holly caggiano
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holcaggiano.bsky.social
holly caggiano
@holcaggiano.bsky.social
planning for climate equity (PLACE) lab • asst prof UBC SCARP • VWFC fan ⚽ • not rolling my eyes, I have tourette syndrome
Pinned
Report launch day! Check out this project with @cplusc.bsky.social looking back on Maine's public power ballot initiative. Despite a classic case of corporate capture and a loss at the polls, this is a hopeful story that (imo) has a lot to teach us
@smconstantino.bsky.social #energysky
What lessons can utility justice and public power advocates draw from this campaign? Read the full report and recommendations to learn more: climateandcommunity.org/research/end...
Reposted by holly caggiano
The Public Grids Halftime Show some are saying
Commenting on energy injustice is now the floor for any halftime act.
February 9, 2026 at 1:52 AM
I'm freaking out 😭😭
Commenting on energy injustice is now the floor for any halftime act.
February 9, 2026 at 1:56 AM
Grateful to @picscanada.bsky.social for funding & coordinating our dialogue on community ownership for climate mitigation infrastructure. my biggest takeaway: ownership means little without democratic decision making and local control
Complex #ClimateChange challenges don’t have easy answers. It takes contemplation and collaboration to seed new thinking that can lead to effective #ClimateSolutions. PICS’ Climate Foresight program offered two such opportunities to researchers this fall. https://ow.ly/RwFv50Y8u97
Climate Foresight dialogues seed new thinking on emerging challenges and solutions | Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions
Retreats bring together researchers and other experts to contemplate, create, and plan.
ow.ly
February 4, 2026 at 7:36 AM
Reposted by holly caggiano
📚🎁 Reminders for everyone looking for specific books to purchase online as gifts:

1. If you haven't called your local independently-owned book shop, try there first. (If you don't have one, try Bookshop.org)

2. Don't put it off - shipping time for Media Mail can be 12 days. Priority is 5 📦
Bookshop.org: Buy books online. Support local bookstores.
A better way to buy books online. Every purchase financially supports local independent bookstores.
Bookshop.org
December 5, 2025 at 8:22 PM
Classic Friday in America. Sneak this out, follow it up with the incredibly bizarre World Cup draw complete with a made up peace trophy for Trump. Ughghhhhgghhhhhh
The Trump administration released its latest National Security Strategy--and one thing that can be said is that there is no more pretending. It’s a plan to weaken European unity, to make Europe MAGA, to force Europe to take economic dictation by the USA…. open.substack.com/pub/phillips...
The New US National Security Strategy
Trump Says Openly That the US Wants to Dominate Europe and Make it MAGA
open.substack.com
December 5, 2025 at 6:06 PM
Reposted by holly caggiano
The WSJ reports on the historic news yesterday that Eavor has begun operations of the first commercial-scale multilateral closed loop geotherm power project in the world! It's not every day that a new power tech has its "world's first" moment. Don't miss this www.wsj.com/articles/a-g... 🔌💡
Exclusive | A Geothermal Company Wants to Use New Technology to Heat an Old German Town
A project in Bavaria is harnessing high temperatures from deep beneath the earth to provide a community with warmth in the winter and to power the local grid in the summer.
www.wsj.com
December 5, 2025 at 2:08 PM
Reposted by holly caggiano
The word 'retrofit' is insufficient to explain the programs Vancouver's ABC party is cutting, said planning Holly Caggiano, a professor at UBC. "It kind of makes it sound like this is a luxury, but cooling and living in a safe home is a human right." www.nationalobserver.com/2025/12/04/n...
Vancouver cuts to housing retrofits will be 'responsible for lost lives'
Funding for the city's existing buildings retrofit program was nixed in a last-minute amendment brought forward by ABC Councillor Lenny Zhou to Mayor Ken Sim's controversial 2026 budget.
www.nationalobserver.com
December 4, 2025 at 10:17 PM
117 people died during the 2021 heat dome. Vancouver is getting hotter. Cooling buildings will save lives.
Vancouver cuts to housing retrofits will be 'responsible for lost lives'
Funding for the city's existing buildings retrofit program was nixed in a last-minute amendment brought forward by ABC Councillor Lenny Zhou to Mayor Ken Sim's controversial 2026 budget.
www.nationalobserver.com
December 4, 2025 at 10:44 PM
Reposted by holly caggiano
The impacts of this decrease in both the number and amount of NIH and NSF funding will be felt for generations, but props to the NIH and NSF program managers and support staff who got this many grants and this much funding out the door under very difficult circumstances.
The U.S. Is Funding Fewer Grants in Every Area of Science and Medicine (Gift Article)
A quiet policy change means the government is making fewer bets on long-term science.
www.nytimes.com
December 2, 2025 at 8:49 PM
goin to Miami 🎶
#vwfc
🌊VANCOUVER WHITECAPS TO MLS CUP!

The Whitecaps are off to MLS Cup for the first time with a dominant 3-1 win over San Diego FC.

Next Saturday afternoon in Fort Lauderdale — #VWFC v Miami.

11 years after the 2014 World Cup, Müller and Messi meet in a final once again.
November 30, 2025 at 6:26 AM
Reposted by holly caggiano
9/ This is reckless climate and economic policy. And magical thinking. Net zero doesn’t happen without reducing fossil fuel supply. At least the US has the cojones to say it doesn’t give a shit about climate. @mark-carney.bsky.social is still pretending that Canada does. FIN
November 27, 2025 at 7:44 PM
Not the big pipeline news today but deeply important:

"part of a pattern of the public being asked to foot the bill for fossil fuel infrastructure"
November 28, 2025 at 1:39 AM
Reposted by holly caggiano
We're revisiting Comment articles from 2025. Today, take a read of "Planning for equitable carbon removal governance" by @holcaggiano.bsky.social
Planning for equitable carbon removal governance - Nature Reviews Clean Technology
With growing investment in technological options for durable, large-scale carbon removal projects, there is an opportunity for planners to consider what equitable models of carbon removal development and deployment might look like in practice.
bit.ly
November 26, 2025 at 2:33 PM
Reposted by holly caggiano
At a time when prices are skyrocketing, climate commitments are getting rolled back, and assistance programs are threatened — I hope you'll read about the public utility that almost was and the lessons we learned along the way, so you can win next. climateandcommunity.org/research/end...
End Point or Setback? A Retrospective of the Maine Public Power Ballot Initiative
CCI polling revealed that even following the vote, twice as many Mainers prefer public ownership of energy resources than private ownership.
climateandcommunity.org
November 20, 2025 at 10:04 PM
Report launch day! Check out this project with @cplusc.bsky.social looking back on Maine's public power ballot initiative. Despite a classic case of corporate capture and a loss at the polls, this is a hopeful story that (imo) has a lot to teach us
@smconstantino.bsky.social #energysky
What lessons can utility justice and public power advocates draw from this campaign? Read the full report and recommendations to learn more: climateandcommunity.org/research/end...
November 20, 2025 at 6:51 PM
Absolute banger and a set piece assist, Sebastian Berhalter is player of the game 🫡

Throw back to when he brought the Voyageurs cup to our house last year @axilla2.bsky.social

Now for conf semi finals LFG WHITECAPS #VWFC #USMNT
November 19, 2025 at 2:15 AM
Reposted by holly caggiano
Berhalter and Reyna out here scoring goals and healing generational trauma... You love to see it #usmnt
November 19, 2025 at 1:50 AM
Ooof
So.....did no one else notice that Pennsylvania just dropped RGGI?
November 14, 2025 at 6:11 AM
Reposted by holly caggiano
In this new report from me & @rhymeswithocean.bsky.social for @cplusc.bsky.social & @publicgrids.org, we argue the current electricity affordability crisis is caused by the rules of private ownership. To solve the crisis, we recommend banning shutoffs now and using many tools to expand public power!
Overcharged: The Rules Of The Electricity Affordability Crisis
Nearly a quarter of adults in the US—or over 52 million people—cannot pay their power bills.
climateandcommunity.org
October 23, 2025 at 5:28 PM
Reposted by holly caggiano
Another world is possible, if we fight for it
November 5, 2025 at 3:27 AM
Reposted by holly caggiano
Picture how big the Hoover Dam is. An absolute unit. The Hoover Dam has a power capacity of 2 gigawatts (GW).

The solar farm that the Admin just cancelled could have produces 6.2 GW of power. That's more than 3 Hoover Dams.
SCOOP: The Bureau of Land Management says the largest solar project in Nevada — the Esmeralda 7 mega-farm — has been canceled

The news was quietly dropped via a sudden website update with no public word from any of the companies involved or a statement from the agency

@heatmap.news
Esmeralda 7 Solar Project Has Been Canceled, BLM Says
It would have delivered a gargantuan 6.2 gigawatts of power.
heatmap.news
October 10, 2025 at 4:00 AM
attn profs who teach environmental & climate justice! new paper (with @alanarad.bsky.social & An-Min Wu) on using sense of place to communicate EJ/CJ in interdisciplinary classrooms: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

#GreenSky #AcademicSky (if you can't access, email me for a PDF)
Using sense of place to communicate actionable environmental and climate justice in interdisciplinary classrooms - Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences
As global environmental changes disproportionately impact disadvantaged communities, critical research documents subsequent environmental and climate injustices. Communicating these injustices in higher education university classrooms grows increasingly urgent as students are eager to engage with justice issues in professional and personal settings. We identify major challenges for teaching environmental and climate justice within interdisciplinary fields and propose a pedagogical framework based on relational scales of “sense of place” to communicate meaningful and culturally relevant environmental justice topics in university classrooms with multiple dimensions of student diversity. In response to a lack of accessible and tangible pedagogical environmental justice tools across all environmental fields, we highlight practical classroom applications situated at the intersection of individual, community, and place scales. Doing so shows that engaging pedagogical exercises in the sense of place scales can communicate an environmental and climate justice that is not just another academic term, but also an actionable opportunity for students within and beyond classrooms.
link.springer.com
September 30, 2025 at 5:54 PM
Ok but this is really cool
Sand batteries are literally just silos of sand that retain heat exceptionally well -- so well that they can be tied to heat exchange systems to serve as proxy *electrical* batteries. Finland's new model can store enough power (100 MWh) to heat an entire town for a week.
newatlas.com/energy/large...
The world's largest sand battery just went live in Finland
Finland has inaugurated an industrial-scale sand battery this week in the southern town of Pornainen, where it'll take over heating duties from an old woodchip power plant for the municipality. It's s...
newatlas.com
August 30, 2025 at 2:56 AM
Reposted by holly caggiano
My lab's been attacked by an anti-wind group and their lawyers. They threatened the science funding of my whole university, to shut me and my undergraduate research assistants up.

NYT just covered it. 1/n

www.nytimes.com/2025/08/25/c...
Law Firm Pressures Brown University to Erase Research on Anti-Wind Groups
www.nytimes.com
August 25, 2025 at 11:32 AM