Brad Plumer

NEW: A record 29% cars sold globally this year will be electric Meanwhile... China is exporting more E.V.s than the U.S. exports cars of any kind Latest w/ @bradplumer.bsky.social → www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

The New York Times is hiring another climate policy reporter. Come work with me! job-boards.greenhouse.io/thenewyorkti...

@nytimes.com: Offshore wind is out. Geothermal power is in. And many climate technology start-ups are looking for ways to carry on without federal backing. “Clean energy isn’t dead in the Trump era. But it does look different these days,” writes @bradplumer.bsky.social

The oil and gas industry wants to sell more LNG. The war in Iran -- and Russia's invasion of Ukraine -- might convince buyers that they would be better off with renewables, coal and nuclear power. by @rebeccafelliott.bsky.social and @bradplumer.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2026/03/29/b...

A giant wind farm in Wyoming died after facing permitting delays. In Indiana, a solar project stalled after the Trump administration blocked it from using a taxpayer-funded database. A federal permitting ‘blockade’ is hitting renewables projects hard. Story with @bradplumer.bsky.social:

I expected the cuts would be bad but I'm honestly stunned and sickened seeing how many great journalists the Washington Post just lost. People who nailed huge investigations, documented war zones, exposed horrific crimes, dropped all at once for failures they did not cause.

Latest House GOP bill has faster phaseout of IRA clean electricity credits—need to start building wind/solar/battery/geothermal before 60 days after law passes and finish by end 2028, or no credit. Nuclear gets an exception—a new reactor can get the credit if it starts construction by end 2028.

DOE's super useful guides to commercializing key technologies are back! You can find the collection of "Pathways to Commercial Liftoff" reports here: yardsale.energy/liftoff-reports Plus check out my amazing graphic design skillz!

Since the IRA passed, companies have made plans to invest over $843 billion in clean energy projects. But just one-third of that has actually been invested, new data shows. Much of the rest is now at risk. On the new House Republican plan to dismantle the IRA, with @harrystevens.bsky.social

Not an exaggeration to say this was pound-for-pound the most effective piece of US public diplomacy in China. Twitter was blocked, but U.S. embassy pollution tweets forced Beijing to start publishing its own pollution data, which fed public outrage. Result: millions breathing vastly less toxic air

More than 300 workers at the National Nuclear Security Administration were told they were fired on Thursday. Now many of them are getting contacted and told to come back to their jobs: www.nytimes.com/2025/02/14/u...

New York Times is hiring for two climate reporter jobs — descriptions/how to apply at the links: 1) Climate policy reporter: nytimes.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/NYT/de... 2) Climate adaptation reporter: nytimes.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/NYT/de...

Update 2/2: Dept of Justice memo directs all agencies to comply with Friday's federal Court injunction prohibiting any arbitrary suspension of federal grants & assistance due to OMB memo or Trump's Executive Orders! Effective Monday 9am. Hat tip @benjaminwittes.bsky.social & @azevin.bsky.social

“These are real human beings. We have one woman in her 80s who lives alone, and if she does not get her roof fixed, well, we’re going to have a senior in her late 80s who is homeless." More on the human cost of this illegal freeze of obligated grants www.nytimes.com/2025/02/01/c... 🎁🔗

Desalination for drinking water is surprisingly affordable. Desalination for agriculture probably doesn't make a ton of economic sense apart from some high-value crops. Really interesting post by @hannahritchie.bsky.social www.sustainabilitybynumbers.com/p/how-much-e...

FID status is one way to break it down. Another is by which projects actually have federal permits, which I track. Federal permitting status courtesy of permits.performance.gov. I have 5.8 GW of #offshorewind under construction (surprised some have no FID) + another 8.1 GW w/ all fed permits. /1

Appreciate the opportunity to chat w/ @nytimes.com about how we can build smarter (and to code!!) after these wildfires. Suspending wildfire building codes only kicks the can down the road and invites another disaster. Hardened homes and defensible space for the win. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Pretty big blow for efforts to make low-carbon steel in the U.S. (Also a strong possibility that $500 million won't be repurposed under Trump's DOE and will go unspent, though I guess we'll see...) www.canarymedia.com/articles/gre...

Nice brief history of prescribed burning (and why we don’t do more of it to reduce wildfire risk): jabberwocking.com/why-dont-we-... by @kdrum.bsky.social

“We’ve forecast peak coal at least three times,” said Rory Simington, a coal analyst with Wood Mackenzie, a natural-resources analytics company. “We keep getting surprised.” www.wsj.com/business/ene...

Really great thread. A key part: “But I also know that you can rebuild and manage the land so that next time the houses won't burn down. I've seen it work.”

Global climate change worsens disasters, but blaming climate change alone deflects responsibility from effective local governance, infrastructure, and warning systems to multinational corporations and international climate mitigation efforts. Time to re-read @frediotto.bsky.social.

This is pretty interesting. An attempt to electrify an entire home without needing to upgrade the electrical panels (which can cost $3,000 or more).

“1.5C was never the difference between safety + ruin, between hope + despair. It was negotiated by govts trying to answer a big q: What’s the highest global temp increase — and associated level of dangers — societies should strive to avoid?” Well said @zhonggg.bsky.social & @bradplumer.bsky.social

The quotes above are from the @nytimes.com article by @zhonggg.bsky.social and @bradplumer.bsky.social with visualizations by @rjnskl.bsky.social (and quotes/data from bluesky users @ingerandersen.bsky.social and @carlobuontempo.bsky.social and @robbieandrew.bsky.social ) To read for free 👇5/5

2024 was Earth's hottest year on record. "The previous hottest year was 2023. And the next one will be upon us before long: By continuing to burn huge amounts of coal, oil and gas, humankind has all but guaranteed it." @zhonggg.bsky.social @bradplumer.bsky.social: www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Really excellent story, as always. "What if many Republican constituents simply don’t like these new investments, in spite of the promises of jobs or tax benefits? What happens if Republicans in Congress are primaried simply for allowing solar and wind to keep getting federal tax breaks?"

Emily Grubert (@gruberte.bsky.social), Wilson Ricks (@wilsonar.bsky.social), and I wrote a short piece on the role of methane offsets in the final § 45V hydrogen production tax credit rules. tl;dr safeguards in the new rules will avoid the worst-case outcomes, but offsetting remains open for new H2

Wild story: A TVA dam was famously halted in the 1970s over fears that it would threaten a rare endangered fish known as the snail darter. (Congress later approved the dam anyway.) Now, new genetic evidence suggests the snail darter was never even a real species: www.nytimes.com/2025/01/03/s...

Interesting thread on the risks of the IRS relaxing the "additionality" requirement for H2 projects in California. Further down, Sara speculates that when utilities' agreements with existing wind and solar expire, they'll have to bid against the H2 industry, spiking prices.

Interesting take on the hydrogen rules by Mathias Zacarias of CSIS— if the coming AI data center boom is as big as hyped, there's going to be scramble for 24/7 clean power, and hydrogen producers using electrolysis may struggle to win out, even with hefty subsidies: www.linkedin.com/posts/mathia...

2023 was a remarkably 'normal' year for CDD, which these days means it was unusual.