Below, a farmer pleads to be allowed to host a wind farm, so that other young people, like his own son, will not be sent to the Middle East in wars for energy.
Continue reading “More War for Oil Begins in Iran”Music Break: Oz Bandit – Cost Curves Don’t Lie
Cost curves don’t lie
They slide
Right past your ego and pride
You can cry online
But time
Moves with the cheaper side
Cost curves don’t lie
They decide
Who adapts and who gets denied
You can rage all night
But the line
Keeps falling by design
You scream “subsidy!” — that’s wild
Oil’s been spoon-fed since Standard Oil was a child
Tax breaks stacked in a trillion-file pile
Public land giveaways mile after mile
Free market? Stop it.
Your whole empire’s been budgeted profit
External costs you conveniently drop it
Now solar scales and suddenly you’ve got a problem?
Is There a New Tipping Point to Worry About?
PBS Terra on evidence for yet another climate system tipping point.
Chart of the Week: Battery Prices Down (again)
Yes, batteries got cheaper again last year. It’s so predictable at this point, it’s almost boring. Almost.
In 2025, the average price of a lithium-ion battery pack was $108 per kilowatt-hour, down 8% from the year prior, according to research firm BloombergNEF’s latest annual survey. It’s the continuation of a long-standing trend: With the exception of 2022, battery prices have declined every single year since 2010, when BNEF began looking at the data.
It’s a crucial metric — something of a skeleton key for the entire energy transition.
Cheaper batteries mean cheaper electric vehicles, and that in turn puts more EVs and fewer gas cars on the road. Cheaper batteries mean you can squeeze more juice out of your solar panels, displacing more planet-warming coal and gas. Cheaper batteries mean cheaper, clean energy — urgently needed in the U.S. as fast-rising utility bills collide with the push to decarbonize our energy system.
If You Liked RFK, You’ll Love this Surgeon General Nominee
Casey Means is a “wellness influencer” (read: grifter) nominated for the office of Surgeon General, the nation’s top medical official.
I say this as someone who is well acquainted with, uses and benefits from alternative medical approaches. There are some flat-out nutballs in that space.
Attn: Senator Bill Cassidy MD – The RFK example should be a giant red flag on this one.
Casey Means has, to say the least, modified her tone. When she testified today in front of the Senate’s health committee, the nominee for surgeon general didn’t, as she is normally wont to do, delve into her experiences with psychedelics or endorse raw milk. She also did not rail at length against birth control. Instead, the longtime health entrepreneur and influencer emphasized her medical degree from Stanford—even though she does not have an active medical license—and sought out common ground with the senators cross-examining her.
Before her nomination last spring, Means—who dropped out of her surgical residency in 2018—embraced some unconventional theories about wellness. As Rina Raphael wrote for The Atlantic last month, Means has talked to trees, implied that natural disasters are a “communication from God,” and dubbed the nation’s health “a spiritual crisis.” When she appeared on Tucker Carlson’s podcast in 2024, she denounced seed oils and suggested that the widespread use of hormonal birth control was indicative of a cultural “disrespect of life.” She has also questioned the universal birth dose of the hepatitis-B vaccine.
Continue reading “If You Liked RFK, You’ll Love this Surgeon General Nominee”Chinese EV-Porn Vid of the Week
There is a whole genre of YouTube video that can only be described as EV porn.
It is exclusively dominated by Chinese Built videos.
Watch this and you’ll understand by Ford CEO Jim Farley said his visits to China were the “most humbling” experiences of his life.
Seething with anger at the arrogance and laziness of US automakers, and the careless indifference even of UAW workers, their jobs on the line, who voted for the US to drop out of the EV race.
Green Transition Roars Despite Political Winds
Capacity growth from utility-scale renewables and batteries in 2026 is projected at 80,809.2 MW. (EIA does not provide a forecast for small-scale solar, but, based on recent growth rates, the SUN DAY Campaign estimates it will provide an additional 6,000 MW or more.)
The net capacity of natural gas, coal, and oil is forecast to fall by 4,211.6 MW. No new nuclear capacity is currently predicted.
Thus, in 2026, renewables and battery storage will account for all of net new utility-scale capacity additions.
After a period of growing concern and accelerating momentum, the project of greening the world’s energy systems certainly feels as if it has been thrown into reverse.
But by the most straightforward measures, that’s simply wrong. There is more green stuff being installed than ever, and judged simply as a global infrastructure project the volume is pretty staggering. In 2024, 92.5 percent of all new power capacity installed around the world was renewable. In 2025, it’s believed that global green installations were even greater. And even in Trump’s United States, which has been behaving in many ways like a petrostate, more than 92 percent of utility-scale electricity capacity planned for 2026 is green.
The transition is more complicated than the headline figures suggest, and even the near future looks uncertain, especially ahead of China’s big Five-Year Plan announcement next month. In fact, the International Energy Agency recently revised its short-term renewable forecasts a bit downward, partly in response to changes in U.S. and Chinese policy. But in the big picture, I.E.A.’s global outlook is nevertheless still clear: Between 2025 and 2030, more than 90 percent of new electricity capacity anywhere in the world is expected to be renewable.
Continue reading “Green Transition Roars Despite Political Winds”Billionaires Gutting Climate Reporting. These Journos Fighting Back
Emily Atkin, passionate climate journalist behind the Heated blog, is launching a climate podcast just in time.
The twist is that she was approached by CBS News Lead Climate reporter, fired when Billionaire and Trump buddy Larry Ellison took over the network, hired a right wing toady to run it, who quickly cleared out the pesky climate desk, including Tracy Wholf, who insiders have described as the heart and soul of the team.
Not long ago, Wholf reached out to Atkin about collaborating. The early result is above.
Paramount Skydance emerged victorious in the bidding war for Warner Bros. after Netflix said it wouldn’t match the David Ellison-led company’s latest offer for the iconic Hollywood property.
Netflix pulled the plug on its deal soon after the Warner board of directors said it determined Paramount’s $31-per-share offer for the entire company was superior to Netflix’s bid for Warner’s movie and television studios and HBO Max streaming service. Paramount is now poised to take control of the entertainment company, home to properties and brands including HBO, Superman and Harry Potter.
Pending regulatory approval, Paramount will own not only Warner Bros. and HBO, but also many popular cable networks including CNN, TNT, TBS and Food Network. The deal would represent a major ground shift for the entertainment industry, which is trying to adapt to seismic shifts in audience habits and technology.
MAGA-aligned billionaires Larry Ellison and his son David have dramatically won a bidding war for CNN’s parent company—and are now on track to turn it Trumpy.
Their Paramount Skydance company has suddenly won its bidding war against Netflix to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery after upping its bid and the younger Ellison attending Donald Trump’s State of the Union address.
Continue reading “Billionaires Gutting Climate Reporting. These Journos Fighting Back”Senator John Kennedy is a Sick Fuck
Rather than engage in discussion of scientific issues, Senator John Kennedy (no, not that John Kennedy) badgers a scientist for retweeting a leftie climate group.
For the record, Climate Defiance is on the right side of history and science, but they would be more effective if they figured out who their friends are.
That said, Oxford educated Senator Kennedy is a sociopath whose Gomer Pyle impression fools no one except the racist inbred troglodytes of his base.
And yeah, he’s a sick fuck.
Fastest Glacier Retreat Ever Recorded
New research led by the University of Colorado Boulder and published in Nature Geoscience explains what happened in 2023, when the glacier lost about eight kilometers of ice in just 60 days. The study found that the key factor was the flat bedrock beneath the glacier. As the ice thinned, this smooth foundation allowed large sections to lift off the ground and float, triggering an unusual and sudden calving event.
The findings could help scientists pinpoint other Antarctic glaciers that might be vulnerable to similar rapid collapse. Hektoria Glacier is relatively small by Antarctic standards, covering about 115 square miles, roughly the size of Philadelphia. However, if a much larger glacier were to retreat this quickly, the consequences for global sea level rise could be severe.
“When we flew over Hektoria in early 2024, I couldn’t believe the vastness of the area that had collapsed,” said Naomi Ochwat, lead author and CIRES postdoctoral researcher. “I had seen the fjord and notable mountain features in the satellite images, but being there in person filled me with astonishment at what had happened.”
Continue reading “Fastest Glacier Retreat Ever Recorded”