Rebecca McCarthy

Stephen A. Smith And Other ESPNers Partner With Obscenely Scuzzy Mobile Casino | Defector Earlier this summer, ESPN made the confounding and ultimately disastrous choice to build its NBA Finals broadcasts around the stentorian yowling of Stephen A. Smith, a man who neither knows ball nor…

Stephen A. Smith and other ESPNers partner with obscenely scuzzy mobile casino: defector.com/stephen-a-sm...

In New York, a pipeline proposal that just won’t die Why some think a “lurid political shakedown” by President Trump will get a pipeline built off Rockaway Beach.

In New York, a pipeline proposal that just won’t die.

Why some think a “lurid political shakedown” by President Trump will get a pipeline built off Rockaway Beach.

grist.org/politics/new...

#NY #NewYork #Oil #Gas #Politics

damn Brace's baffler essay is very good

thebaffler.com/outbursts/th...

Nuclear arms race tests aging Los Alamos lab - High Country News Contamination incidents, work outages and declining infrastructure have plagued the site, but the lab remains the linchpin in an effort to modernize the nation’s nuclear weapons.

Contamination incidents, work outages and declining infrastructure have plagued the site, but the lab remains the linchpin in an effort to modernize the nation’s nuclear weapons, shares The New York Times Local Investigations Fellowship.

buff.ly/OmZQS20

Fossil fuel companies say they support the energy transition. New numbers suggest otherwise. A new study shows that fossil fuel companies own less than 2 percent of renewable energy projects worldwide.

📚 What the Floodlight team is reading: Fossil fuel companies say they support the energy transition. But a new report shows that they own less than 2% of renewable energy projects worldwide, @rebeccamccarthy.bsky.social reports for @grist.org:

Inside the fight to curb surging electric costs in Data Center Alley As data centers upend electric grids, the country's largest transmission operator is facing down a revolt from Northeast state officials.

Went on the radio to talk about PJM and data centers

www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2...

Stay tuned! For an updated piece on the deep sea mining landscape coming later this month I think

As data centers upend electric grids, the largest operator in the US is facing down a revolt from state officials A coalition of 11 governors has threatened to withdraw from grid operator PJM.

Wrote about the drama at the country's largest grid operator and the fact that even if data centers don't cause rolling blackouts, they're still likely to blow states' emission goals to hell

grist.org/climate-ener...

As data centers upend electric grids, the largest operator in the US is facing down a revolt from state officials A coalition of 11 governors has threatened to withdraw from grid operator PJM.

As data centers upend electric grids, the largest operator in the US is facing down a revolt from state officials #Climate

Deep Sea Rush | Rebecca McCarthy The question is whether Deep Sea mining, a new extractive industry on the seafloor, is an easy answer to the looming metals shortage, or an oceanic death march.

In August, the Trump administration entered talks with the Cook Islands to begin underwater mining in the area. From the Archives: @rebeccamccarthy.bsky.social reports on the speculators looking to strike it rich on the seafloor.

Nobody wants this gas plant. Trump is forcing it to stay open. The Department of Energy says Trump's 'energy emergency' and voracious data centers warrant keeping the plant outside of Philadelphia running.

Pennsylvania really wants to become a tech hub and it’s using hypothetical data centers to keep an obsolete gas plant open

grist.org/justice/nobo...

How Interior is using environmental laws to suppress renewable energy - High Country News The Trump administration is turning environmentalists’ legal playbook against them.

The Department of Interior has such a wide-ranging set of duties that it’s sometimes referred to in Washington, D.C., as “the department of everything else". It is now also the tip of the spear in the Trump administration’s war on renewables.

Can offshore wind survive the Trump administration? Regardless of what happens with Revolution Wind, the government’s pause may set the industry back decades.

I wrote about how bad things are getting for offshore wind:

grist.org/energy/can-o...

Can offshore wind survive the Trump administration? Regardless of what happens with Revolution Wind, the government’s pause may set the industry back decades.

Can offshore wind survive the Trump administration?

Regardless of what happens with Revolution Wind, the government’s pause may set the industry back decades.

grist.org/energy/can-o...

#Wind #Energy #Renewables #Climate #Environment #Oceans

Trump’s Interior Department is turning environmentalists’ legal playbook against them The Department of the Interior, or DOI, has such a wide-ranging set of duties that it’s sometimes referred to in Washington, D.C. as “the department of everything else” — public lands, natural resourc...

I wrote about the Interior Department’s efforts to throttle wind and solar over the past two months:

grist.org/energy/trump...

Government Staffing Cuts Have Fueled an Ant-Smuggling Boom “It’s getting out of hand,” one seller says. “They realize the US market is a gold mine.”

Only @knibbs.bsky.social could bring you a story like this and that’s the highest compliment I got

What is the correct amount of pro-Palestine content? The origins of the TikTok ban.

A photograph cannot inspire an antiwar movement if the antiwar movement has been spirited away in the night to a facility in Louisiana. www.theverge.com/features/761...

Behind the race to find natural hydrogen Roughly 90% of the hydrogen in the United States is produced using fossil fuels.

I went back on NPR to talk about hydrogen

www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2...

New and IMPT: Inside the chaotic, lucrative world of disaster recovery.

grist.org/series/the-d...

#Disaster #Climate #Economics #Contractors #Exploitation #Policy #Politics #Floods #Hurricanes #Wildfires

A hidden fuel source beneath the Midwest? Scientists are investigating. Natural hydrogen could transform the clean energy sector — if we can find enough of it.

Natural hydrogen could be key for decarbonizing heavy industries like trucking, shipping, and aviation – if we can find enough of it. For the first time, researchers are starting to think that might be possible. grist.org/energy/natur...

A hidden fuel source beneath the Midwest? Scientists are investigating. Natural hydrogen could transform the clean energy sector — if we can find enough of it.

I wrote about the rush to find natural hydrogen along the Midcontinent Rift

grist.org/energy/natur...

What Does Palantir Actually Do? Palantir is often called a data broker, a data miner, or a giant database of personal information. In reality, it’s none of these—but even former employees struggle to explain it.

Palantir is often called a data broker, a data miner, or a giant database of personal information. In reality, it’s none of these—but even former employees struggle to explain it. www.wired.com/story/palant...

So proud of my friends for naming their baby Lenny

As California burns, new research shows smoke is wildfire’s silent killer The official death count from the Palisades and Eaton fires was 30 — the real number may be 15 times higher.

New research shows that wildfire smoke is causing way more deaths than officially recorded

grist.org/health/calif...

Hi Bob, thanks for catching that! The study’s author’s emailed me as well—the article has been updated with a correction.

Groundwater is rapidly declining across the globe. What's the impact? Groundwater depletion is rapidly accelerating, creating areas of "mega-drying" in regions that heavily depend on groundwater for their drinking supplies.

I went on Here and Now to talk about disappearing groundwater

www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2...

Groundwater is drying out, heating up, and causing sea level rise Overuse of groundwater has created zones of “mega-drying” around the world — and caused more sea level rise than Greenland’s ice sheets.

Groundwater (!!) is contributing more to sea level rise than melting in Greenland and Antartica

grist.org/science/grou...

Trump's environmental policies are reshaping everyday life. Here's how. The president’s rollbacks and funding cuts are affecting your food, water, and air — even if you don’t realize it.

Trump’s environmental policies are reshaping everyday life. Here’s how.

The president’s rollbacks and funding cuts are affecting your food, water, and air — even if you don’t realize it.

grist.org/politics/tru...

#Politics #Policy #Food #Climate #Water #Health

Seaweed brought fishers, farmers, and scientists together. Trump tore them apart. A Puget Sound project turned seaweed from a nuisance into a “climate-smart commodity.” That inserted it into the president’s culture wars.

Seaweed brought fishers, farmers, and scientists together. Trump tore them apart.

A Puget Sound project turned seaweed from a nuisance into a “climate-smart commodity.” That inserted it into the president’s culture wars.

grist.org/food-and-agr...

#CultureWars #Seaweed #Climate #Fishermen #USDA

All the dire implications notwithstanding it is hilarious how evil this technology is. Billions of dollars spent on this greasy lying stupid thing that was literally built to replace people, and everyone that uses it gets weaker, lazier, dumber, and sadder for having done so. Well done all around.