Pam Radtke

$80 million, few rules: Louisiana’s energy efficiency ‘slush fund’ One of the least energy efficient states allows elected commissioners to use ratepayer money for ‘patronage’ projects — with little oversight

Louisiana energy regulators get $15 million a year — from your power bill — to spend on energy efficiency projects in public facilities of their choosing. Who monitors the program? No one.

floodlightnews.org/80-million-f...

Louisiana kills energy-efficiency program in eleventh hour Energy regulators voted along party lines to cancel the program. One official called it “a punch to the face to all Louisianians who are struggling to pay…

Regulators in Louisiana voted along party lines to cancel an energy-efficiency program 14 years in the making.

One official called it ​“a punch to the face to all Louisianians who are struggling to pay their bills.”

Reporting by @pradtke.bsky.social via @floodlightnews.org

La. Public Service Commission might scrap new energy efficiency program • Louisiana Illuminator The Louisiana Public Service Commission will consider terminating a statewide energy efficiency program that it spent 14 years creating.

The Louisiana Public Service Commission might scrap an energy efficiency program after it spent more than $500K to put it in place – and took 14 years to come up with the program. Our @wesmuller.bsky.social & @pradtke.bsky.social w/ @floodlightnews.org report lailluminator.com/2025/04/15/l...

As Congress slashes spending, will clean energy tax credits survive? Solar boosters say repealing Inflation Reduction Act incentives could drive up electricity costs, stall manufacturing and slow climate progress.

Solar advocates flooded Capitol Hill this week to save the Inflation Reduction Act. They say cutting tax credits now would stall progress, kill jobs, and raise costs. NEW in @floodlightnews.org from @pradtke.bsky.social‬:

US electricity prices are surging. These companies want out. Citing few renewable options and projected price jumps, industries in Louisiana propose their own power generation, free from monopoly utilities

Louisiana utilities are providing dirty power at higher and higher (and higher and higher) prices, and the state's industrial customers are getting sick of it. They want to opt out and procure their own (renewable) energy.

US electricity prices are surging. These companies want out. Citing few renewable options and projected price jumps, industries in Louisiana propose their own power generation, free from monopoly utilities

Increasing electric rates are out of control. Never has there been a bigger gulf b/t utility shareholder interests & those of ratepayers (including industrial customers, which as this @pradtke.bsky.social story notes, want direct access to cheap renewables!):
floodlightnews.org/us-electrici...

Fueling Knowledge: Oil and gas money shapes research, creates ‘echo chamber’ in higher education Louisiana’s flagship university is looking to partner more closely with petrochemical industries in the state

#Oil And Gas Money Shapes Research, ‘Echo Chamber’ In Higher #Education
#news #environment

@pradtke.bsky.social reports for @floodlightnews.org

@halleparker.bsky.social reports for @wwno.org & @WRKF

@piperhutch.bsky.social reports for @lailluminator.com

floodlightnews.org/fueling-know...

Fueling Knowledge: Oil and gas money shapes research, creates ‘echo chamber’ in higher education Louisiana’s flagship university is looking to partner more closely with petrochemical industries in the state

Fossil fuel Companies and higher ed seem To go hand in hand at LSU and other universities. Here’s why that might be a problem. Check out the story and podcast here:

Power for data centers could come at ‘staggering’ cost to consumers • Louisiana Illuminator A new report from Harvard’s Electricity Law Initiative says U.S. consumers will pay billions of dollars to build new power plants to serve data centers.

Power for massive data centers like the one proposed in NE Louisiana could come at ‘staggering’ cost to consumers, @pradtke.bsky.social reports for @floodlightnews.org lailluminator.com/2025/03/06/d...

Power for data centers could come at ‘staggering’ cost to consumers New report highlights how traditional ways of setting rates don’t fit Big Tech’s massive, immediate demand for more electricity

Fantastic reading in report from @aripeskoe.bsky.social
on the potential costs of data center power for every day consumers. Read about it here floodlightnews.org/power-for-da...

Capturing carbon dioxide, sold as climate solution, rebranded as oil industry boost • Louisiana Illuminator Billions of taxpayer dollars subsidizing capture and storage of carbon dioxide may instead go to fossil fuel companies to help boost production of oil.

"Carbon capture incentives are 'another subsidy for oil.'" Our ED @carolynraff.bsky.social quoted in NEW piece by @pradtke.bsky.social in the @lailluminator.com: lailluminator.com/2025/02/28/c...
Links to our report (first comment) on the false promises and health harms of #EOR.
#CSS #pipelines #45Q

CO2 Pipeline Company Draws $2.4m Fine for Menacing Federal Inspectors - Inside Climate News Workers were manufacturing pipeline to replace a ruptured section of carbon dioxide line that sent 45 people to the hospital in Mississippi.

My latest insideclimatenews.org/news/1702202...

CO2 Pipeline Company Draws $2.4m Fine for Menacing Federal Inspectors - Inside Climate News Workers were manufacturing pipeline to replace a ruptured section of carbon dioxide line that sent 45 people to the hospital in Mississippi.

insideclimatenews.org/news/1702202...

Nice read from @pradtke.bsky.social

Elon Musk's xAI wants to use gas turbines long-term at Memphis site, documents show xAI has filed for a permit with the Shelby County Department of Health that would allow for 15 gas turbines to operate 24/7 at its Memphis site.

Elon Musk's xAI wants to use gas turbines long-term at Memphis site, documents show

Where is this from? Annual report??

emissions???????

CO2 pipeline company draws $2.4M fine for menacing federal inspectors Workers were manufacturing pipeline to replace a ruptured section of carbon dioxide line that sent 45 people to the hospital in Mississippi

Remember that Exxon-owned CO2 pipeline that leaked in Mississippi a few years ago and sent 45 people to the hospital?

When federal inspectors showed up recently, they were "taunted, pushed and blocked from doing their jobs." floodlightnews.org/email/904c7b...

Pipeline company fined $2.4 million for menacing federal inspectors • Louisiana Illuminator Federal inspectors sent to examine a carbon dioxide pipeline being built to replace one that failed in Mississippi were taunted, pushed and blocked from doing their jobs, according to a federal notice...

Company that owns ruptured CO2 Mississippi pipeline and another that leaked in Calcasieu Parish has been fined $2.4 million for menacing federal inspectors. @pradtke.bsky.social reports for @floodlightnews.org lailluminator.com/2025/02/12/p...

CO2 pipeline company draws $2.4M fine for menacing federal inspectors Workers were manufacturing pipeline to replace a ruptured section of carbon dioxide line that sent 45 people to the hospital in Mississippi

SCOOP: Denbury/Exxon draws $2.4M fine for menacing inspectors examining work to replace Saratia CO2 pipeline

Congress urged to reform TVA to improve transparency, decision making • Kentucky Lantern Congress should reform the Tennessee Valley Authority’s governance and planning, a renewable energy group says in a new report.

kentuckylantern.com/2025/01/30/c...

thank you!

Chinese AI tech could cut projected spike in US electricity Are we planning too many new power plants to fuel data centers? Advocates call for more protections for consumers — and the climate

floodlightnews.org/chinese-ai-t...

Nice story from @pradtke.bsky.social

Opinion | The New Evidence Climate Change Will Upend American Homeownership (Gift Article) A new analysis predicts an extraordinary reversal in housing fortunes for Americans.

Important reading... www.nytimes.com/2025/02/03/o...

Biden orders Energy, Defense departments to lease sites for AI data centers, clean energy generation The executive order calls for using “categorical exclusions” to rapidly site data centers and power generation.

www.utilitydive.com/news/biden-d...

AI set to fuel surge in new US gas power plants Climate targets in peril as Big Tech turns to fossil fuels to feed energy demand

A tale of two realities. If a company can build a data center on private land, without having to jump through red tape and doesn't have to procure and build renewable energy, capitalism says the later wins, 9 out of 10 times
www.ft.com/content/63c3... vs. www.utilitydive.com/news/biden-d...

Same. Same

If you're interested in seeing how the stripes look in your area, I've updated graphics to this interactive tool to see temperature and precipitation stripes for each US county!

storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/36fb...

#ClimateStripes #ShowYourStripes

Word of the Day is ‘uhtcearu’ [ucht-kay-aru, with the 'ch' as in the Scottish ‘loch']:

Old English for ‘the sorrow before dawn', when you lie awake in the darkness and worries crowd your mind.

'Make Carbon Dioxide Great Again' law would ban carbon reduction efforts in Wyoming - WyoFile Sen. Steinmetz wants to repeal Wyoming's carbon capture mandate for coal plants.

It was the best of times, it was the dumbest of times.