Daniel Cohan
@dscohan.bsky.social
Professor of environmental engineering at Rice University; author of Confronting Climate Gridlock; https://cohan.rice.edu
This site provides a link to contact your congressperson and senators about the importance of saving NCAR, the world’s preeminent center for atmospheric research agu.quorum.us/home/
AGU Science Policy Action Center
See what policy issues the AGU community is talking about
agu.quorum.us
To see just how fast emerging car markets can pivot to electric vehicles, check out Vietnam's jump from zero to 54% in this report by CSIS's Ilaria Mazzocco www.csis.org/analysis/ele...
New paper with Chen Chen and Carrie Hashimoto examines how investments in power plants, transmission, storage, or efficiency would improve resource adequacy and reduce emissions in ERCOT www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Impacts of potential investments on electricity resource adequacy and emissions in Texas
Growing demand, an increasingly variable power supply, and blackouts during a 2021 winter storm prompted the Texas legislature to incentivize the cons…
sciencedirect.com
It wasn’t until researching this article that I realized quite how bad the Big Beautiful Bill is for clean energy — reduced royalty rates for fossil fuels, a gutting of fuel economy standards, and subsidies for biofuels & coal, along with the IRA cuts we all knew theconversation.com/big-beautifu...
‘Big Beautiful Bill’ will have Americans paying higher prices for dirtier energy
The new federal law favors energy technologies that are already profitable and increase global warming over cleaner approaches that could use the investment support.
theconversation.com
Perhaps the worst energy provision I’ve ever seen in a federal bill G.O.P. Bill Adds Surprise Tax That Could Cripple Wind and Solar Power www.nytimes.com/2025/06/29/c...
G.O.P. Bill Adds Surprise Tax That Could Cripple Wind and Solar Power
nytimes.com
If your “energy bill” helps billionaires get richer while we get dirtier air and higher prices… It’s not giving “big” or “beautiful.” It’s giving bought & paid for. zurl.co/9kkoD @dscohan.bsky.social #StandUpForScience #OBBB #ClimateCrisis
How the ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ positions US energy to be more costly for consumers and the climate
Some technologies could rapidly cut emissions, while others do little to fight climate change. The House bill favors the latter while nixing support for the former.
zurl.co
My take on what the House-passed ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ would mean for energy and climate theconversation.com/how-the-big-...
How the ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ positions US energy to be more costly for consumers and the climate
Some technologies could rapidly cut emissions, while others do little to fight climate change. The House bill favors the latter while nixing support for the former.
theconversation.com
Video from last month's True Climate Solutions panel www.progressiveforumhouston.org/speaker/true...
The Progressive Forum
progressiveforumhouston.org
I started my career with an EPA STAR grant, which supported my first PhD student. It’s hard to see how early career environmental scientists, engineers and health scholars will get their start with EPA’s main program for external grants being dismantled. www.nytimes.com/2025/04/21/c...
E.P.A. Set to Cancel Grants Aimed at Protecting Children From Toxic Chemicals (Gift Article)
The cancellations, set to apply to pending and active grants, also affect research into “forever chemicals” contaminating the food supply.
nytimes.com
Wow on.ft.com/4inhS2X China’s CATL says it has overtaken BYD on 5-minute EV charging time
China’s CATL says it has overtaken BYD on 5-minute EV charging time
New version of flagship battery cell can achieve 520km range compared with BYD’s 470km, claims company
on.ft.com
This is a profoundly important attack on American leadership in environmental science. #fightfightfight
Daniel Cohan@dscohan.bsky.social · 2y agoThe air quality and health models I have used throughout my career have emerged from EPA’s Office of Research and Development. Shuttering it would be a devastating loss. www.nytimes.com/2025/03/17/c...
The air quality and health models I have used throughout my career have emerged from EPA’s Office of Research and Development. Shuttering it would be a devastating loss. www.nytimes.com/2025/03/17/c...
Trump Administration Aims to Eliminate E.P.A.’s Scientific Research Arm (Gift Article)
More than 1,000 chemists, biologists and other scientists could be laid off under a plan to dismantle the Office of Research and Development.
nytimes.com
Please pass to Energy Dept. employees (or others at agencies doing work that Trump and Musk seem eager to scrutinize). I heard through a solid source that employees were asked one day last week to take a break for a few hours at one of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management offices. 🧵
A 50% discount for the audio version of my book, Confronting Climate Gridlock, available through March 7th www.audiobooks.com/promotions/p...
50% OFF Confronting Climate Gridlock: How Diplomacy, Technology, and Policy Can Unlock a Clean Energy Future
An atmospheric scientist explains why global climate change mitigation and energy decarbonization demand American diplomacy, technology, and policy Professor of environmental engineering Daniel Co...
audiobooks.com
My annual decarbonization presentation is here. 200 slides, covering everything from water levels in Lake Gatún to sulfur dioxide emissions to ESG fund flows to Chinese auto exports to artificial intelligence. www.nathanielbullard.com/presentations
I think some people hear “grants” and think that without them, scientists and government workers just have less stuff to play with at work. But grants fund salaries for students, academics, researchers, and people who work in all areas of public service. “Pausing” grants means people don’t eat.
White House pauses all federal grants, sparking confusion
The Trump administration has put a hold on all federal financial grants and loans, affecting tens of billions of dollars in payments.
washingtonpost.com
New by me in @heatmap.news: The LA fires have accelerated the looming financial crisis facing gas utilities from 2035/2040 to today. Preventing that disastrous cost spiral, though, can help make burned areas safer, easier to rebuild, and more insurable! (1/12) 💡🔌 heatmap.news/ideas/la-fir...
The Los Angeles Fires Accelerated the Looming Natural Gas Crisis
All American cities are at risk.
heatmap.news
Devastating for scientists and their research, and everyone who benefits from that research. I’m not sure if everyone outside academia is aware that a delay or “pause” in grant funding often means the researchers themselves are lost from the field, along with their expertise.
Nsikan Akpan@monscience.bsky.social · 2y agoNIH appears to have canceled/postponed all of its study sections—the independent review panels that approve federal grants for health research. Such grants fund the work/salaries of 300k people at more than 2,500 institutions
For folks who are new to BlueSky, I created a climate journalists starter pack (it’s full already but if there are enough folks to warrant a second one I can make it…or YOU can, anyone can!) go.bsky.app/1ivUnG
🚨job alert🚨 Would you, or someone you know, like to channel something into thinking rigorously about how safe and electrified housing for everyone might also save the grid? I'm hiring a postdoc! 1-2 years, remote ok, $75k/year. Focus: model scenarios on deep building efficiency & grid impacts
Batteries are reshaping ERCOT’s ancillary services procurement Battery generation capacity has made up 50%+ of awards for reg up and responsive reserves since 2022. In these, coal and gas regularly account for <20% of capacity. #energysky 🔌💡
“The second is that Solyndra had real technology risk, & we don’t take real technology risk anymore at the Loan Programs Office.” - @jigarshahdc.bsky.social in this important interview with @robinsonmeyer.bsky.social. Agreed, & we have a “missing middle” in energy. www.nytimes.com/2024/12/20/o...
Opinion | Yes, Biden’s Green Future Can Still Happen Under Trump
Jigar Shah and Robinson Meyer discuss how the decarbonization rollout can continue during the second Trump administration.
nytimes.com
France has added a 1.6 GW reactor to its grid after 17 yrs building. It will be taken off line shortly for repairs as discussed in the thread. In that time, the US added 191.8 GW of solar. After accounting for capacity factor (~25%) that's still 30x the capacity added. 🧪🔌💡☀️💨🔋
Kees van der Leun@sustainable2050.bsky.social · 2y agoFrance's new nuclear power plant at Flamanville connected to the grid, 17 years after start of construction. The announced construction time back in 2007 was 4.5 years. www.reuters.com/business/ene...
If you were to write a piece on carbon removal at the end of 2024, would it be about billionaires investing in a "gold rush"? Or about flight from a sector that has no clear and durable business model, in the face of decreasing climatetech funding and net-zero talk? www.nytimes.com/2024/12/22/c...
Removing Carbon From the Sky Could Be the Next Climate Gold Rush
Investors are betting that they can make a dent in global warming, and healthy profits, with companies that alter the atmosphere.
nytimes.com
With the latest Chinese export controls on gallium, germanium, & antimony, you’re gonna hear more about the need to cut red tape (i.e., environmental regs) to help 🇺🇸 extract and secure these critical minerals. It’s a facile narrative rooted in political convenience & not commercial reality. 🧵(1/x)
TCEQ proposes that just 4 of its 12 counties with high particulate matter levels should be classified as nonattainment for EPA's new PM2.5 standard houstonlanding.org/12-texas-cou...
12 Texas counties failed federal air quality standards. Only 4, including Harris, will be reported to EPA
The TCEQ is recommending counties that failed national air quality standards be given a passing grade, concerning officials, residents and activists.
houstonlanding.org
Already compiled @colinmckerracher.bsky.social charts on the latest battery price index into a slide. Bravo to Colin and team www.bloomberg.com/news/newslet...
