Another chapter in the greed and stupidity chronicles of the AI boom. "Vantage Data Centers, for example, plans to use 620 units of Jenbacher engines—with a total capacity of 2.58 gigawatts—at its Stargate Frontier campus in Texas" gift link

Small-Engine Makers Gain Big Momentum in Data Centers

For data centers looking for off-grid power, small engines are cheap and readily available.

wsj.com

Feels like we’re reaching the “Levi 501s smuggled into Leningrad in the luggage of an Aeroflot pilot” stage of American automotive consumerism.

Canadians not being able to celebrate Canada Day due to extreme heat, flooding, forest fires, etc. while the Canadian PM talks about moving away from addressing climate change is a new level of dystopia. @mark-carney.bsky.social

"Especially with AI and data centers, there’s an insatiable need for capital,” said Sheel Patel, head of New York private credit at Mayer Brown. “The borrowers are increasingly more comfortable using the private market for larger financings" Increasingly more comfortable. You betcha! gift link

AI’s Trillion-Dollar Debt Binge Fuels Century-Old Private Market

A private bond market dating back more than a century is opening a new front in the trillion-dollar AI funding boom, allowing tech borrowers to sell debt directly to deep-pocketed insurance firms.

bloomberg.com

Another chapter in the greed and stupidity chronicles of the AI boom. "Vantage Data Centers, for example, plans to use 620 units of Jenbacher engines—with a total capacity of 2.58 gigawatts—at its Stargate Frontier campus in Texas" gift link

Small-Engine Makers Gain Big Momentum in Data Centers

For data centers looking for off-grid power, small engines are cheap and readily available.

wsj.com

"Chinese energy storage system manufacturer Biwatt has introduced a 58 V modular sodium-ion residential storage system for residential applications." 🔌💡 www.pv-magazine.com/2026/07/01/b...

Biwatt launches modular sodium-ion residential storage system - pv magazine Global

The new PowerNest R5 Series features a wire-free, stackable architecture utilizing NFPP sodium-ion chemistry. It is available as a standalone battery pack or as an all-in-one system with an integrated...

pv-magazine.com

If Starfire will forgive me I want to use this as a jumping off point because I think we are about to see some very weird and very wild geopolitical shit, and it's all because the fossil industry has been pounding cases of cope for nearly a decade. 1/X

Starfire’s Deranged Neocon Foreign Policy Podcast@irhottakes.bsky.social · last mo.

Did we ever get the thing with the car juice boats worked out or do the markets just not want to make Mister Trump sad?

Even the lawyer who defended Trump during Mueller is done. Ty Cobb says remove him “as quickly as possible.” This isn’t the opposition talking…this is someone who used to defend him in court. Wake up. #USDemocracy #Pinks apple.news/AlgCJuWvqRLS...

Ty Cobb says Trump should be removed from office ‘as quickly as possible’ — NJ.com

Former White House lawyer Ty Cobb sounded the alarm on President Donald Trump’s second term in office.

apple.news

We are in the golden age of schadenfreude.

Ed Zitron@edzitron.com · last mo.

Today's newsletter is about how the AI industry is losing - its economics don't work, its leaders can only sell its product through swindling and egregious forward-looking statements, and the largest financial institutions in the world are wising up. www.wheresyoured.at/the-ai-industry-is-losing/

Re: Ezra Klein. Normally this is where I'd quote Chomsky but he's in the Epstein files so fuck him. Klein learned where his bread was buttered in the journalism space and has moved accordingly. See also: Matt Yglesias. Their moral center is attention and money.

Look what snuck into the conversation. "Without storage options, wind and solar can’t provide the uninterrupted power that fossil fuels deliver." True....but with storage options, they can. And that is why it is called an energy transition.

John Kostyack@kostyack.bsky.social · last mo.

Batteries! Brookfield's global portfolio of battery storage capacity is currently 3 GW, its development pipeline is 55 GW. How long til we retire the last baseload gas plant? Til we see the last solar company going out of business due to negative pricing during peak hours?

This guy, not Schumer, should be Senate Majority Leader in the next Congress

Chris Murphy@chrismurphyct.bsky.social · last mo.

Just shocking this was a 5-4 ruling. This Court is so so badly broken.

"thanks to fatal delusions" This could be used to explain many of the problems in the U.S. these days.

Texas Observer@texasobserver.org · last mo.

Every drought for the last 30 years in Corpus Christi has exceeded the parameters contemplated in local plans, thanks to fatal delusions, deep in the heart of Texas’ methodology ... Texas doesn’t plan for droughts to get worse.

Sure, it's good for all of us to be conscientious of our electricity usage, but it's a bit rich for a county to request this as they plan to host over 50 resource-guzzling data centers!

County With 37 Data Centers Asks Schools to ‘Conserve Electricity’

Henrico County is a major hub for data centers in Virginia. Its officials said it expects a 25% rise in electricity cost

404media.co

Everyone is very excited about enhanced geothermal technology. Other than me and a few other outcasts. And now, it seems, investors.

"India’s capital New Delhi will ban new petrol- and natural gas-fueled two-wheelers and small trucks from its roads over the next two years in one of the most aggressive moves yet by an Indian state to curb air pollution." That second bit about nat gas is interesting.

Delhi to Ban New Gas-Powered Scooters, Trucks to Fight Pollution

India’s capital New Delhi will ban new petrol- and natural gas-fueled two-wheelers and small trucks from its roads over the next two years in one of the most aggressive moves yet by an Indian state to...

bloomberg.com

Short term oil profits are great for the local economy. Not being able to drink your water is less than great.

Nick Bowlin@nickbowlin.bsky.social · last mo.

Enid, Oklahoma's public water wells are right next oilfield waste injection sites, due to lax oversight by regulators. And it's not just Enid, @propublica.org + @readfrontier.bsky.social found 114 injection wells less than 1/4mile from a public water supply well www.readfrontier.org/stories/to-p...

Steel industry wants to sell a lot of steel to the datacenter people but data center people want the steel industry's electricity. What to do?

AI Data Centers Have Been Great for the Steel Industry. Now, a Power Crisis Looms.

Steelmakers have warned of competition for electricity from their newest big customer.

wsj.com

A bit under the radar but the efforts to make the public subsidize Alaska LNG's white whale are heating up. "Factoring in contingencies for risks or unexpected developments, he thinks a more realistic cost is $62 billion to $65 billion."

Alaska LNG cost estimate bumps to as much as $55B as lawmakers weigh what comes next in special session

Lawmakers are optimistic about reaching a deal on Alaska LNG legislation as a signature deadline looms for key bills.

adn.com

Shell releases report during unprecedented global heat wave to let the world know they would like to pour a lot more fuel on that fire for a few decades. Luckily, they are wrong. LNG is too expensive.

You should click through to check out how Meta is doing.

Jonathan Stegall@jonathanstegall.bsky.social · last mo.

Hadn't seen this before. Nicely done. isaiprofitable.com

Policy study idea: Remove all government incentives for all forms of energy in the US (coal, oil, gas, biofuels, nuclear, geothermal, wind, solar, batteries, efficiency, demand flexibility, etc.), see what gets built based only on economics over the next decade assuming today's prices stay constant.

Justin Mikulka@justinmikulka.bsky.social · last mo.

Renewable developers saying they are competitive without tax credits. And the fossil fuel projects say..... (1/2) Hat tip @commercialsolarguy.com

OPEC is saying that India will lead global oil demand growth now that China is using less. Will India do this? No. Why?

India's electric car sales set to cross 3 lakh units for first time in 2026: Report

India's electric passenger vehicle market is poised for a significant leap, projected to surpass 3 lakh annual sales in 2026. This surge is fueled by a growing array of models, particularly in the aff...

economictimes.indiatimes.com

Renewable developers saying they are competitive without tax credits. And the fossil fuel projects say..... (1/2) Hat tip @commercialsolarguy.com

Dems want clean energy tax credits back. Some companies say don’t bother.

Some wind and solar energy developers are skeptical of reviving incentives Republicans phased out last year.

eenews.net

In June 2024 Bloomberg ran an article about how China's LNG demand was "threatened." In that article they forecast that China's LNG demand would be in the mid 90s by the end of this year. Today they say they expect it to be in the low 60s.

"Alaska ranks sixth in the nation in annual natural gas gross withdrawals with more than 3.5 trillion cubic feet, most of which are reinjected into oil fields to help maintain crude oil production rates, according to the latest US Energy Information Administration (EIA) data."

Charles Poon, Ford's vice president of vehicle hardware engineering, added, "Mistakenly we thought that by just introducing artificial intelligence and ingesting the design requirements that we had, that that would produce a high-quality product." Narrator: Oops.

Ford rehires ‘gray beard’ engineers after AI falls short

"Mistakenly we thought that by just introducing artificial intelligence ... that would produce a high-quality product.”

finance.yahoo.com

In June 2024 Bloomberg ran an article about how China's LNG demand was "threatened." In that article they forecast that China's LNG demand would be in the mid 90s by the end of this year. Today they say they expect it to be in the low 60s.

I spent five years writing a book about the failure of the US regulatory system. This cartoon sums it up pretty well.

Megan Herbert@meganjherbert.bsky.social · last mo.

Regulating monsters. My cartoon in today's @theageaustralia.bsky.social and @sydmorningherald.bsky.social