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Costa Samaras Profile picture
Costa Samaras
@CostaSamaras
Equitable clean energy transitions, climate & infrastructure, NatSec, SciComm. On public service leave from CMU. Personal account. Work account: @CostaSamaras46
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May 21, 2022 • 7 tweets • 4 min read
Everybody is talking about heat pumps, which are very efficient appliances that use electricity heat and cool homes. But how do they work? In short: heat likes to move to where the cold is, & a heat pump makes this happen. But really, a heat pump is like a McDLT. A short 🧵 1/ ImageImage A McDLT was marketed as a way to keep the hot part of the burger hot, and the cold part of the burger (the veggies) cold, up until the point where you combine them. Why? Because heat likes to go to where the cold is, and it’s nice to keep the veggies crisp and not soggy 2/ Image
Oct 20, 2021 • 12 tweets • 5 min read
How far along is the U.S. electricity sector toward decarbonization? Total CO2 from the power sector is 35% below 2005 levels. That's good! Great even. But total power GHGs were 1485 million metric tons in 2020. Here's a thread on where the sector is and where is needs to go. 1/ In 2001, coal was 51% of U.S. power generation. Wind was 0.16% of power generation. Solar was 0.01%. But the technology and economics of renewables have changed in the past twenty years. Because of policy, innovation, and deployment, renewables got more competitive. 2/
Jun 28, 2021 • 9 tweets • 6 min read
*in Portland, rather than in the Portland

Anyway here's a way better twete and here's where his pun comes from: dsireusa.org. Use that database to find federal and state renewable and energy efficiency policies and incentives. Climate-fueled extreme heat can affect transportation infrastructure. Here's some better photos with some links. Pavements can crack & deform, & bridges & other rigid structures can expand & buckle. Infrastructure affects, & is affected by, climate change. fhwa.dot.gov/publications/p…
Jun 27, 2021 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Our infrastructure was built for the weather of the mid-20th century and is not ready for the climate change impacts that are already here. Let’s reinvest in climate-safe infrastructure that works for everyone: rand.org/blog/2021/04/n… One way to think about infrastructure & climate change: a while ago, the country bought a refillable cup for sodas at Sheetz/Wawa/Royal Farms. Now it’s cracked. And, the auto dispenser more often tries to put an extra large soda in our medium cup, causing a mess. Need a new cup.
Jun 5, 2021 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
The 1st-year engineering students in my intro class get to know this chart very well. Everyone should know this chart. Why should we electrify transportation? Check out the red line going into transport: 90% powered by oil. The red line going into electricity: 1% powered by oil. Extra credit 1: what is the 5% of transportation that is powered by renewables?

Extra credit 2: what is the 4% of transportation that is powered by natural gas? (this one is tricky)
Mar 5, 2021 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
Roadway deaths spiked in 2020 to 42,060 people killed by drivers, an 8% jump over 2019. Because total driving was down, the death rate per mile driven spiked 24% in 2020, which is the highest estimated jump in year-over-year roadway death rate in 96 years
nsc.org/newsroom/motor… These states had roadway death increases of more than 15% in 2020: Arkansas (+26%), Connecticut (+22%), District of Columbia (+33%), Georgia (+18%), Mississippi (+19%), Rhode Island (+26%), South Dakota (+33%) and Vermont (+32%).
Feb 20, 2021 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Here's some paragraphs about the Texas deep freeze. No, not this one, the one that happened in 2011. also- this is not an important issue right now, but someone at FERC and NERC please call me for the font choice of whatever report comes out of this 2021 deep freeze. Is that a roman numeral 1? What is this?
Feb 20, 2021 • 9 tweets • 3 min read
Here's what happened in Texas: the energy system was dressed for summer and extreme winter showed up. So natural gas & other pipes froze, which reduced the amount of gas available to power plants, which then shut down, which caused blackouts. Which caused a lot of suffering. Thing is, a deep freeze happened before, in 2011. And the government said, "put a coat on [the infrastructure] next time", and Texas was like, "OK OK, I'll think about it", and then it was like "it's hot here, we don't need a coat"
Feb 18, 2021 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
The problem is not only that our infrastructure isn't future-proofed, it isn't even today-proofed. Our power systems both contribute to & are affected by climate change, and the same with: roadways, airports, ports, water systems, everything. Long past time to take this seriously Image With the risks of self-promotion, I'll say that we created the engineering course "Climate Adaptation for Infrastructure" in 2014, & we have a MS concentration in it: costasamaras.com/climate-change…. I hoped a class like this would someday be taught in every engineering school. It isn't.
Jan 28, 2021 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
did...did a greenhouse gas write this There definitely needs to be legislation to codify policies & create lasting systems of change. But a lot of the actions, like directing agencies to do/buy/evaluate/prioritize stuff, can & should be done by E.O. Executive orders are policy too.

Idea: Pass laws & also write E.O.s
Jan 27, 2021 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
The climate executive order is a big deal:

-Establishes White House Office of Domestic Climate Policy (essentially a Dept of Climate)
-Directs agencies to buy clean power/cars
-Directs agencies to develop resilience plan
-Climate & Env justice initiatives
whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/… Also:
-Establishes climate as an essential foreign policy/NatSec
-Oil/gas lease pause on Fed land, eliminate fossil subsidies
-expand/improve climate forecast capabilities

I'm reading all of this & nodding, but then thinking, we shoulda been doing all of these things years ago.
Nov 15, 2020 • 22 tweets • 9 min read
Gonna do a class lecture about ecofascism. If you have good suggestions for readings, send them my way. Not this one. Image Reminder that population-bombers/ecofascists don't get to be a part of the climate solutions community. So, bye.
Sep 18, 2020 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
These maps are amazing and terrifying. But in the weeds is an important issue we're working on: who should do climate risk assessments for national, state, & local governments? How open is the data? What methods should be used? Should it be private firms? nyti.ms/2H48NA6 Are there private earthquake risk mapping firms?
Sep 16, 2020 • 25 tweets • 7 min read
I want to tell a story about climate change, cars, & how much we drive. We published a new paper on this, led by @CMU_CEE PhD student @AbArfaj & co-authored by @CMU_EPP Prof. Mike Griffin. We can't manage climate change without evolving our cars. iopscience.iop.org/article/10.108… Thread--> OK, we know there are lots of cars & SUVs– 250 million+ in the U.S. alone– and they're on the road for many years. And we know to decarbonize the vehicle fleet, we have to electrify travel and decarbonize the grid. Easy enough, we'll get to some numbers on how to do this. But...
Sep 2, 2020 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Something good: our paper led by Prof. Underwood & a great co-author team, "Past & Present Design Practices and Uncertainty in Climate Projections are Challenges for Designing Infrastructure to Future Conditions" got selected as an editor's choice paper: ascelibrary.org/doi/10.1061/%2… Something else good: you don't have to peel ginger purewow.com/food/do-you-ha…
Aug 26, 2020 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
April 14 August 26
nytimes.com/2020/08/26/nyr… ImageImage do airlines not have stockholders who should shoulder operating risks? But public transit has to pull itself up by the bootstraps?
Aug 23, 2020 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
An open Civilian Conservation Corps for climate mitigation & resilience (maybe w/ displaced fossil worker preference) could do this plus:
-cap abandoned oil/gas wells
-restore streams in mining areas
-build coastal/natural infrastructure
-tend urban tree canopy
-build bike infra There is so much work to be done y’all:
• all sidewalks in good condition & all infra ADA accessible
• remediate all lead water lines, paint, and soil
• renovate and remediate all schools
• build clean power, transmission, distribution, & storage
• net zero public buildings
Aug 8, 2020 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
Analysis: the postal service is Good & should be protected at all costs I mean have you in your entire life met someone or even heard of someone saying something like, “you know what I hate? THE MAIL”
Aug 7, 2020 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
A micro-thread about where we are on hydrogen: in the 1990s, the Clinton admin wanted to raise car mpg standards, but the automakers were against it, and congress prevented action. Their counter proposal: don’t raise mpg standards, we’ll make hydrogen cars pewtrusts.org/~/media/assets… Then, even through the 2000s, even a little bit now, folks were basing the whole hydrogen proposal around making hydrogen from natural gas, which, for an entire economy, would not only be not great for emissions, it would be inefficient. The focus was on making a H2 car work.
Jul 24, 2020 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Me, a fool, arguing that we need a green stimulus to alleviate massive near-term suffering and start a clean energy transition that includes one hundred+ million electric cars, buses, & trucks, 700+ GW of solar, and lots of energy storage.

You, a genius, who makes this stuff Image There are

~ 264 million ~

cars, SUVs, buses, & trucks in these United States. A lot of travel has to shift to electrified mass transit & active tranport, while also increasing mobility, access, & equity. The remainder of cars & trucks, let’s call it 150 million, need to be EVs
Jul 22, 2020 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Individualized Mass Transit ❌

Individualized Bass Transit ✅
Video credit from here, which is the greatest contribution to American Letters in a generation https://t.co/LYFS7BPreB