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Rob

@robertferry.bsky.social
4.1K followers 2.2K following 9K posts

Climate policy, society, and the built environment. Architect, LEED AP BD+C. landartgenerator.org

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Reposted by Rob
Fietser @americanfietser.bsky.social · 5h
"But the handicapped need cars!" No, what they need are options in mobility. The tech exists to enable their freedom of independent mobility, but almost always what is lacking is the enabling infrastructure. Bike lanes and quality sidewalks serve everyone.
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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 2h
And clearly this is not going to happen by way of “market forces” when the incumbent industry is hell bent on spending more money per kWh as long as they can keep gas going as a fuel for electricity production and they have enjoyed regulatory capture for the past 40 years.
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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 2h
To safeguard a habitable planet for future generations we can’t be building any new gas power infrastructure period. The era of gas as “bridge fuel” is officially over and good timing because solar and wind with storage is now more economical.
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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 5h
I’m calling a 5-3 split with Thomas and Gorsuch joining the majority with Kagan, Sotomayor, and Jackson because the two conservatives stay true to their deeply held federalist principles and limits on the commerce clause. 😛
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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 6h
Good to hear! It was Sixt. Never used them before. I rent very infrequently and just went with what was economical. My bad. Won’t use them again.
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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 8h
There is so much misinformation out there. I had to rent a car yesterday and asked the attendant, “just out of curiosity do you rent electric vehicles?” Attendant: “No way. They don’t really work and our customers would be stranded with dead batteries.” I felt like I’d gone back in time 20 years.
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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 8h
*Deciding. I guess there is some decoding involved too. :-)
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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 8h
Again the fate of our environment rests on the whim of one conservative decoding to actually be consistent about states rights and federalism. The irony here is that if a corporation pollutes *so hard* that it crosses state borders then state law may not be able to do anything? 🤦‍♂️
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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 20h
I keep coming back to one simple amendment to the bill: require all data centers to deploy additional clean energy and storage on the grid that matches their anticipated hourly load.
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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Actually, here is NASA’s own website talking about how great Regenerative Fuel Cells are for lunar power supply. “RFC is an electrochemical energy storage device that operates like a rechargeable battery to store significantly more energy with lower mass for long-term energy storage needs.”
techport.nasa.gov
NASA TechPort
NASA's Technology Portfolio Management System (TechPort) is a single, comprehensive resource for locating detailed information about NASA-funded technologies. Those technologies cover a broad range of...
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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
There seems to be a lack of creativity here or any desire to design a system that is actually built for purpose and context.
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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
“Any power system near the moon’s south pole would have to survive temperature swings between 130 and -334 degrees Fahrenheit.” Could these wide temperature differentials be harnessed to generate electricity? Yes.
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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
If we must do this (must we really?), there are many ways to supply reliable power besides nuclear. “Solar panels would not work during cold lunar nights that stretch over two weeks of Earth time.” What a great opportunity to demonstrate the cutting edge in long-duration energy storage?
nytimes.com
Superpowers Race to Put Nuclear Reactors on the Moon (Gift Article)
The United States wants a reactor on the moon by 2030. A Russian-Chinese alliance is working on one for 2036. Some leading scientists say the danger is great.
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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Also, please, elections are not sports. It’s absolutely about each individual candidate. This ad is terrible for many reasons but the worst may be that it reinforces one of the most harmful characteristics of US political polarization: Don’t think, read, or pay attention, just vote for the “team.”
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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
One amendment to the BAAJA blast that would improve the bill is to require data center developers add new clean energy generation and storage on the grid that is equal to their hourly demand. Without this, the bill is certain to lock in new gas power infrastructure our climate simply can’t afford.
medium.com
BAAJA Amendment — Additional Clean Energy for Large Computational Loads
Background
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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Also very most important constituent is the PGA tournament.
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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
I could see this turning Almería from grey to pink that you can see from space.
theguardian.com
Visible from space: why Spain has the world’s biggest concentration of greenhouses
Andalusia houses ‘Europe’s vegetable garden’ – a laboratory of development and innovation producing vegetables for all of Europe
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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
How great is it that many of our farms in the future will be bright pink? “Broccoli grown under magenta solar panels absorbed sunlight more efficiently than plants grown out in the open.”
phys.org
Multitasking in magenta: Colored solar panels could help farms grow crops and generate electricity on shared land
Broccoli grown under magenta solar panels absorbed sunlight more efficiently than plants grown out in the open, according to a study to be published Oct. 2 in Cell Reports Physical Science.
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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Also, this is not an endorsement of goat farming. Just an endorsement of solar power. 😀
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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Great question. I don’t know. Plenty of land around to meet that on-site offset though probably.
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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
This solar rooftop installation is the GOAT. It’s actually on a goat farm. Nothing about this takes away from the pastoral setting in rural Vermont. Just nicely reflects the sky.
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Reposted by Rob
Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 03/10/2026
I have absolutely wondered about this. Amazing.
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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
If there is a silver lining perhaps it is that the future of music will get a boost of creativity from the Suno era. Listeners will seek out new sonic experiences for which there is no training data. No more twelve bar blues or three chord rock chord progressions in 4/4 time. It’s time to explore.
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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
No shade on the musicians but the clip they put up against AI was just not great. I knew it was human because of how mediocre it was but I still like the AI clip better. Also don’t use blues as a genre. Create something more innovative because that is exactly what AI can’t do.
nytimes.com
An A.I. Songwriting Experiment: Humans Against the Machine (Gift Article)
Five humans convened for a weekend to create new music from scratch. Could they do better than A.I.? Could you even tell the difference?
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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Here it is! My amendment to BAAJA for your kind consideration. It's ready to slot into the bill. @whitehouse.senate.gov @heinrich.senate.gov It requires data centers to develop their own hourly matched clean energy and storage on the grid. Do not settle for anything less than this please. Thanks!
medium.com
BAAJA Amendment — Additional Clean Energy for Large Computational Loads
Background
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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
It's official. Let your new solar flags fly! Signal your virtuousness to your neighbors while actually doing something positive for the world and saving yourself a little cash over time.
latimes.com
Want solar but don't own a roof? California just legalized plug-in panels, no permission required
A new California law legalizes the plug-in solar panels that are becoming popular in other states and in Europe.
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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Over the next two years we are unfortunately going to see some of the craziest racist YOLO agitprop imaginable.
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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
🎯
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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
The American people should accept nothing less than a 100% clean energy and storage hourly match requirement for any data center permit. The companies can comply with this and it will help decarbonize the entire grid.
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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
All to say that any shared benefit from AI will only be possible with a new round of New Deal or Great Society redistributive federal laws and regulations. Otherwise we will just continue down the ever widening k-shape path where 99% stay struggling while the 1% reach new heights of wealth hoarding.
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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Throughout this AI-co-written essay Stevens et al refuse to explain that the only reason we now work ~40 hours rather than 70 hours per week is because of (socialist) federal laws, not because of technology or productivity.
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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Ah. Makes sense now… “A.I. has the potential to enhance the way we live in the same way. It saved me and my colleague, Will McGrew, many hours of prowling the internet to research this essay. That left us with time to do other tasks.”
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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Maybe he works at the Fraunhofer Institute.
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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
It’s a nice theory until you remember that reduction in overhead costs these days go to shareholders, c-suite bonuses, and stock buybacks—almost never having the effect of reducing consumer prices. Why? Because they can. In fact, tax law and regulations today are designed to incentivize it.
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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
“The key driver of efficiency is technological innovation. Think robots in factories, self-checkout…Inventions like these lower the amount of labor required to perform tasks, which reduces companies’ costs and keeps a lid on prices.” Wait. Grocery store prices fell after self-checkout tech? 🙄
nytimes.com
Opinion | Six Charts That Show Just How Much We Need A.I. (Gift Article)
All the worry about artificial intelligence should not obscure this key point: If we don’t develop it, we’ll be a lot worse off.
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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
I would support it if the data center provision required development of additional clean energy and storage on the grid—matched to hourly data center demand—and that it be up and running before the GPUs could be operational.
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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Not enough on the side of clean energy here. Also not enough detail for the public to be able to tell. Jane Fleagal “cites new modeling predicting it could cut co2 emissions from the electric system 9% in 2035.” Even if she’s right, we need to be going much faster than that.
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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
This reminds me of the evergreen Tom Toro cartoon in the New Yorker where an older man in rags tells the three children sitting around a small campfire in a post-apocalyptic landscape, "Yes, the planet got destroyed. But for a beautiful moment in time we created a lot of value for shareholders."
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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
They were handed down by Nixon, who according to Republicans is the next best thing to Moses.
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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Hundertwasser's waste to energy plant! One of the more artistic energy infrastructure projects and an inspiration for those who seek to bridge the divide between culture and energy systems.
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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
France is actually a decent policy model to follow here. Gas is already mainly under state control and the regulator, CRE, is raising tariffs now while the rate base is still large in order to build a fund for ordered decommissioning and an increase in energy vouchers for lower income families.
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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
We need to reckon with the fact that the only way to manage this is through nationalization / municipalization. Corporations are—by law—not capable of managing their own decline and the poorest households will be the ones left to pay higher bills as the rate base shrinks to cover system maintenance.
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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Left out of this op-ed is the fact that if oil prices do eventually fall as a consequence of free-flowing wells and tankers, it will be a scenario leading us into a 3-4 degree C warmer world. More likely (hopefully) they will fall because of global demand destruction from EV sales.
nytimes.com
Opinion | If You Think Rising Oil Prices Are Bad, Just Wait for the Inevitable Crash (Gift Article)
An oil bust is on the horizon.
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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
I would want to see some provisions in this bill that do as much for solar and wind as it’s doing for gas. Like “by right” permits for certain land typologies: brownfield, agricultural, anything where nature has already been removed through development of some kind.
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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
The problem is that any gutting of NEPA or the Clean Water Act disproportionately helps fossil fuels and hurts clean energy technologies because, by their nature, they just cause less pollution.
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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
“States would only be allowed to reject a project based on water quality — they could not cite air pollution or climate impacts.” There is a lot in here that is very bad. But the transmission and data center changes are desperately needed.
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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Thanks!
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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
What I’d love to know is exactly what the Ds are asking for in exchange for their vote before the election. They have to have something big and pro-climate they are going to get in exchange for all the oil and gas pork destined to be in there. Right? Right‽
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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
The Venn diagram of exceptional ability and tacit loyalty are two separate circles on opposite sides of the page.
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Rob @robertferry.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
This $250 million grant will put a lot of solar on a lot of rooftops. It's money that's already been allocated and spent. It's just being held up on final distribution to the successful applicants. Crazy the *Environmental Protection Agency* might still appeal this.
utilitydive.com
Second federal judge overturns $7B Solar for All cancellation
The decision in a suit brought by Harris County, Texas, follows a similar ruling last week. A Harris County judge called it “a really important victory for energy resilience.”
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