Really liked the car analogy that Yake used here, and it's one I'll use with people outside the industry: we had a nice-when-new, fully paid off, but maintenance-intensive car and now we need to replace it with a whole new car
One time I asked Claude which writers it thought were more prominent in its output than its input (insofar as it could tell) and it said Christopher Alexander. I’d never talked about Christopher Alexander with it so I’m still not sure if was answering earnestly or reading me to filth
An alternative history of the power grid: On this episode of Shift Key, I speak with longtime utility planner Alice Yake about the past 60 years of decisions that shaped America’s grid, why utilities and officials made *those* decisions, and what it means for the future. heatmap.news/podcast/shif...
"Yet the Iran debacle, too, has undercut this policy of fossil exporterism. It has convinced Asian and European countries that oil & [LNG] are too volatile to enthrone in the transport & power sector when alternatives are available." 🔌💡
From @robinsonmeyer.bsky.social
heatmap.news/energy/trump...
But what is Zohran’s position on Angine de Poitrine
The Iran War has broken the bargain that Trump promised to strike between American consumers and the oil industry — and its left his energy policy dead in the water. I wrote about it for @heatmap.news: heatmap.news/energy/trump...
yes, totally, my claim is for text internet only. the real front pages are douyin, tiktok, and reels
This claim is in some ways obviously wrong, but I have recently wondered if “Anglophone internet culture” is in some ways now closer to its ~2008 iteration than it has been at any point since — ironic points of light in a vast wasteland; archipelagos of community; no surviving consensus “front page”
“‘Raphael: Sublime Poetry,’ opening at the Met this weekend, is one of those blockbusters we used to take for granted in the United States… an exhibition of such sublimity and grace it is hard to square with the cold world outside.” www.nytimes.com/2026/03/26/a...
Have attained the ne plus ultra of millennial middle age working out in an empty hotel gym watching the special @minakimes.bsky.social and @pablo.show edition of PTI
The labs are like the one place in the whole industry where you’d want fact-finding/information generation, not personalities — and they bought personalities! It’s bizarre.
A little reminiscent of Bari CBS, too, where principals have become convinced a demand-driven story is actually a supply-driven story
It’s so weird. I believe the future is labs having in-house newsrooms and I still think it’s weird!
Maybe not the scanners, TSA agents were still doing hand checks of luggage. But ICE was checking IDs and boarding passes at the beginning, monitoring people putting their bags in the scanners, and running the metal detectors.
Vibe is pretty clearly shifting. Not sure it’s shifting “back” but it’s shifting.
“Much of the world — or at least much of Asia — seems to be responding to the energy stress caused by the Iran War by attempting to reshape itself in China’s image.” heatmap.news/energy/iran-...
ICE officers actually operating all the TSA machines at LGA today. Through security in about three minutes.
SCOOP: Stardust Solutions, the U.S.-Israeli geoengineering startup, is making the world's most significant attempt at establishing a commercial enterprise for spraying reflective particles into the atmosphere to cool the planet. The company sold investors, raising $60 million last year. 🧵
thanks! you can email electricity@heatmap.news to request a download
My Heatmap colleagues have already done terrific work on the price hub, too. Check out @emilypont.bsky.social’s piece on why cheap power rates don’t automatically equate to cheap power bills — and why they each require a different kind of policy response. heatmap.news/energy/elect...
On today’s episode of Shift Key, I’m joined by Brian Deese and Lauren Sidner from the MIT team to discuss how the Electricity Price Hub came together, why we believe it’s needed, and some of our biggest lessons so far. heatmap.news/podcast/shif...
On @heatmap.news, Brian Deese and I write about why it’s so hard to track residential power prices in the US, why that’s a big problem, and what we’ve already learned from the Electricity Price Hub. Turns out: There is not one sole cause of recent electricity inflation. heatmap.news/energy/elect...
Our tool can show you the avg price and bill for hundreds of utilities across the country. It shows you how much rates have risen over the past five years, and what part of the system — generation, transmission, distribution, or other charges — are driving that inflation. electricity.heatmap.news
A choropleth map of U.S. residential electricity bills by state as of March 2026, from the MIT/Heatmap Electricity Price Hub. States are shaded from green (lowest, ~$70/month) to red (highest, ~$198/month). Texas, Alabama, and South Carolina appear among the most expensive; Colorado and surrounding Rocky Mountain states appear among the cheapest. A timeline slider spans 2020–2026. Below the map, a chart shows the national average bill oscillating between roughly $100–$200/month with strong seasonality. A summary statistic shows the national average residential electricity bill rose 28.0% from March 2021 to March 2026 (12-month trailing average).
Electricity prices are essential to the US economy. But it’s very hard to get recent, granular data on them.
We’re changing that. Today, @heatmap.news and MIT released the ELECTRICITY PRICE HUB, a new tool breaking down local power rates and bills going back to 2021. electricity.heatmap.news
!
Totally agree. The three big drivers of Chinese energy policy are (1) local air pollution, (2) energy security, and (3) desire to be at technological frontier. The issue is that you can make a lot of progress on (1) and maintain (3) while still using coal with modern emissions controls for (2).
Today @scientistsorg.bsky.social is out with a new playbook to reduce utility bills, deploy clean energy, and make government work for people. I joined @robinsonmeyer.bsky.social on Shift Key to discuss the playbook and what state and local leaders can do to cut bills.
heatmap.news/podcast/shif...
I just ran out of characters! All the Nordics are pretty clean.
Is it possible to build a renewables-heavy electrostate that doesn’t use coal? Yes, but China hasn’t done it and isn’t trying to do it pre-2030. The world’s lowest-carbon grids are instead in places with ample hydro (Switzerland, Norway, Paraguay), geo (Iceland), nuclear (France), or a mix (Sweden).
If you are laser-focused on “energy security”—as China’s leadership actually is, and as the Iran debacle is teaching Indo-Pacific states that they *should* be—then you will invest in the resources you have in-country. In too many places, that will be wind, solar, batteries, hydro (maybe), and COAL.