Rachel Gold

New Senate GOP bill would kill clean power and spike energy costs Under pressure from Trump, Senate Republicans unveiled legislation so restrictive that even Elon Musk and the Chamber of Commerce’s policy chief oppose it.

"Think tank Energy Innovation released analysis that forecast the bill — in large part due to this excise tax — would prevent 300GW of generation by 2035. That’s an enormous amount of forgone energy: The entire US grid had an installed capacity of 1,200GW in 2023" www.canarymedia.com/articles/cle...

I was trying to come up with an analogy and the best I could think of was "imagine if you were sick and the government denied access to modern medicine and forced you to rely on outdated 19th century stuff" and, oh

“There isn’t going to be a gas fired generator any time soon,” Tillis said. “You can’t get that online and the same time that [renewable] pipeline’s going down.”

First time GOP opposition over this made public in Senate debate on the reconciliation bill.

GOP-heavy Florida not only disallows fmr utility commission employees from appearing before regulators for 2yrs, it also disallows employment or compensation from any regulated entity for the same period. 🔌💡 www.flsenate.gov/laws/statute...

Cutting this voluntary, popular, helpful program, which costs $30M and saves $40B (!) a year will get in the way of the Trump administration’s own (stated) goals to cut customer costs.

@aceee.org’s Steve Nadel on Energy Star:

www.npr.org/2025/05/11/n...

This was the news we needed to end the week. 🥳

Shoulder seasons like March are when we'd expect this 💨☀️ - AND it's never happened before, so very worthy of a celebration in the face of headwinds and pushback.

Entire Staff Is Fired at LIHEAP The move threatens to paralyze the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which helps to offset high utility bills for roughly 6.2 million people nationwide.

The Trump administration abruptly laid off the entire staff running a $4.1 billion program to help low-income households across the U.S. pay their heating and cooling bills.

Note that if a data center prefers to remain inflexible, it could procure flexibility from other customers (source is my testimony here: nicholasinstitute.duke.edu/publications... )

It is fairly significant that the GOP’s own witness, representing the Electric Coops, vigorously defended IRA’s tech-neutral tax credits — esp for wind. 🔌💡 www.eenews.net/articles/uti...

Exclusive: Trump plans to revoke legal status of Ukrainians who fled to US, sources say U.S. President Donald Trump's administration is planning to revoke temporary legal status for some 240,000 Ukrainians who fled the conflict with Russia, a senior Trump official and three sources familiar with the matter said, potentially putting them on a fast-track to deportation.

This is really, really bad. There are precedents for the United States turning away refugees displaced by xenophobic European dictators bent on territorial expansion. They do not end well for anyone. www.reuters.com/world/us/tru...

Alabama Power to build state’s first utility-scale battery storage system on retired power plant site The 150 MW facility will provide reserve power for Alabamians.

Retire a coal plant, turn it into batteries

So 🔥 right now

www.alabamapower.com/news/company...

20% of US imports ($5.7B in 2023) of electric transformers are from Mexico. That supply chain was already stressed. Now more expensive too, due to tariffs oec.world/en/profile/b...

There are many, more eloquent than me who have noted the problems of treating politics as sport. But the one that gets me most is that when you put unqualified, egocentric grifters in power people die. And the penalty is never as great as the crime. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

High Voltage, High Reward Transmission - RMI Large-scale transmission projects deliver significant cost savings to American consumers and businesses.

#energysky Do large-scale transmission investments pay off for ratepayers? Our new @rockymtninst.bsky.social report provides a clear answer: YES— large-scale transmission projects deliver significant savings for American consumers and businesses: rmi.org/insight/high... (1/8)🧵

Guest: Letter to BPA Utility Customers and Northwest Consumers The following letter was submitted to NewsData by Randy Hardy and Steve Wright, both former administrators at the Bonneville Power Administration.

BPA is self-funding, so jobs cuts there don’t impact federal spending. Instead, cuts risk reliability and harm economic development across the northwest: www.newsdata.com/clearing_up/...

The technologies needed to provide electricity grid reliability go beyond dispatchable energy resources.

Learn more about how to reduce risks from overly-uniform energy resource portfolios and ensure customers receive reliable, affordable electricity: bit.ly/4kbxSHE

Pessimists sound clever.

Optimists change the world.

I love this depiction of the energy transition by RMI.

Imagine if @aoc @sanders.senate.gov , every dem, SIMULTANEOUSLY held Town Halls where they allowed grant and contract recipients to explain to the country what it is they do and why it's important

Invite all media. Including RW podcasters. @spaces Flood the zone

Call it a Day Of Transparency

The fact that the USA is the world's premier destination for science & innovative research is one of the most important drivers of our economic strength & competitiveness. And it isn't a given. If we slash funding, attack universities, limit skilled immigration, we will cede this critical advantage.

Refrigerators have gotten really freaking good. Thanks, Jimmy Carter. The underrated way energy efficiency has made life better, and climate progress possible.

one of my favorite stories I did at Vox was about Jimmy Carter and his role in energy efficiency standards at the DOE. Truly underappreciated legacy that tangibly improved everyday life www.vox.com/climate/2023...

Today was the hydro (and high tea!) day of winter vacation. 🥶❄️🥶 Thanks for the hospitality, Ontario! 🔌💡

NEW: LPO has announced its first conditional commitment under EIR for a regulated utility, financing up to $2.5 billion for 1,650 MW of renewables and battery projects: www.energy.gov/lpo/articles...

A map of Clean Repowering potential in the US.

Earlier this year, I co-authored a report on "Clean Repowering"—using interconnection fast-tracks to quickly, cheaply, and reliably build clean energy. Since then, additional research shows how this process can be more effective to prevent unwise investments in fossil assets 🧵

I can think about climate or I can yell at the sleeper app … both is a tall order for a Sunday!

Or you can do what I am doing and stay online but try to ignore the part of the internet that is not our 🏈 match

Climate change and insurance: a growing fustercluck Podcast Episode · Volts · 12/04/2024 · 1h 7m

Experts 20+ years ago: Climate change will hugely hurt the economy and insurance will be a leading indicator

Insurance industry now: We need to cancel a lot of insurance

Experts now: Y’all might want to get on it

Thx @volts.wtf

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/v...

Congrats to @wilson-energy.bsky.social and grid strategies on the 2024 data center load report--wanted to add add'l insight from looking at Georgia Power's quarterly large load forecast (s/o to Celia Tandon for putting this together!)

#EnergySky RMI's Order 1920 fact sheet has now been updated with information on Order 1920-A! Check it out at the link below ⤵️

rmi.org/insight/unde...

Catching up on my podcast feed - recommend this PBR explainer from @krrabago.bsky.social , especially for the conversation about the role of PBR in accelerating utilization of distributed energy resources (DERs) 🔌💡

Surplus interconnection is a great way to make the most of the grid we’ve got.

In a time of load growth and affordability challenges, we have to prioritize these opportunities to more quickly plug in lower cost, lower risk resources 🔌