Any idea whether the power is getting to California and if so, how? The new transmission line can't be finished already, can it?

I love @ember-energy.org and don't know what I'd do without them but I do get the impression that they deliberately delay a lot of their data updates this time of year. 🔌💡

Even Indian Point?

Seems odd that their projection has wind providing more electricity than solar, given that wind and solar are currently about tied and solar is growing so much more rapidly.

Golden skies over the Great Salt Lake start the day 🌄

📍Great Salt Lake
📸Preston Holman via kutv.com/chimein

It's communication malpractice to arbitrarily choose separate zero levels on a two-axis chart.

GFS map of temperature anomalies over the contiguous USA for March 21, 2026.

We need to talk a bit about how utterly absurd the March heatwave was in the USA.

This heatwave would have been impossible without a boost from climate change, but even with climate change it remains a deeply unlikely event.

A thread looking at some of the numbers.

🧵

Northeast States Set Big Climate Goals. Now Those Plans Are in Trouble.

This seems like a good balanced summary of the energy/emissions situation in the northeastern US states. But I'd be interested to see any rebuttals from local experts who might disagree. 🎁🔗 🔌💡 www.nytimes.com/2026/04/11/c...

I have a journal joke, but the punchline's been on arXiv for months

EIA provides estimates of BTM solar, both nationally and by state. (They call it "small scale".) The state-level numbers are in Table 1.17 of the Electric Power Monthly. www.eia.gov/electricity/...

Hmm. My understanding is that Ember's data does include rooftop solar wherever they can get an estimate for it.

While I'm nit-picking: I think AZ already has more solar generation than MA as a % of consumption. Remember MA imports something like half its electricity.

The Utah Renewable Communities energy program is almost ready for launch June 2 is the deadline for communities to officially enroll in Utah Renewable Communities. Participating customers will pay $4 a month toward new clean energy sources in the West.

Me in @kuer.org
PacifiCorp has no new wind or solar projects planned for Utah customers through 2045

That’s why Mitchell said URC stands to make a difference

“This program is a concrete way to build new clean energy resources for serving Utah customers” www.kuer.org/politics-gov...

It's hardly fair to expect journalists to sort this out. 1st, it's intrinsically complex, with multiple arbitrary conventions for how to add up different forms of energy to get totals and %s. 2nd, advocates on all sides have weaponized this confusion to advance their misleading talking points.

The headline should say "capacity" not "generation". The article doesn't give data on generation and I can't find any for PR rooftop solar. In past years PR fossil plants have run at ~33% capacity factor. Rough guess would be rooftop solar is ~half that, so maybe 10% or a little more of generation.

I have no inside knowledge of the geothermal industry but this narrative sets off my baloney detector. If the industry never manages to scale up at competitive prices, in all likelihood that'll be due to the extremely difficult physical challenges it faces—not "permitting and outdated standards".

Honestly I think they need both.

Very nice!

Are these gross prices, including the base-rate part of the bill, or just the part of the bill that's based on usage?

The world's electricity infrastructure, mapped.

You ask: "Where's my flying car?"

I ask: "Where's my omnibus p53 cancer drug?"

Top U.S./Iran FAQs, Economics 101 on Why Gas Prices React It’s been an exhausting last few weeks of staying on top of all the issues driving gasoline prices- hundreds of conversations, all hours of the day, and I wanted to take a few moments to explain popul...

Gas prices don’t just move based on what’s happening down the street—they react to what’s happening around the world.

I put together a breakdown of the most common questions I hear—and the real answers behind them.

open.substack.com/pub/gasprice...

Interesting. So can you get hourly data and do a similar analysis at that level?

When you compute daily share of wind+solar, what's the denominator? Total generation within Germany, or total consumption? In other words, how are you handling imports/exports?

I too would like to know the answer to this question.

Wouldn't hurt to remind readers how the signature drive was funded.

What Paul Ehrlich’s Fear of Scarcity Did to American Politics Ehrlich’s lurid predictions of imminent planetary doom captivated the public, but they did not come true.

been meaning to do an intellectual genealogy of degrowth one of these days

Thanks!

So it's an ion drive in which the electrical energy comes from a generator, powered by a steam turbine, heated by a fission reactor.

Where can I read up on realistic numbers for ion drives?

Great review!

There's something to be said for ignoring an author's credentials and judging the book by its content. But when the content is technical, inquiring minds want to know...

Ah, so he's a former international affairs journalist who's now somehow a self-proclaimed expert on space? Huh??

Data Centers in Space? Faster-Than-Light Spaceships? Big Dreams Abound.

A couple months ago the @nytimes.com asked me to review a book for them. It turned out to be one of the worst books I've ever read in my life. Today, they published my review: www.nytimes.com/2026/03/24/b...