Who at Microsoft decided that the default cross reference should be a hyperlink with a complete copy of the caption? Has anyone ever wanted that?! And why, in the 29 years since they introduced this feature, has no one at @microsoft.com realized that normal people just want to insert "see Table 1"?

In case you missed it, @brendan.bsky.social, @michelle-solomon.bsky.social and I just published an @energyinnovation.org report showing that the U.S. can save $5 billion per year by meeting load growth with clean power and demand-side flexibility instead of keeping old coal and gas plants running. 🧵

Let The Sun In: Clean Energy Is The Cheapest Way To Meet Rising Demand

Meeting U.S. demand growth with fossil fuels will add $29.7 billion to customer bills per year by 2030, clean energy can do it for less.

energyinnovation.org

🔌💡 Clean energy can reliably meet the American economy’s insatiable demand for #electricity, at lower costs than if we primarily rely on aging coal plants and volatile natural gas. thepowerline.substack.com/p/clean-ener... by @brendan.bsky.social

Clean Energy is the Cheapest Way to Serve Surging Electricity Demand

We can build a cheap, reliable and lower-risk grid, but we need to start now

thepowerline.substack.com

In 2024, U.S. politicians received $150 million of support from fossil fuel interests to block action on climate change. www.opensecrets.org/industries/t... Meanwhile, every year those companies earn $80B+ and climate change does at least $150B of harm to the U.S. nca5.climate.us It’s got to stop!

Fifth National Climate Assessment

The Fifth National Climate Assessment is the US Government’s preeminent report on climate change impacts, risks, and responses. It is a congressionally mandated interagency effort that provides the sc...

nca5.climate.us

The stats below equal 1 bathtub full of oil (1.2 barrels) per household per week. If people had to lug a couple of 5-gallon buckets of gasoline to their car every time they filled it, or wheel a 42-gallon oil barrel up to the plane for their flight, they might have more perspective.

Brandon Bishop@brandontbishop.bsky.social · 2mo ago

"In 2025, the United States consumed an average of about 20.6 million barrels of petroleum per day, or a total of about 7.52 billion barrels of petroleum." People don't have a sense of scale.

"Electrifying industrial heat in India is now cheaper than producing heat from natural gas and oil across all temperatures, and cheaper than coal in three of five temperature bands, representing 55 percent of the country’s industrial heat needs."

Electrifying Industrial Heat in India

Cheap solar prices mean electrifying industrial heat in India is cheaper than producing heat from most fossil fuels, cutting costs and air pollution.

energyinnovation.org

We can easily build a reliable, low-cost, near-zero-emission power system with the technologies we have today. We don’t need to invent anything new. 🔌💡

M. Nolan Gray 🥑@mnolangray.bsky.social · 4mo ago

What's something that experts/practitioners in your field universally agree upon, but that remains a "hot take" among the general public?

I appreciate this idea, but as the rest of the thread shows, the big problem with excess ROE is not the inflated payments—it’s the dumb investments utilities make to get those payments. Maybe we could cut ROE in half—to market rate—but still pay the other half in incentives, even just a fee per kWh?

Jigar Shah@jigarshahdc.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Instead of cutting ROEs abruptly, reform capital structure Most NJ utilities operate near 50% equity Move toward 30% equity by refinancing with public debt until the new ratio is reached Debt is cheaper than equity That shift alone could save hundreds of millions — without hurting credit quality

TIL that there are fusion reactor designs that use induction to extract energy directly from plasma expansion. I have been pessimistic about other fusion designs because they still require a steam cycle and conventional generator, making them unlikely to compete with solar panels and batteries.

John Smillie@johnsmillie42.bsky.social · 6mo ago

open.spotify.com/episode/09yU... Not saying Helion is going to work out, but I generally agree that fusion isn't going to be commercially relevant if it doesn't get to direct energy conversion and continues to rely on steam turbines.

This isn’t what the American public want. It isn’t even what the fossil fuel companies want. It’s just a few petulant extremists finally getting their chance to cancel climate protections, even if that means making everyone in the country and the world worse off.

Trump Allies Near ‘Total Victory’ in Wiping Out U.S. Climate Regulation

nytimes.com

What if the government said the best way to fix a failing dam was slapping duct tape on its cracks? That's what the House "Power Plant Reliability Act" would do for America's grid - keep our least reliable generation online instead of fixing the actual problem. www.utilitydive.com/news/congres...

Congressional ‘grid reliability’ bill is like duct tape on a cracked dam

Propping up expensive, dirty power plants threatens consumers with higher prices while punting systemic solutions further into the future, write colleagues from Energy Innovation.

utilitydive.com

Why is it that Trump can sue the IRS for leaking his tax details but DHS can’t be sued for assaulting or killing regular people?

Drew Harwell@drewharwell.com · 6mo ago

Trump paid $750 in federal income taxes in 2016 and 2017 and now wants $10 billion because a leaker pointed that out www.wsj.com/us-news/law/...

Over and over again, federal agents are seizing and deporting people who are following the legal process to immigrate. This isn’t “immigration enforcement”, it’s rounding up any dark-skinned immigrant they can find, canceling the legal process and kicking them out of the country without cause.

Taniel@taniel.bsky.social · 6mo ago

In Maine, masked federal agents stopped a car that contained a baby, and smashed a window. "Glass sprayed over the baby’s car seat." They took the baby's father who was driving, leaving the mother who does not have a driver's license alone in the car with the baby. On video:

For those looking to deepen your climate and energy skills, my wife @kamalkapadia.bsky.social just launched an awesome new course on Climate Solutions & Strategies. Check it out at skillup.earth! 🔌💡

Skill Up for Earth

Join a global community of innovators, educators, engineers, and changemakers building real climate solutions — and earn an Oxford certificate along the way.

skillup.earth

In the Energy Institute blog, Meredith Fowlie is out today with an important analysis of California's legislative accomplishments on electricity affordability as the session wrapped up last week. energyathaas.wordpress.com/2025/09/15/r... 💡🔌

Reining in California’s Runaway Electricity Rates

We’ve led the nation in rate hikes. Now we’re test-driving some affordability fixes. National headlines are warning of an energy affordability crisis, with electricity rates cast as a primary culpr…

energyathaas.wordpress.com

The current administration has claimed renewables are making the grid less reliable. If that were the case, I'd expect states adding the most renewables over the past decade to have the largest increase in outages. However, the opposite seems to be true!

A clever way to shift loads from times when electricity is scarce and expensive to times when it is abundant and cheap. This can make better use of renewable power at a lower cost than batteries.

John Smillie@johnsmillie42.bsky.social · 11mo ago

www.nrel.gov/news/detail/... Some updates on Blue Frontier's promising air conditioning technology. This uses liquid dessicants as a form of energy storage, separating the dehumidification and cooling processes, and allowing for the energy intensive portion of dehumidification to be done off-peak.

It’s always been weird to me that the people with the biggest phobia about intermittent renewables are often the tech folks. This is a tech problem with a tech solution—well chosen portfolios of wind, solar and batteries, plus a little fossil, bio or hydrogen for the tough days. Trust the math!

Dr. SkySkull@drskyskull.bsky.social · 12mo ago

I find it funny when people—and I’ve seen comments like this — say we need to build fusion reactors instead of wasting time on solar. It’s like, honey, there’s a big fusion reactor in the sky that is always sending us power and we just need to collect it.

The most important U.S. climate legislation over the next few years is out! ASM Irwin's draft California Assembly Bill 1207 reauthorizes California's ground breaking GHG cap-and-trade (C&T) program. Here are 5 key takeaways from AB 1207 1/

@catalyst.coop Is there a recommended way to ask questions about pudl data? I noticed that interest expenses in `core_ferc1__yearly_balance_sheet_assets_sched110` (ferc_account 427-432) don't seem to make it through to `out_ferc1__yearly_detailed_balance_sheet_assets`. Am I missing something there?

New piece: @matthiasfripp.org and I break down the big flaws with DOE's reliability report. The report's alarming claims of reliability risk exclude the majority of new resources expected to come online by 2030. All the demand, without all the supply. www.utilitydive.com/news/doe-gri...

Energy Department’s flawed grid study props up expensive, zombie power plants

The most effective way to maintain grid reliability is to let planners plan, markets work and utilities build the resources they’ve already identified as the most affordable path forward.

utilitydive.com

My first Utility Dive byline! @brendan.bsky.social and I show that DOE's 7/7 reliability report created a fake supply gap by ignoring most new generation planned by 2030, then only considered filling it with expensive coal plants instead of the cheaper renewables, storage and gas utils have planned.

Energy Department’s flawed grid study props up expensive, zombie power plants

The most effective way to maintain grid reliability is to let planners plan, markets work and utilities build the resources they’ve already identified as the most affordable path forward.

utilitydive.com

Every czar can have their own Rasputin!

Matt Novak@paleofuture.bsky.social · last yr.

"I’ll go down this thread with GPT or Grok and I’ll start to get to the edge of what’s known in quantum physics and then I’m doing the equivalent of vibe coding, except it’s vibe physics,” said Travis Kalanick, the founder of Uber. gizmodo.com/billionaires...

5th grade nuclear weapons drills (hide under your desk). 10-year-olds biking to the mall to try the new video games. Schedule a phone call to schedule a time/place to meet up. Mail a check and a catalog order slip, then wait a few weeks for something to come in the mail. Or call and get it COD.

Tiffany⸆⸉@tiffanyclay.dev · last yr.

What’s a real thing from your childhood that kids these days would find completely foreign? Like, how we used to be able to walk right up to the gate to meet our family coming off a flight. Or how we had to pick a spot to meet at the theater BEFORE we went.

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act is actually One Big Expensive Bill that, if passed as is, will do major damage to the U.S. economy, harm workers and families, and put the U.S. in the backseat when it comes to global competitiveness. The team at @energyinnovation.org modeled it, here's what we found:

🔌💡 Our @silviomarcacci.bsky.social's recent piece analyzes how the #energy provisions of the “One Big Beautiful Bill” would cost our #economy years of growth with 830,000 lost jobs, $1.1 trillion less GDP, and 50 percent higher power prices 👇 www.forbes.com/sites/energy... #energysky #greensky

$1 Trillion In Economic Damage From U.S. House’s Reconciliation Bill

Energy provisions of the “One Big Beautiful Bill” would cost our economy years of growth with 830,000 lost jobs, $1.1 trillion less GDP, and 50% higher power prices.

forbes.com

Hey #EnergySky, are there any good explanations of why voltage would rise after the first generation trip in Spain as ENTSO-E reported? Best I can think of would be that loads were light, so transmission lines were producing reactive power which was being consumed by those generators to hold V down.

If the U.S. blocks imports from all the other countries and then all the other countries block imports from the U.S., umm, where does that leave us? Something like Iran and Cuba? Great, we just imposed sanctions on ourselves.

Saudi Arabia can pump oil for $20/bbl but U.S. fracking costs $70/bbl. We may be seeing a glut that shuts the U.S. out of world markets, especially as the world decarbonizes.

‘Wait, Baby, Wait’: Slumping Oil Prices Reflect Economic Worries (Gift Article)

Fears that President Trump’s tariffs could slash global economic growth — and demand for oil — are weighing on the market.

nytimes.com

Journalists, please stop calling them “reciprocal tariffs” without quotation marks. That is taking the administration’s propaganda as fact. The formula does not consider existing tariffs in the other countries at all.