Hivemind: best climate adaptation charities to donate to doing international work? #energysky #greensky

The conventional wisdom is the Democrats' big climate law failed to deliver votes and then died. That's wrong. My new study finds its factories moved 2.5 million votes—more than Trump's margin. And the law's still alive. My latest in @theatlantic.com. Gift link! www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

Bidenomics Was More Successful Than People Think

Conventional wisdom holds that Joe Biden’s bet on climate investment was a bust. The data suggest otherwise.

theatlantic.com

Climate pals, what are your favorite examples of actions that simultaneously reduce climate pollution and help us adapt to climate changes that we can no longer avoid? Joint Adaptation and Mitigation (JAM), if you will.

Banger

What always struck me as a much more plausible explanation is not that IRA didn't work but that it didn't *matter* much relative to... everything else. Voters & GOP pols cared much more about inflation & general backlash. The IRA signal was simply lost amidst the noise.

I will resist, with some difficulty, the temptation to speculate on the motives of people who rushed to this conclusion, except to say that, if you want attention & affirmation from the elite punditocracy, "the climate movement fucked up again" is a pretty reliable shortcut to getting it.

🧵 One of the most annoying narratives after the 2024 election was: "by funneling investment to left-behind red areas, IRA was supposed to persuade them to vote blue; those areas didn't vote blue, therefore the IRA & the political strategy behind it are failures." Many variations of this around.

This view of things is supported by a new analysis from @leahstokes.bsky.social. Where IRA moved fast enough to put benefits on the ground, it *did* shift things, including vote shares! It measurably improved Harris's vote totals in those areas. Just not enough for her to win!

Bidenomics Was More Successful Than People Think

Conventional wisdom holds that Joe Biden’s bet on climate investment was a bust. The data suggest otherwise.

theatlantic.com

You can cast that as a "failure" if you want, I guess, but the idea that industrial policy (of that relatively modest size & speed) could, on its own, counteract a global backlash against post-Covid inflation that wiped out every incumbent gov't in the world is ... kinda silly.

The IRA was good policy. And it would have been better -- and had faster & more dramatic results -- if not constrained & blunted by the idiosyncratic assholery of one dimwit egotistical senator. Just because it couldn't stop a global tsunami of discontent doesn't mean it "didn't work."

Now that the Energy Transition Show (@transitionshow.bsky.social) has ended chrisnelder.com/ets-terminat... I need to rebuild a following for my new platform, Transition Times (@transitiontimes.bsky.social) www.transitiontimes.net. 1/x

This would have pretty big implications for US LNG? www.woodmac.com/press-releas...

Southeast Asia to deliver less than one-third of planned gas power capacity by 2030

The global leader in commercial intelligence for the energy, metals and mining industries, providing objective analysis and advice on assets, companies and markets.

woodmac.com

I'm here stressing the negative but necessary things, so I'll a couple of positive things I see advocated miss. 1. Love bomb people when they go your way. Get your people to thank and tag members. Email or stop jy to staff to say thanks. Thank interest groups who play ball.

Be mindful that even the best lobbyists are focused on long-term relationships and will be insufficiently blunt or annoying; even the best staff just want to get you off their plate; even the best legislators want to strike a deal. Your job as the advocate is to balance these impulses.

5. Be a little annoying. Even weak interest groups get what they want simply by requesting meetings with everyone involved; by badgering people with emails/calls/check-ins; by repeating the same set of dozens of times, across multiple sessions, and frankly playing dumb on bad asks.

4. Relatedly, bring in outside expert practitioners to meetings; people yield on substance when someone clearly more experienced—a seasoned developer/architect/planner/etc—is there running circles around them on substance, especially policy staffers. No one likes to look stupid; use this.

3. You don't have to pretend like incorrect or baseless claims are anything more, and should call them out; you don't have to engage in "meet in the middle" midwittery. Speak with clarity about what will and won't work; even in 2026, being the person saying the true thing in a sea of BS is power.

2. Be the most prepped person in the meeting. Read the bill many times; read all the analysis; read all the position letters; know the policy substance; have examples. I would say that in 80% of meetings I'm in, most people present haven't done some/any of this, and they will yield if you have.

Some things I've learned about legislative advocacy, and I think my record speaks for itself. 1. Start by asking for everything you want. Stop preemptively negotiating against yourself. The process of passing the bill will whittle it down. Why started with a whittled down product?

I regret to announce that the Energy Transition Show @transitionshow.bsky.social has ended. My statement is here: chrisnelder.com/ets-terminat...

What was the most important paper in energy and the environment this year? Especially economics, but also law, poli sci, etc. What was the key thing the paper told you, especially as it relates to big picture changes in society, politics, technology, and the economy? Self nominations welcome!

It would be really funny if in a year or two Costco starts selling Lego-like plug and play solar panels and batteries, and little tiny little grids start sprouting up across North America.

David Ho@davidho.bsky.social · yesterday

Not sure if everyone appreciates the difference. Rooftop solar hardwires into your main panel via a dedicated breaker, so it requires a permit, an installer, an electrician, and a utility agreement. Balcony solar just plugs into a wall outlet, sharing an existing circuit with no permits or rewiring.

EV advocacy world really needs to contend with the fact that car companies are hell bent on making them into the most exhausting, enshittified, advertising-infected subscription model oversized junk tanks imaginable www.techspot.com/news/113327-...

BMW is putting Spider-Man ads on your dashboard, after promising it never would

The promotion began on July 27, 2026, and is scheduled to run through August 10 across more than 70 markets. On supported vehicles, starting the car brings...

techspot.com

Oh, but @ianwalker.bsky.social is studying this already. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Car-blindness is real! Psychologists or sociologists should study this. Giant two-ton boxes flying all around us, piloted by people who have been rendered psychopaths, regularly injuring & killing our neighbors, and many/most people just ... don't register it. It's just background noise.

David Ho@davidho.bsky.social · 4d ago

I was talking to my neighbor when a group of cyclists came by at maybe 25 mph. “That’s so dangerous,” she exclaimed. In the meantime, quite a few drivers came by at 40 mph, and she’s completely unfazed. 🤦🏻‍♂️

So stop saying storage is a cost you tolerate to make wind and solar work. It’s the thing that lets the grid run at peak efficiency, wires carry more for the same steel in the ground, and every home now becomes a MicroGrid to protect your family. Renewables just have amazing engineers that Deploy.

Post-Covid inflation made politics so normal I’m sure this will help

Ingmar Rentzhog@ingmar.wsocial.eu · 5d ago

Economists have a name for what's coming to your grocery bill: #climateflation. This summer's heatwave will push European food prices harder than the war that closed Hormuz. Bread first. Then meat. Then your mortgage rate. I dug deep. Worth your time. www.forbes.com/sites/we-don...

I'm not anti-nuclear-power in general, but nuclear is sufficiently complex and hazardous that it really has to be done cautiously and competently. This administration and its cronies are not known for caution or competency, to put it mildly. Nuclear done badly could cause generational harm -

Conservative Democrats who advocate for deregulating nuclear power and funneling taxpayer money to nuclear companies might want to think through the politics of being complicit in likely funneling billions to Trumps and their allies. Possibly illegally. Possibly leading to nuclear incidents.

Sammy Roth@sammyroth.bsky.social · 5d ago

The Trump family is poised to cash in on the nuclear renaissance that Trump is promoting: www.nytimes.com/2026/07/26/u...

No professional accomplishment has ever made me happier than this. theonion.com/translator-o...

Translator Of Original ‘Minions’ Epic Poem Slams ‘Sexless, Bloodless’ Film Adaptation

PHILADELPHIA—In a 4,500-word essay published in Harper’s Magazine, Emily Wilson, known for her popular translation of the Minions epic poem, blasted the latest film Thursday as a “sexless, bloodless” ...

theonion.com