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dorieseavey@bsky.social

@dorieseavey.bsky.social
99 followers 185 following 28 posts

Energy economist focused on clean heating and the future of fossil gas. Senior Research Scientist at Groundwork Data.

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Justin Gundlach @justingundlach.bsky.social · 05/02/2026
The Future of Heat Initiative has more affordability primers for you! Because gas utilities are actually pipe companies and the pipes ain't getting cheaper. #7 Connecticut #8 Rhode Island thefutureofheat.com/publications
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Justin Gundlach @justingundlach.bsky.social · 10/01/2026
In Illinois, as in Massachusetts, residential customers are using less natural gas. But because of how utilities have invested in their distribution systems, utility bills are still going up. The pattern spells trouble, and it's present in other states too (stay tuned for those).
The Future of Heat Initiative: Paying More for Less
Rising Gas Bills in Illinois
Gas bills are on the rise even though customers are using less gas. Because of efficiency improvements and fewer heating days, gas consumption per residential customer is declining. The typical Illinois residential gas customer uses 26% less gas today compared to 2014.
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dorieseavey@bsky.social @dorieseavey.bsky.social · 17/06/2025
The withdrawn PHMSA revisions were the first federal upgrades to leak detection & repair standards since the 1970s. They were much needed due to technology changes and climate change threats, and would have required far greater attention to identifying and fixing more leaks.
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Jacques Leslie @jacquesleslie.bsky.social · 17/06/2025
Here's my latest, a story about the Klamath River basin that, for a change, is upbeat. e360.yale.edu/features/kla...
e360.yale.edu
A Win for Farmers and Tribes Brings New Hope to the Klamath
In the long-contentious Klamath River watershed, an experiment that turned a barley field into a wetland not only improved water quality. It also offered a path forward for restoring populations of tw...
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Jigar Shah @jigarshahdc.bsky.social · 16/06/2025
The infrastructure investments of the past four years represent the most significant progress since the Eisenhower era. But they are neither guaranteed nor permanent. If Congress and the Trump administration don’t act now, we won’t just cede economic advantage. We’ll see energy costs spike…
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Nick Cunningham @nickcunningham.bsky.social · 13/06/2025
LNG exports and data centers are already driving up electricity costs. The repeal of clean energy incentives will make electricity even more expensive for all Americans www.wsj.com/business/ene...
Electric bills are expected to keep climbing this summer along with the temperatures. The Energy Information Administration expects the average U.S. residential electric bill to be about 4% higher this summer than last, mostly because of a jump in natural-gas prices, the largest source of power generation. Natural gas deliveries to power plants will cost about 50% more from June through September than last year. 

Hugh Wynne, an analyst with Sector & Sovereign Research, said expected increases in liquefied natural gas exports are likely to continue to pressure power prices in the long term. “The more we export gas, the more the domestic price will begin to reflect the international price,” Wynne said.
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Nick Cunningham @nickcunningham.bsky.social · 13/06/2025
maybe utility regulators shouldnt sign off on new gas-fired power plants that cost 3x more than they used to. Also, why should ratepayers pick up billions of dollars' worth of costs for data centers?
In Florida, NextEra Energy’s Florida Power & Light is asking regulators to let it increase rates between 1% and 5% a year through 2029. The utility says it needs to invest in the grid and new generation. Since 2021, its labor costs are up 16%, wires and cables 30%, utility poles 49% and transformers 101%.

The frenzy over artificial intelligence, along with new manufacturing and the adoption of electric vehicles, is helping drive U.S. power demand forecasts higher for the first time in two decades. The U.S. wants to build more gas-fired power plants to meet the soaring demand, but construction can cost three times as much as it did a few years ago, utility executives say. 

Across the U.S., the growing pains are sparking fights over how to pay for upgrades and costs. 

About $9.3 billion in additional electricity costs will begin trickling down this month to customers in the PJM Interconnection, the country’s largest grid operator and wholesale electricity market. 

The main cause is the “unprecedented” demand from new and planned data centers, according to a report from Monitoring Analytics, the independent grid monitor for PJM, which provides power to 13 states and Washington, D.C.
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Delaney Dryfoos @delaneydryfoos.bsky.social · 28/04/2025
After Venture Global built its Liquified Natural Gas terminal, the shrimp stopped coming up the river. Ongoing pollution earned the Calcasieu the #9 slot on American Rivers’ 2025 list of most endangered rivers. @thelensnola.bsky.social @americanrivers.bsky.social thelensnola.org/2025/04/28/l...
thelensnola.org
LNG terminals threaten to push Calcasieu River pollution ‘beyond repair’ | The Lens
The shrimp stopped coming up the Calcasieu River after Venture Global built its Liquified Natural Gas terminal. The river’s ongoing pollution, on top of decades of hazardous waste dumping, earned the ...
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Dr. Sandra Steingraber 🏳️‍🌈 @ssteingraber1.bsky.social · 25/04/2025
AI rides a tandem bicycle with fracking. Elon Musk’s xAI—which powers his chatbot Grok—is serviced by fracked gas-fueled turbines, none of which have air permits. Combustion of methane fills the air with NO2. Which makes ozone (smog). Which kills people. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
theguardian.com
Elon Musk’s xAI accused of pollution over Memphis supercomputer
Hearing scheduled for Friday as residents receive anonymous leaflets that downplay pollution dangers
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Hank Green @hankgreen.bsky.social · 24/04/2025
The Loan Programs Office (LPO) is one of the most quietly effective tools the federal government has. It is the center of our industrial policy providing loans that banks won't give for energy innovation. It funds real projects. Battery factories. Nuclear reactors. Geothermal energy. Car factories.
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Jigar Shah @jigarshahdc.bsky.social · 19/04/2025
Energy dominance, what energy dominance. Over the first 100 days this administration has pissed off oil&gas, LNG, nuclear, geothermal, critical minerals, solar, wind, batteries, and innovation. Even with the economic downturn we still have load growth.
podcasts.apple.com
A tsunami of uncertainty for clean energy
Podcast Episode · Open Circuit · 04/18/2025 · 59m
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Robert Osfield @robertosfield.bsky.social · 18/04/2025
During the transition away from fossil fuel we'll see various sectors where incumbents will see revenues drop steadily bit because margins are so dependent on revenue they stop being profitable. If a company stops being profitable it has to pivot from it's existing products/services or go bankrupt.
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Nick Cunningham @nickcunningham.bsky.social · 16/04/2025
"a single year of greenhouse gas emissions from tankers carrying LNG from the United States more than cancels out the annual reductions achieved through driving all the electric vehicles currently on U.S. roads" This is just from the ships themselves insideclimatenews.org/news/1604202...
insideclimatenews.org
The Hidden Climate Costs of Exporting US Liquefied Natural Gas - Inside Climate News
An exclusive Inside Climate News analysis found that a single year of greenhouse gas emissions from tankers carrying LNG from the United States more than cancels out the annual reductions achieved thr...
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Dave Vetter @davidrvetter.bsky.social · 15/04/2025
This type of strident framing is very much looked down on in news media circles. But when we stop and observe climate change from the perspective of physical science, it's hard to deny that our behaviour looks unhinged.
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Peter Stott @stottpeter.bsky.social · 09/04/2025
Extraordinary announcement behind cutting funding to one of the world's leading climate institutes, GFDL. Apparently it's (amongst other reasons) because climate modelling is leading to climate anxiety and therefore should be stopped. www.commerce.gov/news/press-r...
commerce.gov
Ending Cooperative Agreements’ Funding to Princeton University
On Tuesday, April 8, 2025, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick announced that nearly $4 million in funding is ending to Princeton University after a detailed, careful, and thorough review of the...
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Damian Carrington @dpcarrington.bsky.social · 09/04/2025
"The 'emergency' Trump is *actually* responding to—the one that motivated his Big Oil donors to donate $500m in the last election cycle—is the rapid increase in renewable energy deployment" says @billmckibben.bsky.social #climatecrisis billmckibben.substack.com/p/what-is-an...
billmckibben.substack.com
What Is An Emergency?
Thinking as calmly as possible about where we find ourselves
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Katharine Hayhoe @katharinehayhoe.com · 09/04/2025
Today's US EO orders the Attorney General to identify + take expeditious action to stop enforcement of "all State & local laws... purporting to address “climate change” or involving “environmental, social, and governance” initiatives, “environmental justice,” carbon or “greenhouse gas” emissions."
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James Goodwin @jamesgoodwin.bsky.social · 08/04/2025
We're going to become energy dominant by *checks notes* wastefully subsidizing the most uneconomical sources of energy www.eenews.net/articles/tru...
eenews.net
Trump to sign executive orders aimed at reviving coal
A major focus will be on keeping coal-fired electricity generators running past the dates of their scheduled retirements.
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James Goodwin @jamesgoodwin.bsky.social · 07/04/2025
It's okay when the elephants you find in mouseholes are of the deregulatory variety apnews.com/article/trum...
apnews.com
Chemical industry seeks exemptions from US pollution rules as part of Trump administration offer
Industry groups representing hundreds of chemical and petrochemical manufacturers are seeking blanket exemptions from federal requirements to reduce emissions of toxic chemicals such as mercury, arsen...
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Luis Chabolla @lchabolla.bsky.social · 05/04/2025
WH orders increase in national forest logging, particularly in California. “The Trump administration and its allies . . . are aiming to deepen the pockets of private industry to log across our shared, public forests, while sidestepping public review,” said Wilderness Society’s Josh Hicks.
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Karlee Weinmann @karleeweinmann.bsky.social · 04/04/2025
Our @energyandpolicy.org team asked 46 utilities about Trump layoffs that threaten a crucial energy assistance program they say they support -- one that literally prevents Americans from freezing to death in their homes. Few responded. None criticized the cuts. energyandpolicy.org/corporate-ut...
energyandpolicy.org
Corporate utilities largely silent on Trump layoffs of staff who manage LIHEAP
We asked utilities for comment: many defended LIHEAP broadly; none criticized the Administration or the staffing cuts.
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Brad Johnson @climatebrad.hillheat.com · 01/04/2025
Another major federal program illegally and unconstitutionally eliminated.
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Nick Cunningham @nickcunningham.bsky.social · 31/03/2025
banks are financing the climate crisis, not just reacting to it
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Abe Scarr @abescarr.bsky.social · 27/03/2025
Today, the Illinois Commerce Commission denied a motion filed by Peopels Gas asking for a stay of its requirement to file a long term gas infrastructure plan this summer. Illinois PIRG filed a reply to the motion arguing for denial - as did ICC staff. pirg.org/illinois/upd...
pirg.org
Regulators deny Peoples Gas attempt to delay transparent planning
The Illinois Commerce Commission denied a motion by Peoples Gas to stay its requirement to file a long term infrastrucutre plan this summer
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dorieseavey@bsky.social @dorieseavey.bsky.social · 25/03/2025
Here's my new article investigating the impact of high levels of gas utility capital spending on customer bills in MA. For the 3 largest cos., basic delivery charges have been increasing 15-20%/year for the last decade. An overbuilt gas system is the elephant-in-the-room driving up customer bills.
linkedin.com
Rising Massachusetts gas bills: What role are GSEP and other… | Dorie Seavey
Here is Part 2 of my investigation into what's driving higher gas bills in Massachusetts. I take a careful look at the role of capital spending through GSEP…
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Justin Mikulka @justinmikulka.bsky.social · 04/03/2025
The media does a great job of telling us all that methane emissions are down in US oil and gas production and one of their big unsubstantiated claims is that oil and gas producers are actively working to address the issue. There is no evidence for that. Quite the opposite, actually.
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David Pomerantz @davidpomerantz.bsky.social · 04/03/2025
😳 Staff at CT's PURA once said that the guy now being considered for a Commissioner seat, who once ran a competitive retail supplier, “should not be permitted to engage with the electric supplier market or electric utility customers in any capacity in the future.” energyandpolicy.org/ct-lawmaker-...
energyandpolicy.org
CT Lawmaker Eyeing PURA Seat Owes Struggling Ratepayer Over $1 Million
CT Lawmaker
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dorieseavey@bsky.social @dorieseavey.bsky.social · 03/03/2025
The American Gas Assoc reports that gas utility capital spending on distribution infrastructure increased 26X over the last 50 years while natural gas use per residential customer fell 51%. This is the fundamental dynamic driving higher customer bills across the country @hotandtoxic.bsky.social
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Nick Cunningham @nickcunningham.bsky.social · 03/03/2025
U.S. Congress repeals methane fee on oil and gas gasoutlook.com/analysis/u-s...
gasoutlook.com
U.S. Congress repeals methane fee on oil and gas - Gas Outlook
As part of the Trump administration’s deregulatory blitz, Congress scrapped a key climate policy from the Biden era.
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dorieseavey@bsky.social @dorieseavey.bsky.social · 03/03/2025
MA gas utilities have been quick to implicate the state’s ratepayer-funded energy efficiency program, Mass Save, as the cause of soaring winter heating bills. But a careful look at charges for the 3 largest investor-owned utilities shows this is not true. My analysis makes the charges transparent.
linkedin.com
Mass Save is not the culprit: Understanding the true drivers behind rising gas bills in Massachusetts
by Dorie Seavey, PhD Home heating costs in Massachusetts have jumped dramatically in recent months leading to public outcry and pushback. Recently, legislators and the Governor directed the state’s en...
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Pipeline Safety Trust @pstrust.bsky.social · 28/02/2025
"What we know about the construction project that led to ruptured gas main in Philly." www.nbcphiladelphia.com/investigator...
nbcphiladelphia.com
What we know about the construction project that led to ruptured gas main in Philly
NBC10 investigative reporter Claudia Vargas looks into the construction project that led to a ruptured gas main that caused evacuations in North Philadelphia on Thursday.
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dorieseavey@bsky.social @dorieseavey.bsky.social · 27/02/2025
A terrible casualty of this move is the likely tanking of PHMSA's rule on Gas Pipeline Leak Detection & Repair, submitted to Federal Register on eve of new administration. That new rule would have vastly improved the standards gas utilities have to meet re: methane leaks in our cities and towns.
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Nicholas Dawes @nicdawes.bsky.social · 27/02/2025
A heat pump pilot in public housing delivers happy residents and massive savings.
thecity.nyc
Electric Heat Pumps Get Warm Reviews at Queens Public Housing Development
Woodside Houses residents say the eco-friendly alternatives to steam radiators have served them well through the winter.
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Gunnar Luderer @gunnarenergyclima.bsky.social · 22/02/2025
(3) Very difficult to see how timeline and process of this report can be salvaged. The IPCC assessments on mitigation provide essential guidance for climate policy processes, and will be crucial to informing the next global stock take and subsequent climate negotiations on emission reduction targets
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Gunnar Luderer @gunnarenergyclima.bsky.social · 22/02/2025
(2)This stop-work order comes on the eve of an IPCC plenary scheduled for next week. Hardly a coincidence: That plenary is supposed to approve the outline for the next assessment next IPCC report on climate change mitigation developed by Kate Calvin and team together with dozens of other scientists.
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Gunnar Luderer @gunnarenergyclima.bsky.social · 22/02/2025
🚨 Now CCN-official 🚨 Trump issues stop-work-order to NASA chief scientist #KateCalvin, who is also co-chair of the IPCC's working group in charge of the next assessment on climate change mitigation. This is brutal, on so many levels. edition.cnn.com/2025/02/21/c...
edition.cnn.com
Trump bars federal scientists from working on pivotal global climate report | CNN
The Trump administration told US government scientists working on a vital global climate report to stop their work – the president’s latest move to withdraw the US from global climate action and resea...
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Abe Scarr @abescarr.bsky.social · 24/02/2025
“Every gas utility in our state appears to be following the same playbook: Replace as much pipe as possible while ignoring or downplaying less costly — and equally safe — alternatives.” www.baltimoresun.com/2025/02/23/w...
baltimoresun.com
Who’s to blame for Maryland’s rising utility bills? | GUEST COMMENTARY
Energy utilities are taking advantage of the Maryland public, writes Maryland Energy Administration Director Paul G. Pinsky.
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David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 23/02/2025
Google, Microsoft, and Meta's increasing use of data centers has resulted in increased air pollution from extensive fossil fuel energy consumption and associated public health costs related to treating cancers, asthma, and other similar issues, valued at over $5.4 billion in the past five years.
ft.com
Pollution from Big Tech’s data centre boom costs US public health $5.4bn
Research suggests the price of treating illnesses related to building of computing infrastructure in the US is on the rise
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Bill McKibben @billmckibben.bsky.social · 17/02/2025
The defining feature of @thirdactorg.bsky.social is...we've been around a while. And none of us have ever seen anything like this
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dorieseavey@bsky.social @dorieseavey.bsky.social · 17/02/2025
Great summary of progress in Europe toward moving domestic heating systems off gas--including in Mannheim, Hamburg, several Swiss cities, Denmark and the Netherlands.
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Abe Scarr @abescarr.bsky.social · 17/02/2025
I have an OpEd in the Sun Times arguing for a new regulatory approach to the Peoples Gas pipe replacement program. There should be a price for failure. The ICC will issue a final order Thursday. chicago.suntimes.com/other-views/...
chicago.suntimes.com
It's time for a better approach to Peoples Gas pipeline replacement program
The director of Illinois Public Interest Research Group says regulators should make it clear that it won't approve rates hikes for Peoples unless the utility shows that it's being cost-effective in ad...
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Justin Mikulka @justinmikulka.bsky.social · 17/02/2025
Bank of America bucking the current trend in America (just making shit up!) and conceding a bit to reality. Sometimes the data is just too tough to ignore. "With the world's energy appetite set to tumble through 2030, Bank of America estimates that oil demand is nearing its peak...
markets.businessinsider.com
Global oil demand 'clings by a thread' and even AI might not do much to boost crude
"Crude demand clings by a thread," Bank of America said, predicting that slowing global GDP and green infrastructure will weaken oil demand.
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Ethan Howland @ethanhowl.bsky.social · 11/02/2025
The US grid has headroom to handle new data centers, EVs, heat pumps etc. without system upgrades — as long as the load can be curtailed, according to a report released today by the Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability at Duke University.
utilitydive.com
Existing US grid can handle ‘significant’ new flexible load: report
“Flexible load strategies can help tap existing headroom to more quickly integrate new loads [and] reduce the cost of capacity expansion,” Duke University researchers said.
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Sabrina Shankman @shankman.bsky.social · 15/02/2025
We spent the week having anonymous conversations with EPA staff who feared for their jobs and described paranoia, uncertainty, and chaos as they sought to figure out what's next. Then, late yesterday, the layoffs came. w/ @erinmdouglas23.bsky.social www.bostonglobe.com/2025/02/15/s...
bostonglobe.com
‘You’re looking over your shoulder.’ Inside New England’s EPA office amid Trump’s layoffs - The Boston Globe
Some grant-funded work, investments in solar energy and lead removal from homes in Massachusetts, has come to a standstill.
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Building Decarbonization Coalition @buildingdecarb.org · 13/02/2025
Beckie Menten spoke with @justingerdes.bsky.social about #SB1221—a landmark bill that offers a safe solution for neighborhood rebuilds by upgrading Californians with modern clean energy technologies for heating & cooling. #NeighborhoodScale #LAWildfire tinyurl.com/yc5fpwsn
tinyurl.com
Here’s how California plans to start pruning its fossil gas network
In a conversation with Quitting Carbon, the Building Decarbonization Coalition’s Beckie Menten gives an update on the rollout of SB 1221, landmark legislation that authorizes 30 neighborhood decarboni...
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Daniel Tait @taitdl.bsky.social · 13/02/2025
"The Trump-Vance Administration's promise to slash Americans' electricity rates is turning out to be a blatant con job, [...] many folks are getting sucker-punched with unexpected charges and revoked utility bill assistance." - Me to @juddlegum.bsky.social popular.info/p/trump-exec...
popular.info
Trump executive order leads to $100 energy bill hike for hundreds in Alabama
Donald Trump promised that, as president, he would drastically lower Americans' energy bills.
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David Pomerantz @davidpomerantz.bsky.social · 13/02/2025
Bringing this 2022 chestnut over here. Hey, it's still true! Whispers: There's a commission in your state of 3 - 5 people who can shut down all the fossil plants and pipelines and replace them with clean electricity, and SCOTUS can't stop them.
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Katharine Hayhoe @katharinehayhoe.com · 08/02/2025
Guess what - our Science Moms climate ad made this top ten best (upcoming) Super Bowl ads list! The only nonprofit ad on the list! Warning: do not watch without a tissue www.nytimes.com/2025/02/07/a...
youtu.be
ByTheTime
YouTube video by Science Moms
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David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 05/02/2025
The most iconic figure in the environmental sciences is the Keeling Curve, the CO₂ record from Mauna Loa, Hawaii. @noaa.gov had a wonderful site where you could visualize and download these data, and now it's just gone. These data belong to us and we should not let this happen!
A line graph showing atmospheric CO2 levels at Mauna Loa Observatory from 1955 to 2025. The y-axis represents CO2 mole fraction in parts per million (ppm), ranging from 320 to 420 ppm, while the x-axis is years.
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Jigar Shah @jigarshahdc.bsky.social · 30/01/2025
From my latest conversations, new NatGas plants are actually $1,700-$2,000/kW installed. Meanwhile, 4-hour batteries are being installed today at $800/kW. My guess is that 100GW of new batteries will be deployed over the next 4 years -- much more than new NatGas deployments.
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