Shelley Robbins

The NCUC has approved a second giant gas plant in Person County without having a solid grasp on either load growth or the real cost of the plant and the pipeline projects that will serve it. Get out your wallets, folks.

BREAKING NEWS: The North Carolina Utilities Commission approved a second mammoth Duke Energy gas plant based on speculative load forecasts across the street from Woodland Elementary School in Person County — exposing customers to significant rate increases and expensive gas costs 🔌💡

Southeast utilities are signing gas capacity contracts that will burden customers for decades “Adding even one more dekatherm of gas commitment to the Southeast is senseless,” writes SACE senior decarbonization manager Shelley Hudson Robbins.

Would regulators encourage utilities to contract for firm transportation on gas pipeline expansions if they knew it would total a quarter of the price tag of a new gas plant? Using NPV helps daylight the true cost to ratepayers and creates a more honest comparison to the cost of clean energy.

Federal Agency Deletes Website Page On Durham's Pauli Murray; Censors Other References to Queer History Numerous National Park Service websites have been censored in recent weeks in response to an executive order.

NEW from @eddysarah.bsky.social and @indyweek.bsky.social:

The National Park Service has deleted a page on Durham's Pauli Murray, part of a federal sweep of NPS content related to LGBTQ+ history.

indyweek.com/culture/fede...

Today’s 50501 sit-in at the NC Capitol Building. My second protest in 3 weeks. Probably not my last.

This is a geologic fold along the Tennessee River near Knoxville. Perhaps we are in a political fold. I just hope I make it to the other side.

Thanks, Foundations, but 6% or Even 10% Payout is Not Enough Hi everyone, I hope you’re doing OK during this time of Fascist Extremist Assholes Reign (FEAR). If you’re free this...

“debating whether a payout rate should increase to 6% or 10% is entirely missing the discussion we should be having: What does it take to halt and reverse the US’ (and the world’s) rapid descent into fascism?”

Gas pipeline companies are expanding their pipelines across the Southeast. But are we paying for infrastructure that ultimately serves to increase these companies’ ability to export gas to foreign countries, thus increasing our electric bills? Find out: ow.ly/ujIO50V5ygz 🔌💡

Trumpflation. 🙄 Let’s raise the price of houses, cars, gas, and eggs. What a stable genius.

She’s amazing. And she’s Texas!

Thanks Kaye! I have signed up for 50501 thanks to you, and I’m going to a sit-in in Raleigh.

Make America Stupid Again

Pollution from Big Tech’s data centre boom costs US public health $5.4bn Research suggests the price of treating illnesses related to building of computing infrastructure in the US is on the rise

Google, Microsoft, and Meta's increasing use of data centers has resulted in increased air pollution from extensive fossil fuel energy consumption and associated public health costs related to treating cancers, asthma, and other similar issues, valued at over $5.4 billion in the past five years.

SACE has created a Fossil Gas Resource Hub for communities fighting the dirty and expensive gas buildout. We hope it’s helpful.

This is SUCH an informative podcast. I wish every Southeastern regulator and public staffer would give it a listen.

The data center boom: ‘all the cheap power is gone’ Podcast Episode · Open Circuit · 02/21/2025 · 1h 1m

It’s all $100/MWh. Every solution to meet concentrated data center load. Once we all agree than we can compare solutions at scale against each other to meet 25,000 MWs of concentrated load needed by 2030 across the country.

This final note — on democracy and this economy - Marketplace This final note on the way out today … … about what’s happening in … … and to … … this economy right now … … an economy that I’m obliged to remind you … … affects everyone. A lot of what happens in Am...

www.marketplace.org/2025/02/13/t...

Region 4 isn’t going to do a damn thing. They completely abdicated their authority last week on the unbelievably effed-up Ridgeline (Kingston) pipeline. It’s up to the county.

That was a rumor until now. Good to have it backed up.

Southeastern Ratepayers Are Building a Gas Highway to Export - SACE | Southern Alliance for Clean Energy Utility load growth projections have dramatically increased for the coming years, based primarily on growth in data center development and the onshoring of U.S. manufacturing. Utilities are using this...

Fresh, hot paper drop (mine!). Yet another reason to slow our roll on the gas buildout.

No Tesla. Ever. I’d love to see the I.D. 3 in the US.

North Carolina’s Climate Activists Brace for Trump’s Return - Inside Climate News Gaslighting: Fifth in a series about opposition to a wave of new natural gas pipelines, power plants and storage facilities on the drawing board in North Carolina. Listen to an audio version of this s...

Here’s Lisa Sorg @lisasorg.bsky.social being brilliant again. Thank you, Lisa, for telling our stories so beautifully.

It feels like all that was good and decent is gone now.

He’s all in.

I have been following this project for a couple of years. It’s very much a win-win in many locations.

How an Unlikely Coalition of Climate Activists and a Gas Utility Are Weaning a Boston Suburb Off Fossil Fuels - Inside Climate News Underground pipes and wells tap geothermal energy to heat and cool a neighborhood. Next stop, the world.

A climate solution story if ever there was one: Building a geothermal heating system in Framingham, Mass. insideclimatenews.org/news/2112202...

Stunning arrangement.

As the Clock Ticks to Act on the Climate Crisis, N.C. Activists Target a ‘Carbon Plan’ - Inside Climate News Duke Energy’s fossil fuel buildout comes with a roadmap for increased carbon dioxide emissions that will blow past a previously set 2030 deadline for reductions. While regulators have approved, the cl...

Another FABULOUS story by @lisasorg.bsky.social in her Gaslighting series about the dangerous gas buildout in North Carolina. #DukeEnergy #methane #methaneisthegunslinger

As was foretold. Here is Fred Pearce’s With Speed and Violence unfolding. There’s a line in that book, “Methane is the gunslinger,” that struck me so deeply in 2009 that I had a custom t-shirt made with that line on it. I still have it.