Josh Lappen
@jlappen1.bsky.social
energy historian | postdoc at Notre Dame, PhD at Oxford | infrastructure, decarbonization, and landscapes | Angeleno | always on the lookout for a good fun fact
views my own, at best
views my own, at best
Pinned
Josh Lappen
@jlappen1.bsky.social
· Apr 16
Allan Nevins Prize | Society of American Historians
sah.columbia.edu
Interrupting my usual programming to share that my doctoral dissertation has won the Society of American Historians' Allan Nevins Prize!
I'm so grateful to the friends and mentors who have taught me this beautiful profession, especially in dark times.
sah.columbia.edu/content/priz...
I'm so grateful to the friends and mentors who have taught me this beautiful profession, especially in dark times.
sah.columbia.edu/content/priz...
Reposted by Josh Lappen
A new proposal to rewrite San Francisco’s charter is raising alarms among democracy advocates. Critics say the SPUR-backed “Charter for Change” masks an agenda that strips away long-standing checks on executive power under the guise of efficiency.
December 12, 2025 at 1:45 AM
A new proposal to rewrite San Francisco’s charter is raising alarms among democracy advocates. Critics say the SPUR-backed “Charter for Change” masks an agenda that strips away long-standing checks on executive power under the guise of efficiency.
Glad to hear that some clean energy developers are beginning to ask who these trade groups are actually for! But nothing's going to budge until they start forming their own more muscular alternatives...American Clean Power et al are performing exactly as designed
bsky.app/profile/jlap...
bsky.app/profile/jlap...
E&E News reporting that offshore wind developer Ocean Winds yelled at the head of American Clean Power, the largest clean energy trade group, this spring because they refused to join the lawsuit against the offshore wind ban
December 10, 2025 at 11:30 PM
Glad to hear that some clean energy developers are beginning to ask who these trade groups are actually for! But nothing's going to budge until they start forming their own more muscular alternatives...American Clean Power et al are performing exactly as designed
bsky.app/profile/jlap...
bsky.app/profile/jlap...
This is a great trend - pushing single-function ACs off the market in favor of heat pumps is low-hanging fruit! But what's described here is bare-minimum. Emily rightly notes the effect of the Berkeley decision - it spooked many cities, but it doesn't actually prevent mandates.
California has long been ahead of the home decarbonization game.
Its latest move: local building codes that incentivize switching from air conditioners to heat pumps.
Here's @emilypont.bsky.social with the story:
heatmap.news/politics/cal...
Its latest move: local building codes that incentivize switching from air conditioners to heat pumps.
Here's @emilypont.bsky.social with the story:
heatmap.news/politics/cal...
California’s Latest Climate Gambit: Turn Air Conditioners Into Heat Pumps
Cities across the state are adopting building codes that heavily incentivize homeowners to make the switch.
heatmap.news
December 10, 2025 at 10:17 PM
This is a great trend - pushing single-function ACs off the market in favor of heat pumps is low-hanging fruit! But what's described here is bare-minimum. Emily rightly notes the effect of the Berkeley decision - it spooked many cities, but it doesn't actually prevent mandates.
Reposted by Josh Lappen
Reading some of this flex load stuff. The grid is a physical piece of infrastructure first and is being used as a platform for financial transactions second. They're inextricable but it does matter which set of rules hold primacy in policy design. Physics trumps money, when it comes down to it.
December 5, 2025 at 8:10 PM
Reading some of this flex load stuff. The grid is a physical piece of infrastructure first and is being used as a platform for financial transactions second. They're inextricable but it does matter which set of rules hold primacy in policy design. Physics trumps money, when it comes down to it.
Reposted by Josh Lappen
"Permitting reform deregulation proponents ignore that #NEPA was designed to safeguard the health and wellbeing of communities in which these projects are sited." @weact4ej.bsky.social #Storymap
And the premise for needing #SPEEDAct #PermittingReform is essentially made up. Check out this cool story map from @weact4ej.bsky.social:
NEPA Does Not Delay
Deregulation is Not the Solution for Clean Energy
storymaps.arcgis.com
December 9, 2025 at 7:20 PM
"Permitting reform deregulation proponents ignore that #NEPA was designed to safeguard the health and wellbeing of communities in which these projects are sited." @weact4ej.bsky.social #Storymap
Reposted by Josh Lappen
As California cities ramp up automated traffic enforcement of speeding and bus/bike lane violations, here's an important warning from New York. Nearly 30% of attempts to read a plate were stymied by plate fraud. www.nyc.gov/html/dot/dow...
December 10, 2025 at 5:58 AM
As California cities ramp up automated traffic enforcement of speeding and bus/bike lane violations, here's an important warning from New York. Nearly 30% of attempts to read a plate were stymied by plate fraud. www.nyc.gov/html/dot/dow...
Reposted by Josh Lappen
"I'm not in denial about [AI]. I'm in open rebellion."
Amen.
Amen.
“I am so bored by AI. One of the things I love about the theatre is AI can’t do it.”
Ethan Hawke is a dude 👌🏻
Ethan Hawke is a dude 👌🏻
December 10, 2025 at 12:11 AM
"I'm not in denial about [AI]. I'm in open rebellion."
Amen.
Amen.
This isn't just climate damage, it's fiscally irresponsible. These new engines will lock Metrolink into decades of high fuel costs and will likely end in accelerated depreciation. Southern Californians can't afford this.
CA is investing $53m in new diesel locomotives that will last for decades. It's good that Metrolink can retire its dirtiest locomotives, but where is the plan to electrify? #ElectrifyMetrolink www.gov.ca.gov/2025/12/08/g...
December 9, 2025 at 11:29 PM
This isn't just climate damage, it's fiscally irresponsible. These new engines will lock Metrolink into decades of high fuel costs and will likely end in accelerated depreciation. Southern Californians can't afford this.
US energy reporters and climate folks, take note! In one stroke, German gas utilities are abandoning the prospect of retail hydrogen delivery and accepting the obligation to shrink.
In so doing, they're showing why US gas utilities are so insistent about H2 - it's their final tool of delay.
In so doing, they're showing why US gas utilities are so insistent about H2 - it's their final tool of delay.
New report says that utility execs in Germany and neighboring countries are dispensing with fiction that gas networks don't need to contract to comply with emissions reduction requirements. Seems that they're turning in earnest to the task of figuring out how to handle that contraction.
December 9, 2025 at 6:11 PM
US energy reporters and climate folks, take note! In one stroke, German gas utilities are abandoning the prospect of retail hydrogen delivery and accepting the obligation to shrink.
In so doing, they're showing why US gas utilities are so insistent about H2 - it's their final tool of delay.
In so doing, they're showing why US gas utilities are so insistent about H2 - it's their final tool of delay.
Reposted by Josh Lappen
They're using the confinement box, one of the most horrific methods of CIA torture in the post-9/11 black sites, against migrants now. This is the direct result of the lack of consequences for the architects of the torture program. Either there will be criminal penalties for this or it will expand.
Torture Techniques from CIA Black Sites Were Used at Alligator Alcatraz
Amnesty International, interviewing migrant detainees, identifies use of the confinement box. There can be no denying it is a torture prison
www.forever-wars.com
December 8, 2025 at 9:40 PM
They're using the confinement box, one of the most horrific methods of CIA torture in the post-9/11 black sites, against migrants now. This is the direct result of the lack of consequences for the architects of the torture program. Either there will be criminal penalties for this or it will expand.
Reposted by Josh Lappen
At the #muniForever rally @jackiefielder.bsky.social calls on Mayor Lurie to raise the parcel tax cap for skyscrapers from $400k to 800k and eliminate tenant passthroughs. “As Muni goes, so goes the city.” Says if we don’t see movement in negotiations, we’ll be back with more to announce.
December 8, 2025 at 8:35 PM
At the #muniForever rally @jackiefielder.bsky.social calls on Mayor Lurie to raise the parcel tax cap for skyscrapers from $400k to 800k and eliminate tenant passthroughs. “As Muni goes, so goes the city.” Says if we don’t see movement in negotiations, we’ll be back with more to announce.
Reposted by Josh Lappen
The USPS posting a NINE BILLION DOLLAR LOSS!!! sounds terrible. Certainly worse than if you said "USPS costs thirty dollars per person per year" even though that means the same thing and more accurately describes a government service
December 5, 2025 at 1:31 PM
The USPS posting a NINE BILLION DOLLAR LOSS!!! sounds terrible. Certainly worse than if you said "USPS costs thirty dollars per person per year" even though that means the same thing and more accurately describes a government service
Come for the Dunning School reference, stay for the clear-eyed argument about the difference between rigorous history and wish-fulfillment
If you want a read about the recent anti-constituonal attempt to denaturalize American children from their claim to birthright citizenship using bad history, @evanbernick.bsky.social, @gowder.io, I wrote about it in the Cornell Law Review Online. publications.lawschool.cornell.edu/lawreview/wp...
December 6, 2025 at 12:19 AM
Come for the Dunning School reference, stay for the clear-eyed argument about the difference between rigorous history and wish-fulfillment
Reposted by Josh Lappen
And @californiapuc.bsky.social just issued a proposed "phase-out" of gas incentives that keeps the wildfire rebuild loophole as well as many other gas rebates. Now is the time for the PUC to change course. Help make that happen by following directions in Hilary's story to comment in docket!
Utility company Southern California Gas is using ratepayer funds to incentivize Los Angeles wildfire survivors to rebuild their homes with gas appliances. And the California Public Utilities Commissions is letting it happen. insideclimatenews.org/news/0312202... via @hilarybeaumont.bsky.social
LA Wildfire Survivors Want to Rebuild All-Electric, but a Utility Is Using Customer Funds to Incentivize Gas Appliances - Inside Climate News
California’s utility regulator said it would eliminate ratepayer-funded incentives for gas appliances in new construction, but created an exception that allows rebates for them in wildfire rebuilds.
insideclimatenews.org
December 5, 2025 at 1:50 AM
And @californiapuc.bsky.social just issued a proposed "phase-out" of gas incentives that keeps the wildfire rebuild loophole as well as many other gas rebates. Now is the time for the PUC to change course. Help make that happen by following directions in Hilary's story to comment in docket!
I remain convinced that the only thing that's going to stop the administrative passion for LLM Everything is the administrative passion for Not Getting Sued All The Time
A large number of union grievances start because a single mid-level program or department administrator misunderstands our contracts. This is supposed to help staff with university-specific questions. Let's see how it does. 🧵
God dammit
December 3, 2025 at 9:39 PM
I remain convinced that the only thing that's going to stop the administrative passion for LLM Everything is the administrative passion for Not Getting Sued All The Time
Reposted by Josh Lappen
This is great reporting. To complement it, I'm reposting my post-fires analysis - rebuilding with gas puts these communities, and the communities that surround them, in multiple forms of danger.
heatmap.news/ideas/la-fir...
heatmap.news/ideas/la-fir...
December 3, 2025 at 6:38 PM
This is great reporting. To complement it, I'm reposting my post-fires analysis - rebuilding with gas puts these communities, and the communities that surround them, in multiple forms of danger.
heatmap.news/ideas/la-fir...
heatmap.news/ideas/la-fir...
Maybe I'm a rube but sure seems like you could prosecute a company that designs and advertises that its products will systematically violate the law!
Love to share the road with cars programmed to blast past speed limits
Tesla brings back 'Mad Max' 'Full Self-Driving' mode that ignores speed limits
Tesla has brought back its 'Mad Max' mode for 'Full Self-Driving (Supervised) that ignores speed limits amid several investigations.
electrek.co
December 3, 2025 at 6:52 PM
Maybe I'm a rube but sure seems like you could prosecute a company that designs and advertises that its products will systematically violate the law!
This is great reporting. To complement it, I'm reposting my post-fires analysis - rebuilding with gas puts these communities, and the communities that surround them, in multiple forms of danger.
heatmap.news/ideas/la-fir...
heatmap.news/ideas/la-fir...
December 3, 2025 at 6:38 PM
This is great reporting. To complement it, I'm reposting my post-fires analysis - rebuilding with gas puts these communities, and the communities that surround them, in multiple forms of danger.
heatmap.news/ideas/la-fir...
heatmap.news/ideas/la-fir...
Reposted by Josh Lappen
“Calculators expanded reasoning; the printing press spread knowledge. ChatGPT, by contrast, doesn’t extend cognition—it automates it, turning thinking itself into a service. Rather than democratizing learning, it privatizes the act of thinking under corporate control. “
Absolutely devastating account of the CSU's $17 million capitulation to ChatGPT, from a fellow faculty member watching it happen www.currentaffairs.org/news/ai-is-d...
AI is Destroying the University and Learning Itself
Students use AI to write papers, professors use AI to grade them, degrees become meaningless, and tech companies make fortunes. Welcome to the death of higher education.
www.currentaffairs.org
December 3, 2025 at 6:15 AM
“Calculators expanded reasoning; the printing press spread knowledge. ChatGPT, by contrast, doesn’t extend cognition—it automates it, turning thinking itself into a service. Rather than democratizing learning, it privatizes the act of thinking under corporate control. “
a) It's so funny these dunces are going to try to argue their short coastal-CA pipeline is interstate
b) this is the type of legal lie that the Trump Admin approves of
c) if this is the game, CA and SB have so, so many monkey wrenches at their disposal
www.independent.com/2025/12/02/s...
b) this is the type of legal lie that the Trump Admin approves of
c) if this is the game, CA and SB have so, so many monkey wrenches at their disposal
www.independent.com/2025/12/02/s...
Sable Offshore Looking for Way Around State Fire Marshal to Restart Oil Pipeline
The Texas oil company now claims that federal pipeline regulators should have jurisdiction over whether it should be allowed to restart its oil pipeline in Santa Barbara County.
www.independent.com
December 3, 2025 at 5:02 AM
a) It's so funny these dunces are going to try to argue their short coastal-CA pipeline is interstate
b) this is the type of legal lie that the Trump Admin approves of
c) if this is the game, CA and SB have so, so many monkey wrenches at their disposal
www.independent.com/2025/12/02/s...
b) this is the type of legal lie that the Trump Admin approves of
c) if this is the game, CA and SB have so, so many monkey wrenches at their disposal
www.independent.com/2025/12/02/s...
A though from the bus: I support (unarmed) fare enforcement bc of all the people who can clearly, absolutely pay for public transit, but don't. I believe asocial behavior anywhere in society is a threat to the whole structure, but I believe that threat stems from the well-off, not the destitute.
December 3, 2025 at 3:45 AM
A though from the bus: I support (unarmed) fare enforcement bc of all the people who can clearly, absolutely pay for public transit, but don't. I believe asocial behavior anywhere in society is a threat to the whole structure, but I believe that threat stems from the well-off, not the destitute.
ILL is the category of program that you don't think exists because it would just be unrealistic to expect something so impressive and valuable provided so smoothly and universally.
A couple weeks ago we got a lovely note from someone on the other side of the country thanking us profusely for ILLing a book to them. Curious, we looked up the book they borrowed.
It would have cost $1,200 for them to purchase it.
ILL is one of the things I love most about libraries.
It would have cost $1,200 for them to purchase it.
ILL is one of the things I love most about libraries.
Requested a book through ILL over break. It arrived today. Libraries man.
December 3, 2025 at 3:11 AM
ILL is the category of program that you don't think exists because it would just be unrealistic to expect something so impressive and valuable provided so smoothly and universally.
Reposted by Josh Lappen
Universities are assembling larger and larger teams to deal with academic integrity issues--mostly focused on AI--while simultaneously holding AI "writing" contests, AI-themed events, "hey, come play with these fun tools!" The messages are so mixed, it's criminal. Because AI is bloated with money.
November 28, 2025 at 10:36 PM
Universities are assembling larger and larger teams to deal with academic integrity issues--mostly focused on AI--while simultaneously holding AI "writing" contests, AI-themed events, "hey, come play with these fun tools!" The messages are so mixed, it's criminal. Because AI is bloated with money.
crazy whiplash moving back and forth between drafts of a physical-sciences article (word count c. 5k) and a law review article (word count c. 35k). I really think the humanities gotten have article length right...
December 3, 2025 at 2:31 AM
crazy whiplash moving back and forth between drafts of a physical-sciences article (word count c. 5k) and a law review article (word count c. 35k). I really think the humanities gotten have article length right...
Reposted by Josh Lappen
After becoming a congressional leader, a politician’s stock portfolio beats out those of peers by 47 (!!!) percentage points a year through trades timed around bills and firms that later get government contracts
www.nber.org/papers/w34524
via @florianederer.bsky.social
www.nber.org/papers/w34524
via @florianederer.bsky.social
December 3, 2025 at 1:42 AM
After becoming a congressional leader, a politician’s stock portfolio beats out those of peers by 47 (!!!) percentage points a year through trades timed around bills and firms that later get government contracts
www.nber.org/papers/w34524
via @florianederer.bsky.social
www.nber.org/papers/w34524
via @florianederer.bsky.social