Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Brendon Slotterback @bslotterback.bsky.social · 16h

1 2

Reposted by Brendon Slotterback

Jess Piper @piperformissouri.bsky.social · 1d

Soybean farmers should dump their beans on Capitol Hill…

600 1.8K 9.9K

Brendon Slotterback @bslotterback.bsky.social · 19h

Gotta make that bread! (Now pre-sunrise ☹️)

1 2

Brendon Slotterback @bslotterback.bsky.social · 1d

fiction and sci-fi in particular are good and important

1

Brendon Slotterback @bslotterback.bsky.social · 1d

This could get really really dark and I don't want to trivialize it but the first thing I thought of was Ghorman

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

Mike Johnson: "This hate America rally that they have coming up for October 18? The antifa crowd, the pro-Hamas crowd, and the Marxists, they're all gonna gather on the Mall. It is an outrageous gathering for outrageous purposes ... all this has gotta come to an end."

1 1

Brendon Slotterback @bslotterback.bsky.social · 1d

🔥

Brendon Slotterback @bslotterback.bsky.social · 1d

e-bikes are so good

Mike Eliason @holz-bau.bsky.social · 2d

since denver launched its e-bike rebate program - the have sold 10,000 e-bikes and reduced an estimated 1,000,000 car trips - replacing millions of VMTs and reducing air pollution

there are no climate silver bullets... but damn - e-bikes and e-cargo bikes are close

denvergov.org/Government/A...

Denver Celebrates 10,000 E-Bike Rebates

Since its inception in April 2022, Denver has distributed over 10,000 electric bikes (e-bikes) to community members through its pioneering e-bike rebate program. As the first U.S. city to implement su...

denvergov.org

4 11 55

Reposted by Brendon Slotterback

工an🎃Monroe👹 @eean.dev · 1d

End of an era. RIP Housing Twitter, gone but not forgotten.

Max Dubler 🏳️‍🌈 @maxdubler.com · 1d

Big day for the posting to policy pipeline.

2 7 120

Reposted by Brendon Slotterback

Micah @rincewind.run · 1d

this is a recipe for a four year government shutdown

you simply cannot make deals with people who are telling you up front they are going to break those deals and claw back everything you won in them

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

Q: Rescission are something Dems have said is a reason for a lack of trust. What rescissions are you discussing?

JOHNSON: We have more than $37t in debt. We're doing everything we can to get us back to sound fiscal responsibility. What does that include? A rescission package is part of our process

12 170 690

Brendon Slotterback @bslotterback.bsky.social · 1d

As a thought experiment, you could take the newly enormous budget of a very controversial federal agency and pay to put rooftop solar on 1/3 of all homes that need a new roof each year (adding 10 GW of capacity every year). www.energy.gov/eere/solar/s...

Solar Rooftop Potential

To help consumers quantify the potential benefits of going solar, national laboratories and private companies have developed a number of tools.

www.energy.gov

4

Reposted by Brendon Slotterback

jael holzman @jael.bsky.social · 2d

This is enough carbon-free energy to power maybe two thirds of Vegas btw

jael holzman @jael.bsky.social · 2d

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

8 210 520

Brendon Slotterback @bslotterback.bsky.social · 1d

Trump just cancelled a NUCLEAR POWER PLANT’s worth of electricity capacity by withholding a permit.

Let us hear no more about enviro groups engaging in the legal NEPA process for the next three years.

jael holzman @jael.bsky.social · 2d

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

3 9

Reposted by Brendon Slotterback

Nick Gerakines @ngerakines.me · 1d

"When authoritarians seize power, it is crucial to recognize courageous defenders of freedom who rise and resist," the committee said.

Reuters @reuters.com · 1d

BREAKING: Venezuela's Maria Corina Machado wins the Nobel Peace Prize for 2025 reut.rs/42uh3Aw

2 10

Brendon Slotterback @bslotterback.bsky.social · 1d

So the precedent now is take money from any program you don't like, regardless of what Congress said, and spend it on whatever you want? www.latitudemedia.com/news/how-doe...

How DOE is using Biden-era funds to keep coal plants open

The department is allotting $625 million, largely via cost share awards managed, ironically, by the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations.

www.latitudemedia.com

3 7

Reposted by Brendon Slotterback

Profit Greenly @profitgreenly.bsky.social · 1d

~40% of the ENTIRE corn crop of the US is used to make ethanol. This gets blended with gasoline to power well under 10% of our vehicle miles. If we converted 100% of our vehicles to EVs installing solar on a small fraction of the land this corn is grown on would power them all.

US domestic corn use graph from 1980 to 2020. The orange bar representing "Alcohol for fuel use" (aka ethanol) starts growing in early 2000s, explodes before 2010 and stays huge through the graphs 2022 end. This explains most of the increased corn production in the US.

8 62 120

Reposted by Brendon Slotterback

Indivisible ❌👑 @indivisible.org · 1d

We’re eight days away from No Kings Day, and we have 2,500 protests planned in all 50 states and across the world.

October 18 is going to be the biggest day of nonviolent protest in US history — and we want to see you there. Find your local event: www.nokings.org?SQF_SOURCE=i... #NoKings

22 270 650

Reposted by Brendon Slotterback

Tony Dutzik @frontiertony.bsky.social · 1d

All the lip gloss being put on the AI boom as somehow good for climate or the energy transition is masking that, at the present moment, it's a disaster.

Not only more gas generation, but the worst, dirtiest, least efficient kind. Turning the clock back 25 years.
heatmap.news/energy/natur...

Data Centers Have Solved Their Speed-to-Power Problem — With Natural Gas

“Old economy” companies like Caterpillar and Williams are cashing in by selling smaller, less-efficient turbines to impatient developers.

heatmap.news

4 20 48

Brendon Slotterback @bslotterback.bsky.social · 2d

I’m still excited about utility scale type stuff starting to go behind the meter. They also get backup power!

2

Reposted by Brendon Slotterback

John Kostyack @kostyack.bsky.social · 5d

Nope, Energy Sec'y Wright, offshore winds in fact blow in winter. 1st year of operational data from NY's South Fork Wind project shows a 47% capacity factor in the year ending June 2025, with performance highest in the winter. Coal's avg capacity factor: 42%.

Wright says it’s not windy in winter. Data says otherwise.

Stats from South Fork Wind's first year undermine the Energy secretary's assertions that offshore turbines don't operate well in the winter.

www.eenews.net

3 24 68

Reposted by Brendon Slotterback

Lucius Fox In The Box @carnegro.bsky.social · 2d

Pope Leo is spitting.

www.npr.org/2025/10/09/n...

Leo questioned a world where the wealth of the elite grows
"exponentially" while many "millions of people die of hunger or survive in conditions unfit for human beings." He also criticized "ideologies that defend the absolute autonomy of the marketplace and financial speculation,"
with false promises "that a free-market economy will automatically solve the problem of poverty."

Leo described a "new tyranny," which shuns any kind of oversight and where the economy is structured "in such a way that sacrifices are demanded of the masses in order to serve the needs of the powerful." The poor, he wrote, are only allowed "drops that trickle down."

The pope openly challenged "prosperity theology" and called Christians to the practice of giving charity. "It will not solve the problem of world poverty, yet it must still be carried out, with intelligence, diligence and social responsibility," he wrote.

Popular movements that challenge "the empire of money," invite people to take on the cause to combat poverty alongside the poor, instead of on their behalf, and "make history," the pope said. It our duty, Leo said, to "make their voices heard, albeit in different ways, in order to point out and denounce such structural issues, even at the cost of appearing foolish or naïve."

110 1.7K 5.6K

Brendon Slotterback @bslotterback.bsky.social · 2d

look at that plate

2

Brendon Slotterback @bslotterback.bsky.social · 2d

A very important election you've probably never heard of

Kristi E. Swartz @bizwriterkristi.bsky.social · 2d

www.ajc.com/politics/202...

A reminder that in Georgia, elections for two seats on the powerful (no pun intended) Georgia Public Service Commission, are next month.

(and some 'personal news' to follow)