Whitney Muse

Worked so hard to get this money... yet another thing to get canceled and erased

Bad Bunny's done it well for years.

"El Apagón" criticizes the extended power outages on the island, the privatization of the power system in Puerto Rico, and gentrification on the island

Pennsylvania’s top leaders have reached a $50.1 billion state budget deal, signaling a breakthrough in impasse Top legislative leaders and Gov. Josh Shapiro have agreed on a budget framework after months of talks, according to two sources close to negotiations.

Pennsylvania’s top legislative leaders and Gov. Josh Shapiro have agreed to a $50.1 billion state budget deal behind closed doors, according to two sources close to negotiations.

🔗 www.inquirer.com/politics/pen...

The SNAP fight is actually a recapitulation of the entire purpose of the shutdown.
There's a contingency fund, Trump is required to spend it, but he's not, usurping Congress's power of the purse, essentially so he can do it again with normal appropriations whenever he wants

Just running away from any chance at reliable, affordable power

Final federal approval of massive NV Energy transmission project delayed again - The Nevada Independent Final federal approval of massive NV Energy transmission project delayed again. Read more from The Nevada Independent.

./ @jael.bsky.social reported earlier this summer on Greenlink North delays and those have continued as its now at least twice delayed and still waiting on the final permitting decision thenevadaindependent.com/article/fina...

Major Nevada transmission project hits snag in military air space Greenlink West developers have pushed back the completion date of the 470-mile power line to May 2027.

The Air Force is raising new concerns about Greenlink West, which is fully permitted and had already started construction. Now its completion date has slipped from 2026 to May 2027, to work thru the newly raised DOD/Air Force concerns www.eenews.net/articles/maj...

Also, seeing new federal delays in the permitting for the Greenlink transmission lines that are designed to move power from Esmerelda 7 and other neighboring projects to where people and business need power in Nevada.

The "compact" is a threat, with the administration explicitly stating that it plans to disfavor universities that don't sign in areas from foreign student visas, student loans, federal contracts as well as grants, and even tax [501(c)(3)] status.

It's a maximalist plan of 1st Amendment violation.

SCOOP: These are the 321 awards DOE is canceling All of the awards, totaling $7.5 billion, are for projects in blue states.

Yesterday, Russ Vought tweeted out that DOE is canceling nearly $8 billion in clean energy funding. Today, @latitudemedia.bsky.social @maeveallsup.bsky.social obtained the list of all 321 projects that are having their awards pulled.

🔌💡 www.latitudemedia.com/news/scoop-t...

BRUSUELAS: “.. Domestic electricity inflation inside the July consumer price index increased by 9.5% on a six-month average annualized basis. .. it will most likely move higher.”

#CPI ⚡️

As someone who has lived my whole adult life in cities deemed “dangerous”—NYC, NOLA, and SF—I think a lot about how dense cities require patience, calm, and tolerance in the midst of social difference, which are of course exactly the civic virtues that the right resents being told to cultivate.

Anyone seen a graph comparing Jan 2025 tariff levels by country with the changes since then?

Supply Chain Dive had a good breakdown of rhe changes since April www.utilitydive.com/news/3-ways-...

Consumers Energy spends millions keeping coal plant open per fed order The utility expects the cost to be shared by customers in the north and central regions of the Midcontinent Independent System Operator.

Turns out forcing old, uneconomic coal plants to remain online when the operator wanted to retire them is expensive. Keeping Campbell running in MI has cost $29 million over 5 weeks: www.detroitnews.com/story/busine...

the position of the roberts court is both that racism isn’t real and that the constitution mandates a colorblindness so strict that it neither recognizes nor can act on social inequalities. incidentally, this is essentially the court’s holding in plessy v. ferguson.

not to be too gloomy, but I think it's just very hard to wrap one's head around the fact that the liberal order that started with the new deal is basically just gone for the foreseeable future, and how to deal with that *as* a fact

a thing I think about, from reading about Chile, is that getting rid of an authoritarian who imposes draconian libertarian austerity is one thing, but building back the things that said authoritarian destroyed, after the fact, is a second and distinct thing and doesn't naturally flow from the first

Maybe my grad degree in Latin American studies and international economics will come in handy these days...

About to get positively Argentinian up in here

What is less well understood is how poorly the United States is prepared to match this rise in electricity demand with an equivalent increase in supply. To some degree, American electricity prices are already rising: So far this year, utilities have received or requested permission to increase customers’ bills by $29 billion, according to a July report from PowerLines, a think tank and advocacy group. That’s a large number in its own right, and it’s more than twice as much as had been approved at this time last year. But when you look across the power system, virtually every trend is setting us up for electricity price spikes: The supply chain to build new natural gas power plants is backed up. Virtually all new utility-scale gas turbines are spoken for until the end of this decade, as Heatmap News covered in February. U.S. natural gas supplies will come under more strain in the next few years as fossil fuel companies export more of the fuel abroad. From 2024 to 2028, North America’s liquified natural gas export capacity is projected to double. Many of the key components to build more grid infrastructure — such as copper or steel — have surged in cost due to Trump’s tariffs and self-induced trade uncertainty. The federal government has become a less stable fiscal and financing partner for energy producers and distributors. On Wednesday, Energy Secretary Chris Wright killed a government loan guarantee for the Grain Belt Express transmission project. Why? “To ensure more responsible stewardship of taxpayer resources,” but also because President Trump asked him to.

It’s hard to find a trend in the electricity system right now that *doesn’t* point to near-term rate hikes if not a broad affordability crisis. That’s a serious problem for climate policy, but also the American economy writ large. I wrote about it: heatmap.news/politics/ele...

Interior issues new memo in response to anti-wind/solar Executive Order that requires any of 69 types of decisions/actions to go to the Office of the Secretary.

This is the way you stall and kill projects. Intentionally red-tape projects to death.

According to this Supreme Court, President Biden's Department of Education was exceeding its power by trying to forgive peoples' student loans.

President Trump, on the other hand, has the power to just completely dismantle the entire Education Department.

‘It’s a nightmare.’ U.S. funding cuts threaten academic science jobs at all levels “There is a lot of pressure to essentially leave the country or not pursue research,” one Ph.D. student says

I can't stress enough how close U.S. science is to the cliff.

"Numbers released in May by the National Science Foundation (NSF) indicate that if Congress approves the cuts to the agency proposed by the White House, the number of early-career researchers it supports could fall by 78%" (@science.org)

How did the best caveat of the entire report not make it into the three-page summary??

The Transmission Facility Financing program funding remains rescinded in the latest reconciliation text. There's no reprieve for the balance of the $2 billion from IRA.

Wrote a thing (with @jakehigdon.com). Congress is killing IRA tax credits in an effort to look "tough on China." But the effect will be the exact opposite.

NABTU gets it.

“Equivalent of canceling 1000 keystone XLs”

"Biggest job killing Bill in the history of the country"

Not just summer blackout risk. Winter too.

And likely increased risk in shoulder seasons when there are planned outages and decreased generation available.

It will raise electricity prices, increase the likelihood of blackouts and brownouts, and reduce investment & jobs across the country.

A sweeping victory to destroy hundreds of thousands of energy sector jobs, including for union workers, and raise electricity prices for every American.