Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Dustin Mulvaney @dustinmulvaney.bsky.social · 2h

Good Q. Probably could make a decent guess. the mirrors are spaced more than pv and vegetation remains in between roads/under mirrors. Ivanpah burned enough natural gas to have to participate in cap and trade! So pv +batteries def is lower carbon. Curious to see if it will be repowered.

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Dustin Mulvaney @dustinmulvaney.bsky.social · 2h

Winter is coming #CAwx

NWS 3-7 day hazards outlook showing heavy precipitation over much of California next week.

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Randy Watkins @bluetortoise3.bsky.social · 3h

I spent 4 years working on this, but it was a bad project, not least due to the location next to a big golf course w/ prominent water features that attracted large numbers of migratory birds that were incinerated flying through the solar fields. www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/big-green/ca...

California Shuts Down Its Solar Thermal Plant 13 Years Early

The Ivanpah Solar Power Facility is set to shut down in 2026 after failing to meet its energy targets. Ivanpah…

www.instituteforenergyresearch.org

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Dustin Mulvaney @dustinmulvaney.bsky.social · 3h

Here we go again. Go get em Coastal Commission. @thecacoast.bsky.social. www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2025/10/09/c...

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Dustin Mulvaney @dustinmulvaney.bsky.social · 3h

Totally. My suspicion is this is coming from developers who painstakingly sketch out financial/tax equity plans, only to have them disrupted. Utilities still need to meet the renewable portfolio standards, so at least there’s that (for now).

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Dustin Mulvaney @dustinmulvaney.bsky.social · 4h

NV Energy filed a waiver request with FERC this summer to allow developers of stalled solar projects—citing dependence on since-repealed investment tax credits—a 60-day safe harbor, to withdraw from the interconnection queue and recover their deposits penalty free. nevadacurrent.com/wp-content/u...

Dustin Mulvaney @dustinmulvaney.bsky.social · 5h

The Esmeralda seven solar project IMO was kind of a shit show. 100 square miles of public lands with rare plants, to be disc and rolled.. they had no water or water rights for dust control. No water in Nevada, no solar. No substation, no offtaker (even w/NVEnergy proposed transmission line nearby).

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Dustin Mulvaney @dustinmulvaney.bsky.social · 4h

For sure. Even the most controversial project on public lands get the green light. I think it has mostly to due with this:
nevadacurrent.com/2025/08/20/t...

Trump's policies, according to NV Energy's July 28 waiver request, "may have created significant challenges for solar and wind developers, especially for projects on land controlled by the Bureau of Land Management."

"The request suggests that developers may abandon renewable energy projects that are no longer feasible," Utility Dive reported Tuesday. "Projects with solar or wind components make up nearly 80% of NV Energy's interconnection queue."

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Dustin Mulvaney @dustinmulvaney.bsky.social · 5h

The Esmeralda seven solar project IMO was kind of a shit show. 100 square miles of public lands with rare plants, to be disc and rolled.. they had no water or water rights for dust control. No water in Nevada, no solar. No substation, no offtaker (even w/NVEnergy proposed transmission line nearby).

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Dustin Mulvaney @dustinmulvaney.bsky.social · 5h

This site needs more likes less lurks.

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Dustin Mulvaney @dustinmulvaney.bsky.social · 5h

Here is some good policy today.
bsky.app/profile/gove...

Governor Gavin Newsom @governor.ca.gov · 14h

California is expanding early education for young children, creating a new grade, Universal Transitional Kindergarten, for all of California's four-year-olds.

Through investments like these, we'll be moving the needle on student academic achievement for years to come.

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Dustin Mulvaney @dustinmulvaney.bsky.social · 5h

Yikes. Great intel. Fwiw, this part of greenlink west transmission line was already delayed bc of Paiute reservation and military airspace conflict. Without transmission line, they have no substation. Also no PPA, which pending projects should have. Looking forward to learning more what you find!

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Dustin Mulvaney @dustinmulvaney.bsky.social · 5h

Chanterelles on cover for the win.

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jael holzman @jael.bsky.social · 5h

SCOOP: The Bureau of Land Management says the largest solar project in Nevada — the Esmeralda 7 mega-farm — has been canceled

The news was quietly dropped via a sudden website update with no public word from any of the companies involved or a statement from the agency

@heatmap.news

Esmeralda 7 Solar Project Has Been Canceled, BLM Says

It would have delivered a gargantuan 6.2 gigawatts of power.

heatmap.news

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Dustin Mulvaney @dustinmulvaney.bsky.social · 6h

Colorful evening waterscape, Monterey Bay.

Colorful line Lights reflected in water from wharf

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Jennifer Molidor @jennifermolidor.bsky.social · 6h

Hanging onto every bit of good news

The river has come alive in the Klamath with wild Chinook salmon. The wider ecosystem is healing.

This most powerful story of Indigenous-led #rewilding after the largest dam removal in US history keeps getting better.

lostcoastoutpost.com/2025/oct/9/o...

One Year After Klamath Dam Removal, 'There's Just Fish Jumping All Over the Place': Scientists Describe Improvements to Water Quality and Wildlife

lostcoastoutpost.com

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Dustin Mulvaney @dustinmulvaney.bsky.social · 10h

📌 bsky.app/profile/mark...

Mark Bray @mark-bray.bsky.social · 15h

Friends and comrades made a crowdfunding page for my family.

It’s really hard to post this. I know that there are a lot of other important issues asking for money but things have gotten to the point where we need to open ourselves up to your support.

Thank you for your consideration.

"Help us leave safely" on FreeFunder

Click here to support "Help us leave safely" by Dara on FreeFunder!

www.freefunder.com

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Dustin Mulvaney @dustinmulvaney.bsky.social · 10h

Coal leases on public lands in the news: Navajo Transitional Energy Company, the only bidder, stunned coal market watchers with an offer of $186,000 for 167 million tons of federal coal associated with its Spring Creek mine in southeast Montana.
bsky.app/profile/dble...

Dustin Bleizeffer @dbleizeffer.bsky.social · 1d

BREAKING: Feds postpone Wyoming coal sale despite Trump's promises to "revitalize" the industry. Critics say even the coal industry isn't betting big on its future.
- @WyoFile wyofile.com/trumps-major...

Trump's major coal sales flop in Wyoming and Montana - WyoFile

Feds postpone Wyoming coal sale despite promise to "revitalize" the industry. Critics say even the coal industry isn't betting big on its future.

wyofile.com

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Dustin Mulvaney @dustinmulvaney.bsky.social · 10h

A park employee, who spoke with SFGATE on the condition of anonymity to protect their job, said they know of only one wilderness ranger working the entire park. And technically, that person is not even a ranger, the employee said, but a volunteer.

SFGATE @sfgate.com · 11h

"It's the Wild Wild West."

Squatters, illegal BASE jumpers invade Yosemite amid federal shutdown

"It's the Wild Wild West."

bit.ly

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SFGATE @sfgate.com · 11h

"It's the Wild Wild West."

Squatters, illegal BASE jumpers invade Yosemite amid federal shutdown

"It's the Wild Wild West."

bit.ly

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Dustin Mulvaney @dustinmulvaney.bsky.social · 11h

Yes! Those closer ridges and your house are sliding left/northwest a few inches a year, headed to San Francisco (and eventually into the gulf of Alaska?!?).

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Dustin Mulvaney @dustinmulvaney.bsky.social · 14h

We’ve benefited from the early rollout of this program. Huge.

Governor Gavin Newsom @governor.ca.gov · 14h

California is expanding early education for young children, creating a new grade, Universal Transitional Kindergarten, for all of California's four-year-olds.

Through investments like these, we'll be moving the needle on student academic achievement for years to come.

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Governor Gavin Newsom @governor.ca.gov · 14h

California is expanding early education for young children, creating a new grade, Universal Transitional Kindergarten, for all of California's four-year-olds.

Through investments like these, we'll be moving the needle on student academic achievement for years to come.

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Dustin Mulvaney @dustinmulvaney.bsky.social · 14h

What’s neat about this picture? The far ridge is Loma Prieta, on the North American plate and the closer ridges are on the Pacific plate. #SanAndreasFault

GlenTheRealSpook @glentheplumber.bsky.social · 17h

good morning from casa del plumber

sun above gray clouds casting yellow rays of sun down on mountains. santa cruz mtns

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Antonia Juhasz @antoniajuhasz.bsky.social · 14h

My latest for @rollingstone.com digs into Trump's $30 Billion in shutdown cuts targeting Democratic states and cities with painful cuts to public transit, energy, and fundamental civil rights protections.
The pain will reverberate throughout the economy.
www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...

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Mark Bray @mark-bray.bsky.social · 15h

Friends and comrades made a crowdfunding page for my family.

It’s really hard to post this. I know that there are a lot of other important issues asking for money but things have gotten to the point where we need to open ourselves up to your support.

Thank you for your consideration.

"Help us leave safely" on FreeFunder

Click here to support "Help us leave safely" by Dara on FreeFunder!

www.freefunder.com

37 680 1.5K

Matt Henry @menrywy.bsky.social · 16h

Happy to share my new personal website! I'm available for speaking engagements, esp. related to my academic and post-ac career trajectory as a humanities/social science scholar working in national lab and policy spaces, possibly of interest to grad students/ECRs.

Get in touch!

www.matthenryphd.com

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GlenTheRealSpook @glentheplumber.bsky.social · 17h

good morning from casa del plumber

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Dustin Mulvaney @dustinmulvaney.bsky.social · 17h

La Niña watch, upgraded to La Niña Advisory. #CAwx

Andrew Freedman @afreedma.bsky.social · 19h

The North Pacific "blob" of unusually warm waters is the blob to end all blobs, and will have some sort of an influence on the upcoming US winter weather. So too will La Niña, which NOAA officially declared today. www.cnn.com/2025/10/09/w...

Sea surface temperature departures from average globally, but centered across the Pacific Ocean. This shows the La Niña event near the equator and the so-called "Blob" of warm waters in the North Pacific.

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Dustin Mulvaney @dustinmulvaney.bsky.social · 17h

With coal leases on public lands in the news, resharing our report published ten years ago. We modeled the life-cycle greenhouse gas pollution that would result from developing federally-controlled coal, oil shale, natural gas, crude oil and tar sands.
🔌💡 www.biologicaldiversity.org/news/press_r...

Climate Study: Ending New Federal Fossil Fuel Leases Would Keep 450 Billion Tons of Carbon Pollution in Ground

www.biologicaldiversity.org

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Erin Sherman 🌱 65n Chesapeake rolling coastal plain @wearegonnafindout.bsky.social · 18h

Who's doing rigorous analysis on the effects of data centers on economic, health, energy, and climate outcomes? #econsky #energysky #climatesky

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