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Brendon Slotterback

@bslotterback.bsky.social
5.1K followers 1.4K following 4.1K posts

Decarbonization. Likes charts. Helping philanthropy and government advance clean energy. PGH🌲 🚲

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Brendon Slotterback @bslotterback.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
First the AI companies say the tech will take all jobs and kill all humans, the Jensen Huang, in defense, says there aren’t any examples of companies releasing unsafe products. Comms teams batting 1000
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Sammy Roth @sammyroth.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Glad I took the time to read this @ezraklein.bsky.social essay, which does a good job explaining the AI fears in understandable language. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/20/o...
nytimes.com
Opinion | There Is Something We Have to Do Right Now About A.I.
Letting A.I. patrol its own frontier is like asking Jesse James to patrol the Wild West.
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Brendon Slotterback @bslotterback.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
My Climate Week takeaway is always that walkable cities the goat, and NYC still has way too many cars
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Brendon Slotterback @bslotterback.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Above the Mason-Dixson line we’re entering light jacket season during which you get to wear your favorite piece of outerwear for approximately 9-14 days
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Jacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
1) Every damn things he's built without Congressional authorization gets demolished on the first day. 2) Christ, he's like a 7-year old. "Oh yeah? Well MY arch is going to be a FORTRESS with GUNS and DRONES and LASERS, you'll be able to CONTROL THE WHOLE CITY from there."
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Brendon Slotterback @bslotterback.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Should we all meet in the big city?
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Brendon Slotterback @bslotterback.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Great news, let's hope these programs can be quickly restarted
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Brendon Slotterback @bslotterback.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
My local bike/walk advocacy org is delivering the exact same message as the Secretary of the Department of Energy. Horseshoe politics!
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Brendon Slotterback @bslotterback.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Minnesota arrested and jailed an ICE agent for shooting a man last winter. He will go to trial. It’s important not to memory hole all that terror, and lift up how those responsible are being held to account. www.startribune.com/minnesota-of...
startribune.com
ICE agent wanted in Metro Surge shooting is booked into Hennepin County Jail
Christian Castro will now appear in state court one day ahead of his federal court proceedings.
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Brendon Slotterback @bslotterback.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
An amazing tool from the folks at Climate Cabinet. Looks very useful for local and state governments.
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jae holzman @jael.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Scoop: The Trump administration is flouting a court order ruling their de facto freeze on wind farm height approvals was illegal, the lead plaintiff in the case told @heatmap.news, after an update to court laid out no new approvals since the edict
heatmap.news
Trump Keeps Wind Farms Waiting Despite Court Ruling
The administration told a federal court that it has a “new analytical methodology,” hence the continued delays.
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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 17/09/2026
Excellent new work from @powerlines.org: "Lowering Utility Bills and Growing the Economy: A Playbook for Governors"
powerlines.org
Playbooks - PowerLines
PowerLines serves as a hub for modernizing utility regulation by bringing together diverse stakeholders to share ideas, resources, and solutions.
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Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Expanding the Supreme Court is a popular idea, pass it on
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Brendon Slotterback @bslotterback.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
China, Canada, and the EU all have carbon policy and the US has none. A petrostate ostrich, sacrificing our children's futures. Link via @robinsonmeyer.bsky.social, although these are my words heatmap.news/daily/epa-cl...
heatmap.news
The EPA’s Abdication
Under new rules, the United States will impose virtually no limits on greenhouse gas pollution from power plants.
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Brendon Slotterback @bslotterback.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Had the pleasure of crewing some friends at Gravel Nationals in Minnesota this weekend. Paige got onto the podium with fifth in amateur women’s! #hydration
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Lee West @whodat35.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
The hottest summer in American history is no longer 1936; it is now officially 2026. #ClimateChange
America Just Had Its Hottest Summer on Record

Chart shows Contiguous U.S. June-August temperature, difference from the 1901-2000 average
+3°
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1936, the Dust Bowl summer, held the record for 90 years
2026
74.4°F
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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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John Smillie @johnsmillie42.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Hold on to your butts
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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 11/09/2026
"Clean energy is an expensive luxury favored by wooly-headed liberals" has a 30-year head start & the full weight of the RW media machine behind it. A few Dems saying "clean is cheap" a few times -- even as other Dems back off from their clean-energy commitments -- is not going to turn that around.
heatmap.news
Why ‘Clean Is Cheap, Cheap Is Clean’ Isn’t Breaking Through
New polling by Heatmap and Embold Research shows where one of climate advocates’ favorite arguments for renewables is falling short.
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Kevin J. Kircher @kevinjkircher.com · 09/09/2026
US energy nerds like to think of ourselves as innovators. We've recently spilled a lot of ink on networked geothermal for heating and cooling buildings, for example! But this tech is ancient: A geothermal network in France has been running since the year 1332. 700 years! h/t @janrosenow.bsky.social
geothermal-dhc.eu
Chaudes-Aigues: The first documented geothermal district heating system in France - Geothermal DHC
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Justin Mikulka @justinmikulka.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
"China's oil demand is expected to fall by 600,000 barrels a day, or 8.9%, in 2026" And they are now using the phrase "oil demand destruction" in the media. Things are changing.
reuters.com
China oil demand to fall 8.9% in 2026, Sinopec research says
China's oil demand is expected to fall by 600,000 barrels a day, or 8.9%, in 2026, marking ​a third straight annual decline, while refining capacity is forecast to shrink up ‌to 5.5% from 2026 levels ...
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Canary Media Inc. @canarymedia.com · 04/09/2026
Solar for All funding was supposed to help Gary build clean energy and prepare for outages. It would’ve helped during last month’s devastating storm.
canarymedia.com
Gary power outage underscores stakes of Solar for All cancellation
Some city residents went two weeks without power following storms. The federal program, ended by Trump, would have enabled many to access solar and…
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Brendon Slotterback @bslotterback.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
AI experts are just out here saying, "this could get really bad, we may not be smart enough to understand it, and we might not know how to stop it"
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Kevin J. Kircher @kevinjkircher.com · 04/09/2026
My lukewarm take on 1.5 stories is that climate is only one of many reasons to phase out fossil fuels, and probably not in the top two reasons for most people. We should do it regardless, to save millions of lives per year from air pollution, reduce exposure to high and volatile fossil prices, and..
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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
🚨NEW from @propublica.org: over "the strongest possible" objection from the Minnesota federal prosecutor in charge of the case, senior Trump officials reportedly rejected civil rights charges against the ICE officer who shot a man and then lied about it. He'll be charged with false statements only.
Federal prosecutors in Minnesota had been preparing to charge Castro with deprivation of rights under color of law for the shooting of Sosa-Celis, according to several people familiar with the case. Those charges are similar to the ones leveled against Minneapolis police officers accused in George Floyd’s killing and can carry hefty prison sentences. 

Late on Tuesday, Matthew Evans, the assistant U.S. attorney in Minnesota in charge of the case, told lawyers for Sosa-Celis and other victims to prepare for Castro to be charged “only with False Statements,” according to an email that was reviewed by ProPublica. 

That charge would likely carry a far less severe punishment if he were convicted.

“This is being directed by the Main Justice and the US Attorney,” Evans wrote in a remarkably candid account of internal deliberations. “I objected in the strongest possible terms and fought it as hard as I could. It wasn’t enough.”
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Brendon Slotterback @bslotterback.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
These things shouldn’t be built. But we can bulldoze them all. It will be cathartic. It will be a very powerful visual.
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Gregor Macdonald @gregor.us · 03/09/2026
I find myself wondering these days whether a climate-change component is newly present in global inflation rates, and that it's just the beginning.
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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 03/09/2026
What you like to see when recruiting shock troops to serve in the president's personal police force charged with carrying out his fascist orders is an "unprecedented lowering of standards."
nytimes.com
ICE Skipped Basic Checks in Rush for Recruits, Whistle-Blower Says
An official who oversaw the vetting of ICE recruits cited an “unprecedented lowering of standards” amid a hiring surge.
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John Smillie @johnsmillie42.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
So the US peaked at about 22 tons/person/year and China peaked at about 9.
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Brendon Slotterback @bslotterback.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
This morning I took the teen to the great bagel spot we go to on a regular basis before school. But next week she'll start going to a different bagel spot 600 miles away and I won't get to go with her because she's GOING TO COLLEGE
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Brendon Slotterback @bslotterback.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
So congestion pricing very likely saves many lives every month/year?
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David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
I'm pretty confident about this.
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Matt Novak @paleofuture.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
“USPS officials confirmed it was possible that one ballot with a bad barcode or wrong voter information within the more than 2 million ballots could delay the entire mailing, according to two people who attended the related committee meeting.”
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Brendon Slotterback @bslotterback.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Another gas plant in Appalachia being built at costs above rooftop solar pricing (20% above, in fact). This doesn't include fuel prices. Can someone explain this to me? www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/n...
bizjournals.com
NextEra picks site for huge natural gas plant in region - Pittsburgh Business Times
It will add 2,000 construction jobs plus 100 permanent positions when fully operational.
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Climatologist49 @climatologist49.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
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Brendon Slotterback @bslotterback.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
It’s gonna be dark soon, get out there!
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Brendon Slotterback @bslotterback.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
You think drinkable yogurt is just a joke until you try it and are instantly hooked
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Kevin J. Kircher @kevinjkircher.com · 01/09/2026
Air-source heat pumps - efficient electric heating/cooling machines - have outsold gas furnaces for US residential space heating since 2021. Annual ASHP sales have grown 90% since 2004 are now 53% of new residential heating equipment sales. Data and plot from RMI: rmi.org/resources/tr...
Plot showing annual sales of air-source heat pumps and gas furnaces in the US from 2004 to 2026. Heat pumps start well below furnaces, pass them in 2021, and remain higher.
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Brendon Slotterback @bslotterback.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
On a path to 1 GW. Free fuel is good.
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Brendon Slotterback @bslotterback.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Two Wendells
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Brendon Slotterback @bslotterback.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
What's the term for the divergence between what AI says we should do about a societal challenge and the path that humans actually choose to take? Are philosophers or sociologists working on this?
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mtsw @mtsw.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
The administration's true aim is and has been to make sure Americans are the consumers of last resort for oil assets (here and abroad) that will otherwise be stranded when the rest of the world converts to green energy. We pay, they profit
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Brendon Slotterback @bslotterback.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Minnesota, not Europe!
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Radley Balko @radleybalko.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
You know, ordinarily I’d say centrally planned economies are a bad idea. But what if — and hear me out, here — what if we switched to a centrally planned system, except there was only only one planner, and he was a corrupt, senile, 80-year-old man who had driven multiple businesses into the ground?
theatlantic.com
Trump’s Bad Bet on Beef
A new plan to lower prices is causing a rift in his own party.
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Jonathan Koomey @jgkoomey.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Induction is better in every way.
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Brendon Slotterback @bslotterback.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Apropos of nothing I'll point out that Mar-a-Lago is SPANISH for "sea to lake" even though the property is clearly owned and dominated by the US of fucking A
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Daniel Aldana Cohen @aldasky.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
The real scandal devastating high school sports is fossil-fueled climate chaos.
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Brendon Slotterback @bslotterback.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
If you like this, you should love electric vehicles
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David Weiskopf believes in you @dave.bzky.team · 27/08/2026
I think constantly about how easy it is to know most of the right answers once you accept the reality of the problem, and how basically no brain works that way.
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Brendon Slotterback @bslotterback.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
What's driving recent increases in electricity prices in PA, which produces more gas than any other state besides TX? Mostly, it's the cost of generation, capacity is second. @thebrattlegroup.bsky.social finding is the same as the state's Independent Fiscal Office. www.ssii.org/wp-content/u...
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