Evan Halper

Why Trump’s social media and crypto company is merging with a developer of fusion power The parent of Truth Social will combine with TAE Technologies with the aim of bringing fusion power plants online quickly.

Trump's social media / fintech / streaming / prediction market company, which lost $400 million last year, is getting into the fusion power business. Don Jr., not known for his experience in nuclear energy, will get a board seat.

www.washingtonpost.com/business/202... @evanhalper.bsky.social

Rick Perry’s AI plan: A colossal nuclear campus in Trump’s image Rick Perry’s sprawling proposal for four nuclear reactors and 18 million square feet of datacenter buildings near Amarillo aims to “Make America Nuclear Again.”

SCOOP: Rick Perry-led group files plan with NRC to build world’s largest data center campus, including 4 new AP1000 nuclear reactors near Amarillo. With perhaps a dose of flattery. The placeholder name in the filing? Donald. J. Trump Advanced Energy and Intelligence Campus. wapo.st/4458IEB

California draws ire as out-of-state factory farms turn pig poop into cash A state climate program helps Smithfield Foods and others profit from animal waste. Scientists and neighbors say the deal stinks.

California is subsidizing Smithfield's pig farms under the pretense of cutting climate emissions. But these "carbon credits" are cloaked in secrecy & are making life miserable for neighbors. Terrific reporting by @evanhalper.bsky.social @samueloakford.bsky.social

Gift link:
wapo.st/4jiFvem

California draws ire as out-of-state factory farms turn pig poop into cash Smithfield Foods operates hog farms that create large amounts of methane, a dangerous greenhouse gas. Here’s how California subsidies reward Smithfield for its own pollution.

California asks drivers to pay for methane offsets at factory farms. While the climate benefits are often illusory, the impacts on people and places are anything but.

Please take a moment to read this deeply reported story from @evanhalper.bsky.social.

California can do better.

(gift link)

The dead pigs in this truck we witnessed at one of the Missouri factory farms subsidized by California’s climate program didn’t survive in cramped captivity long enough to make it to the slaughterhouse. @washingtonpost.com

Smithfield has no CAFOs in California, where they could run afoul of strict enviro and animal rights laws. It has attacked the states anti-animal abuse rules. But its far away CAFOs can nonetheless milk one of the state’s biggest environmental subsidies.

“This should be embarrassing for the state of California,” said Scott Dye, whose farm sits near hog barns in Missouri operated by Smithfield. “It is rewarding companies that have a decades-long record of creating havoc on the environment here.”

California draws ire as out-of-state factory farms turn pig poop into cash Smithfield Foods operates hog farms that create large amounts of methane, a dangerous greenhouse gas. Here’s how California subsidies reward Smithfield for its own pollution.

Smithfield Foods was drowning in pig manure. How a Calif program turned the problem into a cash cow — generating millions for climate gains many scientists say are dubious. Welcome to the opaque, secretive world of factory farm carbon credits. wapo.st/42k8OXX