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Michael Thomas

@michael-thomas.bsky.social
4.8K followers 185 following 434 posts

I write stories and make videos about climate change. Subscribe to the Distilled newsletter and YouTube channel here: linktr.ee/distilled.earth

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Michael Thomas @michael-thomas.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
This week I found permits and satellite photos suggesting Amazon is backing what could be the largest gas power plant ever built in the US. I just got off the phone with the company and confirmed they're behind it. Full story here: newsletter.cleanview.co/p/scoop-amaz...
newsletter.cleanview.co
Scoop: Amazon Is Behind One of the Largest Planned Gas Power Plants in the US
The company confirmed to Cleanview that it acquired the GW Ranch site in West Texas, where a 7.65 GW gas plant will power its first off-grid AI data center
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Reposted by Michael Thomas
David Roberts @volts.wtf · 24/10/2025
Here's a really great, clear explanation from @michael-thomas.bsky.social of what we know about why US electricity prices are rising. (No, it's not data centers, except in some very specific local areas.)
distilled.earth
Why Are Electricity Prices Rising?
Probably not for the reasons that you think
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Reposted by Michael Thomas
Ross Macfarlane @rossmacfarlane.bsky.social · 27/10/2025
We could save more than $1 trillion nationally and cut utility bills for the average household by $1,600 per year by streamlining permitting of rooftop solar. No federal policy needed -- this can all be done by cutting red tape at state and local level. @michael-thomas.bsky.social 1/
distilled.earth
Rooftop Solar Could Save Americans $1 Trillion Dollars
But we have to make it easier to permit and install
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Michael Thomas @michael-thomas.bsky.social · 22/10/2025
This was surprising to me: In states with the highest electricity demand growth—from sources like data centers—electricity prices actually fell over the last 5 years. Totally opposite of the prevailing narrative that data centers raise electricity prices. 🧵
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Michael Thomas @michael-thomas.bsky.social · 16/10/2025
For the last few months I've been going through public documents, permits, and satellite images to track the largest data centers in the US. Today I published the first story about what I've learned. 🧵 www.distilled.earth/p/these-data...
distilled.earth
These Data Centers Are Getting Really, Really Big
Gigawatt-sized data centers are becoming the new normal
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Reposted by Michael Thomas
Joe Rattata (he/him) @joerattata.bsky.social · 29/06/2025
Wanted to help amplify this post from @michael-thomas.bsky.social to my small group of followers. The fate of life on Earth is quite literally at stake. open.substack.com/pub/heated/p...
open.substack.com
The Senate is about to destroy clean energy to give tax cuts to billionaires
The bill could pass within the next 24 hours.
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Michael Thomas @michael-thomas.bsky.social · 29/06/2025
I just published a story with @emorwee.bsky.social about the latest Senate bill. The bill is much worse than climate advocates thought possible. The window to stop it is rapidly closing. But to do that climate advocates need to speak up. www.distilled.earth/p/urgent-the...
distilled.earth
URGENT: The Latest Senate Bill Is Worse Than Climate Advocates Thought Possible
The bill could pass the Senate in the next 24 hours
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Reposted by Michael Thomas
Emily Atkin @emorwee.bsky.social · 29/06/2025
It’s so important to understand WHY the new Senate bill has such drastic provisions to kill renewable energy Fossil fuel industry lobbyists and Big Oil-funded activists have been ALL OVER the GOP in recent weeks, telling them that clean energy jobs are “fentanyl jobs” and “a cancer”
heated.world
The Senate is about to destroy clean energy to give tax cuts to billionaires
The bill could pass within the next 24 hours.
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Michael Thomas @michael-thomas.bsky.social · 23/05/2025
In the coming weeks, the Senate will decide the fate of clean energy in America. So I decided to crunch some numbers and see how much solar, wind, and storage capacity has been built in each Senators' state.
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Michael Thomas @michael-thomas.bsky.social · 14/05/2025
This week, Republicans released their budget bill that aims to repeal the Inflation Reduction Act. I analyzed every clean energy project that has been built since the IRA passed—3,570 in all. The proposed budget bill would hurt Republican districts the most. www.distilled.earth/p/the-republ...
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Michael Thomas @michael-thomas.bsky.social · 07/04/2025
How are tariffs going to impact the solar market in the US? At Cleanview we just published a new dataset and dashboard to help folks understand the potential impact of the latest tariffs. Here are a few takeaways from the data: cleanview.co/content/sola...
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Michael Thomas @michael-thomas.bsky.social · 02/04/2025
🌎 Climate tech job alert 🌎 I'm hiring a Data Engineer at @CleanviewEnergy to build data pipelines that will power our clean energy intelligence platform. If you know anyone who loves working with clean energy data, please send them my way. docs.google.com/document/d/1...
docs.google.com
Cleanview Data Engineer (Contract) Job Description
About Cleanview Cleanview is a market intelligence platform that makes it easy for investors, business development teams, and clean energy professionals to track renewable energy projects and trends. ...
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Michael Thomas @michael-thomas.bsky.social · 06/03/2025
Texas will add more battery storage capacity in 2025 than any other state. Developers plan to build 7 GW of new capacity—as much as the entire US built in 2023.
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Michael Thomas @michael-thomas.bsky.social · 05/03/2025
One of the most overlooked energy stories of 2024: Battery storage grew 65% last year, with the U.S. adding 10.9 GW of new capacity. And growth is accelerating—we're on track for 18.1 GW in 2025, a 68% increase. Just 5 years ago, this technology was considered experimental.
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Michael Thomas @michael-thomas.bsky.social · 19/02/2025
One of the most promising clean energy trends over the last year has been the growth of solar in Republican states in the South. - AR added 943 MW of capacity (99% vs. 2023). - MS added 794 MW of capacity (647% vs. 2023). - LA added 726 MW of capacity (230% vs. 2023). cleanview.co/annual-repor...
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Michael Thomas @michael-thomas.bsky.social · 17/02/2025
Texas is going to build a massive amount of solar this year. It's worth noting that 80% of the capacity (~9 GW) in the chart below is already under construction and therefore protected against Trump's recent orders.
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Michael Thomas @michael-thomas.bsky.social · 12/02/2025
Over the last few months, I've been analyzing data on clean energy trends in America. Today I published a report with ~50 trends that I found in my research. One major takeaway: The U.S. added 47% more clean energy in 2024 than the year before. cleanview.co/annual-repor...
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Michael Thomas @michael-thomas.bsky.social · 17/01/2025
Moss Landing, the largest battery in the US caught fire yesterday. A journalist just asked me, "Are batteries safe?" I told him the fossil fuel plants batteries replace kill 1,000s of people in the US / year. Batteries aren't perfect. But they're way better than coal/gas.
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Reposted by Michael Thomas
Michael Wara @michaelwara.bsky.social · 15/01/2025
Great article from @mchediak.bsky.social on the issues with shutting off transmission lines like the one that MAY have caused the #EatonFire. I want to emphasize a few points here in a thread. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
bloomberg.com
Edison Move to Keep LA Power Lines Operating Draws Scrutiny
Edison International’s decision to leave some Los Angeles power lines operating during a historic windstorm last week is under scrutiny as an investigation into the city’s devastating wildfires gather...
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Michael Thomas @michael-thomas.bsky.social · 14/01/2025
Mark Zuckerberg: "Companies need more masculine energy." Meanwhile, there are more Fortune 500 CEOs named John than there are Fortune 500 CEOs who are women. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
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Michael Thomas @michael-thomas.bsky.social · 14/01/2025
I think one of the funniest forms of audience capture is the people who gained big followings on Twitter by talking about Tesla when Elon wasn't nearly as crazy and now have to stick by him. One day you're posting car specs. The next you're supporting fascism. Oops!
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Michael Thomas @michael-thomas.bsky.social · 14/01/2025
The shift from fossil fuel to electric appliances isn't going to happen if the sustainable option costs 2-3x more. We need to get these installation prices down fast.
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Michael Thomas @michael-thomas.bsky.social · 14/01/2025
Another takeaway from my upcoming 2024 clean energy trends report: The US added a huge amount of battery capacity to the grid in 2024. But the vast majority of it was built in just 4 states: California, Texas, Arizona, and Nevada.
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Michael Thomas @michael-thomas.bsky.social · 13/01/2025
New data from a report I'm working on: The U.S. added a record amount of solar capacity in 2024. The country added 34 GW of utility-scale solar, which is 74% more than last year's record year.
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Michael Thomas @michael-thomas.bsky.social · 10/01/2025
There's a famous study (Fritz 1961) that found after natural disasters people in affected communities often show altruistic behavior and temporarily suspend social divisions. In the digital world, it increasingly feels like the opposite is true.
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Michael Thomas @michael-thomas.bsky.social · 10/01/2025
2024 was another record-breaking year for clean energy in the U.S. Here are some stats from an upcoming report I'm working on for Cleanview: - 96% of new power capacity was carbon-free - 74% more solar added vs. 2023 - 99% more battery capacity added vs. 2023
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Reposted by Michael Thomas
News Eye @newseye.bsky.social · 09/01/2025
These extraordinary photos of the LA fires have been shared widely on social media, often without crediting the photographer. These are all the work of Ethan Swope, an LA-based photojournalist working for AP. You can follow his remarkable reporting here👇 www.instagram.com/ethanswopeph...
A street is orange from flames and you can see the high winds in the palm trees. Sparks fly down the streetA fire truck is engulfed in parks and flames are seen on the hill. The entire photo is red and orange from the fireA fireman with a hose runs across the front of a house in flames in the backgroundThe inside of a house is a ball of flames. The only visible thing inside is a burning Christmas tree
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Michael Thomas @michael-thomas.bsky.social · 09/01/2025
This is a really interesting thread.
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Michael Thomas @michael-thomas.bsky.social · 08/01/2025
Ok this is wild. In 2020, California's state insurer of last resort program had $436 million of exposure in the Pacific Palisades zip code. Four years later, in Sept 2024, they had ~$3 billion in exposure (~7x more) in that single zip code (90272).
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Michael Thomas @michael-thomas.bsky.social · 08/01/2025
Last year State Farm dropped 70% of their customers in Pacific Palisades. As of Sept. 2024, the state's insurer of last resort program had $5.9 billion of exposure in the area. www.cfpnet.com/key-statisti...
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Michael Thomas @michael-thomas.bsky.social · 08/01/2025
There are few things more annoying on the internet than a chart, statistic, quote, etc. that doesn't have the source linked. One of the reasons why I like BlueSky. It doesn't penalize links, which has a lot of subtle effects on user behavior.
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Michael Thomas @michael-thomas.bsky.social · 07/01/2025
This piece by @triofrancos.bsky.social and @aldasky.bsky.social argues that to win, Democrats need to embrace green economic populism. But what they don't mention is that green economic populism was literally the Biden administration's main policy proposal! 🧵 www.nytimes.com/2025/01/07/o...
nytimes.com
Opinion | Biden Left Us With a ‘Prius Economy.’ It’s Time for Something Different. (Gift Article)
Climate impacts are fueling the cost-of-living crisis, especially for the poor and working class.
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Michael Thomas @michael-thomas.bsky.social · 03/01/2025
I will never be able to look at a Cybertruck the same after seeing this.
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Michael Thomas @michael-thomas.bsky.social · 20/12/2024
American exceptionalism at its finest
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Michael Thomas @michael-thomas.bsky.social · 20/12/2024
2024 will go down as the first full year when wind and solar generated more electricity than coal. Our air and water is cleaner, our electricity is cheaper, and our world is better as a result. www.canarymedia.com/articles/cle...
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Michael Thomas @michael-thomas.bsky.social · 20/12/2024
Trump, Musk and Republicans in Congress cutting funding for child cancer research right before Christmas so they can cut the corporate income tax rate is just a total Scrooge move.
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Michael Thomas @michael-thomas.bsky.social · 20/12/2024
Walmart is blaming this on "obstacles in energy policy, infrastructure and the availability of low-carbon technologies." But if you look at what the company is and isn't doing to cut their emissions you see this is largely bullshit. 🧵 www.ft.com/content/6e73...
ft.com
Walmart pushes back climate change targets
World’s largest company by sales acknowledges progress is delayed and it expects to miss its 2030 goals
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Michael Thomas @michael-thomas.bsky.social · 20/12/2024
Huh that’s weird. Never could have seen this coming. www.ft.com/content/6e73...
ft.com
Walmart pushes back climate change targets
World’s largest company by sales acknowledges progress is delayed and it expects to miss its 2030 goals
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Michael Thomas @michael-thomas.bsky.social · 18/12/2024
A lot of people quoting/commenting that this shows there's an impending housing crash coming. Maybe. But don't underestimate Americans ability to continue doing stupid stuff. I think the most likely scenario is that we just continue to subsidize climate risk because, well, America.
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Michael Thomas @michael-thomas.bsky.social · 18/12/2024
Some shocking figures from the latest Congressional report on climate change and insurance. Since 2018, more than 1.9 million home insurance contracts nationwide have been dropped. In more than 200 counties, the nonrenewal rate has tripled or more. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
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Michael Thomas @michael-thomas.bsky.social · 18/12/2024
Elections have consequences. In Brazil, deforestation rates have fallen by 50% due to Lula's policies. www.sustainabilitybynumbers.com/p/amazon-2024
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Michael Thomas @michael-thomas.bsky.social · 18/12/2024
I’ve gained about 200 followers in the last 24 hours. But I don’t know why. So new friends, where’d you hear about me??
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Michael Thomas @michael-thomas.bsky.social · 17/12/2024
Southern states have been slow to build solar over the last decade. But that's slowly starting to change. Last quarter, states in the South built the most solar in the country. And it wasn't just Texas. Louisiana, Georgia, Arkansas, and Kentucky all built a lot. Good trend to see!
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Michael Thomas @michael-thomas.bsky.social · 16/12/2024
Some good climate news to start the week: The U.S. built less new gas capacity in 2024 than any year since 1994. Most of it was combustion turbines that are designed to run infrequently to meet peak demand. cleanview.co/data-insight...
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Michael Thomas @michael-thomas.bsky.social · 15/12/2024
I don’t believe that Paris exists. Will someone take me to prove that it does?
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Michael Thomas @michael-thomas.bsky.social · 14/12/2024
I somehow missed all the discourse about “freedom cities” in the 2024 election and found this article by @mnolangray.bsky.social really interesting. open.substack.com/pub/mnolangr...
open.substack.com
Where Could the Federal Government Actually Build Freedom Cities?
And where should the BLM sell off land generally?
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Michael Thomas @michael-thomas.bsky.social · 13/12/2024
*Taps the chart*
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Michael Thomas @michael-thomas.bsky.social · 13/12/2024
Texas is building more solar than any state. It also leads the country in electricity emissions and pollution. So what lessons should the rest of the country learn from Texas about decarbonization? My latest newsletter 👇 www.distilled.earth/p/be-careful...
distilled.earth
Be Careful of the Lessons You Learn In Texas
Texas is building more solar than any state. It also has the state's dirtiest electric grid.
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Reposted by Michael Thomas
Silvio Marcacci @silviomarcacci.bsky.social · 13/12/2024
Fun fact: Clean energy costs keep getting cheaper as technology improves and more capacity is deployed. Fossil fuels stay roughly the same cost to deploy, while volatile commodity costs spike whenever global markets tighten.
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Michael Thomas @michael-thomas.bsky.social · 13/12/2024
One of my favorite facts: In 1975 solar panels cost $115 per watt, which means it would have cost $1 million to put solar panels on your roof. Today, you can buy solar panels for less than $0.25 per watt. www.distilled.earth/p/the-remarkabl…
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