The 1-, 2-, 3-, 4-, 5-, 6-, 7-, 8-, 9-, 10-, 11-, 12-, 18-, 24-, 36-, and 60-month periods ending with February 2026 were all the hottest recorded periods of that duration in the calendar in Colorado's 131-year temperature record history.
Proposed tax breaks for data centers would increase taxes for poor Coloradans, analysts say
Send more journalists to NARUC!
It is hard to overstate how critical @ncar-ucar.bsky.social is to climate science in the US and around the world. It's the beating heart of our field. Generations of scientists have trained there, and almost everyone I know relies on deep collaborations with NCAR scientists. It's end is unthinkable.
"'People hear, certainly in this political environment, that coal is going to give us more reliability and lower costs,' Commissioner Tom Plant said, 'but what we’re seeing here is exactly the opposite. It’s less reliable, it’s more expensive.'"
One of the solutions? Create one big Western market that includes California -- exactly what's enabled through passage of this legislation.
This is detailed in WRA's recent report, Managing Seams: Market Coordination in Western Wholesale Energy Markets
westernresourceadvocates.org/publications...
As two markets evolve in a patchwork across the West, the result is "seams" that emerge between markets. These "seams" are inefficiencies that arise from transacting across market footprints; they can raise costs, stress the grid, and constrain clean energy.
Since you said you prefer reading over talking for research, I have some reading material that may be of interest.
Yes. It's a big deal.
bsky.app/profile/erin...
And completely missing Joe Booden.
At a time when the Dragon Bravo fire has burned more than 123,000 acres near the North Rim of the Grand Canyon and extreme heat claims hundreds of lives every year in Maricopa County, Arizona Public Service is walking back its climate goals.
www.azcentral.com/story/money/...
WRA is out with a new report exploring how large data centers used to power AI are impacting energy and water issues in our Western states! This includes a deep dive on utilities' projected load growth forecasts and anticipated water usage.
westernresourceadvocates.org/publications...
Seconded.
I have done my part, it's very good. Thank you.
How much could clean electricity adoption change without tax credits? Existing modeling suggests that annual additions could slow by roughly half for many technologies to 2035. But these studies omit recently proposed excise taxes, which could further reduce project deployment.
Without quick adoption of smart and robust policy solutions, the data centers that power AI pose a fearsome threat to clean air and a habitable climate.
Google's CO2 emissions are up 51% since 2019 and the company reports a 27% increase in year-on-year electricity consumption. And Google is actually *trying* with regard to clean energy.
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
Your book is excellent and I've been recommending it widely.
The book proposal I'm currently working on is about a general theory of crises. So far my research is pointing toward the conclusion that the most important thing to do is to **understand that you are in a crisis** and that the normal rules which serve well in normal conditions may not apply.
But again, none of this has anything to do with the acquisition of a *gas utility* other than the fact that continued reliance on fossil gas -- in the electric generation or gas utility context -- means continued emissions of air pollution, including GHGs like methane and carbon dioxide.
In order to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, we need to quickly deploy clean, zero-emission alternatives to fossil gas that can provide these same attributes to the electric grid.
And, the way Bernhard describes the value of fossil gas electricity generation lumps together some general characteristics of gas generation -- flexibility & dispatchability -- with the technology itself, as though only fossil gas generation can integrate renewables or meet load growth.
A snippet from the article: "Q: Why New Mexico Gas Co.? A: Natural gas is going to be an essential element of the the country's energy future. And it's going to be an essential part of New Mexico's energy future. We cannot have renewables without natural gas. It's just necessary. And especially now that the demand growth has been so great, we're going to have to have more of a full mix of energy resources, and natural gas has to be a part of that."
This conflation of GAS and ELECTRIC utilities seems intentionally misleading. Acquisition of a gas distribution utility has no connection to the use of fossil gas as a firming/integrating resource in the context of the electric grid.
Contrary to Bernhard's claims in this article, its acquisition of New Mexico Gas Co is NOT necessary to advance renewable energy or New Mexico's clean energy transition.
finance.yahoo.com/news/3-quest...
are your mid-century climate pathways on track?
Ever wondered how wholesale energy markets expanding into the west (CAISO & SPP) handle GHG accounting? Or how markets can enable compliance with diverse state GHG policies? If so, (1) you seem cool; and (2) I've got a paper for you.
westernresourceadvocates.org/publications...
Grateful for your work!
❤️
