TACO

We are BARELY a two party system. Our party system sucks, it's the worst

15% of fossil fuels extracted each year are used to make fertiliser, run farms, process foods and transport them. In a very real sense our food is made from oil and gas.

We are about to feel a very painful food shock.
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Another example of why this shock will be global no matter what your economy's relationship is with Persian Gulf oil and gas. It also shouldn't be surprising as oil & has have long been the poster children for profit at all cost, no matter the cost thinking.

Global Electricity Review 2026 | Ember Solar surge halts fossil generation rise as clean power meets all demand growth and renewables overtake coal

As always: a thread on highlights from @ember-energy.org Nerd Easter global power sector data review!

With lots of good news, some noticeable kinda bad news, and a few things I think are missing from the picture. TY to Ember, this is such a valuable piece of work

The real kicker here is that we are nowhere close to having enough capacity to hit net zero. Solar and wind have lots of room to grow, and demand isn't going to drop anytime soon.
#EnergySky #EconSky

As Prices Climb, California Imports More Gasoline Made From Russian Oil The state’s failure to reduce driving and to stockpile fuel led to dependence on sanctioned oil refined elsewhere.

This was foreseeable.

In 2000, when gasoline prices hit a record, California recommended several steps it could have taken to lessen dependence on foreign oil sources.

The state didn't act.

Full story here: capitalandmain.com/as-prices-cl...

More of this please!

How K-shaped is the economy, really? Prospects, more than wealth or income, have become more unequal

Stock markets tend to be the last domino to fall in these situations. Recall how long the market stayed up as the inevitability of the COVID shock set in before they finally caved. It would also be consistent with a K-shaped economy for stocks to be somewhat insulated from everything else.

They have no frame of reference for what is coming. Even the 70s oil crises had discrete, predictable endings and mitigation options which kept the crisis in reasonable limits.

No one was prepared for oil & gas' worst nightmare coming true because everyone assumed no one would be this stupid.

Eventually, the momentum of collapse takes on a life of its own as too many functional components become overwhelmed by stresses they weren't built to handle or even expect in some cases. That's the point when the system shatters into thousands of pieces.
#EconSky

What we are witnessing is the economic version of a cascading ecosystem collapse. Each broken piece inflicts additional harm on functional pieces, pushes fragile components into the red, and creates rebounding harms that guarantee further vicious cycles.
#EconSky

The cracks spread, glass fractures, & then it all falls apart.

Once again, I must remind folks that prices per barrel and GDP figures are insufficient for measuring the scope of the present crisis. Pieces of our economy are shutting down & that will inflict substantial downstream harm.
#EconSky

Big Oil Breaks Everything The planet, our democracy, our courts...

Very powerful piece here by @billmckibben.bsky.social:

Big Oil Breaks Everything
open.substack.com/pub/billmcki...

Make disease the top killer in war again!

The first petrocapital crisis of this present shock has begun.

Expect capital flight to accelerate as Gulf asset holders seek the necessary liquidity for escaping risky positions, like AI, and riding out the uncertainties of war and the Strait of Hormuz.

That second part will be hard to predict in detail but the broad strokes of a weaker dollar, an end to the free flow of goods seen under the old Pax Americana, and a crippling energy crisis will all be major features which will have to be navigated by economic & industrial policy.
#EconSky

If the US is going to pull itself out of the economic conditions that made Trumpism & accelerate our energy transition, then we will need ready to go on Day One policies for a sustainable, pro-democracy economic agenda that brings immediate relief & works within the fallout of Trump.
#EconSky

Remembering the Weight of Life and Death in a Profane Age Donald Trump is unrelenting in his boastful indulgence in the ugliest facets of the human personality. There is another way.

"It is important to remember that congressional power was established to check the destructive potential of human passions and to protect humanity from the vainglory of any one man. It is one of the many tragedies of our age that this institution has abandoned its moral purpose."

Damn, she cooked him good.

Sure buddy.

Pay no attention to the United Kingdom, the people who invented coal-fueled steam power, shutting down their last coal plant in 2024, California doing the same thing last year, or orders for new coal plants flatlining in India and China.
#EnergySky #ClimateSky

Cheap Batteries Are Taking Over the World’s Power Grids (Bloomberg) -- Around the world, a wave of mega installations of batteries are lining up to be connected to the grid this year — from solar hubs in Texas to grasslands in Inner Mongolia and the site o...

“We’ve now crossed into a point where anytime anyone is looking at investing in the power system, batteries are one of the most attractive options,” said Brent Wanner, head of the power sector unit at the International Energy Agency.

🔋

In China battery electric trucks and hybrid trucks now outsell diesel trucks for the first time.

Federal policy on biofuels goes from bad to worse under Trump The administration’s lavish biofuel subsidies for farmers are bad for consumers and the planet, but the problem goes way beyond his administration.

Trump has a new biofuels-boosting policy. It’s terrible for consumers, the climate, the hungry, and the country, writes @mikegrunwald.bsky.social.

If you want to understand one of the most consequential developments in US politics, you should start with this article by Toby Buckle.

Hey energy nerds, Ketan's IEA ultrathread just dropped!
#EnergySky #ClimateSky

1 yr ago I wrote a massive thread on @iea.org huge AI / energy report.

WELL it's one year later and they've released an update, but notably, there is no chatbot. Well....I'm going to read it anyway, and you're all going to get spammed with notes :)

that's means a NEW ULTRATHREAD 🧵

You might want to read more of Alan's work, he's got opinions on Chuck Schumer and the establishment Dems which you might find in alignment with yours.

As to the anarchist aspect of it, anarchist groups were some of the first to appropriately and consistently oppose the rise of Trumpism in the street, in research, and direct action. If there was no Antifa then Trumpism would've won the street in 2017 and held it ever since. You want them on-side.

Leaving aside that I think your view on the left, generally, is painting with a very broad brush and doing a disservice to anarchists, I think the epochal shift in Hungarian politics which happened under worse conditions argues strongly to the contrary, as do the tally of special election wins.