Daksh 🌅
@daxx.bsky.social
he/him | Cornell alum 🐻| Solar Mechanical Engineer👷🏼 | Fellow @ Clean Energy Leadership Institute | Content Director @mitenergyconf.bsky.social⚡️| Organizing for a Just Energy Transition ☀️
The deregulation and free market that’s responsible for massive clean energy boom in Texas/ERCOT is also responsible for AI-data center boom in the state. One is stabilizing the grid, the other, so far is straining (and polluting) the grid. How do we balance these two phenomenon?
“Utah approved the largest data center, and we don’t want it” - at Turnstile Concert during Kilby Block Party. Wild (and good) to see this level of opposition to data centers. Folks are done subsidizing data centers, paying higher electricity costs, and living around fossil fuel pollution.
Climate policy is an affordability issue, with climate change *already* costing avg. U.S. households $900/yr. 10% of counties pay even more. Costs exceed $110B/year across the country, hit lower-income households hardest, and drive up housing. New op-ed from MIT CPC + UCLA.
$900 a year: That's how much climate change costs the average US household
Climate change costs include higher home insurance bills, disaster recovery costs in the form of higher taxes and health damages from wildfire smoke and extreme weather. "In short, climate inaction…
buff.ly
Trump is turning a blind eye to: ⛈️Statewide flood costs up $9.3 million annually by 2030 🏖️Over 24,000 acres of wetlands in MA disappearing by 2100 ☀️Rising temps bringing up to 400 additional heat-related deaths annually by the end of the century I‘ll fight to protect federal climate regulations.
Energy prices are skyrocketing. Here's my plan to lower them:
As @sanders.senate.gov and @aoc.bsky.social debates on how we power data centers, these are some useful ideas. We can do it clean and without passing the cost to ratepayers, and with investing in our aging grid infrastructure.
Daksh 🌅@daxx.bsky.social · 5mo agoPolicymakers must regulate Big Tech’s AI data center build-out & require them to pay for grid upgrades. Innovative clean energy procurement, Google’s efforts to match data center demand with carbon-free power & flexible load management, should set the baseline. www.canarymedia.com/articles/bat...
SCOOP: Alabama might be the first state to ever ban new solar farms. Why? People are upset about a gigantic solar project that would power a Meta data center. Turns out when you tie solar to data centers, it can quickly become less popular!
How Meta Made Alabama So Mad It’s Threatening to Ban Solar
A proposed solar projected in a small, unincorporated town is gearing up to be a big problem for renewables in the state.
heatmap.news
actually wrote this article as a rebuttal to @mattyglesias.bsky.social arguing democrats need to embrace oil & gas industry to win on affordability. I wholeheartedly and loudly disagree.
Daksh 🌅@daxx.bsky.social · 5mo agoDemocrats now hold favorable polling ratings on affordability. If they fail to lead, they risk ceding the narrative to technocrats, Silicon Valley “abundance” ideologues, and fossil fuel interests offering false solutions: more drilling & the same broken status quo. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/18/o...
Democrats can tax corporate polluters to fund clean energy at scale. They can invoke Defense Production Act to shore up domestic supply chains, streamline permitting for clean energy & transmission. Utilities should be accountable to public, not shareholders. www.illinoispolicy.org/pritzker-dou...
Pritzker doubles down on clean-energy expansion
The governor talks about more subsidies and more government involvement to promote his energy agenda, which includes supporting nuclear expansion.
illinoispolicy.org
This is Trump’s payback to his corrupt fossil fuel donors. Every clean inexpensive energy source he takes off the grid moves the grid back to marginal polluting fossil plants that would otherwise be off line. Billions goes from ratepayers to big donors. It’s a scheme. www.npr.org/2026/03/24/n...
Trump takes aim at windmills despite increasing energy costs
President Trump's mission to fight renewable wind energy comes at a time of rising energy costs.
npr.org
Warning signs are already visible. Pipeline revivals & climate backsliding in NY now masquerade as "affordability" measures. Democrats must reject this. Abandoning climate goals will not make energy cheaper. It will make it more volatile, more polluted, and more unjust. heatmap.news/climate/new-...
New York’s Climate Law Is Cracking Under the Weight of Affordability Politics
Governor Kathy Hochul’s proposal to weaken the state’s emissions targets reflects a fundamental tension in the process of decarbonization.
heatmap.news
I'd like to remind everyone that we do not in fact have to just ask.
Brendon Slotterback@bslotterback.bsky.social · 5mo agoAsking data centers to be flexible during peak hours of energy demand (connect and manage) would save every household in @pjminterconnection.bsky.social $1,000 per year! energyinstitute.jhu.edu/a-smarter-wa...
The Green New Deal framework, introduced by @aoc.bsky.social & @edmarkey.bsky.social remains crucial to advance climate & affordability goals in the era of rising electricity demand. We shouldn't cede the narrative to the fossil fuel industry on this. #EnergySky www.commondreams.org/opinion/dems...
How Democrats Can Win on Climate and Energy Affordability | Common Dreams
The party can lead by clearly explaining why electricity prices are rising and who bears responsibility, or they can surrender the narrative to corporate pundits and technocrats increasingly aligned ...
commondreams.org
"If a very blue state like New York moves backwards on climate change as well, that’s a negative sign for the country. If you can’t do it here, can you do it anywhere?"-- @michaelgerrard.bsky.social [gift link]
Hochul Moves to Weaken Aggressive New York State Climate Law
Citing concerns about affordability, New York Governor Kathy Hochul has proposed revising the state’s 2019 climate law, asking to delay regulations to implement it and to adopt a different greenhouse-...
bloomberg.com
A modern Green New Deal framework can address affordability and climate simultaneously, and this is the platform Democrats should run on, writes @daxx.bsky.social.
How Democrats Can Win on Climate and Energy Affordability
The party can lead by clearly explaining why electricity prices are rising and who bears responsibility, or they can surrender the narrative to corporate pundits and technocrats increasingly aligned with Big Tech.
commondreams.org
First the Trump administration ended support for clean energy Then they tried to shut down existing wind farms Now they're going to pay foreign firms $1 billion to not produce clean energy Anything to prop up the Big Oil business model www.nytimes.com/2026/03/17/c...
Trump Officials Weigh New $1 Billion Deal to Stop Offshore Wind Farms
nytimes.com
When voters are asked to rank abstract issues against each other, “climate” seems to lose to “cost of living.” But the real question is whether voters want policies that tackle the climate crisis while delivering material benefits. The evidence says yes. substack.com/home/post/p-...
Affordability and Climate Action Don’t Have to be Opposites
Centrist pollsters keep treating climate like a siloed issue. Voters know better.
substack.com
I don't say this often but: I'm so proud to be a climate and environment reporter. We cover an issue that is vitally important to humanity and the natural world. 14 of my climate colleagues at the Post were laid off today and I'm devastated. www.climatecoloredgoggles.com/p/washington...
Breaking: Washington Post gutting its climate team
Clean energy dies in darkness. Courtesy of Jeff Bezos.
climatecoloredgoggles.com
Nobody wanted it to happen, but X has definitely become a mouthpiece for climate disinformation, which tracks because the algorithm amplifies those voices.
Are solar farms in Ohio being denied due to faked local opposition? @canarymedia.com's Kathianne Kowalski does the work of checking the names and addresses — and it sure looks like there are a lot of fabricated "local" opponents to it: www.canarymedia.com/articles/sol... #energysky
Are faked public comments about to tank an Ohio solar farm?
Dozens of public comments opposing the $98 million Crossroads Solar project appear to be fabricated. Ohio’s siting board may block the project anyway.
canarymedia.com
@sammyroth.bsky.social reporting that the Post cuts include 14 climate journalists: www.climatecoloredgoggles.com/p/washington...
Breaking: Washington Post gutting its climate team
Clean energy dies in darkness. Courtesy of Jeff Bezos.
climatecoloredgoggles.com
@sammyroth.bsky.social: "Clean energy dies in darkness. Courtesy of Jeff Bezos"
Breaking: Washington Post gutting its climate team
Clean energy dies in darkness. Courtesy of Jeff Bezos.
climatecoloredgoggles.com
John Kostyack@kostyack.bsky.social · 6mo agoLomborg should have banished from respectable publications years ago. To see him now invited to spew his disinformation on the WaPo editorial pages (climate policies cost us trillions?!), at a time when the paper should be holding Trump accountable for his egregious climate lies, is stunning.
As of 2025, the US has taken a U-turn on climate progress, and it is only going to get worse.
Daksh 🌅@daxx.bsky.social · 6mo agoA lot of folks on here overestimated that Big Tech would go for solar + batteries instead to power their data centers, including me.
After 10 years of controversy, lawsuits, and even a ballot referendum, the New England Clean Energy Connect is up and running 🔌 With a capacity of 1,200 megawatts, the new line can satisfy 20% of Massachusetts' electricity needs. www.wbur.org/news/2026/01... @wbur.org #energysky
A decade in the making, clean energy power line for Mass. is up and running
A major new transmission line that can bring renewable electricity from Quebec to Massachusetts is finally, after a whole lot of controversy and delay, starting to deliver power.
wbur.org
Here's a really great, clear explanation from @michael-thomas.bsky.social of what we know about why US electricity prices are rising. (No, it's not data centers, except in some very specific local areas.)
Why Are Electricity Prices Rising?
Probably not for the reasons that you think
distilled.earth
Fabrizio, Lee & Associates polled republicans. It found 51-30% in favor of utility-scale solar, it rises to 70% if panels are domestic. 68% agree with that "we need all forms of electricity generation, including utility solar, to be built to lower electricity costs." www.axios.com/2026/02/04/t...
Exclusive: Majority of Trump voters back solar power, poll finds
Trump officials are moving against renewables on several fronts.
axios.com
