Matto Mildenberger
mattomildenberger.bsky.social
Matto Mildenberger
@mattomildenberger.bsky.social

Associate Prof Political Science UCSB. Studies climate and energy politics. Director, UCSB 2035 Initiative.

Political science 25%
Economics 18%

Reposted by Matto Mildenberger

On a new episode of A Matter of Degrees, the legendary @billmckibben.bsky.social joins the show to talk about the potential of solar power and to get inspired for @sundayofaction.bsky.social - a day of action to celebrate the power of clean energy!

Tune in here: www.degreespod.com/episodes/the...
Paul Tobin, @stacydvandeveer.bsky.social and I are delighted to announce our new, open access, edited book ‘Stability and politicization in climate governance’. bit.ly/45Gb6RM. It is packed full of fantastic chapters about different aspects of climate politics. Here’s a short thread. 1/

I love it!

Reposted by Matto Mildenberger

An outbreak of sanity in TX.

thehill.com/policy/energ...
thehill.com

CBC has projected a "liberal government" in Canada in which means it's time for my pedantic every four year gripe with Canadian media that you cannot project a government based on seat count until they cross the majority threshold.

Ugh. This is horrible. So sorry!

Really horrible news. I'm so sorry

Thinking about my mentor and friend Stephen Clarkson, who would be flabbergasted by "North American" politics now. But he'd feel vindicated by our 2011 book Dependent America?, which previewed how much US economic power and security depends on Canada and Mexico. utppublishing.com/doi/book/10....
Dependent America? - University of Toronto Press
utppublishing.com
Democratic Senator Chris Murphy on Mahmoud Khalil.

Reposted by Matto Mildenberger

We're hiring! We are a "think and do tank" aimed at confronting the climate crisis. We are seeking a Postdoctoral Scholar in the politics of Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation to support research on public responses to climate impacts and policies across the world: recruit.ap.ucsb.edu/JPF02926

How 1776-ish of you

I think this means you are required to tell us all what to do as the overlapping set :)

Congratulations!!!!
www.foreignaffairs.com/united-state... This is by far the best, clearest and most realistic analysis of what we're in for that I've seen.
The Path to American Authoritarianism
What comes after democratic breakdown.
www.foreignaffairs.com

Reposted by Matto Mildenberger

All of this from @pastpunditry.bsky.social. The crisis is not *legible*. Even politically attentive people have no idea - the media are not conveying the scope and magnitude of what's happening. It has to be made legible through political and institutional resistance, not passivity and resignations.

Initially once a year (via tax returns!) which was quite silly from a visibility perspective. Later, they switched to quarterly direct deposits. Cheques would have been better (as arguably the Trump stimulus cheques worked well!)

Also a paper in US/Switzerland showing that mild political cues erode hypothetical preferences for progressive rebate structures: iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1...
The role of rebates in public support for carbon taxes - IOPscienceSearch
The role of rebates in public support for carbon taxes, Anders Fremstad, Matto Mildenberger, Mark Paul, Isabelle Stadelmann-Steffen
iopscience.iop.org

Yeah. We published this piece a few years ago which you probably saw: www.nature.com/articles/s41.... We have a more recent paper I can share a draft of which shows that, no matter how you cut it, ideology trumps material factors in shaping people's preferences for carbon rebates.
Limited impacts of carbon tax rebate programmes on public support for carbon pricing - Nature Climate Change
Carbon tax rebate programmes have received increasing interest with the potential to raise public support for carbon pricing. However, results of online surveys based on existing real-world policies d...
www.nature.com

Truly utterly insane. A memory care facility!!
Dallas Express reports that sitting 81-year-old congresswoman Kay Granger is secretly residing in a memory care and assisted living facility.

Granger hasn't cast any votes since July, isn't answering phone calls and vacated her physical office sometime before Thanksgiving.
EXCLUSIVE: Where is Congresswoman Kay Granger?
Amid the ongoing drama in D.C. with Congress debating on an interim spending bill a key question has arisen, "Where is Congresswoman Kay Granger?"
dallasexpress.com

Reposted by Matto Mildenberger

Dallas Express reports that sitting 81-year-old congresswoman Kay Granger is secretly residing in a memory care and assisted living facility.

Granger hasn't cast any votes since July, isn't answering phone calls and vacated her physical office sometime before Thanksgiving.
EXCLUSIVE: Where is Congresswoman Kay Granger?
Amid the ongoing drama in D.C. with Congress debating on an interim spending bill a key question has arisen, "Where is Congresswoman Kay Granger?"
dallasexpress.com

I'm sorry - they are really thinking about nominating another House Republican for an admin position (Graves to FAA???). I'm sure Johnson can pass a massive reconciliation bill in the first 100 days with a 216-215 house majority, easiest lift for a house speaker ever.

Reposted by Matto Mildenberger

ICYMI (I first learned about this from @prof-b-t.bsky.social's feed): turns out a governor can't unilaterally undo the will of the legislature, in this case for Virginia to be part of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI):
www.eenews.net/articles/cou...
Court rejects Virginia’s exit from RGGI
The decision is a blow to Virginia’s Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who initiated efforts to withdraw from the carbon trading program.
www.eenews.net

Can't wait for my native New Brunswick (pop: 775k) to become the new Wyoming and get the same number of Dem Senators as California. Lol. 10 new Canadian states would be a terrific way to break the filibuster!
"Trump suggested to Trudeau that Canada become the 51st state, which caused the prime minister and others to laugh nervously, sources told Fox News. But he continued, telling Trudeau that prime minister is a better title, though he could still be governor” www.foxnews.com/politics/tru...
Trump suggests Canada become 51st state after Trudeau said tariff would kill economy: sources
President-elect Trump told Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau his country should become the 51st state if it can't fix trade and immigration issues without ripping off the U.S.
www.foxnews.com

Reposted by Matto Mildenberger

"Trump suggested to Trudeau that Canada become the 51st state, which caused the prime minister and others to laugh nervously, sources told Fox News. But he continued, telling Trudeau that prime minister is a better title, though he could still be governor” www.foxnews.com/politics/tru...
Trump suggests Canada become 51st state after Trudeau said tariff would kill economy: sources
President-elect Trump told Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau his country should become the 51st state if it can't fix trade and immigration issues without ripping off the U.S.
www.foxnews.com

I never saw this. Amazing!!!

Reposted by Matto Mildenberger

Post an Onion headline that lives in your head rent-free

theonion.com/perky-canada...

Great thread on the insanity of the current moment
a lot of fanfare being made about elon musk threatening on X dot com to axe this position in the federal government…

but i wonder if anyone has connected the dots enough to tell him this person today helps tesla.

Reposted by Matto Mildenberger

a lot of fanfare being made about elon musk threatening on X dot com to axe this position in the federal government…

but i wonder if anyone has connected the dots enough to tell him this person today helps tesla.

Agreed. Savvy threat that creates credible shareholder pressure on Tesla/Musk.