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Josh Lappen

@jlappen1.bsky.social

11K followers 1.1K following 1.6K posts

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

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Josh Lappen @jlappen1.bsky.social · Apr 16

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...

Allan Nevins Prize | Society of American Historians

sah.columbia.edu

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Josh Lappen @jlappen1.bsky.social · 1h

Are we not past the statutory threshold for use of the Congressional Review Act on Biden-era actions?

Center for Western Priorities @westernpriorities.org · 1h

BREAKING: The U.S. Senate has voted to pass several Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolutions targeting Bureau of Land Management (BLM) resource management plans (RMPs) in Alaska and the western U.S.

Our statement:
westernpriorities.org/2025/10/cong...

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Kevin J. CREATURE @kevinjkircher.com · 12d

I agree that this isn't about big vs. small projects. It's about doing the projects we can do, not the ones we can't, and it's about recognizing that we have an alternative to throwing environmental justice communities under the bus in a likely ineffectual bargain with bad-faith Repubs on permitting

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Kevin J. CREATURE @kevinjkircher.com · 12d

...first, Dems have no reason to trust Repubs to uphold permitting reform bargains. The admnistration has shown how little it cares about following the letter or spirit of laws passed by Congress. It's entirely possible that Dems cross the aisle to pass a law that doesn't actually help clean energy.

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Josh Lappen @jlappen1.bsky.social · 19h

the financial common sense mayor steadfastly not pursuing municipal financial opportunities....makes you wonder!

Josh Lappen @jlappen1.bsky.social · 19h

Amazing to me that transit ads are worth so little! Also - big unacknowledged distinction btwn things transit agencies should do anyhow- rooftop solar, right-of-way colocation, transit-oriented dev leasing - and last-ditch strategies that degrade the public character of service - ads, naming rights.

Jerold Chinn @jerold.bsky.social · 21h

Several non-revenue ideas. Renting out a private car.

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Matt Vespa @missionvespa.bsky.social · 19h

Next up, let's sign #AB1167 to protect Californians from footing the bill for monopoly utilities' lobbying engines!

✅ builds guardrails and defines activities utilities must pay for
✅ increases transparency to spot abuses of customer funds
✅ establishes consequences for utilities that break the law

Governor Gavin Newsom @governor.ca.gov · 1d

I just signed legislation to further protect consumers and put money back in your pocket, including:

✅ Making it easier to get food delivery app refunds
✅ Banning car retailers from tacking on add-on services
✅ Strengthening our Financial Protection Department after Trump's gutting of the CFPB

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Josh Lappen @jlappen1.bsky.social · 3d

Nothing quite compares to the feeling of spending part of your Saturday completing a mandatory training on *federal research ethics* in 2025

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The Phoenix Project @phoenixprojnow.bsky.social · 6d

Mayor Daniel Lurie is restructuring how San Francisco’s government works—outsourcing core functions to private tech firms backed by politically active billionaires. His latest move: giving OpenGov, Inc. control over the city’s permitting system. 🧵

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Angely Mercado @angelymercado.bsky.social · 7d

*deletes angry paragraph*

Merriam-Webster @merriam-webster.com · 7d

We are thrilled to announce that our NEW Large Language Model will be released on 11.18.25.

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Costa Samaras @costasamaras.com · 7d

Thank you to the career federal employees, who show up to work every day and improve people's lives across the country.

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Josh Lappen @jlappen1.bsky.social · 7d

Hadn't really thought about this but thank you for unlocking a new worry for me! Great precedents in the rise of the automobile industry, too...

Josh Lappen @jlappen1.bsky.social · 7d

"Written laws are like spiders' webs; they will catch, it is true, the weak and poor, but would be torn in pieces by the rich and powerful."

This isn't a legal loophole - it's a series of decisions to excuse systematic corporate lawbreaking.

www.latimes.com/business/tec...

Can driverless cars get tickets? What happened when Bay Area police pulled over a Waymo

Police officers in San Bruno observed a Waymo car making an illegal U-turn. The incident highlights a gray area in law enforcement’s ability to cite robot cars when they violate traffic laws.

www.latimes.com

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Meade Krosby @meadekrosby.bsky.social · 7d

National parks left open during a government shutdown under the last Trump administration experienced permanent damage - vandalized petroglyphs, chopped down Joshua trees - but they plan to keep them open once again.

Maxine Joselow @maxinejoselow.bsky.social · 7d

The Trump administration plans to keep national parks largely open to the public during the expected government shutdown, according to an internal email reviewed by @nytimes.com.
Conservationists say parks should be closed to prevent irreparable damage.
www.nytimes.com/live/2025/09...

Update from Maxine Joselow

www.nytimes.com

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Tony Clark @anthonyclark.bsky.social · 7d

If you've done in-person research at any of the following presidential libraries in the last 8 months, can you please follow me/contact me—soon—for a story I'm working on (can be off the record)?

Hoover
FDR
Truman
Eisenhower
JFK
LBJ
Ford
Carter

And either way, can you please share this request? 🙏

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Josh Lappen @jlappen1.bsky.social · 7d

e.g.! bsky.app/profile/grub...

Emily Grubert @gruberte.bsky.social · 8d

Coal recommissioning 🙃

Relatedly, what was that again about how EPA didn’t need to regulate new build coal because no one would do that? I heard proposals for new coal under Biden and I hear them more now.

Energy Department Announces $625 Million Investment to Reinvigorate and Expand America’s Coal Industry

The U.S. Department of Energy today announced a $625 million investment to expand and reinvigorate America’s coal industry, aiming to boost energy production and support coal communities nationwide.

www.energy.gov

Josh Lappen @jlappen1.bsky.social · 7d

Political strategizing is a two step process: First, seeing the moment and its context clearly, and second, assessing how to take advantage of it. Klein and most other professional pundits rarely try the 1st step independent of their opinions on the 2nd, which distorts their understanding

Josh Lappen @jlappen1.bsky.social · 7d

One thing I'd like to add re Klein-Coates: In trying to defend blending politics w journalism, Klein has shown how self-defeating that instinct is: It produces thinkers who can no longer clearly distinguish btwn truth and messaging. Coates calls that unethical-it's also prelude to political failure!

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Rick Thoman @alaskawx.bsky.social · 8d

End of an era and a sad day for those that care about Arctic work done in the best ways possible. 😢 Nonetheless "… the goal of broadening participation in Arctic-focused research, education, and policy is still an important mission to achieve." #Arctic

A Final Message from the Arctic Research Consortium of the U.S. (ARCUS)
After nearly four decades of service to the Arctic research community, the Arctic Research Consortium of the United States (ARCUS) has now reached its sunset. This will be our final message to the community.

On behalf of the ARCUS Board of Directors and all ARCUS staff, we want to thank you for the many years of collaboration, support, and partnership that made ARCUS possible. We have enjoyed working with this community immensely and believe that the goal of broadening participation in Arctic-focused research, education, and policy is still an important mission to achieve.

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Lissa Harris🐀 @lissaharris.bsky.social · 8d

they are destroying US climate science on purpose, and it hurts my heart. but take it from an MIT-trained nerdass:

all most of us need to know is that we have to stop burning stuff

stop burning stuff for heat

stop burning stuff for make car go

stop burning stuff for power

we have the tools

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Emily Cassidy @enviroem.bsky.social · 9d

Cropland area nearly doubled in South America between 2000 and 2019 - the largest relative increase in the world. Soybean production replaced rainforests, grasslands & savannas. earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/14962... As China refuses U.S. soybeans, this puts more pressure on natural ecosystems.

The Spread of Soy in South America

Grasslands, savannas, and dry forests have become popular places to grow soy.

earthobservatory.nasa.gov

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Josh Lappen @jlappen1.bsky.social · 8d

nothing pisses me off quite like mandatory UI updates to my phone.

To the extent this is about enforced novelty as a marketing technique, feels like good evidence against the longstanding thesis that behavioral psych is hardwired!

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Josh Lappen @jlappen1.bsky.social · 8d

definitely looks like a partially-eaten gumboot! Nothing else that size on the central CA coast

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If you know you know @privatechand.bsky.social · 8d

This would be why I am such a strident critic of digitization as a substitute for actual archival preservation. My sixteenth century documents are far sturdier and likely to survive another 500 years than the detritus on the internet. And digitization is not democratization.

Dan Gillmor @dangillmor.bsky.social · 9d

Google deletes history:

Google just erased 7 years of our political history

Google appears to have deleted its political ad archive for the EU; so the last 7 years of ads, of political spending, of messaging, of targeting - on YouTube, on Search and for display ads - for countless elections across 27 countries - is all gone. We had been told

www.thebriefing.ie

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Josh Lappen @jlappen1.bsky.social · 9d

Indeed - but a couple of market orthodoxies have papered this over very well in some policy circles!

Josh Lappen @jlappen1.bsky.social · 9d

I'm merely echoing @kevinjkircher.com here but I think our inability to be nuanced about cost dynamics is also about to get us into big trouble with the emerging attempt to make decarb about consumer bill reductions...

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