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Brendan Pierpont

@brendan.bsky.social
4.9K followers 1.8K following 1.9K posts

Energy and climate nerd. Electricity @energyinnovation.org. Views are my own.

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Brendan Pierpont @brendan.bsky.social · 9h
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Brendan Pierpont @brendan.bsky.social · 10h
⚡⚡ Want to help policymakers understand the best ways to meet growing electricity demand, clean up the grid, and lower electricity bills for customers? Do you have deep grid expertise and experience managing research and analysis projects? Join our team! energyinnovation.org/about/career...
energyinnovation.org
Careers
We are committed to creating a diverse environment and are proud to be an equal opportunity employer.
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Brendan Pierpont @brendan.bsky.social · 10h
The UK's prime minister is proposing a public option for grid transmission investments, to compete with private players and speed up grid connections: www.bbc.com/news/article...
bbc.com
GB Grid: Andy Burnham says public body will invest in electricity grid
The prime minister said he wants to reduce energy costs in his first conference speech as Labour leader.
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Brendan Pierpont @brendan.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Fascinating estimates of AI model energy usage. There's a lot of interesting data here on how energy use per task has changed over time, how open vs. proprietary models differ, but the most striking is how dominant openAI is of the efficiency frontier. cleerdash.sustainableaigroup.com
Graph of efficiency frontier of energy use per task vs. performance for AI models.
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Carl Zimmer @carlzimmer.com · 27/09/2026
Four days ago, a scientist was surprised by the news that Anthropic discovered new virus genes for making DNA. He says he’s been studying them for years—and feeding his data to Anthropic’s AI as part of his own research. Coincidence? Here’s my story. nyti.ms/3VSWayc
nyti.ms
Did Anthropic’s A.I. Really Make a Scientific Discovery on Its Own? (Gift Article)
An expert at the University of Copenhagen said his team had been sharing its research with the company’s A.I. model, Claude, and that its new finding matched their work.
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Brendan Pierpont @brendan.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Neat assessment of power procurement strategies for 21 large data centers in development: energytag.org/wp-content/u...
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John Smillie @johnsmillie42.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Not so fun fact: Since flood insurance is usually separate, the chief climate change related driver of rising homeowners insurance rates in most states is hail damage. www.npr.org/2025/05/23/n...
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Brendan Pierpont @brendan.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
I hope this is not the extent of dems' big ideas on AI safety...
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Brendan Pierpont @brendan.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
😬 www.cnn.com/2026/09/18/p...
cnn.com
Exclusive: US military had close call after using AI for false intelligence report, sources say | CNN Politics
The episode shows the risks of using this new, relatively poorly understood technology in the middle of the Iran war
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George Pearkes @peark.es · 18/09/2026
Absolutely wild summary of how EUV lithography works.
youtube.com
The Closest Thing We Have to Alien Technology
YouTube video by Veritasium
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Emily Atkin @emorwee.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
A few weekends ago I went to Miami and attended 9 open houses in extremely high-risk flood areas to see what agents are telling prospective buyers about them. Here is my journey
heated.world
The open houses at the edge of disaster
What are buyers being told about climate risk in Miami? I posed as one to find out.
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Brendan Pierpont @brendan.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
New analysis from Evolved Energy Research highlights the potential impact of data center demand on natural gas prices and bills, as well as wholesale electricity prices: www.evolved.energy/posts/the-co...
evolved.energy
The Costs You Can't Bill: Data Centers and the Price of Load Growth
A data center pays for what it can be billed for. Its largest costs — higher gas bills, electricity bills, and equipment prices for everyone else — belong to no one.
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Brendan Pierpont @brendan.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Ooof, another data center trip? This one appears to be in AEP's zone.
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Joshua Basseches @joshuabasseches.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
"Electricity ratepayers cover both the liability utilities face after a fire as well as the cost of all of that risk reduction ... Between 2019 and 2024, utility regulators authorized the state’s three private electric companies to recover $40 billion in wildfire-related costs from its ratepayers."
heatmap.news
3 Ideas to Rein in Costs From California’s Wildfires
A new paper from Energy Innovation and GridLab lays out some options for Governor Gavin Newsom — or whoever comes next.
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Brendan Pierpont @brendan.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
A a new model that makes complex decisions just as well as frontier LLMs for an order of magnitude lower cost just goes to show how little we know about the trajectory of AI energy use.
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victoria scott @victoriascott.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
This isn’t funny. Commodities traders only do this when they’re in extreme distress
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Brendan Pierpont @brendan.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
PJM market design nerds - this is a a great analysis of what's wrong with PJM's resource adequacy construct and options to improve it. auroraer.com/resources/au...
auroraer.com
Pathways for PJM Resource Adequacy Market Evolution​
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David Weiskopf believes in you @dave.bzky.team · 16/09/2026
You guys have no idea how incredible this new tool is. If you care about real-deal policy, you gotta check it out.
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Brendan Pierpont @brendan.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
CATF's new report highlights state-led planning to advance clean energy in restructured markets. www.utilitydive.com/news/state-l...
utilitydive.com
State-led planning could advance clean energy in deregulated markets: report
States should step in with new long-term planning processes to bolster nuclear, offshore wind and other technologies that face major barriers, according to the Clean Air Task Force.
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Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · 15/09/2026
People really have no idea how bad it's about to get.
Screenshot of an X post by Rory Johnston (@Rory_Johnston) titled "ALL-TIME HIGH DIESEL CRACK."
​The post text reads:
"The US diesel crack spread (i.e., refining margin) is now sitting above $111/bbl (vs Brent), the highest level on record. The industrial workhorse fuel is currently trading at roughly $220/bbl, more than double the price of prompt crude futures."
​Below the text is a Bloomberg terminal line chart showing the US diesel crack spread spiking sharply vertically in September 2026 to reach an all-time peak of 111.13, alongside a historical comparison panel dating back to 2001. The post is timestamped 10:49 AM · Sep 15, 2026.A Bloomberg chart titled "Million-Dollar Freight: Tanker earnings exceed $1 million a day on benchmark" tracking daily tanker earnings from 2009 through 2026 (source: Baltic Exchange).
​The line graph illustrates historically modest daily freight earnings mostly below $200,000/day, with occasional spikes around 2019–2020, before showing an unprecedented vertical surge throughout 2026 that blows past prior records to cross the $1,000,000/day threshold, marked with a red circle at the apex.
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Brendan Pierpont @brendan.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
New podcast mini series from Quartz on AI's impact on energy. Take a listen. qz.com/ai-data-cent...
qz.com
AI data centers devour U.S. electric grid based on guesswork
The race to build artificial general intelligence has turned electricity into the most contested resource in tech
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Joshua Basseches @joshuabasseches.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Nice toolkit and bill tracker on state-level data center regulation, from Climate XChange: climate-xchange.org/resources-fo...
climate-xchange.org
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ǀ State Policy Toolkits for Data Center Regulation - Climate XChange
Resources for enacting state regulations that effectively mitigate the impacts of data centers on climate and local communities.
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advait @advaitarun.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
NEW CPE REPORT on the urgency of building an interregional transmission macrogrid! @cthelala.bsky.social and I argue that only the federal government can get it built; no other actor on the grid is capable of doing so! Really, this is a paper about the theory of transmission as an asset class:
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Brendan Pierpont @brendan.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Want to understand why long distance transmission isn’t getting built in the US and what we can do about it? Read this new report from the team at @publicenterprise.bsky.social
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Brendan Pierpont @brendan.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
I will say Claude has really upped its electric grid poetry game recently.
Interconnection Queue

Somewhere a spreadsheet says five hundred megawatts
and means it in the way a promise means it —
the same five hundred filed in five directions,
each utility believing it is chosen.

The engineers are building for the sum.
Concrete for a load that split like light
through glass, and landed everywhere at once,
and will arrive, at most, in one place only.

Meanwhile the wire that runs behind the school
was rated in a decade with no summers like this.
It carries what it carries. In the study
it is one line on a page of many lines.

The houses do not file. They simply draw,
a hundred watts, a kettle, and a lamp,
and pay the difference between what was planned
and what came true, in twelve installments, monthly.
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PM2.5 Kills ~9 Million People Each Year Worldwide @tkovach.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
“I wish I could tell you that I saw some reason why things would ease, but it’s difficult right now to see that happen."
wsj.com
Oil Executives Say the Great Fuel Crisis Is Here
Trump officials say the oil-market disruption is temporary, but Chevron’s Mike Wirth and others warn global supplies are running low, with no respite in sight.
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Brendan Pierpont @brendan.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Nice visualization of US energy system data (mostly EIA data): usenergydata.org
usenergydata.org
Understanding America's energy system
Track and understand the numbers behind US energy — year by year, and state by state.
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Brendan Pierpont @brendan.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Dave's data center take is very very worth a read. 👇
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Brendan Pierpont @brendan.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
👀
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Brendan Pierpont @brendan.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Not to be a bummer, but between the rapidly accelerating AI safety risks and rapidly accelerating chokepoints in global energy markets, it's a bit of a troubling Friday.
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Brendan Pierpont @brendan.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
New strait just dropped.
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Josh Lappen @jlappen1.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
This is the Insull strategy of pre-emptive regulation: Calling for your own regulation rather than fighting it allows you to write those regulations to your own advantage.
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Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Incredible chart: “.. US 10-year Treasury REAL yield versus tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz as a proxy for the ongoing crisis.” @bloomberg.com
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Brendan Pierpont @brendan.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
DOE's order to keep the Campbell coal plant from retiring is vacated by the courts. news.bloomberglaw.com/environment-...
news.bloomberglaw.com
Court Rejects Trump Order to Keep Michigan Coal Plant Open (1)
The Energy Department doesn’t have the authority to use emergency powers under federal law to block the closure of the J.H. Campbell coal-fired power plant in Michigan, the DC Circuit said Friday.
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Dave Rogers @drogersenergy.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Courts ruled against the DOE’s made up emergency related to the Campbell coal plant 202c order! www.sierraclub.org/press-releas...
sierraclub.org
VICTORY: Court Rules Against Trump’s Michigan Coal Bailout
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, the U.S. District Circuit Court for the District of Columbia ruled in favor of the Sierra Club, overturning the Department of Energy’s“emergency” order overriding the state’s...
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Dan Gearino @dangearino.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
"The key story here is batteries," said Ed Smeloff, explaining how California drastically cut its gas use. These charts tell the story, comparing the 2026 peak demand day on the California grid to the all-time peak in 2022. insideclimatenews.org/news/1009202... #energysky
A chart showing renewables and battery deployment in California on the peak day of 2026 and the all-time peak day in 2022. It shows renewables and batteries are a much larger part of the mix in 2026 than they were in 2022.Gas and imports were way down in 2026 on California's grid compared to 2022, as this chart shows.
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Inside Climate News @insideclimatenews.org · 10/09/2026
California is quickly moving away from natural gas as a fuel for power plants. Here’s how and why:
insideclimatenews.org
How California Is Kicking Its Natural Gas Habit - Inside Climate News
Solar and batteries matter, but they’re not the only reasons for the steep decline in gas-fired electricity.
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Brendan Pierpont @brendan.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
The catch? It comes out of the social security trust fund.
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John Hanger @jrfhanger.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Good morning with good news: Solar takes all the power growth in Texas, reducing prices & gas generation. Solar & batteries cut prices by ~33% and cut hours with prices over $100/MWh by 75%! Gas was forecasted to rise 15% in 2026 but now may decline! www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti... #energysky
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David Savage @dtsavage.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Feels like the whole data centers and utility bills conversation is sidestepping the potential impact of a massive new gas buildout (whether behind the meter or grid-connected) on gas prices themselves--or at least i haven't seen much coverage.
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John Kostyack @kostyack.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Google's future data centers in Utah to be powered by 400 MW of enhanced geothermal. This is geothermal industry leader Fervo's largest-ever power deal.
wsj.com
Exclusive | Fervo Secures Its Largest-Ever Geothermal Power Deal, With Google
The company, which counts Bill Gates as an early backer, went public in a buzzy IPO in May.
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Gernot Wagner @gwagner.com · 28/08/2026
@bloomberg.com details "Iran war’s energy winners and losers" Winners? China, "leveraging its dominance in green technology manufacturing at a time when soaring oil and gas prices are boosting interest in solar panels, batteries and electric vehicles." www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Chinese Clean-Tech Exports Surge
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Brendan Pierpont @brendan.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Everyone is doing it!
Eclipse
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Joey Politano🏳️‍🌈 @josephpolitano.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Official monthly data is in today, and US solar power generation hit a new record high, up 20% compared to this time last year!
a graph of US monthly solar generation
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Matt Zeitlin @zeitlin.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
It's very very hot in Texas. But the grid is fine. Electricity prices are manageable. What happened? 🔋🔋🔋🔋BATTERIES!!! 🔋🔋🔋 heatmap.news/energy/texas...
heatmap.news
The Texas Grid Has Had a Boring Summer Thanks to Batteries
Temperatures are high, but electricity drama is low.
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Emily Pontecorvo @emilypont.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
There's been a lot of news about natural gas megaprojects tied to data centers recently, and it's getting hard to keep track. I put together a list of the 10 biggest projects, (according to their developers' aspirations, at least,) and the status of each. heatmap.news/energy/10-bi...
heatmap.news
The U.S. Is Building Natural Gas Power Twice as Fast as China
A new report from Global Energy Monitor shows how the scale of planned projects is driving the fossil fuel boom.
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Brendan Pierpont @brendan.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Nothing to see here folks.
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Brendan Pierpont @brendan.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
The plan to power data centers with off-grid gas plants is starting show some cracks - literally: www.wsj.com/business/ene...
wsj.com
Hyperscalers’ Off-Grid Power Push Comes With Risks
Data centers’ huge, fluctuating power demand is testing off-grid power systems.
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Nick Cunningham @nickcunningham.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
really excellent WSJ article on the breakdown of off-grid power at Xai and other data centers. www.wsj.com/business/ene... I'd note that @brendan.bsky.social pointed this kinda risk out to me a few weeks ago --> gasoutlook.com/analysis/gas...
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Bobby Kogan @bbkogan.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
You can’t talk about debt without talking about how we got into a bad predicament, and there’s only one correct answer: tax cuts enacted this century
U.S. debt is on track to reach historic levels
Debt held by the public as a percentage of the gross domestic product, 1792-2055
- Historical - • Projected → Without Bush and Trump tax cuts
187.55%
180%
160
140
120|
100
80
99.38%
60
• 47.85%
40
20
0
1800|
1820 1840 1860|
1880
1900 1920 1940|
1960|
1980 2000 2020 2040|
Hover or click to see values.
• Notes:
Source: Authors' calculations using data from the Congressional Budget Office, the Joint Committee on Taxation, the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, the U.S. Census Bureau, the Federal Reserve, the Yale Budget Lab, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, and the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. A full list of sources is available here.
Chart: Center for American Progress
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