Last episode, you discussed utility incentives. What I don’t understand is: why aren’t utilities doing everything they can to build renewables? If they earn a rate of return off capital, renewables are all capex and should build utility capital bases faster than more gas (which has all variable costs/fuel costs billed to ratepayers at cost). 10GW of renewables + storage is guaranteed to earn more profit for utilities than a similar quantity of gas, so why aren’t utilities favoring renewables?
Well, the utilities earn a rate of return on the absolute COST of their capex, right? And the "problem" (within this system of regulation) is that renewables are pretty cheap to install (even if they're even cheaper to operate). So even if renewables are all capex while gas additionally incurs fuel costs, then if you need some fixed quantity of new power capacity, it might still be cheaper to install a bunch of solar panels than to build a huge fossil fuel plant? The relevant base quantity seems to me to be the *absolute* cost of capex per unit of power generation, not the *percentage* of the total cost of power generation that goes to capex.
Thought you might want to look into something else happening in New York State. I don't think it's been publicized yet, but we are one of the first states to roll out the IRA incentives that allow low and moderate income folks to get point-of-sale rebates for various household electrification and energy efficiency things. My family qualifies as moderate income, so I've been waiting for this since the bill passed. We do not have air conditioning in our home. The increasingly hot summers combined with poor air quality have made this a top priority for us and heat pumps are obviously the way to do it. I've now learned from two contractors that the IRA incentives are rolling out this month and NYS has made any fossil gas home ineligible. Apparently the feds are going along - or maybe it was their idea? It would be interesting to learn more about this. Is this a common sense way to ensure the incentives go to the houses that will see the biggest payoff, both in terms of carbon emissions and financial rewards? Those who use heating oil or electric resistance heating probably should convert to heat pumps first. On the other hand, why must it be an either/or proposition? Is this another example of NYS bending over backwards to appease the fossil gas industry? Will other states now use up all the IRA money allocated for this before NYS gets the chance to spend its fair share? (My guess is that fossil gas is the predominant mode of residential heating in NYS.) And why not provide incentives to encourage heat pump air conditioners instead of the older, inefficient kind? Can you tell I'm grumpy about this?
Not sure which "contractors" are telling you this. If you want to get on the program, you need to sign up for an "energy audit" first. Of course, more green tape, particularly if someone is going to roll a truck, look at you home, do a whole report and tell you that the thing that makes the biggest difference isn't funded. But pretty easy to just sign up.
"For homes that heat with oil, propane, coal, electrical resistance, kerosene, pellets, and wood the project does not have to pass a total project savings for approval.
For homes heating with natural gas, the existing equipment must be 80% efficient or below and the project should show a net utility bill savings of 10% or greater for approval."
The "80% efficient or below," assuming "efficient" means AFUE, would eliminate all but the most basic furnaces installed since 1990 or so. The bill savings may be hard to demonstrate for downstate electric customers. There are a bunch of other caveats, so yeah, whether intentional or not, this probably makes it hard for gas-heated homes to get incentives under this program. (Often the libs get owned in these qualification development process..."We need to make this very targeted for a hundred seemingly good reasons..." not realizing that the sum of the quals they develop cut millions of households out.) But, really, the total $ discussed, $300M for the program lifetime, not per year, in NYS is kinda chump change for a state with 10Mish households.
How do those incentives apply to renters? Is it the kind of thing where landlords can claim the incentives on behalf of low or moderate income tenants?
Why do so many people get wrapped up with NEPA and other federal permitting reform when the real concern should be county councils, township boards, etc? Is it simply that blue-state activists feel they might be able to have influence at the federal level that they lack in rural areas of states where they don't live?
I think partly yes. Also, the arguments against wind and solar projects are ones that progressives and environmentalists might make against any "development." Views, wildlife, fire safety, toxins, farmland preservation, noise... Out-of-state, or foreign (eek!), profit-mongers pillaging the locals... And I find most "climate activists" don't quite know to fight the claims that renewables are "unreliable" and "use too many resources and too much energy to build," so aren't really "clean," and so on.
The local youth, particularly young men, are often as right-reactionary as the middle age folks you see at the meetings. There is intimidation of locals who support renewables. There ain't no cancel culture like small town cancel culture.
On Twitter you called Patrick Wyman's "American Gentry" (https://patrickwyman.substack.com/p/american-gentry) a "foundational text", for understanding our world today. Since I'm also a big fan of that piece, I was curious if there are others you'd also consider "foundational texts". If they're in the same category as "American Gentry" I'd like to make sure I've read them.
I love Construction Physics! Here's how I'd reconcile it, but I think pieces are still missing: The format is very different, but I think his mission is similar to Volts. HOW do we do things? Plus a lot of historical context in some policy areas. I think Patrick's essay gets at an important part of WHY we (as a society) do what we do. Patrick's answer is heavy on materialism, so it intersects a lot with the world Brian describes.
Without blowing smoke asswards, I wanted to mention your lovely, warm, mellifluous voice (my wife asked if I was listening to Seth Rogen the other day), and I wondered if moving from print to spoken word had meant anything for how you create. It's obviously more relaxed, and immediate, as a medium - is this good for getting to the nub of the issue, or do you find it's easy to lose some of the discipline of a carefully researched piece (it certainly doesn't sound that way)? Whichever, I look forward to the podcast dropping every time I see there is one. The contrast with Mike Casey's cartoon rodent voice was my favourite - I'd very much like to hear you narrate a documentary..
I just listened to your podcast with Jane Melia (Harvest) and that reminded me of another company I came across that's bolting together pieces of equipment in interesting ways. SunDrum solar (https://www.sundrumsolar.com/technology) is slapping a heat exchanger on the back of PV panels attached to a heat pump to get both electricity (from the PV), solar heat and radiative cooling. Hybrid PV-themeral collectors exist and seem to make sense since in a PV system, you're only going to get 20-30% of the energy from the sun as electricity and the rest is mostly heat. So why aren't they more popular/common?
As a climate journalist and as a parent, how do you think high schools should approach teaching students about climate change so as to be better informed and engage with it seriously without descending into fatalism/doomerism? How have you discussed it with your own children?
I've seen you on ex-Twitter posting about studies quantifying the health impacts from air pollution from fossil fuels, health impacts of oil & gas extraction, health impacts of heat waves, etc.. basically saying something like "how many more of these do we need"? Unfortunately, studying and quantifying the health burden of fossil fuels and climate change is one of the few ways that public health, especially public health academics, can get involved in the work of climate mitigation and the energy transition, at least that I can see.
Do you have any other good ideas of ways that public health, both academics and practitioners out in the real world, can get involved in climate mitigation and the energy transition and how to do this? I am curious about your thoughts on public health and climate mitigation and the energy transition specifically, since climate adaptation work fits more cleanly into the usual methods, funders, institutions, and culture of public health academics and practice.
Your dogs are so cute! We have a Golden that we too adore. Do you ever think about the climate impact of pets? Know of any good efforts to decarbonize the pet sector? Too niche to matter? Our dog is mostly vegetarian so that's a start!
From what I understand a large portion of the potential reductions built into the IRA depends on the US greatly expanding its domestic production of Lithium. Is this the US on target to deliver on the necessary increased Lithium production? If not what is currently holding back this development?
High School Student Led Solar Project. I'm a licensed electrical engineer in Iowa. A fun and empowering climate project I've tried to push for a while is to work with local high schools to have a small volunteer group of students interested in climate and engineering do a solar pv installation for the school. I almost got a program off the ground in 2020 but it was cancelled due to the pandemic and I've since moved to a new city. My new school district doesn't seem too interested. Has anyone heard of programs like this being done successfully around the county? What are some tips for convincing the school district to accept a project like that? If you're a teacher/student/school related professional in a district in Iowa that might be interested in such a project, feel free to reach out to me!
Modo Energy is a SaaS platform providing data, benchmarking, forecasting, and insights for grid-scale batteries and other energy transition technologies. We have open positions for:
Several job openings at Virginia Interfaith Power and Light, a non-profit that organizes people of different faiths in Virginia to act on climate. Need to be able to work in office in Richmond: https://vaipl.org/job-opportunities/
Academic post-doc position in Energy-Water Systems - Idaho State University
- Multi-university project to support native communities addressing energy-water needs
- Spatial/temporal data analytics skills desired
- Larger project team (~30 folks) works to evaluate, model, and develop future scenarios for Energy-Water Systems under various types of environmental, technological, and social change
Ndustrial is a steadily growing software startup in Raleigh, NC focused on industrial energy management. Multiple roles open including a newly posted Data Scientist position. https://apply.workable.com/ndustrialio/
Join FCA’s dynamic team! As a Cleantech Analyst, you'll work closely with our Management and Analysis Team to develop impactful cleantech solutions and translate research into actionable policy recommendations. We're looking for someone with a Master’s degree in a relevant field, at least three years of cleantech experience, and excellent English skills. This full-time, remote position offers a competitive salary and the chance to make a real difference. Find out more: https://fcarchitects.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/20240610_CTA_General-2.pdf
The Association of Air Pollution Control Agencies (AAPCA) is seeking an Executive Director, and the deadline to submit applications is June 21, 2024. AAPCA's website is here: https://cleanairact.org/. The job posting is here: https://csg.applicantpro.com/jobs/3379423
Something I have been thinking about for a while is the long, LONG term effects and fate of landfills, on climate and other things environmental - like release of plastics. For example, in my old home county in Illinois, the landfill is adjacent to a river. Are landfills one more of those, "Oops! We sure didn't thank of that!" situations? My thoughts here are of landfills being opened up and eroded away due to more severe weather events, much like methane in permafrost being exposed by thawing. All of the cellulosic and organic material is going to keep rotting away as well, and we add huge additional quantities to landfills every day. Landfills are truly the "out of sight, out of mind" solution to a huge daily problem.
I'll tag onto this. My county (Dutchess County, NY) operates a waste incinerator, which is nearing end-of-life, and there's debate on whether/how to replace it. My wife is a county legislator, and she's doing her best to inform herself, bringing climate concerns to bear. On the one hand, even the best incinerator technologies emit local pollutants (including heavy metals) and also of course CO2. On the other hand, the currently available alternative is to truck waste hundreds of miles away to a landfill that will accept it -- with all the problems (incl. methane) you mention, as well as env. justice concerns for the communities we'd truck waste through and to. Of course, we should increase recycling, divert and compost organics, etc. -- and the county is working on all of that. Butt ramping that up is a long, slow slog, with its pace limited (in our largely suburban county with a Republican-controlled legislature) by fiscal and behavioral constraints; and even when we do all that much better than we do now, there will still be tons of waste. I'd love to know: from a climate, and also from a broader environmental/environmental justice perspective, what would best practice be? How SHOULD we deal with the waste we can't readily recycle, divert, etc.? If there's a guest out there who has knowledge and insight, this would make a great pod.
Aha! For Inslee you'll have a "ticket" I'm not using for someone else. I thought I was signing up for webcast.
Probably late to suggest it but regarding Inslee's recent over-ride of restrictions on the Horse Heaven windfarm by WA's siting board, I'd love to hear a message from him to hard-core conservationists, preservationists, etc. Some helpful rationale as to letting go of devotion to almost every place as too pure for renewable siting. Something like that. And wonder what others lurking around here think.
CA's SB1308 aims to curb ozone that's generated by current electronic air cleaners (which is great!), but the proposed bill currently fails to distinguish air cleaning devices that rely on electrostatic attraction from air cleaning using germicidal ultraviolet light. The concern, outlined by 1DaySooner (link below), is that we're potentially stunting a nascent technology that might greatly improve indoor air quality! The hope is that legislators can change the language to grant an exemption, temporary or otherwise, until we have more data on GUV's benefits/risks.
On a separate note, since Transmission has come-up a number of times, I wanted to flag a piece of legislation that on The Hill right now, from our friends and partner at Protect Our Winters, called the Energizing Our Communities Act. In short, what it does is take a faction of interest from the DOE loan and provides money directly to communities that host transmission infrastructure: 20% for projects that support outdoor recreation (trail maintenance, land conservation, etc), and the remaining 80% is for how the community sees fit: roads, school, affordable housing, etc. You can learn more about it at the link below, and if you're interested in supporting it, there's an easy button to contact your reps and ask them to support it.
Does anyone have links to any good explainers, or is willing to help explain here, some advice on the question of public service commissions and energy modeling? Obviously this varies from state to state, but using Wisconsin as an example and specific context, i'm wondering how public service commissions go about making using of energy modeling regarding possible energy scenarios. To my knowledge Wisconsin is a context in which utilities are not required to do IRP's, and even if they were, the PSC doesn't not have the administrative capacity or directive to do its own independent modeling and it does not have a directive to consider the larger energy transition beyond individual dockets. While other intervenors can bring modeling, the utilities are quite limited in the data which they release, limiting the efficacy of the modeling which third parties can do. My questions are 1) Is anyone aware of climate groups who make it their business to do modeling for PSC cases to influence the clean energy transition? 2) How much does proprietary utility data actually matter in energy modeling, can quality modeling be done without it? 3) Are there any clever ways that these groups get around the problem of limited access to utility data? 4) Looking a little further forward, are there examples from states that have passed reforms requiring utilities to release data so PSC's and third party groups can adequately model?
RE: Popularity of the Liebreich pod, I'd say it's because he does an excellent job of distilling vast information spaces into easily understood chunks, and especially since he's outside of the literal theater of American politics. On his Youtube show, I like that he pushes back on practically whatever his guest is claiming--not in an attempt to disprove or disparage, but rather to reveal the underlying points of the guest's thoughts. On top of it all, he's just a good communicator.
Hey all, if you are on the Eastside on June 20th we're gathering again to talk climate, forests, startups, and technology at the Cascadia Pizza Co from 4:30-7pm. We'd love to see more folks turn out, I'll be wearing a cruising vest and hard hat as per usual to help folks find the group (we may be out back on the patio weather permitting).
A couple attendees just finished up their climatebase fellowships and I've always got something to say about forests - last week I presented a seminar at MIT on forest biomass and Sustainable Aviation Fuel so biofuels are top of mind right now (IRA and California Clean Fuel Initiatives really close some price gaps!).
For those in the greater Seattle and interested in DERs - a few of us have been discussing the Now is the Time for Distributed Energy pod & DETRF. We are starting a monthly DER discussion group with the first meetup on 6/26 - https://lu.ma/xaet8f0x
Separately, several people in the Work on Climate and related communities are hosting a community PNW climate week July 7-13. https://www.pnwclimateweek.org/
I'm hosting a speaker event as part of climate week on July 9. We are having presenters give 60 second speeches about something they want to share from their personal, professional, or communal climate journey. Would love to see people who listen to Volts there if you are local! https://lu.ma/Climate_Min_Motifs
Does anyone have good curated sources for basic climate explainers (videos, very brief presentations, or written documents), in particular a single place where you send people to quickly get to a basic competence in understanding the problem and solutions? I run a group called Healthy Climate Wisconsin that trains health professionals to advocate for climate policy. In general health professionals have a ton of untapped power, but they are hesitant to speak up unless they feel highly competent on a topic. Most of our group leads got there through consuming hundreds to thousands of hours of reports, articles, and podcasts on the topic. But that's too slow and our group is growing quickly. We are finding a need to have a systematic training system for volunteers. We are developing basic training materials and could use help with videos, brief presentations, or written documents on non-health aspects to climate change, technologies, and policy, including:
-Basic climate overview (sources/causes, trajectory, projections, importance of each 0.1C etc)
-Overview of basic solutions solutions (clean electrification, urban design, land use, etc)
-Understanding the electricity system, problems with rate design
I recently heard the BBC News World Service plug its own basic climate content. I haven't looked at it, but, the show notes of this episode contains a couple of links.
While the overall framing of the site is around finding a climate career, the largest part of the site is a systematic tour of climate solutions, emissions sector by emissions sector. (Some solutions, e.g. urban design, that don't fit neatly into the analytic framework of the "solutions" half of the site, are explained instead on the careers half of the site -- see, e.g. the page on Urban Planning: https://climatesolutions-careers.org/home/climate-careers/urban-planning-and-architecture/
Hi, I wanted to share some climate action that we (my company) were able to take part in thanks to the help of a great company called Ever.green. What they're doing is democratizing access to high-impact recs via VPPAs, meaning that they're long-term contracts at higher rates that, that have a material impact in standing-up new project—in our case repowering a wind farm that hit it's end-of-life in Big Spring Texas.
This project is not only going to bring clean energy to 19,000 homes in the area, but being that we're looking at this through the lens of emissionality, the reason why we're additionally excited to do it here is that it actively puts pressure on fossil fuels, which Texas still has a majority of their grid powered by.
Would love for you to share these techniques, which in part have helped keep this legacy wind farm operational for many years to come, with Intention's Climate Energy Community (CIC). The CIC is a free, Slack-based group with around 1K members. And Sam Raasch, who works with David Roberts on Volts and is facilitating these discussions, is also the moderator over there.
Here's how you can join that group and share your great work, along with Ever.green's:
* Using the Slack app or Slack on the web, visit the CIC's Slack workspace. (Details will be provided on signup.)
* Post in the #introductions channel. (There's an example of an introduction in the pinned post in that channel, or you can just 'riff' on others' introductions.)
One more recollection: if the Big Spring, TX wind farm site has turbulent mid-level wind (15'-100' above the ground), Wind Harvest is nearing commercial certification of small turbines (perhaps by 2025-27?) that can take advantage of that resource, to further increase that site's production capacity. They can likely help you evaluate whether the site is a candidate for their tech.
I've been integrating articles on water and energy efficiency, ecology, and more into the (otherwise commercial) monthly newsletters from sustainable shower head maker High Sierra Showerheads, with an audience of around 8,000. This newsletter launched in December 2023.
If you know of any businesses, nonprofits (or other organizations), or individuals whose similar work you might like us to feature – for free – in High Sierra's newsletter, "High Sierra Droplets," please feel free to share your suggestions with us. (One way: you reply to this post, now or anytime in the future! Or you can use the contact form at https://highsierrashowerheads.com/contact-us/)
Not a comment but a request: I am preparing a series of climate change lectures to be given to an audience of adults in a small rural mining town. The presentations will be focused on what the people in my community can do about climate change and will emphasize the resources available thru the IRA as well as several state programs here in New Mexico. I would appreciate any advice on teaching and climate-change communication resources especially already prepared presentations like power point packages, videos, or written materials that are free to citizens. This stuff has be dumbed down to the level of mostly rural adults. I feel very confident about my own knowledge of the subject as I have a technical background and have done a tremendous amount of reading on the subject but I know nothing about speaking to an audience of general adults. If any of you guys (hopefully including teachers) can point me toward climate communication materials on-line or elsewhere, that would be great. Thanks. Shannon
"An Evening with Bill McKibben" on Friday, July 5 at 6:30 PM. This free event is presented by Third Act Oregon (TAO) and hosted by the Portland First Unitarian Church. (A livestream of this event will also be offered.) We are excited that Bill McKibben is coming to Portland! We are gathering our Third Act Oregon members, and inviting a broader audience of climate and democracy-based groups
He’s right, gas is cheap looking at the upfront cost but the infrastructure to maintain it is massively expensive and the environmental impacts extraordinary. Far cheaper to electrify and build that local economy.
Join FCA’s dynamic team! As a Cleantech Analyst, you'll work closely with our Management and Analysis Team to develop impactful cleantech solutions and translate research into actionable policy recommendations. We're looking for someone with a Master’s degree in a relevant field, at least three years of cleantech experience, and excellent English skills. This full-time, remote position offers a competitive salary and the chance to make a real difference. Find out more: https://fcarchitects.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/20240610_CTA_General-2.pdf
--- MAILBAG QUESTIONS ---
Last episode, you discussed utility incentives. What I don’t understand is: why aren’t utilities doing everything they can to build renewables? If they earn a rate of return off capital, renewables are all capex and should build utility capital bases faster than more gas (which has all variable costs/fuel costs billed to ratepayers at cost). 10GW of renewables + storage is guaranteed to earn more profit for utilities than a similar quantity of gas, so why aren’t utilities favoring renewables?
Well, the utilities earn a rate of return on the absolute COST of their capex, right? And the "problem" (within this system of regulation) is that renewables are pretty cheap to install (even if they're even cheaper to operate). So even if renewables are all capex while gas additionally incurs fuel costs, then if you need some fixed quantity of new power capacity, it might still be cheaper to install a bunch of solar panels than to build a huge fossil fuel plant? The relevant base quantity seems to me to be the *absolute* cost of capex per unit of power generation, not the *percentage* of the total cost of power generation that goes to capex.
Thought you might want to look into something else happening in New York State. I don't think it's been publicized yet, but we are one of the first states to roll out the IRA incentives that allow low and moderate income folks to get point-of-sale rebates for various household electrification and energy efficiency things. My family qualifies as moderate income, so I've been waiting for this since the bill passed. We do not have air conditioning in our home. The increasingly hot summers combined with poor air quality have made this a top priority for us and heat pumps are obviously the way to do it. I've now learned from two contractors that the IRA incentives are rolling out this month and NYS has made any fossil gas home ineligible. Apparently the feds are going along - or maybe it was their idea? It would be interesting to learn more about this. Is this a common sense way to ensure the incentives go to the houses that will see the biggest payoff, both in terms of carbon emissions and financial rewards? Those who use heating oil or electric resistance heating probably should convert to heat pumps first. On the other hand, why must it be an either/or proposition? Is this another example of NYS bending over backwards to appease the fossil gas industry? Will other states now use up all the IRA money allocated for this before NYS gets the chance to spend its fair share? (My guess is that fossil gas is the predominant mode of residential heating in NYS.) And why not provide incentives to encourage heat pump air conditioners instead of the older, inefficient kind? Can you tell I'm grumpy about this?
Not sure which "contractors" are telling you this. If you want to get on the program, you need to sign up for an "energy audit" first. Of course, more green tape, particularly if someone is going to roll a truck, look at you home, do a whole report and tell you that the thing that makes the biggest difference isn't funded. But pretty easy to just sign up.
https://www.nyserda.ny.gov/All-Programs/EmPower-New-York-Program/EmPower-Application
They did stick in a bizarre set of caveats. From https://f0bea1.p3cdn1.secureserver.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/5.10-Heat-Pump-Requirements-August-2023.pdf
"For homes that heat with oil, propane, coal, electrical resistance, kerosene, pellets, and wood the project does not have to pass a total project savings for approval.
For homes heating with natural gas, the existing equipment must be 80% efficient or below and the project should show a net utility bill savings of 10% or greater for approval."
The "80% efficient or below," assuming "efficient" means AFUE, would eliminate all but the most basic furnaces installed since 1990 or so. The bill savings may be hard to demonstrate for downstate electric customers. There are a bunch of other caveats, so yeah, whether intentional or not, this probably makes it hard for gas-heated homes to get incentives under this program. (Often the libs get owned in these qualification development process..."We need to make this very targeted for a hundred seemingly good reasons..." not realizing that the sum of the quals they develop cut millions of households out.) But, really, the total $ discussed, $300M for the program lifetime, not per year, in NYS is kinda chump change for a state with 10Mish households.
That document is from August 2023. I've been told there is brand new guidance out this month that comes with the rollout of the IRA rebates.
How do those incentives apply to renters? Is it the kind of thing where landlords can claim the incentives on behalf of low or moderate income tenants?
Why do so many people get wrapped up with NEPA and other federal permitting reform when the real concern should be county councils, township boards, etc? Is it simply that blue-state activists feel they might be able to have influence at the federal level that they lack in rural areas of states where they don't live?
I think partly yes. Also, the arguments against wind and solar projects are ones that progressives and environmentalists might make against any "development." Views, wildlife, fire safety, toxins, farmland preservation, noise... Out-of-state, or foreign (eek!), profit-mongers pillaging the locals... And I find most "climate activists" don't quite know to fight the claims that renewables are "unreliable" and "use too many resources and too much energy to build," so aren't really "clean," and so on.
The local youth, particularly young men, are often as right-reactionary as the middle age folks you see at the meetings. There is intimidation of locals who support renewables. There ain't no cancel culture like small town cancel culture.
As someone that has 30 years experience with NEPA. It’s a farce and waste.
On Twitter you called Patrick Wyman's "American Gentry" (https://patrickwyman.substack.com/p/american-gentry) a "foundational text", for understanding our world today. Since I'm also a big fan of that piece, I was curious if there are others you'd also consider "foundational texts". If they're in the same category as "American Gentry" I'd like to make sure I've read them.
I love Construction Physics! Here's how I'd reconcile it, but I think pieces are still missing: The format is very different, but I think his mission is similar to Volts. HOW do we do things? Plus a lot of historical context in some policy areas. I think Patrick's essay gets at an important part of WHY we (as a society) do what we do. Patrick's answer is heavy on materialism, so it intersects a lot with the world Brian describes.
Without blowing smoke asswards, I wanted to mention your lovely, warm, mellifluous voice (my wife asked if I was listening to Seth Rogen the other day), and I wondered if moving from print to spoken word had meant anything for how you create. It's obviously more relaxed, and immediate, as a medium - is this good for getting to the nub of the issue, or do you find it's easy to lose some of the discipline of a carefully researched piece (it certainly doesn't sound that way)? Whichever, I look forward to the podcast dropping every time I see there is one. The contrast with Mike Casey's cartoon rodent voice was my favourite - I'd very much like to hear you narrate a documentary..
I just listened to your podcast with Jane Melia (Harvest) and that reminded me of another company I came across that's bolting together pieces of equipment in interesting ways. SunDrum solar (https://www.sundrumsolar.com/technology) is slapping a heat exchanger on the back of PV panels attached to a heat pump to get both electricity (from the PV), solar heat and radiative cooling. Hybrid PV-themeral collectors exist and seem to make sense since in a PV system, you're only going to get 20-30% of the energy from the sun as electricity and the rest is mostly heat. So why aren't they more popular/common?
As a climate journalist and as a parent, how do you think high schools should approach teaching students about climate change so as to be better informed and engage with it seriously without descending into fatalism/doomerism? How have you discussed it with your own children?
I've seen you on ex-Twitter posting about studies quantifying the health impacts from air pollution from fossil fuels, health impacts of oil & gas extraction, health impacts of heat waves, etc.. basically saying something like "how many more of these do we need"? Unfortunately, studying and quantifying the health burden of fossil fuels and climate change is one of the few ways that public health, especially public health academics, can get involved in the work of climate mitigation and the energy transition, at least that I can see.
Do you have any other good ideas of ways that public health, both academics and practitioners out in the real world, can get involved in climate mitigation and the energy transition and how to do this? I am curious about your thoughts on public health and climate mitigation and the energy transition specifically, since climate adaptation work fits more cleanly into the usual methods, funders, institutions, and culture of public health academics and practice.
Your dogs are so cute! We have a Golden that we too adore. Do you ever think about the climate impact of pets? Know of any good efforts to decarbonize the pet sector? Too niche to matter? Our dog is mostly vegetarian so that's a start!
From what I understand a large portion of the potential reductions built into the IRA depends on the US greatly expanding its domestic production of Lithium. Is this the US on target to deliver on the necessary increased Lithium production? If not what is currently holding back this development?
--- CLIMATE JOBS & OPPORTUNITIES ---
High School Student Led Solar Project. I'm a licensed electrical engineer in Iowa. A fun and empowering climate project I've tried to push for a while is to work with local high schools to have a small volunteer group of students interested in climate and engineering do a solar pv installation for the school. I almost got a program off the ground in 2020 but it was cancelled due to the pandemic and I've since moved to a new city. My new school district doesn't seem too interested. Has anyone heard of programs like this being done successfully around the county? What are some tips for convincing the school district to accept a project like that? If you're a teacher/student/school related professional in a district in Iowa that might be interested in such a project, feel free to reach out to me!
Maybe reach out to this group and see if students ever help with the projects. https://www.bostonsolar.us/solar-blog-resource-center/blog/solar-panel-installation-for-schools-is-it-worth-it/#:~:text=Solar%20Saves%20Schools%20Money&text=School%20buildings%20and%20campuses%20use,up%20for%20long%2Dterm%20savings.
Modo Energy is a SaaS platform providing data, benchmarking, forecasting, and insights for grid-scale batteries and other energy transition technologies. We have open positions for:
- Data Scientists (London, UK ; Austin TX)
- Energy Market Lead - CAISO (Austin, TX)
- Dev Ops Engineer (London, UK)
https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/modoenergy
The Dev Ops role looks like a fantastic fit for me.... if it was remote-friendly
Peak Power is a cleantech company that develops and operates battery energy storage systems. We're looking for:
- Business development manager (Boston, MA)
- Sales Engineer, Energy Storage Development (Toronto, ON)
- Senior Geospatial Data Scientist (Toronto, ON)
- Technical Support Specialist (Toronto, ON)
https://peakpower.applytojob.com/apply
A couple cool organizations with openings:
Clean Energy Transition Institute:
Summer Communications Intern
https://www.cleanenergytransition.org/careers/ceti-summer-communications-intern
Sightline Institute:
Researcher, Housing + Cities | Permanent, full-time
https://www.sightline.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Sightline-Researcher-Housing-Cities-050824.pdf
Researcher, Democracy + Elections | Permanent, full-time
https://www.sightline.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Sightline-Researcher-Democracy-Elections.pdf
Several job openings at Virginia Interfaith Power and Light, a non-profit that organizes people of different faiths in Virginia to act on climate. Need to be able to work in office in Richmond: https://vaipl.org/job-opportunities/
We have a number of open positions at Industrious Labs:
https://boards.greenhouse.io/industriouslabs/jobs/4373589007
https://boards.greenhouse.io/industriouslabs/jobs/4373603007
https://boards.greenhouse.io/industriouslabs/jobs/4374063007
https://boards.greenhouse.io/industriouslabs/jobs/4381171007
Academic post-doc position in Energy-Water Systems - Idaho State University
- Multi-university project to support native communities addressing energy-water needs
- Spatial/temporal data analytics skills desired
- Larger project team (~30 folks) works to evaluate, model, and develop future scenarios for Energy-Water Systems under various types of environmental, technological, and social change
- Evaluating applications in early July.
https://isu.csod.com/ux/ats/careersite/5/home/requisition/2215?c=isu
Ndustrial is a steadily growing software startup in Raleigh, NC focused on industrial energy management. Multiple roles open including a newly posted Data Scientist position. https://apply.workable.com/ndustrialio/
Job Opening: Cleantech Analyst @ Future Cleantech Architects
Join FCA’s dynamic team! As a Cleantech Analyst, you'll work closely with our Management and Analysis Team to develop impactful cleantech solutions and translate research into actionable policy recommendations. We're looking for someone with a Master’s degree in a relevant field, at least three years of cleantech experience, and excellent English skills. This full-time, remote position offers a competitive salary and the chance to make a real difference. Find out more: https://fcarchitects.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/20240610_CTA_General-2.pdf
MN Center for Energy and Environment has several postings live, with several more coming down the pipes on the Market Transformation team!
https://www.mncee.org/work-with-us
The Association of Air Pollution Control Agencies (AAPCA) is seeking an Executive Director, and the deadline to submit applications is June 21, 2024. AAPCA's website is here: https://cleanairact.org/. The job posting is here: https://csg.applicantpro.com/jobs/3379423
Come work with me at the Department of Ecology on Washington's Cap-and-Invest program! https://www.governmentjobs.com/careers/washington/jobs/4569411/senior-cap-and-invest-market-monitor-financial-examiner-4-in-training
--- EVERYTHING ELSE ---
Something I have been thinking about for a while is the long, LONG term effects and fate of landfills, on climate and other things environmental - like release of plastics. For example, in my old home county in Illinois, the landfill is adjacent to a river. Are landfills one more of those, "Oops! We sure didn't thank of that!" situations? My thoughts here are of landfills being opened up and eroded away due to more severe weather events, much like methane in permafrost being exposed by thawing. All of the cellulosic and organic material is going to keep rotting away as well, and we add huge additional quantities to landfills every day. Landfills are truly the "out of sight, out of mind" solution to a huge daily problem.
I'll tag onto this. My county (Dutchess County, NY) operates a waste incinerator, which is nearing end-of-life, and there's debate on whether/how to replace it. My wife is a county legislator, and she's doing her best to inform herself, bringing climate concerns to bear. On the one hand, even the best incinerator technologies emit local pollutants (including heavy metals) and also of course CO2. On the other hand, the currently available alternative is to truck waste hundreds of miles away to a landfill that will accept it -- with all the problems (incl. methane) you mention, as well as env. justice concerns for the communities we'd truck waste through and to. Of course, we should increase recycling, divert and compost organics, etc. -- and the county is working on all of that. Butt ramping that up is a long, slow slog, with its pace limited (in our largely suburban county with a Republican-controlled legislature) by fiscal and behavioral constraints; and even when we do all that much better than we do now, there will still be tons of waste. I'd love to know: from a climate, and also from a broader environmental/environmental justice perspective, what would best practice be? How SHOULD we deal with the waste we can't readily recycle, divert, etc.? If there's a guest out there who has knowledge and insight, this would make a great pod.
Aha! For Inslee you'll have a "ticket" I'm not using for someone else. I thought I was signing up for webcast.
Probably late to suggest it but regarding Inslee's recent over-ride of restrictions on the Horse Heaven windfarm by WA's siting board, I'd love to hear a message from him to hard-core conservationists, preservationists, etc. Some helpful rationale as to letting go of devotion to almost every place as too pure for renewable siting. Something like that. And wonder what others lurking around here think.
CA's SB1308 aims to curb ozone that's generated by current electronic air cleaners (which is great!), but the proposed bill currently fails to distinguish air cleaning devices that rely on electrostatic attraction from air cleaning using germicidal ultraviolet light. The concern, outlined by 1DaySooner (link below), is that we're potentially stunting a nascent technology that might greatly improve indoor air quality! The hope is that legislators can change the language to grant an exemption, temporary or otherwise, until we have more data on GUV's benefits/risks.
More info: https://www.1daysooner.org/1day-sooners-comments-on-sb-1308-and-effects-on-germicidal-uv-light-technology/
How to help: https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/open-thread-333/comment/58666118
Thanks for sharing this, Anna! Wicks happens to be my Assemblyperson, and I'll absolutely contact her local office.
On a separate note, since Transmission has come-up a number of times, I wanted to flag a piece of legislation that on The Hill right now, from our friends and partner at Protect Our Winters, called the Energizing Our Communities Act. In short, what it does is take a faction of interest from the DOE loan and provides money directly to communities that host transmission infrastructure: 20% for projects that support outdoor recreation (trail maintenance, land conservation, etc), and the remaining 80% is for how the community sees fit: roads, school, affordable housing, etc. You can learn more about it at the link below, and if you're interested in supporting it, there's an easy button to contact your reps and ask them to support it.
https://protectourwinters.org/energizing-our-communities-act/
Does anyone have links to any good explainers, or is willing to help explain here, some advice on the question of public service commissions and energy modeling? Obviously this varies from state to state, but using Wisconsin as an example and specific context, i'm wondering how public service commissions go about making using of energy modeling regarding possible energy scenarios. To my knowledge Wisconsin is a context in which utilities are not required to do IRP's, and even if they were, the PSC doesn't not have the administrative capacity or directive to do its own independent modeling and it does not have a directive to consider the larger energy transition beyond individual dockets. While other intervenors can bring modeling, the utilities are quite limited in the data which they release, limiting the efficacy of the modeling which third parties can do. My questions are 1) Is anyone aware of climate groups who make it their business to do modeling for PSC cases to influence the clean energy transition? 2) How much does proprietary utility data actually matter in energy modeling, can quality modeling be done without it? 3) Are there any clever ways that these groups get around the problem of limited access to utility data? 4) Looking a little further forward, are there examples from states that have passed reforms requiring utilities to release data so PSC's and third party groups can adequately model?
RE: Popularity of the Liebreich pod, I'd say it's because he does an excellent job of distilling vast information spaces into easily understood chunks, and especially since he's outside of the literal theater of American politics. On his Youtube show, I like that he pushes back on practically whatever his guest is claiming--not in an attempt to disprove or disparage, but rather to reveal the underlying points of the guest's thoughts. On top of it all, he's just a good communicator.
--- CLIMATE EVENTS & MEETUPS ---
Hey all, if you are on the Eastside on June 20th we're gathering again to talk climate, forests, startups, and technology at the Cascadia Pizza Co from 4:30-7pm. We'd love to see more folks turn out, I'll be wearing a cruising vest and hard hat as per usual to help folks find the group (we may be out back on the patio weather permitting).
A couple attendees just finished up their climatebase fellowships and I've always got something to say about forests - last week I presented a seminar at MIT on forest biomass and Sustainable Aviation Fuel so biofuels are top of mind right now (IRA and California Clean Fuel Initiatives really close some price gaps!).
More details here: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7206714491785388032/
For those in the greater Seattle and interested in DERs - a few of us have been discussing the Now is the Time for Distributed Energy pod & DETRF. We are starting a monthly DER discussion group with the first meetup on 6/26 - https://lu.ma/xaet8f0x
Separately, several people in the Work on Climate and related communities are hosting a community PNW climate week July 7-13. https://www.pnwclimateweek.org/
I'm hosting a speaker event as part of climate week on July 9. We are having presenters give 60 second speeches about something they want to share from their personal, professional, or communal climate journey. Would love to see people who listen to Volts there if you are local! https://lu.ma/Climate_Min_Motifs
--- SHARE WORK, ASK FOR HELP, FIND COLLABORATORS ---
Does anyone have good curated sources for basic climate explainers (videos, very brief presentations, or written documents), in particular a single place where you send people to quickly get to a basic competence in understanding the problem and solutions? I run a group called Healthy Climate Wisconsin that trains health professionals to advocate for climate policy. In general health professionals have a ton of untapped power, but they are hesitant to speak up unless they feel highly competent on a topic. Most of our group leads got there through consuming hundreds to thousands of hours of reports, articles, and podcasts on the topic. But that's too slow and our group is growing quickly. We are finding a need to have a systematic training system for volunteers. We are developing basic training materials and could use help with videos, brief presentations, or written documents on non-health aspects to climate change, technologies, and policy, including:
-Basic climate overview (sources/causes, trajectory, projections, importance of each 0.1C etc)
-Overview of basic solutions solutions (clean electrification, urban design, land use, etc)
-Understanding the electricity system, problems with rate design
-Basic climate policy (clean energy, urban design, etc)
Thanks everyone!
I recently heard the BBC News World Service plug its own basic climate content. I haven't looked at it, but, the show notes of this episode contains a couple of links.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3ct5wrq
Today I learned climate (TILClimate) podcast is really great!
I've created a website which aims to provide this: https://climatesolutions-careers.org
While the overall framing of the site is around finding a climate career, the largest part of the site is a systematic tour of climate solutions, emissions sector by emissions sector. (Some solutions, e.g. urban design, that don't fit neatly into the analytic framework of the "solutions" half of the site, are explained instead on the careers half of the site -- see, e.g. the page on Urban Planning: https://climatesolutions-careers.org/home/climate-careers/urban-planning-and-architecture/
Hi, I wanted to share some climate action that we (my company) were able to take part in thanks to the help of a great company called Ever.green. What they're doing is democratizing access to high-impact recs via VPPAs, meaning that they're long-term contracts at higher rates that, that have a material impact in standing-up new project—in our case repowering a wind farm that hit it's end-of-life in Big Spring Texas.
This project is not only going to bring clean energy to 19,000 homes in the area, but being that we're looking at this through the lens of emissionality, the reason why we're additionally excited to do it here is that it actively puts pressure on fossil fuels, which Texas still has a majority of their grid powered by.
We're probably the smallest company in the country (we're 14 people) to take this sort of action, which until now it was limited to the big players out there like Apple, Google, etc. More about the project is here: https://www.greenbiz.com/article/how-8-corporate-buyers-are-keeping-aging-wind-farm-texas-grid
Jason, this is fascinating!
Would love for you to share these techniques, which in part have helped keep this legacy wind farm operational for many years to come, with Intention's Climate Energy Community (CIC). The CIC is a free, Slack-based group with around 1K members. And Sam Raasch, who works with David Roberts on Volts and is facilitating these discussions, is also the moderator over there.
Here's how you can join that group and share your great work, along with Ever.green's:
* Join the CIC via the signup form at https://www.investwithintention.io/cic
* Using the Slack app or Slack on the web, visit the CIC's Slack workspace. (Details will be provided on signup.)
* Post in the #introductions channel. (There's an example of an introduction in the pinned post in that channel, or you can just 'riff' on others' introductions.)
Thanks Aron, and just signed-up.
Cool - thanks, Jason!
One more recollection: if the Big Spring, TX wind farm site has turbulent mid-level wind (15'-100' above the ground), Wind Harvest is nearing commercial certification of small turbines (perhaps by 2025-27?) that can take advantage of that resource, to further increase that site's production capacity. They can likely help you evaluate whether the site is a candidate for their tech.
https://windharvest.com/
It produces 2x the power that it did when it was originally online, and is 55 MWh farm now.
I've been integrating articles on water and energy efficiency, ecology, and more into the (otherwise commercial) monthly newsletters from sustainable shower head maker High Sierra Showerheads, with an audience of around 8,000. This newsletter launched in December 2023.
If you know of any businesses, nonprofits (or other organizations), or individuals whose similar work you might like us to feature – for free – in High Sierra's newsletter, "High Sierra Droplets," please feel free to share your suggestions with us. (One way: you reply to this post, now or anytime in the future! Or you can use the contact form at https://highsierrashowerheads.com/contact-us/)
Here's where you can find and read past issues:
https://us12.campaign-archive.com/home/?u=9e828c97e9dc77e0ceaa764d1&id=d2c6931818
Not a comment but a request: I am preparing a series of climate change lectures to be given to an audience of adults in a small rural mining town. The presentations will be focused on what the people in my community can do about climate change and will emphasize the resources available thru the IRA as well as several state programs here in New Mexico. I would appreciate any advice on teaching and climate-change communication resources especially already prepared presentations like power point packages, videos, or written materials that are free to citizens. This stuff has be dumbed down to the level of mostly rural adults. I feel very confident about my own knowledge of the subject as I have a technical background and have done a tremendous amount of reading on the subject but I know nothing about speaking to an audience of general adults. If any of you guys (hopefully including teachers) can point me toward climate communication materials on-line or elsewhere, that would be great. Thanks. Shannon
I don't have anything to recommend, I just wanted to thank you for doing that work!
"An Evening with Bill McKibben" on Friday, July 5 at 6:30 PM. This free event is presented by Third Act Oregon (TAO) and hosted by the Portland First Unitarian Church. (A livestream of this event will also be offered.) We are excited that Bill McKibben is coming to Portland! We are gathering our Third Act Oregon members, and inviting a broader audience of climate and democracy-based groups
He’s right, gas is cheap looking at the upfront cost but the infrastructure to maintain it is massively expensive and the environmental impacts extraordinary. Far cheaper to electrify and build that local economy.
It needs to be said all the time.
Referring to the Michael Liebreich episode above. Great interview. Great thinker.
About to listen to it again too!
Job Opening: Cleantech Analyst @ Future Cleantech Architects
Join FCA’s dynamic team! As a Cleantech Analyst, you'll work closely with our Management and Analysis Team to develop impactful cleantech solutions and translate research into actionable policy recommendations. We're looking for someone with a Master’s degree in a relevant field, at least three years of cleantech experience, and excellent English skills. This full-time, remote position offers a competitive salary and the chance to make a real difference. Find out more: https://fcarchitects.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/20240610_CTA_General-2.pdf