iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Nikolaus J. Kurmayer @nkurmayer.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Incidentally, this speaks to some of the issues in the Brussels media ecosystem We see an EU-subsidised outlet claim a breaking news to its artifical audience a story first reported elsewhere without giving due credit to Reuters (like we, for example, did because we have ethics)

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Nikolaus J. Kurmayer @nkurmayer.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Euro-breaking-news as first reported by... Reuters on Friday night, Euractiv on Saturday morning, Bloomberg on Saturday afternoon Classy !

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Nikolaus J. Kurmayer @nkurmayer.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Man denkt: Geil, Söder will Steuerlast umschichten (stromsteuer anyone?) Söder: CO2-Preis muss weg

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Christian Odendahl @codendahl.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

I am going to get into so much trouble for this. But it is true. Free public transport is bad economics. My latest for The Economist. www.economist.com/finance-and-...

economist.com

The economic folly of free buses

There are better ways to fight climate change, immobility and inequality

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Nikolaus J. Kurmayer @nkurmayer.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Leg mich fest: AfD unter 40% in Sachsen-Anhalt

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Nikolaus J. Kurmayer @nkurmayer.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

So we can all agree that liking olives is correlated with aging, dampened tastebuds, right

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Nikolaus J. Kurmayer @nkurmayer.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Taking all bets as to whether this is Theranos 2.0

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Stanley Pignal @spignal.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

SO YOU'VE WRITTEN A BIG REPORT and you want us to care about it. Please, if you are targetting journalists etc, do these few very simple things. - include a date - make it easy to navigate (no fancy animation stuff) - single column! - charts should link to data - contact info of relevant authors

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Jaap Burger @jaapburger.eu · 25/08/2026

Which came first: an electrification plan or the need to electrify? One way or another, the 🇫🇷🐓 fits right in. And when it comes to the electrification of road transport, both passenger cars and, now, heavy-duty vehicles are clearly on the rise. www.electrifions-la-france.gouv.fr/tableau-de-b...

Market share of electric vehicles for passenger cars, light commercial vehicles and heavy-duty vehicles. Highlighted is their market share in July 2026: 35%, 15%, 5%

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Nikolaus J. Kurmayer @nkurmayer.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Alle wollen schreiben, keiner will mehr lesen

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Nikolaus J. Kurmayer @nkurmayer.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Österreich und die Obsession mit der Bodenversiegelung

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Leonhard Gandhi @energy-charts.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Im Juli 2026 wurden folgende Batteriespeicher in Deutschland zugebaut: 65525 Heimspeicher; 338 MW; 515 MWh 671 Gewerbespeicher; 26 MW; 52 MWh 34 Großspeicher; 299 MW; 624 MWh Summe: 662 MW; 1191 MWh Nachmeldungen sind bis Ende August möglich. energy-charts.info/charts/insta...

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Nikolaus J. Kurmayer @nkurmayer.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

I'm in my thirties and excited for the upcoming Linkin Park Unshatter movie -- are there self-help groups for this

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Nikolaus J. Kurmayer @nkurmayer.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

I'm as much anti-farmer as the next guy... But its extremely dangerous and worrying to see this kind of rhetoric from an influential Brusselite alleging that democratically elected MEPs are engaging in corruption by voting down green rules they'd be most affected by (&hence most informed on)

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Nikolaus J. Kurmayer @nkurmayer.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

Quick reality check: in Kosovo, amost 90% of energy still comes from burning stuff, the country is currently weighing the odds whether to gasify its lignite, and how to make use of US support kosovotwopointzero.com/en/coal-burn...

kosovotwopointzero.com

Coal burns while plans for gas remain in the air - Uran Haxha

Kosovo still lacks a clear vision for gas in its energy system.

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Rudi Bachmann @bachmannrudi.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Ich freue mich: Unser Aufsatz „Monopsony Makes Firms Not Only Small but Also Unproductive: Why East Germany Has Not Converged“ mit @christian-bayer.bsky.social, Heiko Stüber und Felix Wellschmied ist in der Review of Economic Studies erschienen. doi.org/10.1093/rest...

doi.org

Monopsony Makes Firms Not Only Small but Also Unproductive: Why East Germany has Not Converged

Abstract. When employers face a trade-off between being large and paying low wages—and in this sense have monopsony power—some productive employers decide

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Nikolaus J. Kurmayer @nkurmayer.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

Hungarian PM now giving a livestream press conference in front of the empty cooling water pool at the Paks nuclear plant

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Nikolaus J. Kurmayer @nkurmayer.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

Either demand reduction worked really well in Hungary or the country has not yet been able to secure the usual level of electricity imports from neighbours for tomorrow (24 hours from now)

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Nikolaus J. Kurmayer @nkurmayer.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

This post made me read the book, I'm a third in and its fantastic, would recommend to the younger EU mainland crowd (treating it as partially fictitious)

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Nikolaus J. Kurmayer @nkurmayer.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

More on the Irish mafia: “We’re the land of storytellers, and there’s a great value that we might quite intrinsically have in translating complex policy into clear relatable stories,” said Andrea Pappin, who was Ireland’s spokeswoman during its last EU presidency, in 2013.

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Nikolaus J. Kurmayer @nkurmayer.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

Hungary watch signing in In case you're wondering whats going on and why wholesale prices are just inching beyond €500 per MWh now, read our take from this morning: www.euractiv.com/news/hungary...

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Nikolaus J. Kurmayer @nkurmayer.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

As first reported by Euractiv, Ukraine is racing to aid France in its battle against the Bordeaux fires Our flagship newsletter by @eddywax.bsky.social and @nicolettaionta.bsky.social gives you the news you need to know before they happen! www.euractiv.com/news/rapport...

euractiv.com

Meloni exploits Spain’s migration crisis | Euractiv

Also, in Thursday’s edition: Irish speechwriters, Ukrainian firefighters, Russian sanctions

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Nikolaus J. Kurmayer @nkurmayer.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

We are so back: Carsten Brzeski, global head of macro at ING Research, said the data suggests that Germany’s export-oriented industries have been less badly affected than Asian firms by Tehran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz www.euractiv.com/news/eurozon...

euractiv.com

Eurozone defies Iran war shock to grow by 0.4% | Euractiv

Data shows European economy 'remains resilient' despite recent surge in energy prices

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Nikolaus J. Kurmayer @nkurmayer.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

Proper Bluesky story: why the flamingo could become a new heraldic beast for the Greens -- and whos working towards that goal www.euractiv.com/news/why-the...

euractiv.com

Why the Greens are betting on a pink bird… from Albania | Euractiv

‘I wish that many people would protest for nature in Germany,’ key strategist says

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Nikolaus J. Kurmayer @nkurmayer.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

!! Not a drill, the ECB new Euro banknote design survey is out If you like the bird design, click on the link: surveys.ecb.europa.eu/10b/neweuro If you are team 'Beethoven', please unfollow me Should you have no idea what im talking about, my colleague Martina Monti wrote about whats at stake:

euractiv.com

Euro identity crisis: Beethoven or birds? | Euractiv

Europe has been soul-searching for years. Now it has to settle on an answer, and print it

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Nikolaus J. Kurmayer @nkurmayer.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

Actually made me tear up slightly, what a lunch

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Nikolaus J. Kurmayer @nkurmayer.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

Interesting, this, suggesting the Earth is absorbing an extra 2 watt per m2 each year today from the sun, a steady trend since 2009 Reminds me of this essay on the issue of civilisational waste heat aeon.co/essays/there... www.economist.com/science-and-...

economist.com

The rate at which Earth is absorbing energy is alarming scientists

Reflections on a warming planet

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Georg Zachmann @gzachmann.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

We have something new for you! Today we launched the Bruegel ETS Tracker. Based on the great work by Jan Abrell you can now easily access: - emissions by sector, location, installation, time - allocation - auction revenues - carbon prices ets.bruegel.org [feedback more than welcome]

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Georg Zachmann @gzachmann.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

This is @keliauskaite.bsky.social last gas-tracker update. So time for a big THANK YOU for the very productive and fun cooperation at Bruegel during the last three years! [We will reduce update frequency during summer and return to regular updates in September].

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Nikolaus J. Kurmayer @nkurmayer.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

Welcome to the Irish presidency. Maybe you, like me, have started noticing the many Irishmen and women in energy. Where is this 'clean energy mafia', as key player Eamon Ryan put it, coming from? Spoiler: its a byproduct of being an island nation, some argue. www.euractiv.com/news/how-the...

euractiv.com

How the ‘Irish clean energy mafia’ is taking over Brussels | Euractiv

There were forty shades of green in Europe's energy transition even before Dublin assumed the Council presidency today

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Robinson Meyer @robinsonmeyer.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

For the newsletter, and borrowing from @joshchafetz.bsky.social, I wrote about how the Supreme Court has created new agencies to regulate the power grid, nuclear safety, and federal antitrust law that no legislator would have ever designed. Subscribe here: heatmap.news/st/Newsletter

But I suspect that the year’s most important ruling for energy and climate policy came … yesterday. In a 6-3 ruling, the court’s conservative majority allowed President Trump to fire the commissioners of independent agencies without cause. Although the case concerned the Federal Trade Commission, it will matter for every independent agency that governs energy and climate policy.

My colleague Matthew Zeitlin wrote about what the case will mean for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, for instance, and I urge you to read his story. As he writes, the agency that governs the country’s power markets, transmission grid, and natural gas infrastructure has a culture of bipartisan consensus, even comity, and the ruling could chill that warmer clime. Last year, a cross-partisan group of 11 former FERC officials warned that allowing the president to fire commissioners “would bulldoze the structural supports that Congress built into” the agency to protect its power “from abuse.”

But FERC is not the only commission that governs climate and energy policy. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission — which Trump has also sought to bring to heel — is led by independent commissioners. So too are the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which the Biden administration tried (and largely failed) to turn into climate policy-making agencies.

The independent commission is an old American legal structure, invented in the 19th century to manage issues where Congress deemed technical expertise and a deliberative process were essential to producing good policy. Although some guardrails for these agencies remain intact — such as requirements that a certain number of their commissioners come from each party — the court has permanently changed how they work. For instance, instead of having to wait for commissioners at FERC or the FTC to retire, step down, or serve out their terms, the president can now fire any or all of them and remake an independent commission almost as soon as they take office — assuming, at least, a cooperative Senate that is willing to confirm new appointees.

While reading about the ruling, I’ve found myself thinking back to an article written last year by the Georgetown Law professor Josh Chafetz. It concerns a little-known (or at least new to me) 1983 Supreme Court case, INS v. Chadha, that reshaped the relationship between Congress and the executive branch. For decades, Congress passed laws granting new powers to the president (or a federal agency) while retaining the ability to nullify those powers with a “legislative veto,” whereby one or both houses of Congress could cancel a given action with a simple majority vote.

In Chadha, the court ruled that the legislative veto was unconstitutional, a decision that affected hundreds of statutes, according to Chafetz. But crucially, the court did not cancel Congress’ grants of authority in those statutes; it only removed Congress’ ability to veto the use of that authority by a vote. In doing so, it ratcheted up the executive branch’s powers and diminished the legislative’s — “thereby leaving in place only one side of a bargain between Congress and the presidency,” Chafetz writes.

Why does this matter? Because the court is doing something similar again. Congress struck a bargain with the president when it set up commissions like FERC and the NRC: It granted new powers to the executive branch, but also placed important restrictions on how those powers can be used. In allowing the president to fire commissioners, the Supreme Court has altered the deal, preserving Congress’ grant of authority while removing any real restrictions on the president’s ability to use that authority. In doing so, it has overhauled how those agencies work, essentially creating a new and more potent version of FERC, or the NRC, or the FTC that wears the staff and authorities of the old one as a skin suit.

No legislator would have chosen to set up FERC, or the NRC, or the FTC as they now exist. But after the Supreme Court’s partial demo job yesterday, they are the agencies we have. The court has overhauled how the United States regulates electricity markets, or antitrust law, or nuclear safety regulation. Let’s pray, I suppose, that the Supreme Court doesn’t alter the deal any further.

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