Erik Nordman

IPU's Annual Regulatory Studies Program - Fundamentals Course begins next week! Join fellow utility commissioners & staff for engaging sessions on core concepts in utility regulation & networking opportunities. The course is live on Zoom 8/11-15. See link below for program details & registration.

*Polanyi 😖

I came across this quote from Karl Polanyi the other day, which I think is relevant here. It suggests that "cheap energy" is downstream from the relationships that fossil fuels foster and empower. (Misspelled Polanyj's name in original post.)
bsky.app/profile/erik...

Imagine we all drove EVs and then someone came along and proposed an ICE vehicle…

Video credit: Nic Cruz Patane (link in Alt text)

King Cutlet

Abundance

Apparently it’s one of the hot topics/buzzwords.

My thoughts from a conference at Stanford a few years ago:

www.frontiersin.org/journals/res...

Growing up I had a book titled something like "Mysteries of the Unexplained" with a chapter on the Bermuda Triangle. I am pretty sure it also had a chapter on spontaneous human combustion and referenced Miss Havisham from Great Expectations as evidence. 🤔

I don't have anything planned at the moment. I'll be sure to post it on here and will try to remember to tag you. If you or anyone else has a group, I'm always up to give a talk.

bsky.app/profile/erik...

📌

Picking them off one by one.
Hang together or hang separately.

A multi ethnic plural democracy where people have access to the things we know make a high quality of life middle density walkable communities with high quality public goods like parks , pools, and schools

Interior Order Chokes Off Permits for Solar and Wind on Federal Lands The department creates a seemingly impossible new permitting criteria for renewable energy.

HUGE: The Trump administration will no longer permit any solar or wind projects on federal lands unless they produce more energy-per-acre than coal, gas or nuclear power plants.

Solar and wind literally produce less energy per acre, so simply this may just kill off any project on federal lands.

It's true!

Someone asked me the difference between wikipedia and ChatGPT. I said, "Wikipedia is premised on knowledge being socially produced, so created a process based on transparency and inclusion. ChatGPT capitalizes on knowledge being socially produced, but its process is neither transparent nor inclusive

Be careful out there NYC and Long Island folks!

BOEM Rescinds Designated Wind Energy Areas on the Outer Continental Shelf BOEM announced it is rescinding all designated Wind Energy Areas (WEAs) on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). This action is being taken in accordance with Secretary’s Order (SO) 3437

BOEM is scrapping plans for US offshore wind.

New York becomes first state to commit to all-electric new buildings The state finalized rules ensuring most new edifices will install electric heat pumps and stoves instead of gas appliances, lowering costs and improving…

New York just became the first state in the nation to mandate all electric buildings

Goodbye gas. Hello heat pumps 😎

www.canarymedia.com/articles/car...

Not long ago the tech sector was perceived as the key driver of the energy transition in the US. A new study from the Harvard School of Public Health shows that this is no longer the case: data centers have a carbon intensity 48% higher than the average US electricity user.

EPA aims to revoke ‘endangerment finding’ underpinning power, auto sector climate regs The effort to end greenhouse gas-related rules that address climate change will likely face "significant legal pushback,” according to research firm Capstone.

I saw a presentation from a lawyer recently who thinks the repeal, for the power sector, will hinge on the CAA phase "substantial contribution." He thinks EPA will claim that the US power sector "only" contributes 3% of global GHG emissions ➡️ not substantial, doesn't endanger public health.

I thought this passage from Karl Polyani's "The Great Transformation" (1944) was particularly apt for our time.
"The outstanding discovery of recent historical and anthropological research is that man’s economy, as a rule, is submerged in his social relationships." 1/4

💯

EPA aims to revoke ‘endangerment finding’ underpinning power, auto sector climate regs The effort to end greenhouse gas-related rules that address climate change will likely face "significant legal pushback,” according to research firm Capstone.

I saw a presentation from a lawyer recently who thinks the repeal, for the power sector, will hinge on the CAA phase "substantial contribution." He thinks EPA will claim that the US power sector "only" contributes 3% of global GHG emissions ➡️ not substantial, doesn't endanger public health.

"These interests will be very different in a small hunting or fishing community from those in a vast despotic society, but in either case the economic system will be run on non-economic motives." 4/4

"Neither the process of production nor that of distribution is linked to specific economic interests attached to the possession of goods; but every single step in that process is geared to a number of social interests which eventually ensure that the required step be taken." 3/4

"He does not act so as to safeguard his individual interest in the possession of material goods; he acts so as to safeguard his social standing, his social claims, his social assets. He values material goods only in so far as they serve this end." 2/4

I thought this passage from Karl Polyani's "The Great Transformation" (1944) was particularly apt for our time.
"The outstanding discovery of recent historical and anthropological research is that man’s economy, as a rule, is submerged in his social relationships." 1/4

8.7 magnitude earthquake prompts tsunami alerts in California, Alaska, Hawaii (ABC News) Tsunami alerts were issued for Alaska, Hawaii and the U.S. West Coast on Tuesday after a major, 8.7 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Russia, acco...

#BreakingNews 8.7 magnitude #earthquake prompts #tsunami #alerts in #California, #Alaska, #Hawaii l.smartnews.com/p-5Ur4HZZe/y...

sirens from a truck driving outside warned of an incoming tsunami and I looked at my phone to find this. Waves predicted to hit us on Sagami Bay at 11am. Just pulled our daughter out of summer school by the shore. She'll be home safe in the hills shortly. Take care out there everyone!

#earthquake

Some wild assertions in the EPA's proposed rollback of the endangerment finding:

www.epa.gov/system/files...