Frances Sawyer

There are like 3 of us and everyone yells at us but I'm gonna keep saying it: data centers are the test case and opportunity to get this shit right.

Massive Bay Area transit cuts likely as Newsom backtracks on $750M loan, lawmakers warn Bay Area lawmakers and transit advocates say Gov. Gavin Newsom’s reneging on a critical $750 million loan will have devastating consequences for BART, Muni and other agencies in the region.

www.sfchronicle.com/politics/art...

Muni is the best way home from the playoff-bound @wgoldenstate.bsky.social’s game — let’s get it together Sacramento. Fund Bay Area transit. www.sfchronicle.com/politics/art...

Pennsylvania Legislative District Transit Briefs - Climate Cabinet Education Pennsylvania Legislative District Transit Briefs These district-specific briefs show the need for increased and sustained investment in transit services across Pennsylvania. These briefs highlight the...

At @climateaf.bsky.social we combine best in class data science with on the ground insight to create useful info for policymakers and advocates.

I'm very proud to showcase another example today with bespoke critical transit data fact sheets for every state legislative district in Pennsylvania.

Melissa Hortman, who was assassinated last night, was the Speaker of the Minnesota House in the 2023-2024 session, when Democrats ran the state government.

That means she had a leading role in shepherding the many landmark reforms that Dems adopted in that period—an important legacy. Brief 🧵.

The White House is clearly scared of the power states have to build the clean energy economy and is resorting to blatantly unconstitutional tactics. The Trump administration is hoping that pro-climate state governments back down in fear. How should states respond? Simple. Ramp up instead. 🧵

The LA Times found that 80% of LA County voters say they want stricter building codes to prevent wildfires and are willing to pay more to prevent devastation.

But state leaders are going in the opposite direction.

Labor, community, and industry coalitions are forming around decarbonization across the country, and we love to see it. The common ingredients in these burgeoning partnerships are labor and local community leadership, regional collaboration, and big ambition.

This only affirms my long held belief that quinces deserve more love.

Aw, not nice

"We will not win quickly or decisively or all at once. But the only way we lose is if we stop. In every state, at every level, from wherever we each stand: keep going."

Beautifully said, Dave! What a decade! So excited for these next steps!

Part of Joe Biden’s huge ‘Inflation Reduction Act’ policy is an incentive for CCS on power stations, something which policy experts Emily Grubert and Frances Sawyer argue could very well end up actively incentivising an increase in emissions, because the tax credit “incentivizes facilities to run more, with attendant increases in fuel extraction and related impacts that CCS does not mitigate”, it’ll incentivise coal to over-generate much more than gas, and it’ll encourage fossil power plant owners to extend the lifespans of those power stations instead of shutting them down. What a mess.

CCS advocates have been calling for policy support for years now + they finally got it

@gruberte.bsky.social @francessawyer.bsky.social new piece lays out the high chance the US' IRA CCS incentive could end up incentivising (!!) a rise in emissions (`!~@#$!$!)

iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1...

"The bill would require electricity providers to go through a complex, time-consuming series of hearings to get permission from state regulators to close fossil fuel generators."

Run down of bills forcing PUCs to keep coal alive:

www.sierraclub.org/sierra/2023-...

Earlier this year I (with Frances Sawyer) published a paper suggesting the 45Q CCS tax credit is structured in a way that could incentivize huge costs + increased GHG emissions from the US power sector.
DOE rebutted it, and we were allowed to reply. Those pieces are up today: