Robinson Meyer

It’s the age of electricity and America isn’t ready. Virtually every goal that Americans care about requires big changes to the power grid. I’m in @nytopinion today on why power bills are going up, whether AI is to blame, & what we need to do about it: nytimes.com/interactive/20…

Among the several ways that our moment is like 2006: Word clouds are, inexplicably, back

The federal permitting regime systematically disadvantages direct public investment in energy infrastructure because it holds governments to a much higher standard than private entities — it is part of why “derisking” (remember that?) dominates US national climate policymaking

@MattZeitlin does 2008 qualify too?

@robinsonmeyer for the second time in a row

What everyone thinks 2028 will be: online left vs online center-left mega-Dem factional battle royale What 2028 will actually be: very online politics knowers of all stripes banding together (in vain?) against the rank and file’s obvious first choice

@AidanRMackenzie thank you!

This podcast is the best resource I've heard for understanding the current state of permitting negotiations. Fully recommend podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wha…

To be clear, I’m receptive to the idea that Democratic officials were far too deferential to lawyers and procedure. But that’s a different takeaway than “just do things.”

Then it didn’t work — policies that liberals *thought* would be popular weren’t (like the student loan bailout), SCOTUS blocked half his agenda, inflation neutered much of the rest, and his coalition crumbled.

Somewhat mystified by the idea that “just do things” should be a lesson of Trump 2 — it was, after all, the lesson of Trump 1. The elite liberal consensus in 2021-2022 was that Biden had learned that lesson, and that his presidency was better than Obama’s as a result.

have a very hard time distinguishing RHOSLC from RLHF

Breaking News: Federal officials acknowledged in court documents that they canceled grants to states that didn’t vote for President Trump in 2024. nyti.ms/4pIbybQ

@TylerDinucci Didn’t know about this, but it’s crazy how useful the LLMs have been for language learning. Kind of a magic tool (especially when combined with Anki).

Where is he going to live!??! Fitler Square!?

FT Exclusive: The Trump administration has collected more than $13bn in revenues from Venezuelan oil sales this year, according to FT calculations, but has said almost nothing about what has happened to the money. ft.trib.al/1K9B0QT

@RogerPielkeJr Wait, you wrote all those words about my tweet!? My tweet with the world’s most obvious Don DeLillo joke? cheap heat!

@robinsonmeyer "new form of airborne toxic event"

The idea that no one has ever studied how wildfires might change upwind of the US northeast is making the rounds, with claims that it shows the climate is spinning out of control Climate, wildfire, management, fire deficit on the landscape each have a deep history in research 🤷‍♂️

Did not know Ed Miliband’s dad was a Marxist sociologist. Future historians will note the striking number of Anglophone politicians from this era with Marxian academic fathers — Buttigieg, Mamdani, Harris — and call it “odd,” “likely coincidental,” and “incoherent as a cohort”

The new 50% Canadian tariff appears to cover whey protein concentrates. Degrowth Donald!

The New York Giants. The New York Jets. It’s already right there in the name. Let’s make it happen @GovSherrillNJ @NJGov

FIFA, with its twisted genius, solved a long-running problem for the NYC metro area during this World Cup and now our leaders should move to make it permanent. It is time to rename East Rutherford, NJ to New York, NJ