Sarah T. Fischell

“When you make room for the sadness, carefully. When you feel it, let it move, get back to work.” - Dr. Beth Sawin

Why Does the U.S. Always Run a Trade Deficit? - Liberty Street Economics Persistent shortfalls in domestic savings, requiring funds from abroad to finance domestic investment spending, could be why the U.S. runs a trade deficit.

P.S. Here’s another slightly less wonky explanation. (At least the 1st paragraph is less wonky…if you read it a few times.) 3/2 libertystreeteconomics.newyorkfed.org/2025/05/why-...

The origins of the US trade deficit and the futility of tariffs The most persistent driver of America's unsustainably large trade deficit is foreign investment in the United States, not other countries' trade barriers. If President Donald Trump manages to shrink t...

Below is a v useful explainer from a v credible source (w links to more scholarly work).

These tariffs are futile. And, alongside other idiotic policies, we will end up w a society that is poorer and dirtier. 😖 2/2

www.piie.com/blogs/realti...

Usually I’m all abt having convos abt climate. 🔌💡

But rn I hope you can have econ convos w the regular people in ur life.

Specifically:

“The most persistent driver of America's unsustainably large trade deficit is foreign investment in the United States, not other countries' trade barriers.” 1/

still thinking about the Montana knife maker who said you don't have to worry about tariffs if you buy american. and then three months later, he realized he imports swedish steel and german equipment. and even MiUSA equipment costs $100k more now because of tariffs

FWIW I think your description is inaccurate. Sorry.

Also it’s not v helpful.

People who have big audiences have a difficult time managing them. So it’s easy to get blocked. I wouldn’t take it personally. Just listen to his podcast. 👍

Great idea.

July Electrification update: My home now has 2 heat pumps, so it's confusing to call this a heat pump update, hence the new header. As a climate scientist, I want to show we can reduce emissions & so I've been electrifying my home in NE Ohio. Here's my monthly update as a long 🧵. 🧪🔌💡☀️💨🌊🔋

You bet!

Great thread. And great data.

I hope u can find ways to talk about your experiences in your local community. Education about home electrification is a long, slow journey - at least it is where I live.

Thanks.

Make Electricity Cheap Again, Part 2. The second best way to make electricity cheaper after making rooftop solar cheap and using lots of it, is to make the distribution costs lower by delivering more electricity over the same wires.

🔌💡 Part II of Saul Griffith's "how to make electricity cheap": make better use of existing distribution wires.

Chart showing new investments and disinvestments (slowed, cancelled, paused, or closed) projects since 2020. Investments boomed during Biden administration. Since Trump took office, there is a big uptick in slowed projects.

How big is the slow down in US clean energy manufacturing investments?

We are tracking 34 projects, $31.3B in investment and 27,949 jobs that have slowed since Trump took office.

Key points from our 6-month report below highlight some surprising trends in what is advancing v slowing.

🧪🔌💡☀️💨🔋

Robot dogs help run 'world’s first' unmanned wind farm Robot dogs working in tandem with drones and other smart technology have meant humans have not set foot in pioneering wind farm for almost a year

Drones etc have become ever more common in projects often before construction even begins.

But 'humans have not set foot in pioneering wind farm for almost a year' is still impressive 🫡🤖🐕

Making America poorer and dirtier one policy at a time 😫

I hope ur right.

Love this. #wind 🔌💡

Motherfucking wind farms…

Argh…I misread “greedhead” as “greenhead.” Now I get it. Sorry for the trouble.

And yes! The price drops have been delightfully hard to track.

#NewWord “greenhead”. (I’m gonna have to decipher this later. Aussi politics eludes me.)

Project 2025 is gutting medical funding that helped Russell Vought's own kid Its architect's daughter has cystic fibrosis—and benefits from a "miracle drug" backed by an agency he's attacking.

Russell Vought claimed on CNN this weekend that NIH funding is corrupt. A reminder, his family has directly benefited from the NIH.

Today #NIH leadership were told no funds can go out for research project grants, R&D contracts or training grants.

We have just a couple weeks to get funds out the door before Russel Vought attempts a #PocketRescission on Aug 15.

Even if this ends up being temporary, it’s time we don’t have.

For #ClimateAction, please pass this along to friends. #CCL2025 #Grassrootsclimate #ActOnClimate #CleanEnergy #LeadOnClimate #Solar #Wind

Young Ohio scientist: Trump slamming door on my dreams of making the world better |Opinion President Donald Trump and his administration are crushing my dream as they work deliberately to destroy the American scientific community.

My Ph.D. student, Tricia Hall Collins, published the following OpEd in her hometown newspaper, The Columbus Dispatch. Consider giving it a read. 🧪
www.dispatch.com/story/opinio...

Acciona Energía brings online 162MW biggest solar plant in the Caribbean Spanish renewables developer Acciona Energía has powered a 162.6MWp solar PV plant in the Dominican Republic.

Good morning with good news: The Caribbean's largest solar plant (163 MW) is now operating in the Dominican Republic. DR also is constructing a 63.4 MW plant.

DR April Solar Share:
2025: 9.9%
2024: 6%
2023: 4.9%

Solar is booming globally. Wonderful!
www.pv-tech.org/acciona-ener... #energysky

Not sure what your first question means. CCL Lobby Day was Tuesday...and the House went out of session on Wednesday morning. Which was pretty lucky. Wrt were we able to get meetings: Yes.

Photo of 850+ volunteer lobbyists from Citizens' Climate Lobby standing on the steps of the Capitol on a beautiful summer morning with an American flag and the Capitol dome in the background.

Photo of Citizens' Climate volunteers outside the office of Senator Kim, NJ, with staff members.

Photo of Citizens' Climate volunteers standing outside the office of Senator Booker, NJ, with staff.

At a time when our democracy is at risk, I volunteer for an organization whose slogan is "Our solution to climate change? Democracy."

So when the going gets tough, the tough go to Capitol Hill and remind Congress that it's their job to fight the climate crisis. @cclusa.org #GrassrootsClimate

One of my nicknames is "the queen of reheating". When you need to order in*, pay attention to re-heating the food! 350F oven is usually the key. Then the food is at least adequate.

*Reasons for DoorDash at my house: we didn't plan ahead, or young kids r in-the-mix, or it's a BIG group.

This column on U.S. concentration camps is the one I hoped I’d never write | Will Bunch Andrea Pitzer literally wrote the book on concentration camps. I talked to her about how they came to America.

Growing up after WWII, I always hoped concentration camps were history, not current events. But here we are, with thousands of migrants in squalid conditions, no due process, and $45B in new camps to come

Coming to terms with an American nightmare. My new column www.inquirer.com/opinion/us-c...

#energysky I think it's important for journalists to cover the ongoing assault on climate policy by the administration. But it's also important to report on the climate tech companies still thriving and doing great things - and the states elevating their policy games in response. 1/2

A. It was George W. Bush's Republican EPA Secretary Christine Todd Whitman who first declared CO2 a pollutant to be regulated under the Clean Air Act.
B. Lee Zeldin parrots discredited fossil fuel industry climate denier talking points: granthaminstitute.com/2015/10/19/c...