Emily Grubert
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gruberte.bsky.social
Emily Grubert
@gruberte.bsky.social
15K followers 310 following 1.1K posts

civil engineer / environmental sociologist. energy, water, climate, buildings, justice. fossil phaseout / universal programs. she / her. bunnies.

Videos
Environmental science 38%
Engineering 24%
Posts Replies Media Videos

gruberte.bsky.social
Emily Grubert @gruberte.bsky.social · 13h
Sorry bout that, thought I originally posted the gift link but I didn’t:

www.science.org/eprint/NRCEW...
Fossil energy minimum viable scale
Unseen infrastructural threats to safety and decarbonization may arise as fossil energy systems are phased out
www.science.org

gruberte.bsky.social
Emily Grubert @gruberte.bsky.social · 13h
I’m not saying women can’t be shitty, but, uh, this list has a skew
katjathieme.bsky.social Dr. Katja Thieme (she/they) @katjathieme.bsky.social · 18h
Academics vying for a spot in Epstein‘s world. There are so many. I feel the need to make a thread, so I don’t keep confusing them. 1/

Reposted by Elizabeth Sharrow, Nandita Sharma, Jonathan A. Eisen , and 20 more

alexbaumhardt.bsky.social
Alex Baumhardt @alexbaumhardt.bsky.social · 15h
Just experienced the most intense tear gassing of my life by federal officers outside the ICE facility in Portland where marchers gathered. There was no fast exit as they indiscriminately threw loads of gas and flash bangs. Children were in the crowd screaming. @oregoncapitalchronicle.com

Reposted by Joanna Bryson, Lisa W. Fazio, Jonathan A. Eisen , and 32 more

katjathieme.bsky.social
Dr. Katja Thieme (she/they) @katjathieme.bsky.social · 18h
Academics vying for a spot in Epstein‘s world. There are so many. I feel the need to make a thread, so I don’t keep confusing them. 1/

gruberte.bsky.social
Emily Grubert @gruberte.bsky.social · 18h
100%. And something about how seriously you have to take the prospect of decarbonization before you notice that this is basically The Problem to Solve, too

gruberte.bsky.social
Emily Grubert @gruberte.bsky.social · 18h
I’m a little out of my depth on extant resources but one thing we’re looking at on the research side is how to decouple safety from individually owned tech — how do you arrange emergency access to heat in, say, a library as a backup plan. That’s the kind of thing locales are really well scaled for.

gruberte.bsky.social
Emily Grubert @gruberte.bsky.social · 18h
Right! And the fact that took decades is why we argue this transition can’t be voluntary. But that also carries greater responsibility to ensure it goes well.

gruberte.bsky.social
Emily Grubert @gruberte.bsky.social · 1d
I’m obsessed with the heating challenge — this is actually what my other postdoc (and a past PhD student) are working on. Thank you for this cartoon - I hadn’t seen it before!

gruberte.bsky.social
Emily Grubert @gruberte.bsky.social · 1d
Apologies — I thought I posted the gift link. Here it is:

www.science.org/eprint/NRCEW...
Fossil energy minimum viable scale
Unseen infrastructural threats to safety and decarbonization may arise as fossil energy systems are phased out
www.science.org

gruberte.bsky.social
Emily Grubert @gruberte.bsky.social · 1d
I'm shocked

(I'm not shocked)
a4xrbj1.bsky.social Andrea Basso @a4xrbj1.bsky.social · 1d
New NHTSA crash data, combined with Tesla’s new disclosure of robotaxi mileage, reveals Tesla’s autonomous vehicles are crashing at a rate much higher than human drivers, and that’s with a safety monitor in every car.

Tesla has reported 9 crashes involving its robotaxi fleet in Austin, TX.

/1
Tesla's own Robotaxi data confirms crash rate 3x worse than humans even with monitor
Tesla’s nascent robotaxi program is off to a rough start. New NHTSA crash data, combined with Tesla’s new disclosure of...
electrek.co

gruberte.bsky.social
Emily Grubert @gruberte.bsky.social · 1d
TL;DR: Minimum viable scale means transition needs to go faster. Planning is how you get there. It's still not going to happen overnight, but it would happen a whole lot faster if we actually tried.

gruberte.bsky.social
Emily Grubert @gruberte.bsky.social · 1d
One well publicized instance where a sudden refinery or power plant closure kills people because they don't have enough EVs or solar or whatever would set this fragile transition back for a very long time, in addition to just being morally reprehensible given that good planning could prevent this.

gruberte.bsky.social
Emily Grubert @gruberte.bsky.social · 1d
because the things that would produce those few emissions can actually only operate if they're producing a lot of emissions.

If services fail without a backup, 1) bad things happen to people, which you should care about, and 2) you lose public trust in the transition, which delays things a LOT

gruberte.bsky.social
Emily Grubert @gruberte.bsky.social · 1d
What we're worried about is that people aren't taking seriously enough the point that we can't rely on the fossil system to be a backup safety valve for providing energy services as long as it seems. We don't really have the condition where maybe a few emissions are ok if it saves the system,

gruberte.bsky.social
Emily Grubert @gruberte.bsky.social · 1d
If you care about decarbonization, the existence -- and scary-close proximity -- of minimum viable scale is a really hopeful thing. We are much closer to enabling a full transition than an ~80% fossil-based system seems like it would be.

gruberte.bsky.social
Emily Grubert @gruberte.bsky.social · 1d
Grateful for the engagement with our work 🙏

One slight misread that I'm seeing and would like to address head on: let me be immensely clear that this is not an argument to transition slower. It's an argument that we need to transition dramatically faster.

(1/
gruberte.bsky.social Emily Grubert @gruberte.bsky.social · 2d
1) Fuck ICE, and

2) in our ongoing pursuit of a more just, more dignified, more joyful, and better future, @jlappen1.bsky.social and I are really proud of our new piece in Science on managing fossil fuel phase-out

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Fossil energy minimum viable scale
Unseen infrastructural threats to safety and decarbonization may arise as fossil energy systems are phased out
www.science.org

Reposted by Emily Grubert

sevier.io
isaac @sevier.io · 1d
This is why Emily, Josh, and so many others like us have been thinking and organizing for the necessary public ownership transitions that we _must_ put in place to succeed.

We can both make sure we see the end of fossil fuels and make sure the phase out builds more justice, not more catastrophe.

Reposted by Kim L. Scheppele, Melanie C. Green, Emily Grubert , and 1 more

a4xrbj1.bsky.social
Andrea Basso @a4xrbj1.bsky.social · 1d
New NHTSA crash data, combined with Tesla’s new disclosure of robotaxi mileage, reveals Tesla’s autonomous vehicles are crashing at a rate much higher than human drivers, and that’s with a safety monitor in every car.

Tesla has reported 9 crashes involving its robotaxi fleet in Austin, TX.

/1
Tesla's own Robotaxi data confirms crash rate 3x worse than humans even with monitor
Tesla’s nascent robotaxi program is off to a rough start. New NHTSA crash data, combined with Tesla’s new disclosure of...
electrek.co

gruberte.bsky.social
Emily Grubert @gruberte.bsky.social · 1d
Yeah, I typically don't frame it as rationing, but I think we do need to have a normative prioritization of who gets energy in what order when we have restrictions. Heat before cars before commercial buildings, that kind of thing.

gruberte.bsky.social
Emily Grubert @gruberte.bsky.social · 2d
It’s for work, tragically

gruberte.bsky.social
Emily Grubert @gruberte.bsky.social · 2d
Relatedly im very cold from waiting for the bus for 25 minutes

gruberte.bsky.social
Emily Grubert @gruberte.bsky.social · 2d
I tried to take the bus to a dinner I have tonight, and it passed my “delayed enough I’m going to be later than I’m comfortable with” threshold so I called a ride, and now my ride is following the (delayed) bus to my destination

I’m not sure what I should learn from this

gruberte.bsky.social
Emily Grubert @gruberte.bsky.social · 2d
TL;DR is save your money for the reclamation and pension parts — we show you can buy out the entire PRB for much less than that and be consistent with market conditions

gruberte.bsky.social
Emily Grubert @gruberte.bsky.social · 2d
I don't think so. It's usually different mines, in my experience -- unless met prices are super high and you get "crossover" coals moving into met -- but this is kind of a happy accident in some ways

gruberte.bsky.social
Emily Grubert @gruberte.bsky.social · 2d
100%. This is one of our favorite examples, among us!

Reposted by Emily Grubert

jlappen1.bsky.social
Josh Lappen @jlappen1.bsky.social · 2d
When fossil energy systems fail, people can die. Past minimum viable scale, failures of all kinds become much more likely, and also harder to mitigate. That threatens everyone - but especially those who can't afford to bankroll their own personal energy transition. It also risks political backlash.

Reposted by Katharine Hayhoe, Paul Lehmann, Emily Grubert , and 1 more

jlappen1.bsky.social
Josh Lappen @jlappen1.bsky.social · 2d
New from @gruberte.bsky.social and I in @science.org: The energy transition is at risk, and energy models are missing the threat. Fossil energy networks from oil to coal to gas have minimum viable scales of operation, and those thresholds are closer than we think:

www.science.org/doi/epdf/10....
💡🔌
Fossil energy minimum viable scale
Unseen infrastructural threats to safety and decarbonization may arise as fossil energy systems are phased out
www.science.org

gruberte.bsky.social
Emily Grubert @gruberte.bsky.social · 2d
The piece is pretty short -- we hope you read it. We're really excited to do the deeper detail work on how you plan for these outcomes and enable a rapid transition to a better energy system that serves everyone.

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Fossil energy minimum viable scale
Unseen infrastructural threats to safety and decarbonization may arise as fossil energy systems are phased out
www.science.org

gruberte.bsky.social
Emily Grubert @gruberte.bsky.social · 2d
This is the opposite of economies of scale, basically, and we argue that paying attention to this minimum scale is really important for models and policy. The thresholds are predictable, but we need to predict them - otherwise we probably allow a more dangerous, more costly, and more polluted future

gruberte.bsky.social
Emily Grubert @gruberte.bsky.social · 2d
This comes with my picture of an oilfield near the fenceline community where I was born, but didn't grow up -- we propose the frame of "minimum viable scale" to talk about how fossil fuel systems can suddenly become less safe, less effective, and potentially inoperable when they get "too small"