Kevin J. Kircher

One obnoxious thing is that if bad stuff is really bad, then it can be a better use of your time to try to stop (or reduce) the bad stuff rather than build good stuff. Even though building good stuff feels really good and trying to stop bad stuff is exhausting.

House approves bill to undo IRA efficiency programs Republicans have put forth a string of bills against federal energy efficiency programs and rules.

At a time everyone is complaining about electricity affordability, House GOP wants to eliminate programs that help low-and-middle income Americans reduce their electricity consumption:
www.eenews.net/articles/hou...

Here are some of my thoughts about climate change.

1/12

The Resilient Energy Economies Initiative Announces Six Research Grants to Support Fossil Fuel–Dependent Communities The projects will use a variety of methods to explore timely issues in fossil-dependent regions across the country.

Amidst real tragedies, I'm so glad to have been able to send some folks good news this week -- announcing $450k in funding for 6 projects researching transition in fossil fuel host communities through the Resilient Energy Economies Initiative. I'm so excited about this work to make transition better

Worth noting that investor-owned utilities in Maine outspent public power advocates 34:1. No wonder the latter's message was muffled! Legislative route makes sense. However, as my and others' research shows, investor-owned utilities are quite entrenched in state legislatures, too. (1/2)

charts of EU countries' electricity prices

intraday electricity prices highly volatile in Europe, solar during day, expensive gas at night

underscores need for battery storage

also notice spain holding up better than others, a country with a high concentration of renewables
www.ft.com/content/ac77...

Today's theme is other people explaining very basic things to me like it's my first day on the planet. This includes my entire discipline and basic aspects of my job. Because I don't generally do things to signal that I am incompetent, I can only conclude that it's THEIR first day on the planet.

Yessssss! This is such good policy but so, so politically tricky. If he can pull this off with his popularity intact I will officially deem him a genius.

Everyone must begin talking with everyone else you know about universal electricity shutoffs. We should BAN utility shutoffs today, immediately, for everyone.

Here's a script you can use today to call everyone in your state who has power to do this, that we made last winter
bsky.app/profile/kate...

circling back on this, they did it

My entire journalistic career, editors & owners & bosses told me again & again that my stuff was too long, too in-depth, too wonky, no one would read it.

Again & again, readers flocked to the longer, wonkier pieces, passed them around, wrote me to thank me for them, cited them years later.

explaining the recent Supreme Court decision to take up oil companies' petition in a climate lawsuit, ft. my massive lad Tumbleweed, happy Friday

Now that everyone’s paying attention to global energy markets and effects of faraway events on prices and decision-making, is it a good time to talk about the indirect land use effects of dedicating cropland to biofuel production or nah?

Researchers are always neutral arbiters of truth, steadily and selflessly advancing human knowledge regardless of who funds them. Except researchers I dislike, who are shameless partisan actors.

And never forget, peer review of papers whose conclusions I agree with is always an unimpeachable truth-certifying process, while peer review of papers whose conclusions I disagree with is a messy, fallible social process.

Just a reminder to non-academic plebs: No one with a PhD is ever full of shit. Every graph and statistic created by a Dr. always conveys absolute truth and is never meant to intimidate or impress you into believing a Dr.'s fancied-up opinions.

Ya. Worth remembering when these Very Serious People start trying to (re-)ingratiate themselves with genuine left leaders.

This new paper by @zeitzoff.bsky.social looks at the evolution of tactics in the environmental movement in the US, finding that repression has a substantial affect. Read all about it here:
www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1...

Can AI Replace Social Science Researchers? No. No it can't. Come on, now.

There’s so much I agree with in this piece by @davekarpf.bsky.social and I love this: The best thing a researcher can do right now is focus on “What questions do I actually want to answer?” Then do the work of ANSWERING IT.“ and, if AI is a better social scientist than you,
yikes 😬

Heat pump sales rose 11% in 2025 across 16 European countries, with 2.63 million units sold.

Twelve countries saw growth, largely where subsidy schemes were stabilised and electricity costs addressed.

Policy certainty and energy levies & taxation are proving decisive.

Oil price heading for biggest weekly gain in four years, as strait of Hormuz traffic grinds to a halt – business live Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news

It seems weird that the world's largest petrostate is so invested in making its product as volatile as possible, turning electrification into a national security imperative. But here we are.

The billionaires' eugenics project: how Epstein infiltrated Harvard, muzzled the humanities and preached master-race science Edge - Jeffrey Epstein's favourite intellectual salon - was sold to me as a gathering of the world's finest minds, writes Virginia Heffernan. The files reveal it was something far darker: a decades-lo...

Crucial and powerful essay by @virginiaheffernan.bsky.social. Lest we forget.
www.thenerve.news/p/epstein-bi...

The physics of reliability: Why gas peakers alone can’t save the modern grid Most outages don’t start as a multihour energy shortage; they start as a frequency crisis. If you only have gas, you’re trying to stop a bullet with a shield that takes 10 minutes to lift, writes Arun...

Five years ago it was widely assumed the grid would always need gas peaker plants. So this is quite a sentence. Good article too.

"In the energy industry, we’ve spent decades leaning on a single, reliable “get out of jail free” card: the natural gas peaker plant...it’s becoming a liability."

whaaaat! that... is a hallway

BYD’s Second-Generation Blade Battery Makes Western EV Tech Look Ancient The battery can add a staggering amount of range in under 10 minutes. Here's just how quick it is, and how it compares to the best Western designs.

Everything you think you know about EV charging is going to become obsolete. 🧪🔌💡☀️💨💧🔋 insideevs.com/news/789094/...

Domestic natural gas prices, too, are now tied to global markets due to liquified gas exports. Hasn't always been this way! Doesn't have to remain this way. Bad policy can be undone.

7. "No more than 0.5 footcandles of glare at any adjacent property line" lolololol

"Murder, pedophilia, toxic sludge that turns rats into man-sized villain rats, solar, hurricanes that kill moms. All opposed?"

Next time you're out for a beer with old friends at a conference, play the "which men in our field would hang out with today's Epstein if they aren't already" game! Write down a name on a napkin, shuffle, flip, and see how many times that one egomaniacal clout-chasing bootlicker comes up

Ugh I can't even think about it, too soon after annoying shenanigans

@johnsmillie42.bsky.social tag in?