David Roberts

I run a newsletter/podcast called Volts about clean energy & politics. Subscribe & join the community at volts.wtf!

🌉 bridged from 🦋 volts.wtf, follow @bsky.brid.gy to interact

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Last Notes

2026-10-27 18:09:09 UTC

Promising!
First new steel mill in Austra...

2026-10-26 18:43:33 UTC

The political media is visibly chafing at the current situation, where Republicans are glaringly awful, fucking everything up, running deviant candidates everyone hates, and Dems are just being normal & winning. The force is out of balance. They are viscerally eager to go after Dems about something.

2026-10-20 19:46:16 UTC

This has been the fundamental mechanism through which political media operates my entire life. The right makes a bunch of noise about a fake scandal, the mainstream media "covers the controversy," & normie voters get the vague impression that Dems are constantly involved in scandal.

2026-10-19 19:20:24 UTC

Homelessness is a solved problem.
Opinion | We Know How to Fix H...

2026-10-17 18:52:33 UTC

"The US conservative movement is engaged in a nationwide effort to reverse child-labor laws and reinstitute child labor" sounds like a crazy leftie conspiracy theory, but ... yeah. It's real.
The Return of Child Labor | Al...

2026-10-17 18:41:56 UTC

What a thought.
Mexico Set to Approve $12.5 Bi...

2026-10-17 18:13:09 UTC

One widely loathed, ketamine-addicted, white-supremacist billionaire can single-handedly keep a failing political party afloat, through the brute force of money.
Excellent system we've set up here.
Elon Musk Is Almost Single-Han...

2026-10-16 06:47:54 UTC

Republicans, man, I dunno.
BREAKING: Matt Gaetz Just Got ...

2026-10-15 20:27:43 UTC

I consider myself a fairly compassionate & empathetic person, but the more I read about people in this particular demographic -- wealthy Gen X white men radicalized by social media & group chats -- the more I loathe them. I understand them *too well* to sympathize. They are contemptible & weak.

2026-10-14 18:05:15 UTC

Since 2020, electricity bills have risen 34% for customers of investor-owned utilities, but only 19% for customers of publicly owned utilities.
Nuking the IOU model & making all distribution utilities publicly owned: people are saying.
One Home’s Power Bill Is $500....

2026-10-14 00:20:28 UTC

Just wild that this is the explicit message.
https://shiitake.us-east.host.bsky.network/xrpc/com.atproto.sync.getBlob?did=did:plc:twjze4qqf6fgxz33ct52wlnl&cid=bafkreigw3xfzv2meh4sws3qfmira3drojdpdp52pnvmmc2h4rfsmnhfiea

2026-10-11 22:29:57 UTC

The more combative Dems get, the more of this they will run into. It will be a coordinated wave of elite opinion, scolding them, tamping them down. The fight strategy *only* works if they are willing to bull their way through it, blow it off, mock it. (Their history does not raise one's hopes.)

2026-10-09 15:32:41 UTC

Today on Volts: the new federal permitting bill is 417 pages long. Some people love it, some hate it, some are just confused. With Daniel Palken, I methodically walk through why it's happening, what exactly is in it, & the political rationale for doing it now. This one is epic & fairly technical.
What’s up with the new federal...

2026-10-08 21:45:57 UTC

Well we certainly got here faster than I expected.

2026-10-05 20:07:08 UTC

Holy shit.
https://shiitake.us-east.host.bsky.network/xrpc/com.atproto.sync.getBlob?did=did:plc:twjze4qqf6fgxz33ct52wlnl&cid=bafkreidcex5xwpsaaaagxsw3muxg6u2cfatklgnz2bccznmmgz7yitdjye

2026-10-05 15:27:09 UTC

The press will do stories on Republican sex creeps, but it will never, ever point out -- much less make an ongoing narrative out of -- the fact that the GOP has been *ridden* with sex creeps for decades. You have to be blind not to see the pattern.
Dennis Hastert, Powerful Polit...

2026-10-04 18:11:08 UTC

Every NextDoor post sounds like a parody of a NextDoor post.
https://shiitake.us-east.host.bsky.network/xrpc/com.atproto.sync.getBlob?did=did:plc:twjze4qqf6fgxz33ct52wlnl&cid=bafkreicnwoev676hstkspll4vfl4iuspchbqpds4vqxikpjyrfgh3xgtl4

2026-10-04 18:08:23 UTC

Remarkable: an industry that is dying because it can't compete in the market writes a Republican president, asking him to keep the industry alive by brute force, and he says, ok.
What would it take for the GOP to lose its reputation as the "free market" party? Seriously, what would it take?
The Coal Industry Asked for a ...

2026-10-03 14:56:45 UTC

The administration has found yet another way to fuck with solar power.
The USDA just made it way hard...

2026-09-27 20:39:42 UTC

I love this paper so much. If I had my way every single journalist, pundit, analyst, and politician in the US would read it & then read it again. I want to quote all of it.
www.frontiersin.org/journals/soc...
Frontiers | The problem with p...

2026-09-25 23:05:44 UTC

Class solidarity.
The Major Social Media Platfor...

2026-09-25 21:29:27 UTC

Republicans made climate partisan. Republicans are keeping climate partisan. The exact words & tone that people who give a shit about reality use to talk about climate are not the reason climate is partisan. Using different words will not make climate less partisan.
time.com/article/2026/0...

2026-09-24 15:48:13 UTC

Oooh, Copper has released the 2.0 version of Charlie, its electric induction range. It now can plug into a normal 120V outlet! Bigger battery, more power. NYC is gonna buy a bunch of these for public housing, help bring the cost down.
Charlie - battery-equipped ind...

2026-09-10 22:35:28 UTC

I think it's under-appreciated how much the threat of physical violence by Trump supporters is an undercurrent in our politics, keeping a lot of people who might otherwise speak out quiet.

2026-09-08 00:12:16 UTC

Always a good time to remind ourselves that the US Confederacy was, even judged in historical context, evil -- a pathetic, morally repellant movement led by some the smarmiest narcissists ever known. It had no redeeming features & should forever be regarded with disgust & contempt.
Trump officials strip military...

2026-09-07 19:13:01 UTC

If I were emperor for a day, one change I'd make:
In every political race, at every level, at least the *first* debate would be replaced by a simple test of knowledge. How do taxes work? What agency is responsible for what? Is your area growing or shrinking in population?
Just basic stuff.

2026-09-05 19:17:49 UTC

This seems absurdly simple, but: Republicans talk *all the time* about how Democrats are bad. Not this or that individual Democrat, but the party, the ideology, the very idea of Democrats.
Democrats almost never do this about Republicans. Not in a coordinated, concerted way.

2026-09-03 18:14:08 UTC

Having already fucked up wind and solar, Trump is now fucking up batteries.
Trump grid order likely to cau...

2026-08-31 16:44:26 UTC

Distributed solar power, the most potent tool available for bottom-up economic development & empowerment, is racing across Africa.
The take-off in African solar ...

2026-08-30 20:19:53 UTC

I think I can say categorically: there is not a single prominent right-wing media figure, including many that regularly campaign with & for Republican candidates, who has not said worse things than the worst thing Hasan Piker has ever said on at least a weekly basis.
Why does no one care?

2026-08-30 20:08:37 UTC

Professional chefs are increasingly realizing that induction cooktops are superior to gas ranges, for a million reasons, but that won't stop people from herding into the comments with all the old "but mah wok!" and "but mah char!" shibboleths.
The chefs turning down the hea...

2026-08-28 00:33:29 UTC

All the e-biking I did in Vancouver & Victoria got me psyched up about possibly getting an e-bike, so I started googling around "how to choose an e-bike" and my god I will never escape this rabbit hole. There's too much internet these days. How does anyone actually make this decision?

2026-08-27 23:52:26 UTC

My work-from-home life, summarized in one image.
https://shiitake.us-east.host.bsky.network/xrpc/com.atproto.sync.getBlob?did=did:plc:twjze4qqf6fgxz33ct52wlnl&cid=bafkreigpqlsio5vduk6poerxpw7ntqyf6fkwmhnekpby4bcb3ah5rtpzsa

2026-08-24 22:07:33 UTC

Headline of the day.
Biggar Penis Woods get the cho...

2026-08-23 19:52:23 UTC

Did you catch that the Trumpies want to permanently end appliance efficiency standards? They have saved US consumers billions of dollars over the years, but they are a mild inconvenience to the makers of less efficient appliances, so.
DOE wants to ‘permanently end’...

2026-08-23 18:30:48 UTC

I hope everyone caught this Lancet study confirming that Elon Musk & DOGE are responsible for genocidal levels of suffering & death.
Evaluating the impact of two d...

2026-08-23 18:28:07 UTC

"The proposed system would capture heat from subway platforms, store it underground and redirect it to nearby municipal buildings during colder months."
Very cool.
New York City eyes first US tr...

2026-08-22 20:37:03 UTC

Been getting invites for Climate Week and feel obliged to share what is evidently a minority opinion:
A 30-minute panel with three participants is completely f'ing useless. It's barely enough time for each participant to dutifully recite their organization's talking points & then it's over.

2026-08-22 19:03:07 UTC

There is basically no distinction left between the oil companies & the administration. The casual corruption here is just breathtaking.
A White House official helped ...

2026-08-22 17:52:32 UTC

I guess we're all supposed to just accept the notion that the right-wingers involved in this debate *actually support* viewpoint diversity, but history suggests that the minute they get power, they will expel or suppress anyone different. The administration is doing it *as we speak*.
#nevent1q…xhaf

2026-08-21 18:36:20 UTC

Climate change is going to fuck up our infrastructure in ways that we can't even imagine in advance -- ways that are not captured in all the faux-precise climate-damage models. We were really stupid to run this uncontrolled, irreversible experiment.
Why one highway exploded this ...

2026-08-21 17:30:55 UTC

Redneck racists?! In *Texas* you say?!
Islamophobia’s Rise in Texas: ...

2026-08-19 16:35:57 UTC

Today on Volts: in 2008, physics professor Ramón Méndez Galain was made energy minister of Uruguay. Over the next 7 years, he led the country to a 98% carbon-free electricity system. With his nonprofit, Ivy, he's now attempting to export the model to other countries in the global South. We discuss.
He helped Uruguay decarbonize....

2026-08-19 00:33:11 UTC

Just weighing in from vacation to note the obvious: Ossoff's use of "Natalie" in that address was a brilliant way to play the attention economy. It works *because* it drew controversy -- by drawing controversy, it drew eyeballs & ears to a story Trump doesn't want in the news.

2026-08-16 23:38:48 UTC

China is going all-in on electric freight trucks. 1/4 trucks sold in China in 2025 was electric.
Trends in other EV modes – Glo...

2026-08-16 01:29:30 UTC

Solar getting more efficient all the time.
The world’s most efficient sol...

2026-08-15 19:46:57 UTC

I know you're not allowed to say this during the current debate, but the reason the left dominates academics, art, comedy, and music is that the right has stupid, discredited ideas, they're not funny, and dull resentment does not make for good art. No grand conspiracy required.

2026-08-13 03:32:07 UTC

This is unfathomably stupid, petty, & counterproductive, even to the administration's own stated goals. Hundreds of hours of good-faith expert work, vaporized.
Energy Secretary Announces Can...

2026-08-12 18:39:39 UTC

The Trump administration does not want Puerto Rico to have more distributed solar power to build resilience against blackouts. Assholes.
DOE cuts solar from loan meant...

2026-08-11 23:07:27 UTC

I think what we're seeing around the internet right now, vis a vis AOC & her ex-boyfriend & her eggs, is just a tiny, tiny, tiny sliver of the absolute madness that will break out if she runs for president. No matter how f'ing weird you think people will be about it, they will be much, much weirder.

2026-08-08 23:12:16 UTC

Not to beat up on Douthat even more, but I'll just say: it has never, in all of post-war American history, been more crystal clear exactly who your enemy should be. Never. If it's not obvious to you, you are morally & intellectually defective.
#nevent1q…5ag9

2026-08-06 19:12:31 UTC

Abdul El-Sayed's main challenge in getting elected will be the naked islamophobia that is ubiquitous in both political parties, in the media, and in the electorate at large.
Anybody out there making this obvious point?

2026-08-06 16:14:18 UTC

In July, on ABC, CBS, and NBC, there were 194 segments on the extreme heat waves rolling across the US.
Number that mentioned climate change: 0.
ABC, CBS, and NBC aired nearly...

2026-08-05 20:42:42 UTC

Trump's support for coal is showing results.
Black lung rates in Appalachia...

2026-08-05 16:57:56 UTC

jesusfuckingchrist
Oregon senators warn predictio...

2026-08-04 18:54:43 UTC

Don't look now, but the world has now installed 3TW of solar.
Took 10 years to get from 100GW to 1TW. Less than 3 years to get to 2TW. Less than 2 years to get to 3TW.
Analysts expect *9TW* by 2036.
The World Crossed a Major Sola...

2026-08-04 17:25:43 UTC

On Thursday, I'm talking with Ramón Mendez Galain, the guy who helped Uruguay decarbonize (see story below).
Got questions?
He got an entire country runni...

2026-08-03 22:01:04 UTC

Has any other Republican called for Miller to step down yet?

2026-08-02 19:10:34 UTC

In happier news, it turns out that blueberries grown beneath solar panels turn out sweeter! 🫐 (via @billmckibben.bsky.social@bsky.brid.gy)
In Massachusetts, a solar farm...

2026-08-01 22:28:13 UTC

In my halfass pursuit of fitness, I've been pondering getting one of those weighted vests. I walk my dogs 3-5 miles a day regardless, I might as well get a little more cardio/strength benefit out of it, right?
Problem: I don't want to look like a giant fucking dork.
Is there a solution to this?

2026-08-01 19:21:22 UTC

You say that hiring young people purely based on their ability to be obnoxious and provocative and racist enough to attract an online following might present some problems when the time comes to actually govern?!
🤔🤔🤔
GOP Staffers Say the Party Has...

2026-08-01 17:33:51 UTC

However horrible you think the Tate brothers are, I promise, it's worse than that. It's insane that Dems aren't making a bigger deal of the GOP embracing these grotesque monsters.
The Tate Brothers' Should Be T...

2026-07-31 16:06:39 UTC

Today on Volts: in lithium-ion batteries, the cathode has been evolving for 30 years, but the anode has remained stubbornly graphite. Now silicon anodes, which promise 5X the energy density & charging speeds, are finally reaching commercial viability. I talk with a silicon-anode pioneer.
Silicon anodes for batteries u...

2026-07-31 01:26:40 UTC

Kinda wild that @jamellebouie.net@bsky.brid.gy is the only person saying this clearly in a high-profile media outlet, but I'm so glad he is.
Opinion | Why Do We Tolerate E...

2026-07-30 18:02:22 UTC

I genuinely don't know what to do about this. In our diseased information environment, one MAGA-adjacent "influencer" can do more to shape public opinion than mountains of studies or facts.
Where are the pro-clean-energy influencers to counter this shit?
The influencer teaching millio...

2026-07-29 19:28:37 UTC

On Friday, I'm recording a podcast with two Idaho state legislators -- one R, one D -- about the set of bipartisan housing-reform bills passed in the state last session (with more on the docket for next session). We're going to dig into the bills & the coalition that supported them.
Questions?

2026-07-29 18:45:43 UTC

This is morally monstrous behavior. These are ordinary, innocent people that Trump is condemning to suffering & death out of political vindictiveness. Every decent human being, regardless of political party, should condemn it. Where is the fucking *anger*? From the press? From civic leaders? Pols?
FEMA said yes to Democratic di...

2026-07-28 19:15:21 UTC

Israel is giving Trump's former campaign manager millions of dollars to fill the internet with pro-Israel articles written by AI, not so that anyone will actually read them, but so that *LLMs will train on them* & regurgitate their perspective.
This is the future of the information environment.
Israel Is Paying Millions to T...

2026-07-27 18:47:01 UTC

One of the most interesting dynamics going on in energy world: as the need for storage duration creeps up, are li-ion (and na-ion) batteries going to keep up or will some threshold be crossed where either long-duration storage or clean-firm becomes more economical?
Sweet spot for battery storage...

2026-07-27 15:34:06 UTC

Every Republican who passively watches on as the president loses his mind in public deserves to be loudly & repeatedly condemned in public. Everyone has decided that Republicans don't give a shit so it's not worth stating the obvious, but it *is* worth stating the obvious.
‘Mental Health Episode’: Trump...

2026-07-25 18:42:50 UTC

It's got something to do with "familiarity breeds contempt." The sheer brash lawlessness of Republicans strikes them as some exogenous, alien phenomenon, like the weather, whereas Democrats' sins feel closer to home— endogenous, something that implicates them somehow.

2026-07-25 18:39:17 UTC

The US press *covers* Trump, I'm not saying they don't. But you can tell when they *care*, when they are genuinely *angry*. They were furious about Biden & Dems constantly. You could feel the umbrage. They don't get angry about Trump. He doesn't seem to offend their sensibilities the same way.

2026-07-25 18:35:37 UTC

I don't know why these two particular episodes (out of so many) stick out in my memory, but: the Biden withdrawal from Afghanistan & Claudine Gay "plagiarism" "scandal."
*No* Trump scandal has received the quantity or intensity of mainstream press fury that those two attracted.

2026-07-24 20:49:58 UTC

Imagine admitting this in public. This guy's bio says he's an "investor" and a "financial philosopher."
https://shiitake.us-east.host.bsky.network/xrpc/com.atproto.sync.getBlob?did=did:plc:twjze4qqf6fgxz33ct52wlnl&cid=bafkreiaruc66fzzj3mgwf4np67b2c5jld6zciq7un7yiqpcunnwoxw6yei

2026-07-22 19:58:19 UTC

As energy bills rise, the US DOE deletes money-saving energy efficiency tips from its website.
You think it can't be this stupid, but it is: the libs like using energy efficiently, so to own the libs, we must waste energy, at any cost.
Why did energy-saving tips dis...

2026-07-21 17:29:21 UTC

My main wish for politics is that people would spend less time fighting people who aren't the fascists literally destroying the country as we speak and more time fighting the fascists who are literally destroying the country as we speak.

2026-07-18 17:57:55 UTC

This is the real fruit of the 60-year RW propaganda war against Democrats & RW domination of media: no matter how bad & obviously a Republican fucks up, no matter how low their approval dips, people still don't like the other party, the one that keeps repairing the country after GOP fuckups.
Economic outlook is worsening ...

2026-07-18 17:47:46 UTC

As I keep saying, the big winner of the Iran War is China.
https://shiitake.us-east.host.bsky.network/xrpc/com.atproto.sync.getBlob?did=did:plc:twjze4qqf6fgxz33ct52wlnl&cid=bafkreib3xk2gocdj7gmhj7k4r6h7wrghtdxtrumwesbeq7l7sccos3lnke

2026-07-18 17:45:01 UTC

Virtually every country in the world *except* for the US is responding to the Iran War in a rational way -- ie, trying to reduce their reliance in imported fossil fuels.
How the Iran War Is Driving De...

2026-07-18 17:38:19 UTC

We didn't previously integrate wildfire-smoke costs into the supposed cost of climate change for the US, and it turns out to be bigger than all those other costs combined. Oops! Gosh I wonder if we're underestimating anything else. Probably shoulda done something about this. Ah well.
What Worries Me Most About Thi...

2026-07-16 17:02:10 UTC

I wonder where people get their optimism that a Democratic establishment that is currently devoting most of its energy to slandering & destroying leftist challengers is going to pivot, in the event of a big Dem victory, to imposing serious accountability on Republicans.

2026-07-14 19:57:09 UTC

An amazing quote from Lindsey Graham in this Atlantic story. It really captures an essential truth about politics that too few people ever really come to terms with.
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
https://shiitake.us-east.host.bsky.network/xrpc/com.atproto.sync.getBlob?did=did:plc:twjze4qqf6fgxz33ct52wlnl&cid=bafkreigvlvqtuf6tkfyvrvdmq5lruzix6xgiq3k7uqjdn2omdiaseercdy

2026-07-12 19:48:48 UTC

Read/listen all about how a "land value tax" can discourage land speculation & encourage dense building on the highest value land, ie, land near urban cores.
www.volts.wtf/p/want-less-...
Want less sprawl and more urba...

2026-07-09 23:05:06 UTC

The thing is, doing sports like Norway (focused on fun, companionship, team spirit) rather than the US (focused on intensity, suffering, competition, which individual is "best") isn't just healthier & more pro-social, it produces *better athletes*.
A Recent Supreme Court Opinion...

2026-07-09 01:18:09 UTC

This is, of course, a self-reinforcing and self-perpetuating cycle that has the side effect of immunizing Republicans from accountability. They *know* they won't get the Platner treatment.

2026-07-08 20:07:19 UTC

Let plug-in solar cook! It's perfectly safe!
White Paper: Disproportionate ...

2026-07-08 17:33:18 UTC

There's a revolution happening in urban transportation across the world. It's not EVs, not even autonomous EVs. It's got nothing to do with AI. No tech mogul is getting rich off it.
Instead, the revolution is centered on an older, simpler technology: bicycles.
Forget EVs. Cycling is revolut...

2026-07-08 03:17:58 UTC

"Epstein got away with rape because people get away with rape. Far more people get away with rape than get punished for it. This is a hideous and inconvenient fact."
Phallocracy All the Way Down -...

2026-07-07 04:41:49 UTC

I hear people say this all the time and it gives me FOMO but I just honest-to-god can't think of an example that's relevant to me. What plugins? What automations? What are they doing? Can you gimme an example?

2026-07-07 04:16:50 UTC

People are always whining about the "system costs" you’re supposed to add to the price of solar, but, uh ...
Why the true cost of new gas p...

2026-07-06 17:31:50 UTC

🧵 One feature of a social media world -- or more broadly, an information environment where anyone/everyone has a microphone -- is that, if you focus in on any particular ideological or policy or shared interest group, you can find obnoxious people making bad arguments.

2026-07-05 18:27:51 UTC

Even at that early age, before I could fully articulate it, it just seemed so *obvious* to me: once you decide that some people are worth basic moral consideration & some aren't, you've cracked the door to every injustice & barbarism in human history. It all starts there. That's the line!

2026-07-05 18:18:26 UTC

Discussing the death penalty with other people in my early teens was my first hint at something that would become very very obvious later: my instincts & values are not widely shared.
Anyway, this is disgusting:
Why Is Florida Executing So Ma...

2026-07-05 17:55:15 UTC

If you doubt, lots of evidence here:
Faith, Freedom, Family, Place ...

2026-07-05 17:35:58 UTC

In the US as in every western democracy, the non-college whites are the ones who want blood-and-soil nationalism & authoritarianism. The founding precepts of the US, as laid out in the Declaration of Independence, have always been an elite project. That fact is awkward for all factions so we 🤫

2026-07-05 17:31:50 UTC

There's a simple fact that no one in US politics is allowed to acknowledge publicly: the demographics most likely to play the role of Real Americans in the elite imagination are the least likely to support the core American value of pluralism. The most American are the least American.

2026-07-02 19:58:31 UTC

Cars & sprawl consume more fossil fuels, produce more pollution, drive more climate change, occupy more productive land, destroy more communities, drive up more healthcare costs, and generate more antisocial politics than ...
... whatever else. Name it.

2026-07-02 17:56:29 UTC

This is the most purely anti-American thing I've ever heard a politician say, but the media is too obsessed with 3 DSA candidates winning local elections in NY to pay any attention I guess.
https://shiitake.us-east.host.bsky.network/xrpc/com.atproto.sync.getBlob?did=did:plc:twjze4qqf6fgxz33ct52wlnl&cid=bafkreic3j4v4eru46blbgn3fz6foisqr25ygv3xnyr5wqedrwow4jyzf5a

2026-06-29 20:36:49 UTC

I remember so distinctly in the early 2000s, watching the growth of RW media -- talk radio, Fox, a profusion of websites -- and thinking, "man, people who believe this deranged shit are going to get into positions of power some day! People should worry more about this! Maybe do something!" Sigh.

2026-06-29 18:52:53 UTC

"The electricity grid is not an engineering problem with coordination problems attached. It is a coordination problem with engineering problems embedded in it."
Thinking Like an Engineer Won’...