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Michael Thomas

@michael-thomas.bsky.social

I write stories and make videos about climate change. Subscribe to the Distilled newsletter and YouTube channel here: http://linktr.ee/distilled.earth

4,504 Followers  |  185 Following  |  408 Posts  |  Joined: 27.10.2023  |  2.0919

Latest posts by michael-thomas.bsky.social on Bluesky

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The Senate is about to destroy clean energy to give tax cuts to billionaires The bill could pass within the next 24 hours.

Wanted to help amplify this post from @michael-thomas.bsky.social to my small group of followers. The fate of life on Earth is quite literally at stake. open.substack.com/pub/heated/p...

29.06.2025 20:21 β€” πŸ‘ 25    πŸ” 14    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 1
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URGENT: The Latest Senate Bill Is Worse Than Climate Advocates Thought Possible The bill could pass the Senate in the next 24 hours

I just published a story with @emorwee.bsky.social about the latest Senate bill.

The bill is much worse than climate advocates thought possible.

The window to stop it is rapidly closing. But to do that climate advocates need to speak up.

www.distilled.earth/p/urgent-the...

29.06.2025 20:39 β€” πŸ‘ 65    πŸ” 40    πŸ’¬ 3    πŸ“Œ 2
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The Senate is about to destroy clean energy to give tax cuts to billionaires The bill could pass within the next 24 hours.

It’s so important to understand WHY the new Senate bill has such drastic provisions to kill renewable energy

Fossil fuel industry lobbyists and Big Oil-funded activists have been ALL OVER the GOP in recent weeks, telling them that clean energy jobs are β€œfentanyl jobs” and β€œa cancer”

29.06.2025 19:58 β€” πŸ‘ 671    πŸ” 364    πŸ’¬ 22    πŸ“Œ 24

Yesterday the House voted to end this economic boom with the passage of their "Big Beautiful Bill Act." Now the bill heads to the Senate.

Time to make some calls to these Senators and convince them to keep the economic boom going.

23.05.2025 15:57 β€” πŸ‘ 5    πŸ” 2    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

These clean energy projects have created huge demand for factories making solar panels, wind turbine components, and batteries.

The vast majority of these factories have been built in red states and districts. They have created hundreds of thousands of jobs and brought billions in investment.

23.05.2025 15:57 β€” πŸ‘ 4    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

This clean energy is cleaning up our air and mitigating climate change. But it's also powering an economic boom in America.

The clean energy tax credits that Congress is attempting to repeal require that companies build US supply chains.

23.05.2025 15:57 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

Since the Inflation Reduction Act passed, 43 GW of clean energy has been built in state's led by Republican Senators.

To put that number in context, that's enough to power millions of homes every year with cheap, carbon-free electricity.

23.05.2025 15:57 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
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In the coming weeks, the Senate will decide the fate of clean energy in America.

So I decided to crunch some numbers and see how much solar, wind, and storage capacity has been built in each Senators' state.

23.05.2025 15:57 β€” πŸ‘ 18    πŸ” 10    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 2

Thanks for sharing but also 😭😭😭 because you're probably right.

19.05.2025 17:51 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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This week, Republicans released their budget bill that aims to repeal the Inflation Reduction Act.

I analyzed every clean energy project that has been built since the IRA passedβ€”3,570 in all.

The proposed budget bill would hurt Republican districts the most.

www.distilled.earth/p/the-republ...

14.05.2025 15:29 β€” πŸ‘ 14    πŸ” 8    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 1
Cleanview

You can explore the interactive data on solar imports by country here: cleanview.co/content/sola...

07.04.2025 17:40 β€” πŸ‘ 10    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

The domestic solar manufacturing industry was booming thanks to the IRA. But now factories will almost certainly be delayed and domestic products will get more expensive.

It will take years to rebuild these supply chains. And in the meantime, we'll all be paying the price.

07.04.2025 17:40 β€” πŸ‘ 20    πŸ” 5    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

Tariffs are going to hurt domestic manufacturers in the short term.

US manufacturers rely on a global supply chain to source everything from the solar cells that go into solar panels to the steel that goes into their factories.

07.04.2025 17:40 β€” πŸ‘ 6    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
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93% of solar panel imports came from just 6 countries in 2024. These countries have some of the highest tariffs going forward.

07.04.2025 17:40 β€” πŸ‘ 5    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

But factories can’t be built overnight.

Solar panel demand still outstrips domestic supply. That means developers will still need to import panels in the short term.

The result is going to be higher electricity costs for American consumers and businesses.

07.04.2025 17:40 β€” πŸ‘ 5    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

Tariffs are going to make it more expensive to build solar. And that is going to make electricity more expensive for everyone.

The US solar supply chain has been growing since the passage of the IRA which offered big incentives to make solar panels and cells in the US.

07.04.2025 17:40 β€” πŸ‘ 8    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
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How are tariffs going to impact the solar market in the US?

At Cleanview we just published a new dataset and dashboard to help folks understand the potential impact of the latest tariffs.

Here are a few takeaways from the data:

cleanview.co/content/sola...

07.04.2025 17:40 β€” πŸ‘ 37    πŸ” 12    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
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Cleanview Data Engineer (Contract) Job Description About Cleanview Cleanview is a market intelligence platform that makes it easy for investors, business development teams, and clean energy professionals to track renewable energy projects and trends. ...

🌎 Climate tech job alert 🌎

I'm hiring a Data Engineer at @CleanviewEnergy
to build data pipelines that will power our clean energy intelligence platform.

If you know anyone who loves working with clean energy data, please send them my way.

docs.google.com/document/d/1...

02.04.2025 17:24 β€” πŸ‘ 10    πŸ” 5    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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We're tracking hundreds of planned clean energy projects and 400+ developer pipelines at Cleanview.

More on our clean energy project tracker here: cleanview.co

06.03.2025 14:57 β€” πŸ‘ 6    πŸ” 2    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Texas will add more battery storage capacity in 2025 than any other state.

Developers plan to build 7 GW of new capacityβ€”as much as the entire US built in 2023.

06.03.2025 14:57 β€” πŸ‘ 17    πŸ” 2    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 2
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America's Grid Battery Boom is Just Getting Started 2024 was a record-breaking year for grid batteries in the US. This year developers plan to build even more storage capacity.

More data and battery storage trends in today's
Cleanview newsletter: newsletter.cleanview.co/p/americas-g...

05.03.2025 17:19 β€” πŸ‘ 7    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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One of the most overlooked energy stories of 2024:

Battery storage grew 65% last year, with the U.S. adding 10.9 GW of new capacity. And growth is acceleratingβ€”we're on track for 18.1 GW in 2025, a 68% increase.

Just 5 years ago, this technology was considered experimental.

05.03.2025 17:19 β€” πŸ‘ 47    πŸ” 9    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 1

What happens to the IRA will arguably be the most important climate and clean energy policy over the next 4 years.

19.02.2025 16:27 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Where things go from here, depends largely on the fate of the IRA. Some members of Congress are pushing for its full repeal. Others, including many in the South, are fighting for its survival.

19.02.2025 16:27 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

MA had 6x more solar capacity than TN.

But the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA)β€”the biggest climate bill in US historyβ€”has dramatically changed this trend.

Over the last couple years, solar adoption in the South has exploded thanks to strong federal policy support.

19.02.2025 16:27 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

The South obviously has a lot of sun. And yet, it has been the slowest to adopt solarβ€”largely due to restrictive policy from a party that has been bought by the fossil fuel industry.

Tennessee and Massachusetts have roughly the same population. But as of 2020...

19.02.2025 16:27 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
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One of the most promising clean energy trends over the last year has been the growth of solar in Republican states in the South.

- AR added 943 MW of capacity (99% vs. 2023).
- MS added 794 MW of capacity (647% vs. 2023).
- LA added 726 MW of capacity (230% vs. 2023).

cleanview.co/annual-repor...

19.02.2025 16:26 β€” πŸ‘ 15    πŸ” 3    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
Cleanview

The data above comes from a recent report I wrote for my company Cleanview.

You can check it out here: cleanview.co/annual-repor...

17.02.2025 16:24 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Texas is going to build a massive amount of solar this year.

It's worth noting that 80% of the capacity (~9 GW) in the chart below is already under construction and therefore protected against Trump's recent orders.

17.02.2025 16:23 β€” πŸ‘ 17    πŸ” 3    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
Cleanview

You can read my full report below.

You can also read coverage of the report in the The Guardian and Canary Media.

If you're a reporter and want to chat about the report, send me a DM or a press inquiry using the link below.

cleanview.co/annual-repor...

12.02.2025 16:09 β€” πŸ‘ 8    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

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