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Jan 17, 2025 | 
breakthroughjournal.org | Alex Trembath
By Alex TrembathThis week, fracking executive Chris Wright sat before the Senate in a confirmation hearing for his nomination to lead the US Department of Energy. Wright may not have either the public profile nor personal baggage that has already weighed down several of Trump’s other Cabinet nominees. But if anything, as has become routine with Republican energy nominees, progressives’ rhetoric about Wright is even more charged than for other scandal-plagued figures.
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Jan 15, 2025 | 
wsj.com | Ted Nordhaus |Alex Trembath
WSJ Opinion: Biden’s Battered Legacy0:00Paused0:00 / 5:14The second coming of Donald Trump will bring another head-spinning shift to U.S. energy and climate policy. Climate catastrophism and green industrial policy are out. Energy dominance is in. Mr. Trump campaigned on killing the Inflation Reduction Act and expanding America’s hydrocarbon production. But transforming the nation into a global energy superpower will require more than simply expanding oil and gas production.
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Dec 9, 2024 | 
breakthroughjournal.org | Alex Trembath
By Alex Trembath Last month, the Roosevelt Institute’s Rhiana Gunn-Wright asked, rhetorically, “what base does the abundance movement represent?” Many of us within the movement responded, arguing that abundance represents, variously, scientists and engineers working to advance the scientific frontier, labor unions and construction workers who want to build infrastructure, ecomodernists bringing technology and growth to the fight for ecological sustainability, renters and homeowners concerned...
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Oct 15, 2024 | 
heatmap.news | Alex Trembath
American electricity consumption is growing for the first time in generations. And though low-carbon technologies such as solar and wind have scaled impressively over the past decade, many observers are concerned that all this new demand will provide “a lifeline for more fossil fuel production,” as Senator Martin Heinrich put it. In response, a few policy entrepreneurs have proposed novel regulations known as “additionality” requirements to handle new sources of electric load.
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Oct 15, 2024 | 
flipboard.com | Alex Trembath
Abundance, Not Additionality, Will Meet the Energy Demands of AIA counter-proposal for the country’s energy future. American electricity consumption is growing for the first time in generations. And though …
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Oct 7, 2024 | 
breakthroughjournal.org | Ted Nordhaus |Alex Trembath
By Ted Nordhaus and Alex TrembathIt is hard to overstate the symbolism of Constellation Energy’s announcement last month that it planned to restart the recently shuttered Three Mile Island nuclear power plant outside of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The partial meltdown of Unit 2 in 1979 marked the beginning of America’s turn away from nuclear energy. Dozens of orders for nuclear reactors were canceled.
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Sep 23, 2024 | 
breakthroughjournal.org | Alex Trembath
By Alex TrembathIt’s election season, which means a return to the quadrennial tradition of yelling at Nate Silver on the Internet. While I think most people at this point have made their peace with his probabilistic forecasts, many progressives, demonstrably confused by basic statistics, regularly accuse Silver of deliberately underestimating Democrats’ electoral fortunes. And it occurred to me that their confusion mirrors a similar mistake progressives make in evaluating climate impacts.
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Sep 9, 2024 | 
thebreakthroughjournal.substack.com | Alex Trembath
By Alex TrembathThe world currently produces over 8 billion tons of coal, 35 billion barrels of oil, 115 million tons of nitrogen fertilizer, and 4 trillion cubic meters of natural gas every year. There are over 1.3 million miles of rail lines, 2 million miles of liquid and gas pipelines, and 40 million miles of roads in the world. There are an estimated 800 crude oil refineries, 3000 petrochemical plants, and 35,000 mines. There are about 1.5 billion cars and 1.5 billion cows.
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Aug 26, 2024 | 
thebreakthroughjournal.substack.com | Alex Trembath
By Alex TrembathAre Democrats finally embracing a saner, dare I say quieter climate politics? Last week, journalists at the Times, the Post, and other outlets observed a conspicuous absence of climate rhetoric at the DNC, noting insightfully that Democrats must have realized how little voters really care about climate change. But it’s not just that climate change is a low-salience issue for the American public.
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Aug 12, 2024 | 
thebreakthroughjournal.substack.com | Alex Trembath |Seaver T. Wang
By Alex Trembath and Seaver WangIt looks like hydrogen’s “three pillars” are wobbling. For those who haven’t been following the controversy: The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) contains the Section 45V tax credit for clean hydrogen, which provides hydrogen suppliers up to $3 per kilogram of hydrogen they produce.
