Tony Dutzik

Can’t count the number of early 2020s think pieces accusing enviros of being silly for running campaigns against FF infrastructure expansion when one of the things those campaigns did was keep the harms of the thing were transitioning *away from* front of mind for the public.

It’s not coincidental to me that things started going south when it became unfashionable/politically inconvenient to highlight the massive non-climate risks/harms of fossil fuel production and infrastructure.

A wind turbine and a Gulf Coast oil refinery are both “large industrial structures” in the same sense that housecats and lions are both felines. The first can be a problem but is mostly innocuous if properly managed; the other poses a major inherent threat. (Even when including the supply chain.)

Trump reshaped a climate program to extract more oil. This company stands to profit. Occidental Petroleum could benefit from bigger subsidies for using carbon dioxide to squeeze more crude from sputtering wells.

Republicans reshaped the carbon-capture tax credit such that it almost solely benefits companies that are ... drilling for oil.

How much land will a renewable energy system use? Transitioning to clean energy doesn’t have to use more land than our current fossil fuel-based energy system.

Would an energy system built largely around renewables use more land than our current system?

In 2022, we explained that the answer is "probably not." And if we're smart about it, it might even use less. frontiergroup.org/resources/la...

Valet bike parking

Bike route sign

Fun example of biking as a last-mile solution for events — the “park and bike” service at Newport jazz and folk festivals. Well-signed routes, valet parking, free lights and lots and lots of bikes! Thanks, @bikenewportri.bsky.social!

It's pretty funny that energy wonks essentially never discuss the questions about AI data centers that are obvious to normies: Do we need them at this scale? What specific value do they provide to society? Is the juice worth the squeeze? What would we lose by cutting data center buildout by ~75%?

SO 3438 - Managing Federal Energy Resources and Protecting the Environment | U.S. Department of the Interior SO 3438

Comparing land used for producing solar power w/land used for generating power from *already mined fossil fuels* is like comparing the time it takes to earn $100 at work w/the time it takes to get $100 out of an ATM. Farcical. www.doi.gov//document-li...

Oil, gas and coal extraction on federal lands has an very low "density" especially when you compare actual GJ of energy production to leased acreage, and I'm wondering if new leases can now be challenged on land use grounds under this order.

Don't know for sure, but about 1 in 5 deaths in TX is a pedestrian or cyclist. TX and much of the country are characterized by wide, fast arterial roads with lots of signalized crossings and entry/exit points. Plus huge vehicles and minimal bike/ped facilities. Recipe for disaster.

"Dale Earnhardt Sr. wasn’t just a NASCAR legend. He was also known for his love of the outdoors. He hunted on this very land and cherished its quiet, natural beauty. Many in the community feel the proposed project runs directly against that legacy. “He wouldn’t have stood for this,” Kerry said.

Teresa Earnhardt's $30B Business Affair Faces Backlash from Mooresville Natives & Fans After Step Son's Expose Teresa Earnhardt’s $30B data center plan in Mooresville faces backlash from locals and fans after Kerry Earnhardt’s emotional opposition.

This seems important. A lot of Americans will hear about data center development for the first time because of this and it being dropped into the middle of long-running Earnhardt family drama makes it more resonant. www.essentiallysports.com/nascar-news-...

No worries. I was too lazy to do the math ;), so thanks for that.

Yes, they are very different places, but the Texas "streak" of traffic deaths is one of those horrifying facts that you think can't possibly be true until you find out that it is.

Meanwhile, in Texas (different scale, obviously), there has been at least one traffic fatality every single day for the last 24+ years.

Important data drop that I've been waiting for on China's massive solar installations in H1:
🌞 solar power capacity additions doubled year-on-year to 212 gigawatts, with total capacity at the end of H1 increasing a whopping 54% year on year

Eyes On the Street: Somerville Builds Gardens In the Street to Improve Safety While Also Reducing Water Pollution - Streetsblog Massachusetts The new 'green infrastructure' helps calm traffic and improve safety while also absorbing stormwater during rainstorms.

The @cityofsomerville.bsky.social's Spring Hill sewer replacement project provides a great example of how "green infrastructure" can improve safety *and* reduce water pollution *and* do it all while looking fabulous:

mass.streetsblog.org/2025/07/30/e...

NC lawmakers vote to allow Duke Energy to charge customers in advance for new plants The North Carolina General Assembly voted to override Democratic Gov. Josh Stein’s veto of SB 266, which allows Duke Energy to change the way it finances new construction.

North Carolina's legislature has overridden the Governor's veto of this anti-consumer bill. TLDR: More costs on consumers, less risk for Duke Energy. www.newsobserver.com/news/politic...

I am as Abundance(TM)-skeptical as anyone and I think this is great!

Which is a problem with “abundance” discourse - it flattens distinctions b/w no regrets stuff like this and extremely consequential environmental rollbacks.

Description of impacts of data centers on rivers, streams and wetlands.

Local environmental/public health impacts of data centers don't get as much attention as energy impacts, but they are real and happening across the country.

www.wired.com/story/big-te...

Red Tape and Rooftop Solar: How instant permitting can help more Illinois families go solar faster Instant online permitting for solar – now in use in more than 270 jurisdictions across 13 states – can reduce these permitting delays, making it faster, easier and cheaper to install solar panels.

Links to their reports drawn from interviews in Illinois and Texas.
(IL) frontiergroup.org/resources/re...
(TX) frontiergroup.org/resources/re...

Can cutting rooftop solar costs make up for losing tax credits? Slow and complex permitting and interconnection rules drive up U.S. rooftop solar “soft” costs. With tax credits going away, fixing them may be…

Streamlining residential solar permitting isn't a panacea but is a good idea. My colleagues @frontiereliz.bsky.social and James Horrox conducted many interviews last year with solar installers about the ways permitting hurdles make solar slower & more expensive.

www.canarymedia.com/articles/sol...

Post See new posts Conversation Michael Thomas @curious_founder · Jul 11 Every city and state in America should set a moonshot goal of making rooftop solar half the cost that it is today. It's an ambitious goal, but Australia has proven it's possible. In the US it costs $3 per watt to build rooftop solar. In Australia it costs $1 per watt. 🧵 Michael Thomas @curious_founder · Jul 11 Saul Griffith told me, "Australian rooftop solar is the cheapest retail energy ever provided to consumers in human history." So what did Australia do? They made it dead simple to put solar panels on your roof and eliminated much of the bureaucracy that adds soft costs. Michael Thomas @curious_founder · Jul 11 In America it can take months to get a permit to put solar on your roof. In Australia, you go on an app and have your permit within 24 hours. Every city in America could do this. Michael Thomas @curious_founder In America, we let utilities make it complicated and slow to connect your panels to the grid. In Australia, they simplified the interconnection process. Every state in America could pass laws to force utilities to simplify the interconnection process.

Genuinely ultra-weird to leave out the extensive, generous and hotly debated (and defended) subsidies for rooftop solar in Australia

www.energy.gov.au/solar/financ...

xcancel.com/curious_foun...

US and China Are Diverging on Strategies to Power the AI Boom Washington’s plans for feeding data centers rely on fossil fuels, while Beijing sees a cleaner path.

"Earlier this month, Beijing issued rules requiring new data centers to rely on clean energy for at least 80% of their electricity consumption."

My big fear for the moment is that those seeking a clean energy movement liberated from environmentalism are going to find themselves with a version of environmentalism uncommitted to clean energy - an avoidable and catastrophic division at a time when the status quo has the upper hand.

Ending the stupid technology innovation vs. deployment fight once and for all Should we develop new clean energy technology or deploy the tech we already have? Both, obviously. So why are we still arguing about it?

This line of argument is especially ironic given that it was environmentalists and climate advocates who were firmly on "team deployment" during the daffy "innovation vs. deployment" debates of the early 2010s. grist.org/climate-ener...

Not sure if this is a lack of clarity or ahistoricism here, but the environmental and climate movements have pushed mass deployment of clean energy (a.k.a. "building stuff") for decades & the modern clean energy industry wouldn't exist without their efforts.
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/25/o...

😎

Re 2) and 3): I agree totally. I also see YIMBYs defending, e.g., supertalls, for which embodied carbon is a legit issue.

1) No net growth - yet - but the pace of retirements is slowing, rules that would have led to a wave of new retirements in a few years are being wiped out, air pollution regs are being gutted and the current admin is doing everything it can to prop up the industry.

* I also think YIMBYs/urbanists have been too dismissive of embodied carbon as a concern. There are forms of urban development that are objectively Not Good climate-wise, even if most of the urbanist agenda is at least Good and can be Very Good with thought and careful planning.