David Roberts
@volts.wtf
I run a newsletter/podcast called Volts about clean energy & politics. Subscribe & join the community at http://volts.wtf!
I watched the weirdest movie with the kids tonight -- "Killing Them Softly." The final scene has Obama on the TV doing the "not red, not blue, UNITED states of America!" schtick & then Brad Pitts' hitman saying, "bullshit, America's not a community, it's a business, so fucking pay me."
Killing Them Softly - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
The NYT could have written a news story about this, with actual sources. Or at the very least they could have interviewed Ellison & asked him some tough questions. Instead they just handed over the most valuable media real estate in the world to a billionaire nepo baby to lobby for his company.
Oliver Darcy@oliverdarcy.bsky.social · 11h agoI spoke with 10 CNNers about David Ellison's essay in The NYT, in which he tried to convince the public he'll be a good steward of CNN. Suffice to say, no one at the network is buying what he's selling. “We all have eyes and ears and see what’s happening at CBS." www.status.news/p/david-elli...
They recently suffered a historically terrible earthquake. Also we're sucking hundreds of billions of dollars out of their economy.
I know it's worse for women but I'll just say that I feel this too. There's something so degrading & wearying & ... fraying about being constantly confronted with mean, ugly, brutish people. I want to feel solidarity toward humanity, I want to feel hope, & this shit just chips away at it.
Rebecca Solnit@rebeccasolnit.bsky.social · 11h agoIt's demoralizing living in a nonstop Abuse-a-thon: we've had to learn the sordid details of so many men's abhorrent behavior; I mean this summer has been Graham Platner, Andrew Tate, Jared Leto, Max Miller, plus the horrific L.A. rape-murder of the child by the rapper, to name a few lowlights.
A federal court says the Trump admin improperly terminated $20B in "green bank" funds — a big win for the nonprofit groups fighting to restore clean-energy and climate lending. But a likely Supreme Court appeal may delay them from getting their money: www.canarymedia.com/articles/cli... #energysky
Court rules against Trump EPA’s freeze of $20B in ‘green bank’ funds
A federal appeals court finds the EPA acted improperly in terminating grants to boost clean energy projects. The Trump administration may appeal to the…
canarymedia.com
Edmonton’s broad upzoning has (so far) added $15 million to the city’s yearly property tax revenue.
Jacob Loo Dawang@jacobdawang.com · yesterday🧵 NEW POST: Edmonton’s $15M infill property tax dividend Matching permits to assessment data shows that small-scale infill from just 2024-26 will grow the tax base by $1.8B, and revenues by $15M. That's equivalent to a 0.7% property tax rate increase! #yegcc www.jacobdawang.com/blog/2026/pr...
Went out to walk the dogs to get a little fresh air and exercise, came home with a headache, a bitter taste in the back of my throat, and a cough. 💨💨💨
UN Human Rights Commission: "So grave is the scale, nature, systematic character, and transnational reach of these atrocities against women and girls, that a number of them may reasonably meet the legal threshold of crimes against humanity."
Flawed ‘Epstein Files’ disclosures undermine accountability for grave crimes against women and girls: UN experts
GENEVA – The so-called ‘Epstein Files’ contain disturbing and credible evidence of systematic and large-scale sexual abuse, trafficking and exploitation of women and girls, UN experts* said today.Acco...
ohchr.org
Lisa Guerrero@lisaguerrero.bsky.social · 20h agoSeveral women have now come forward saying that there was SEX TRAFFICKING & TEEN RAPE at the Playboy Mansion. Many similarities to the Epstein crimes and they were happening here in LA and glamorized on television. Watch Karissa Shannon’s heartbreaking but important story. youtu.be/DQLe35lkj2c?...
These pricks are raised in a bubble of privilege & immunity, told their entire lives that it's their right to have whatever they want & dominate anyone lower on the class or gender totem pole. They can not simply pivot, one day to the next, to a plausible attitude of regret & contrition. They can't!
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 17h ago🤯 Rep. Max Miller's interview with Jake Tapper was one of the most self-destructive things I've ever witnessed on cable news. Here's the whole thing:
I do think this is one source of our uniquely modern angst: all of us are struggling but no one is allowed to say so on social media (unless the suffering is in the past & there's some tidy bit of lesson learned or character improved).
Social Media’s Last Taboo
It’s okay to be every kind of person online — except struggling.
thecut.com
Congrats to BP and all the other oil companies raking in historic profits off the back of the Iran War.
BP's quarterly profit doubles to over $5 billion after Iran war oil surge
BP reported second-quarter profit more than doubled to $5.73 billion, beating forecasts thanks to higher energy prices, trading and refining margins, as CEO Meg O'Neill outlined the group's prioriti...
reuters.com
Some reflections on how to electrify well.
It’s Not Enough to Electrify More. We Must Electrify Better.
Electrification means replacing technologies that burn fossil fuels directly — gasoline-fueled cars, diesel buses, gas boilers, industrial furnaces, etc. — with alternatives powered by electricity. Th...
wri.org
Two words that, when I see them on a menu, trigger an almost automatic order: "birria" and "burrata." What are your menu trigger words?
9 times out of 10, when you encounter "we need to rebuild trust in the media" in the wild, what the speaker means is not that news needs to be more accurate, but that it used to be left-wing and now it needs to be more right-wing.
Don't look now, but the world has now installed 3TW of solar. Took 10 years to get from 100GW to 1TW. Less than 3 years to get to 2TW. Less than 2 years to get to 3TW. Analysts expect *9TW* by 2036.
The World Crossed a Major Solar Milestone. No One Noticed
The next phase of the boom may reveal a shift in who is gaining access to the technology.
bloomberg.com
Southern Co. secures 1 GW of "flexible demand response" from a data center. 👀
Southern Co. contracted large load rises to 17 GW
Recently announced projects include a 3.2-GW OpenAI data center near Savannah, Georgia. The contract includes 1 GW of “flexible demand response” for peak shaving — the first such flexibility provision...
utilitydive.com
Saw Spider-Man last night with the boys. I liked it more than they did -- I'm a sucker for the particular tone of these movies. The Punisher, though, was annoying as always, because Jon Bernthal is annoying.
On Thursday, I'm talking with Ramón Mendez Galain, the guy who helped Uruguay decarbonize (see story below). Got questions?
He got an entire country running on clean energy. Can he do it again?
Ramón Méndez Galain helped Uruguay decarbonize its grid in just five years, with 98 percent of its energy coming from renewable sources.
washingtonpost.com
Any other Republican called on Miller to step down yet?
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 22h agoMoreno on Max Miller: "My daughter lives in constant fear of this man ... you can't fathom what that makes me feel like when the dad's number one job is to protect your kids... if there's any minimum standard for being an elected official, he feels to meet it. I don't care about the politics at all"
Pundits *thrilled* over the supposed "realignment" that had black and brown voters swinging to Trump in meaningful numbers. It was so counterintuitive! And a chance to lecture the left! Turns out the whole thing was as substantial as a fart in a breeze. Pundits were projecting their fantasies.
Americans Are Turning on Trump
The president’s big gains with Black, Hispanic, and young voters in 2024 suggested a major shift. Less than two years later, he has lost those new supporters.
theatlantic.com