Kristina Costa

Having snowball fights in Dupont Circle. Literally.

There's a certain category of commentator who wants to advocate for ignoring climate change who thinks "but what about the eventual heat death of the universe" is some kind of argumentative trump card and it's embarrassing every time.

This is next level, though.

Passed a group of four Guardsmen having a literal snowball fight. Their deployment in DC was always absurd and unjustified but come on, folks.

In 2025, more than 10,000 STEM PhDs quit or were fired from federal jobs. That's 14% of the federal STEM PhD workforce, and 17% of STEM PhDs at 14 critical agencies. A huge loss of expertise and institutional memory, representing more than 106,000 person-years of experience.

Back in DC for the week just in time for the most snow we've had in a decade. Since the National Guard is still here loitering around metro stations looking bored, seems to me the least they could do is get some shovels in hand and help dig out.

22GW of renewables thwarted or in limbo under Trump ‘blockade’ An Interior Department memo is hampering wind and solar on public lands. It’s one of many federal actions slowing the build-out of cheap, clean energy.

Great story by @mariagallucci.bsky.social on how Trump forcing all Department of Interior reviews of clean energy projects to get personal approval from DOI Secretary Doug Burgum has stifled 22GW of development in the midst of an energy crisis:
www.canarymedia.com/articles/cle...
#energysky

Going to be hard to provide real assurances while the administration is trying to illegally cancel hundreds of obligated contracts, literally rob a bank to claw back disbursed funds from the financial agent for the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, and is defending those attempts in multiple courts.

National security concerns raised by the Pentagon during the leasing and planning of offshore wind projects south of New England were also fully mitigated, because that’s part of what the much maligned NEPA process does: Balances legitimate competing uses for America’s public lands and waters.

10. In other words, in 2012 new production benefited domestic producers AND consumers. But today, new production only benefits producers. That's a fundamentally different policy and political environment. And note also that domestic consumption is basically flat for the last 20 yrs.

Batteries now cheap enough to make dispatchable solar economically feasible Energy think tank Ember says utility-scale battery costs have fallen to $65/MWh outside China and the United States, enabling solar power to be delivered when needed.

This is incredible (good news too): “After a 40% fall in 2024 in battery equipment costs, it’s clear we’re on track for another major fall in 2025…The economics for batteries are unrecognizable, & the industry is only just getting to grips with this new paradigm”
www.pv-magazine.com/2025/12/12/b...

In March, I was on an "Abundance" panel where I said that if Congressional Republicans repealed IRA credits for building clean energy at a time of skyrocketing demand, they were going to own the blame for rising energy bills. I think some people thought I was engaging in motivated reasoning. Welp!

We won’t have all the data for awhile yet but I’m predicting the 30C Alternative Fuel Refueling Credit is going to do way more to expand EV charging nationwide than any other program. (And could have done even more if not for arbitrary geographic restrictions imposed by Congress.)

Built to Last: Creating Climate Resilient Communities In the lead-up to COP30, Kristina Costa, Jennifer Uchendu, Kobi Weinberg, and Elizabeth Andrews discuss global lessons in urban climate resilience and Chicago's potential as a climate refuge.

TODAY: Tune in at 5:30 p.m. CT to hear @slashklc.bsky.social, Susty Vibes's @dzennypha.bsky.social, Creo's Kobi Weinberg, and mHUB's Elizabeth Andrews discuss global lessons in urban climate resilience and Chicago's potential as a climate refuge. 📺⤵️ brnw.ch/21wXgh1

It’s almost as though these competitively awarded grants in a highly oversubscribed program were selected on the basis of merit and need, not politics or ideology. But that was in the olden times of (checks watch) less than a year ago.

Programmatic review provides a faster permitting process, so this change will result in unnecessary delays for bringing new generation online.

In the Biden admin, responsibly expanding programmatic reviews was among many unsung reforms that brought federal permit times down by ~25% from 2022-2024.

Another day, another packet of evidence that the energy policy of this administration is a world-historic self-own that will leave the U.S. poorer and less competitive in a rapidly changing global economy.

Two more examples for you: Hillary did a 3-day Appalachia tour during the primary, meeting with voters on energy, jobs, health care, substance abuse. Biden had a massive effort to help fossil communities attract investment. Idea that either wrote off large swathes of “red” America is so frustrating.

Senate environment Dems have held several such hearings, starting around March of this year IIRC, including on the illegal efforts to freeze competitively awarded, contracted federal funds.

Greenhouse Gas Reductions Driven by Vehicle Electrification across Powertrains, Classes, Locations, and Use Patterns We assess the cradle-to-grave greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of current (2025) light-duty vehicles (LDV) across powertrains, vehicle classes, and locations. We create driver archetypes (commuters, occasional long-distance travelers, contractors), simulate different use patterns (drive cycles, utility factors, cargo loads) and characterize GHG emissions using an attributional approach. Driven by grid decarbonization and improved electric vehicle efficiency, we are first to report electric vehicles have lower GHG emissions than gasoline vehicles in every county across the contiguous United States. On average, a 300-mile range battery electric vehicle (BEV) has emissions which are 31–36% lower than a 50-mile range plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV), 63–65% lower than a hybrid electric vehicle (HEV), and 71–73% lower than an internal combustion engine vehicle (ICEV). Downsizing also reduces emissions, with a compact ICEV having 34% lower emissions than an ICEV pickup. We present the first evaluation of LDV emissions while hauling cargo, showing that carrying 2500 lbs. in a pickup increases BEV emissions by 13% (134 to 152 g CO2e/mile) compared to 22% (486 to 592 g CO2e/mile) for an ICEV. Emissions maps and vehicle powertrain/class matrices highlight the interplay between vehicle classes, powertrains, locations, and use patterns, and provide insights for consumers, manufacturers, and policymakers.

🚗⚡ EVs win everywhere

A new study shows that in every US county, electric vehicles now emit less greenhouse gas than petrol cars, no matter how you drive them.

🔗 pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

#SciComm #EVs #ClimateAction 🧪

Their antipathy appears limited to the technologies that pose a near-term threat to an unnecessary gas expansion. Existing hydro has mostly already been uprated. SMR, conventional nuke, new hydro, marine kinetic energy sources will all take years to develop. Wind, solar, storage — not so much.

Solar executives warn that Trump attack on renewables will lead to power crunch that spikes electricity prices Renewable power executives say difficulty getting permits, rising costs due to tariffs and the end of key tax credits are making it tough to plan.

Solar executives warn that Trump attack on renewables will lead to power crunch that spikes electricity prices — via @cnbc.com www.cnbc.com/2025/08/24/s...

Forty Acres and a Sense of Hope Sunshine on a Cloudy Week

Wow: “If you grow an acre of corn, it will produce 900 gallons of ethanol, which will get you about 25,000 miles for a Ford F-150...which is, not bad I guess. But let’s say we put solar on that same acre. It will produce enough electricity every year to drive my Lightning 550,000 miles.”

Highlighting synchronous compensators is good; unfortunately Bloomberg is again repeating the fallacy that the precipitating event of the Spain blackout was solar failing. Thermal generators went down first, and then Spain’s grid regs (which can also be revised!) took solar offline as a precaution.

Link to the guidance for those who want to start their weekend with wonkery: aboutblaw.com/bjeL /🧵

In short, we've once again got further headwinds for clean energy developers, with smaller and tax-exempt players hurt the most, at a time when electricity prices are rising nationwide and we should be deploying all the solar, wind, and storage we can get. 7/

The differentiation between 'commence construction' for wind and solar vs other 48E/45Y technologies (plus 45Q, 45V, and 48D) continues to seem on shaky legal ground to me. Not an APA lawyer, but I'd think there are some pretty clear grounds to argue these changes are arbitrary and capricious. 6/

And small private developers don't have the market power to out-compete the big guys to take full advantage of physical work safe harbor. If I'm right, we'll see less deployment, less diversification of clean energy resources, and (as always with this administration) higher costs. 5/

I'm particularly concerned about what these changes will do to rural co-ops, Tribes, and smaller developers. Co-ops and other entities were going to blend tax credits with grants. If they get tangled in permitting chaos, they may not be able to begin physical work. Tribes may struggle even more. 4/

The guidance eliminates the cost safe harbor (previously 5%) altogether for everything except very small ( < 1.5 MW) solar projects. This is going to create chaos for segments of the market that cannot easily meet the physical work test, raise costs even for those who can, and reduce deployment. 3/

It clearly undermines Congressional intent and goes against the text of the GOP bill. The law as actually passed provided a (shorter than optimal) transition period using the longstanding commence construction standard. These changes go against that, and arbitrarily shorten the transition. 2/