Jeff St John
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jeffstjohn.bsky.social
Jeff St John
@jeffstjohn.bsky.social
5K followers 2.8K following 510 posts
Chief reporter at Canary Media, energy transition believer, holder of faith in truth, justice, and the inherent goodness of my fellow human beings. Parent of Lily the Corgi.
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jeffstjohn.bsky.social
Solar, batteries, EV chargers and other distributed energy resources can defer costly grid upgrades — if utilities can match DERs to grid needs. In Massachusetts, National Grid is using UK startup Piclo's "energy flexibility" marketplace to do it: www.canarymedia.com/articles/vir...
#energysky
Massachusetts tries a market for distributed energy to tame grid costs
National Grid’s new marketplace seeks batteries, EV chargers, and other distributed energy resources to help relieve stressed grid circuits. Here’s how it…
www.canarymedia.com
January 21, 2026 at 2:23 PM
jeffstjohn.bsky.social
Elizabeth Ouzts has a great story out today on the solar-and-battery powered resilience hubs springing up in the Hurricane Helene-ravaged Blue Ridge Mountains region. Emergency backup power that also saves on monthly electric bills — what's not to like?
www.canarymedia.com/articles/sol...
#energysky
After Helene, rural North Carolina turns to solar and battery hubs
More than a year after the storm’s devastation, clean-energy microgrids are springing up in remote areas thanks to a program that could become a national…
www.canarymedia.com
January 20, 2026 at 4:14 PM
jeffstjohn.bsky.social
It’s Sundowning in America
open.substack.com/pub/paulkrug...
It’s Sundowning in America
A presidential mind is a dangerous thing to lose
open.substack.com
January 20, 2026 at 3:33 PM
jeffstjohn.bsky.social
The President of the United States Has Lost His Mind
open.substack.com/pub/paulwald...
The President of the United States Has Lost His Mind
Donald Trump is literally hurtling us toward World War III over GREENLAND. Something has broken in his brain, and we have to talk about it.
open.substack.com
January 20, 2026 at 3:25 PM
jeffstjohn.bsky.social
Thanks to Sarah Shemkus for a clear-eyed explanation of Massachusetts' energy cost inflation challenges — and for making clear that scapegoating renewables for high and rising energy costs only distracts from the work required to contain those costs:
www.canarymedia.com/articles/pol...
#energysky
Affordability is scrambling energy politics in Massachusetts
Everyone agrees that the state has an energy bill crisis. But there is little consensus on why — or how to fix the increasingly acute problem.
www.canarymedia.com
January 20, 2026 at 3:16 PM
Reposted by Jeff St John
prchovanec.bsky.social
Imagine if you escaped Communism, found a strange new home halfway around the world … and then this BS.
atrupar.com Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 2d
ICE is allegedly hunting for Hmong people in Minneapolis and as I watched video of the incident lo and behold @whstancil.bsky.social was on the scene
ICE agents stop a car at the light by Tao Foods and Midwest One bank. Across the street from Uptown Natural Care Center. A witness said the agent asked the driver “where the Hmongs at”. Agents left after about 5 minutes. The driver was not detained and drove away after the agents left. Image of Stancil on the scene
January 19, 2026 at 8:17 PM
Reposted by Jeff St John
jamellebouie.net
i think it is simply true that for all intents and purposes stephen miller is the president of the united states
The Wrath of Stephen Miller
The man who turns President Trump’s most incendiary impulses into policy
www.theatlantic.com
January 19, 2026 at 8:06 PM
Reposted by Jeff St John
volts.wtf
I genuinely think one thing that trips up folks on the left is that they can't imagine not sharing certain core values. Lemme explain. Here's an intuition pump:

Say you're in negotiations with counterparty X. And there are two possible deals on the table ...
August 28, 2025 at 7:20 PM
jeffstjohn.bsky.social
Can backup batteries plugged into heavy power-using appliances help curb utility bills and balancing the grid? Check out this DIY project from @davidenergy.bsky.social and Black Seed Bagels in Brooklyn — no wiring or interconnection required.
www.canarymedia.com/articles/bat...
#energysky
This Brooklyn bagel shop is saving money with plug-in batteries
Startup David Energy is giving batteries to its New York City customers to help them reduce hefty demand charges on their monthly utility bills.
www.canarymedia.com
January 19, 2026 at 5:23 PM
Reposted by Jeff St John
whitehouse.senate.gov
Even with Trump stooges cooking the books for his big fossil fuel donors, renewables still won — cheaper and cleaner. www.canarymedia.com/articles/cle...
Chart: How the US electricity mix changed last year
Solar and coal were up, and gas, surprisingly, was down. Here are the numbers behind a wild year for the U.S. power sector.
www.canarymedia.com
January 19, 2026 at 1:51 PM
Reposted by Jeff St John
paulosanalysis.com
bsky.app/profile/paul...
paulosanalysis.com Ben Paulos @paulosanalysis.com · 11d
The ICE protests are starting to look familiar.
January 18, 2026 at 1:27 AM
jeffstjohn.bsky.social
talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/watch...
January 18, 2026 at 6:04 PM
jeffstjohn.bsky.social
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/17/o...
January 17, 2026 at 11:45 PM
jeffstjohn.bsky.social
David Roth is a national treasure.
defector.com/fascists-are...
January 17, 2026 at 4:11 AM
Reposted by Jeff St John
zacheverson.com
Lot to unpack—

"Disgraced congressman Duncan Hunter got a Trump pardon....Hunter is using what’s left of his political influence to help Raymond Liddy, son of infamous Watergate figure G. Gordon Liddy, escape his conviction for child pornography."
Disgraced congressman Duncan Hunter got a Trump pardon. Now he wants one for another notorious San Diego son of Washington.
Hunter is using what’s left of his political influence to help Raymond Liddy, son of infamous Watergate figure G. Gordon Liddy, escape his conviction for child pornography.
www.sandiegouniontribune.com
January 15, 2026 at 3:12 AM
jeffstjohn.bsky.social
The Trump administration wants grid operator PJM to force data centers to pay $15 billion for “baseload” power plants. Experts warn the plan is unworkable, and that clean energy and batteries are what can be added fast enough to curb skyrocketing costs:
www.canarymedia.com/articles/dat...
#energysky
Trump’s plan to make data centers pay for power plants has big flaws
Mid-Atlantic governors joined the White House to push grid operator PJM to make tech giants pay for new "baseload" power. But experts are skeptical.
www.canarymedia.com
January 16, 2026 at 10:17 PM
jeffstjohn.bsky.social
@justingerdes.bsky.social is right - this is terrible reporting from Politico:
www.quittingcarbonmedia.com/the-trump-ad...
#energysky
The Trump administration just laundered its bogus energy affordability talking points through Politico’s White House team
Despite extensive evidence to the contrary, the White House wants us to think it cares about energy affordability. Based on the Trump administration's actions over the past year, don’t believe the spi...
www.quittingcarbonmedia.com
January 16, 2026 at 3:35 PM
jeffstjohn.bsky.social
It's a shame to see Wisconsin's attempt at commonsense policies to contain harms of unchecked data center speculative development undone by a Republican-introduced poison pill that all renewable energy used to power data centers must be built on-site...
www.canarymedia.com/articles/dat...
#energysky
Disputes over clean energy may doom Wisconsin data center bills
Democrats and Republicans want safeguards against rising power costs. But clashing visions for how data centers should use renewables stand in the way.
www.canarymedia.com
January 16, 2026 at 3:12 PM
jeffstjohn.bsky.social
Great story by @mariagallucci.bsky.social on how Trump forcing all Department of Interior reviews of clean energy projects to get personal approval from DOI Secretary Doug Burgum has stifled 22GW of development in the midst of an energy crisis:
www.canarymedia.com/articles/cle...
#energysky
22GW of renewables thwarted or in limbo under Trump ‘blockade’
An Interior Department memo is hampering wind and solar on public lands. It’s one of many federal actions slowing the build-out of cheap, clean energy.
www.canarymedia.com
January 16, 2026 at 2:58 PM
Reposted by Jeff St John
justingerdes.bsky.social
"Big Tech platforms didn’t just out-compete media organizations for the bulk of the advertising-revenue pie. They also cheated them out of much of what was left over, and got away with it," writes @giladedelman.bsky.social: www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
Will Google Ever Have to Pay for Its Sins?
A federal judge ruled last year that the tech giant had cheated publications out of ad revenue. Now those publications want their money back.
www.theatlantic.com
January 16, 2026 at 12:24 AM
Reposted by Jeff St John
josephcox.bsky.social
New: meet ELITE, the Palantir app ICE is using to find neighborhoods to raid. Map interface; officers search for immigrants; click person to bring up individual dossier. This is clearest link between what Palantir is building and ICE's activities on the ground yet www.404media.co/elite-the-pa...
‘ELITE’: The Palantir App ICE Uses to Find Neighborhoods to Raid
Internal ICE material and testimony from an official obtained by 404 Media provides the clearest link yet between the technological infrastructure Palantir is building for ICE and the agency’s activit...
www.404media.co
January 15, 2026 at 2:06 PM
Reposted by Jeff St John
mayorher.bsky.social
I’m monitoring reports of the ICE-involved shooting in Minneapolis. ICE needs to end their so-called “operation” and leave our state immediately.
January 15, 2026 at 3:14 AM
jeffstjohn.bsky.social
The Minneapolis Crucible
open.substack.com/pub/paulkrug...
The Minneapolis Crucible
Will we forge democracy anew?
open.substack.com
January 15, 2026 at 2:44 PM
jeffstjohn.bsky.social
Want to add more EVs AND keep utility grid upgrade costs in check? Don't charge them all at once! A new report from Brattle Group and @energyhub.bsky.social shows how "active managed charging" can roughly double grid hosting capacity for EVs — if it's done right:
www.canarymedia.com/articles/ev-...
Want to plug more EVs into the grid? Don’t charge them all at once.
A new report highlights how utilities can save big by spreading out when EVs charge — as long as drivers have full batteries when they need them.
www.canarymedia.com
January 15, 2026 at 2:37 PM
Reposted by Jeff St John
thebulwark.com
"They are thugs. And, I'll add to that, cowards. You give me any one of those guys, without a weapon and without a badge and without an association to the federal forces, and they would be a nobody."

@markhertling.bsky.social talks ICE with @timmiller.bsky.social on today's Bulwark Podcast:
January 14, 2026 at 11:15 PM