Rich Calhoun

@chr1sa It’s might happen in a place like Phoenix or Houston, cities that are handcuffed to centralized power plants w/ fragile transmission. Sun Belt cities are directly in harm’s way but their utilities and legislators have left them vulnerable.

This is what the novel Ministry of the Future got wrong, with its horrifying "wet-bulb" event in India, where the grid goes down and air conditioning becomes unavailable, letting heat kill a million people. Now in places with fragile grids, people are taking matters into their own hands with cheap distributed solar. Democratizing technology leads to self-reliance.

@PhilSustainable Ok. I agree on the housing piece but I think you’re creating a fictional narrative around HQ2. Amazon expanded in NYC anyway and the VA project is falling away from Amazon’s projections. Let’s just build housing, not chase tax cuts to the bottom. businessinsider.com/amazon-new-off…

@richcalhoun Any nyc tax breaks were over 15 years, so if they laid anyone off they didn’t meet the contract. So no deal! It’s not a lump sum

NYC said no to 25,000 Amazon jobs AND no to new housing. Then the pandemic hit. Jobs vanished, rents still went up, and the city got poorer. If NYC had said yes to both, it comes out stronger.

@PhilSustainable Except HQ2 has turned out to be a jobs bust in Virginia, not sure how your math adds up. virginiabusiness.com/amazons-hq2-hi…

Big picture: HQ2 alone wouldn’t fix NYC. But HQ2 + new housing? That could’ve changed everything. You can’t say no to everything… and expect things to get better.

@jasonc_nc @sarthakgh Maybe. But, they didn’t show up for street safety startups like ours when DOGE started gutting the funding we spent years fighting for. DOGE stole our grant and Google didn’t lift a finger but kept donating to DC. They could be allies, but they are not. innoenergy.com/news-resources…

I think most who are in this camp believe we should do all the things so I think it’s sincere with those I interact with. Streetsblog and others seem to be mostly just mad about big tech and therefore this is a proxy for that issue rather than an honest discussion about whether it benefits safety. And we can absolutely craft policy that addresses some of the valid concerns about not letting this increase cars in places where transit works and can work even better.

Congrats to NYC Mayor on yet another push to harm the majority in the interest of protecting a minority interest group Waymo rollout in NYC has been stopped

@SarahLongwell25 @FlugeneDebs When I listened to the episode I got that impression. I just relistened and checked the transcript. You and Tim were speaking specifically about Mamdani, Tim played an audio clip of ZM and then you seemed to refer to ZM (and HP?) as malign actors. Can you relisten and clarify?

@FlugeneDebs No I didn’t. What are you talking about?

This is top notch political communication. It’s not about being more centrist or more progressive. It’s about digging in on local issues that impact people’s quality of life. Every politician can do this!

@PeteSikora1 Reporting by Amy Westervelt and others over the years have helped me understand the inner workings of fossil-captured media. But, even her brilliant climate podcast was seemingly “caught and killed” by Pod Save. There are few outlets who don’t actively downplay enviro news.

@richcalhoun The business section was always propaganda for corporate America. But the news sections seemed (and I think genuinely were) more focused on a public interest narrative. Not anymore. Society tailspinning.

It’s really not a complicated story, msmers: Hochul did next to nothing for years. As a result, pollution didn’t drop. Neither did energy bills. She simply catered to the gas lobby. Now after doing nothing, as a court orders her to act, she wants to amend the law to cover it up.

@JigarShahDC It’s hard not to get a bit frustrated w/ the previous admin’s lack of investment in e-bikes and bike infrastructure in the IRA and BIL. Raising tariffs on bikes caused prices to spike and the abandonment of COVID-era safe streets smothered demand. Bikes could’ve helped.

@mollytaft @M_Cottone This is our experience working in postindustrial New England communities on solar and DC’s. We see some conspiratorial pushback from folks but most are well informed and not opposed to industrial growth. They just know what EM is doing down South and they don’t trust tech bros.

@M_Cottone i have a piece coming out about this so don't want to scoop myself but the convos i have had with anti-data center organizers actually on the ground are not about being anti AI but are absolutely more about the logistics and promises v realities of certain projects

a lot of sentiments like this don't capture the fact that many ppl fighting data centers are correctly questioning the insane financials behind these deals

@JigarShahDC @futurepundit Until we start being honest about $, captured regulators and revolving door hiring then most of these conversations ring hollow. From FERC and the ISO’s down to the local level, the system has been corrupted. Folks are squeezing the grid to get rich, at the people’s expense.

@futurepundit Typical backgrounds: Lawyers (especially administrative, energy, or regulatory law) Economists (rate design, cost-benefit analysis) Former utility or government staff Occasionally engineers (but less common) Former legislators

Capturing most of that $15B requires about $500m of grid enhancing technologies

@jasonc_nc @sarthakgh I’m on board with that, and w/ AV’s, but I think most of these folks coming out of the woodwork crying about safety are full of it though. We know how to make streets safe, Hoboken did it. If we tried to do this in NYC, these same folks would freak out. It’s about $ for them.

If all it does is allow more super commuting it will do nothing for traffic, but will improve safety. Hypothetically also should allow us to reclaim excessive lane width to repurpose for bike lanes, transit lanes and so on. (Of course this also ties into my fire truck commentary). Therefore more multi-model use out of existing right of ways. I often suggest the bold strategy of applying the technology to a single lead car that pulls a series of cabins for people along key routes. We just need a name for it.

@WeatherProf I live/teach in a rural blue district and develop renewables+housing in rural red districts. Bad faith actors have spent decades poisoning rural residents against utility solar+wind. Now, folks across the spectrum are 🤬about DC’s. Years of disinformation fed the anger.

I have learned from years of watching struggling renewable energy projects, which are often benign, that NIMBY is a very powerful force. It can happen organically for the right reasons. Or through bad actors. But either way it’s a force to be reckoned with. I do wonder if states will try to preemptively take away a community’s right to ban data centers… or if there’s some already doing that… as has been done with local green initiatives.

@jasonc_nc @aarmlovi A challenge that I see is that many of us have been working for decades on safe streets and Google has not. While DOGE gutted critical funding for street upgrades in NYC, Google donated millions for the WH Ballroom. I love Waymo’s, but it’s hard to stomach after all the cuts.

@aarmlovi I don’t know why every discourse now pretends we can’t walk and chew gum at the same time. We’ve gotten so myopic about our one thing being the only thing. Yes, we can improve street design to reduce bad human behaviors. And yes we can use the benefits of AVs.

There is an amusing symmetry on Waymo: -Suddenly the tech people care about street safety -Suddenly the street safety people don't care about human life This is of some rhetorical interest, but we should still be more disappointed in the people who suddenly don't value lives

@CaseyAndersonPB @Seanfrank He’s never posted about safer streets, except for Waymo posts. He’s making a strong claim that he values human life and is calling out NYC for “costing lives”. But, the models are clear: congestion pricing saves far more lives than shifting to AVs. So, is it about safe streets?

@richcalhoun @Seanfrank What does this have to do with whether autonomous vehicles should be allowed?

People will die to protect taxi drivers jobs. That’s the reality of this decision. Not political, not sensationalized. There will be excess pedestrian deaths because we aren’t rolling out Waymos in NYC. Human lives could be saved.

Most of the posters complaining about NYC delaying Waymo approval also passionately fought against congestion pricing. They don’t care about safety, they simply don’t want to interact with working class people. aeelaw.com/insights/conge…

@jasonc_nc @sarthakgh What issues do you foresee AVs solving? I own a bike shop and work on a bike startup, so I’m excited for some additional safety. But, AVs don’t help w/ traffic etc. so what will the transformative impacts be beyond additional safety? (which is great)

@richcalhoun @sarthakgh Oh I’m aware how shitty we are on this topic.

@jasonc_nc @sarthakgh As a New England resident, I’m frustrated as well. But, the South has such a deadly and inefficient transportation system already, AVs will really help and I’m glad they will help. I know it’s fun to shit on us, but your states are a relative nightmare in terms of safety.

@sarthakgh The northeast just keeps giving the south completely unearned wins. Gonna be wild in a decade when the south is full of AVs and going to the northeast is met with “can’t believe I have to use a taxi with a driver”

@GaryWinslett Energy economics and the laws of physics are going to limit the amount of nuclear anyway, this is a poorly thought out position by Sanders. Similar to the opposition to data centers/utility solar/wind, most folks don’t understand true impacts. Too much fearmongering.

It's kind of incredible to me that Bernie Sanders wants to ban nuclear energy. Just a terrible policy stance.

@TyroneG_G @SarahLongwell25 Well said. It sure seems like Tim has wrestled with the tough recognition that his life’s work led us to this moment, Sarah hasn’t. I’m her age and have been politically engaged my entire life, she has been wrong on almost every issue. Economics, Iraq war, climate….all wrong.

Rapid fan of Tim Miller(Bulwark) & Hasan ABI here: here goes nothing. As a leftist I have never understood conservativism & not talking about MAGA but pre-trump era conservative but not just like John McCain or bush era conservativism but actually understand the underlying principles. I have heard this principles stated out in talks but never really understood how normal people absorb this principles. So when I came across bulwark in around 2019 was happy to watch this people cause they seem like relatively normal people. Tim gay, Sarah a lesbain and JVL doomerism is just to die for. I was enamored by their takes and even though maybe didn't agree with many takes, it actually started to believe yeah maybe their people that Fiscal responsibility e.t.c trumps a lot of other things that they would rather give a little away of other things cause this principles were Paramount. But slowly started to see the hypocrisy intention or umintention in many of host and it was most apparent in no other than Sarah. The truth must be said that the bulwark have stand by the principle of Never Trump and stick to it but I couldn't just shake this feeling as there were many things that if Trump was just more decorum in manners: the host will be in Republican Party right now, justifying many of his actions. Just a few months ago Sarah was more insistent that better for the never trumpers to probably have what they call "moderate Republican" like Susan Collins in house than democrat, she was probably the last to get off that train. Even as many of their colleagues have shown this principles they profess to share will easily be shared on alter of power: they still pretend this truly the principles that were at bottom of conservativism (MAGA didn't rise out a vacuum). But this seizing power was not new to them: all tactics of Mitch McConnell was something they probably stood behind till late stage: hoping some sort of spine would be grown. But that's not even the issue I would have hoped this litttle period never TrumpRepublican got to be at somewhat other side with democrat we at least understood each other more but in all this I barely saw effort to understand left and democrat thinking, so if we ever go back to pre-trump era politics we could understood ourselves more but this inwards reconciliation never happened especially in Sarah. To give props to Tim and that's why he still the best and only one I saw actually done work to understand this people you claim to form an alliance with cause believe it Sarah got on stage with Hasan pikrwith and said he was just spewing derange leftist nonsense, a huge part of bulwark audience that were looking for Republican we could understand are leftist(check the comment section of the video). Only Tim shows ounce of wrestling with full spectrum of our political scene. You could see it in his interview with Ta-Nehisi Coates, when he was doing that younger audience podcast of FYPOD, interview with Zohran. He wrestled with American political scene with honesty and even tho definitely not turning into a woke lefty communists. I believe he has grown so not surprised when he got complicated by an audience as their favorite podcaster behind Hasan: I would say the same. But Sarah, not sarah. Check all her takes during the Israel protest in university. She would do focus group with perps saying the racist inclined stuff but maintain they can be gotten by democrat, they just worried about price of eggs. Even JVL was more reconciliatary with all this even if it was in JVL way of we are all doomed and it all a farce and voters just dumb. So was not surprised Tim came to conclusion he came to and was not surprised about Sarah cause think about if someone can say she prefer a Ted Cruz to Zohran in 2025, argued for so called moderate Republican should stay for years but doesn't want left holding the democrat for what they believe. Recently in her take with Tim called Zohran a maligned character. Anyway already gone too long, for the never trumper, we can't say they haven't put their money where their mouth is but I am afraid we won't actually benefit from what this period could have offered because nobody sort to understood each other, everybody tried gate keep but what I believe is if we are to defeat Trump but also what coming next in JD Vance America first brewing we are all already in that tent and going to make it fit.

This is a good take.