Climate finance, interrupted

open.spotify.com/episode/2rUl...

Another enraging look at the straight-up illegal maneuvers hampering climate action - the damage done to the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund

Eliminating parking minimums is not about eliminating parking.

It's about moving beyond outdated, 1-size-fits-all mandates, originally based on flawed 1900s formulas, that no longer reflect how people live & that drive up the cost of housing in walkable, transit-oriented areas.

However low your opinion of the Roberts Court, it should be lower.

So the Clean Power Plan was never implemented. Now, want to hear something funny?

The targets in the Clean Power Plan -- for growth in clean energy, for retirements of dirty energy -- were exceeded. Before the deadline. *Without the reg being passed.*

This bit right here. This is John Roberts basically admitting, explicitly, that he is dreaming up a legal doctrine out of nothing because he does not like or approve of Obama's policy:

The Inside Story of Five Days That Remade the Supreme Court

All right, this piece has triggered me so I have to yell a bit (though this is bluesky, so I realize I'm just preaching at the choir):

The Inside Story of Five Days That Remade the Supreme Court

it is, among other things, incredibly striking to see that roberts was so solicitous of the burden the clean power plan might put on fossil fuel executives, when, a decade later, he is indifferent to the way trump’s moves have thrown hundreds of thousands of lives into turmoil.

Some pics from family trips

As Sigurd Olson wrote, wilderness is “a spiritual necessity … a means of regaining serenity and equilibrium.”

Today's Senate vote to overturn protections against mining in the BWCA watershed is alarming. This is not just a fight over one policy or one project; it is a fight over whether some places remain whole.

The Boundary Waters is one of the rare places that still feels ancient and necessary. Millions of acres of lakes, streams, and boreal forest, it has been traveled by water for generations. It offers something increasingly scarce in modern life: silence, dark skies, humility. #boundarywaterscanoearea

What Went Wrong With Biden’s Big Climate Law According to more than 70 people who helped implement it.

A trio of Biden staffers who worked intimately to implement the Inflation Reduction Act have a big post-mortem out today looking at what worked, what didn't, and how to do it better next time, like...
- fund implementation!
- maybe don't base tax credits on LCA!

more:
heatmap.news/politics/inf...

We’ve been eating the buds on salads or off the tree / they’re good, bright flavor!

Redbud tree with pink buds growing out of the woody branches

Cauliflory! 😍

Gillian Welch, David Rawlings Talk 20 Years Since Landmark Album 'Time (The Revelator)' Gillian Welch and David Rawlings reflect on the making of Welch's 2001 album 'Time (The Revelator).'

In other news, happy Ruination Day to all who celebrate
www.rollingstone.com/music/music-...

I just signed a bill to rename Minnesota’s community solar program after Speaker Melissa Hortman.

Melissa was a true champion of solar and I was proud to sign this in honor of my dear friend.

Heat pumps are the most efficient heating technology ever invented.

They harvest and compress pre existing heat in the air, ground or water and transport it where it is needed.

That energy is all around us.

And it does not have to pass through the Strait of Hormuz.

When it comes to the energy transition I'm a glass half full person.

I know: plenty of people would say that's terribly naive. They point to the scale of the challenge. They point to vested interests. They point to hard-to-abate sectors.

And they're not wrong. But here's what they miss.

🧵

And @sarahlazarovic.bsky.social - ope, found her

And @ellenqualls.bsky.social

This

Affordability 🤝 housing 🤝 climate = 💋 zoning reform

I wrote about how popular, pro-density land use reforms like legalizing ADUs and duplexes in single-family zones are spreading to the midwest this year...
heatmap.news/politics/ill...

Toronto! 😍 ISO Michael Ondaatje

donate here to win the next “weird utility race” against TPUSA - the Arizona Corporation Commission in November secure.actblue.com/donate/lower...

the thing about a publicly funded space program is that you get to be represented by these people as opposed to, say, Jeff Bezos's second wife

Recently from Barbara Kingsolver re her EV:

“climate denial is the playground of hateful old men who will be dead within ten years, and don’t give a fig about the brutality they’re unleashing on our earth, and generations who will live in it.

Our job is to outsmart, outlove, outlast.”

I wrote a longer piece on LinkedIn - of course a number of funders fund built environment. I worked at McKnight for a decade, it, Wege, and a number of funders fund this kind of work. But if you listen, a very small fraction of climate $$ goes to it compared to power sector decarb etc

Don’t know where that proximity is to have the biggest impact? Then use EPA’s Smart Location Calculator that provides a breakdown of location efficiency of a development project!

Bonus, it shows GHG impact but you also should calculate criteria air pollutant reduction.

www.epa.gov/smartgrowth/...

We absolutely still need philanthropy investing in power-sector decarb, but philanthropy also needs to pay closer attention to housing. There's momentum in states across the country - but where and how we build shapes transportation emissions, access to opportunity, and the cost of everyday life.

Why climate funders don't fund housing policy, and why they oughtta On the philanthropic obsession with electric vehicles and why Ben Holland and Caroline Spears think state-level housing policy is our next great climate opportunity.

Want durable climate coalitions? Go where people feel it: affordability. Housing + transportation are the biggest monthly bills. Policies that let more people live near jobs/services/transit cut costs *and* emissions. Volts featuring @spears.bsky.social www.volts.wtf/p/why-climat...