In September, we will be reading @mmildenberger's new book, "Carbon Captured." If you sign up at this link, you can join us for a conversation about his book on Tuesday September 29th at 4:30 PM PST / 7:30 PM EST.
Want to understand this history of efforts to price carbon in the United States and around the world? (Norway, Australia, Canada, Japan, Germany, you name it!)
Then, in October, I'm THRILLED to host a #climatebookclub for @allwecansave, a collection that I truly cannot wait to read myself. The first thing to do is PRE-ORDER A COPY RIGHT NOW at this link (really: do it and reply. You will get a gold star). allwecansave.earth
OKAY GREAT! You bought the book. Now sign up at this link to join a conversation with me and some of the other contributors (TBD!) on Tuesday October 20th at 4:30 PM PST / 7:30 PM EST for a conversation.
How common is opposition to wind energy and what predicts where it occurs? My new open access research in @PNASNews looks at wind energy opposition across North America between 2000 to 2016. We find opposition is common and growing over time. THREAD! 🧵 pnas.org/doi/full/10.10…
Methods: After compiling almost 36,000 newspaper articles, we associated them with specific wind projects in both the USA and Canada between 2000-2016. We coded whether opponents protested, used the courts, tried to block permits, or wrote letters to the editor.
We found that opposition was common and growing over time in both the USA and Canada. In the early 2000s, only around 1 in 10 wind projects was opposed. In 2016, it was closer to 1 in 4 projects. Likely, this has only grown in the past few years.
The Republican debt ceiling bill is a recipe for American decline. It attacks bedrock economic policies that are hugely popular.
McCarthy is in chaos, and likely doesn’t have the votes. But, House Republicans who support this bill are voting against jobs in their districts...🧵
If @RepLoudermilk supports the Republican debt ceiling bill, he is voting for killing 6,000 jobs in his Georgia district, putting $4.5B in battery manufacturing and $2.5B in solar manufacturing projects at risk. That's $7 billion of investments. reuters.com/business/autos…
In Nebraska, @RepDonBacon’s district is home to Green Plains, a major biofuel company that recently launched a sustainable aviation fuel venture. It stands to seriously lose out if the Republican plan is passed, and biofuels support gets repealed. united.com/en/us/newsroom…
Buried down on Page 118 of the big climate law is a hydrogen tax credit. It could help clean up aviation and heavy industry.
But if the Biden admin implements it poorly, it could move us in the wrong direction on climate change. My latest in @nytimes. nytimes.com/2023/04/14/opi…
Hydrogen is a potentially clean fuel. But it all depends on how it's produced.
Fossil fuel companies like BP, and utilities like Constellation, are lobbying the Biden admin for lax rules that reward hydrogen projects with federal subsidies regardless of their side effects.
Why worry about pollution when you’ve been churning it out for decades?
The world is still running on fossil fuels. But, if moving away from dirty energy is like rerouting a giant ship, then this could be the year when world leaders started to turn the tanker around.
The *new* 2035 Initiative on climate research and advocacy @ucsantabarbara is HIRING! We have two positions: "Projects and Operations Coordinator" and "Communications and Outreach Coordinator." More details below.
1) The "Projects and Operations Coordinator" is the lead staff person at the initiative, helping with research projects + policy reports, coordinating all the work we're doing.
BIG NEW UTILITIES REPORT! Today @SierraClub launches the Dirty Truth Report 2.0!
The 50 dirtiest electric utilities are failing to retire coal, stop building new gas, and move rapidly to clean energy, despite their (empty) climate pledges. THREAD... 🧵! coal.sierraclub.org/the-problem/di…
We looked at the top 50 polluting American utilities, examining their plans for the coming decade. These utilities must retire coal by 2030, stop building new gas, and replace current generation with clean energy, getting us to 80% clean power by 2030.
Are they doing this? No.
Across the board, utilities are failing. Less than a third of their coal has a planned retirement date. There’s still massive amounts of new gas being proposed. And just 7 out of 50 utilities have plans to get to 80% cleaner power by 2030, in line with President Biden’s goal.