Josh Lappen
@jlappen1.bsky.social
energy historian | postdoc at Notre Dame, PhD at Oxford | infrastructure, decarbonization, and landscapes | Angeleno | always on the lookout for a good fun fact
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Josh Lappen
@jlappen1.bsky.social
· Apr 16
Allan Nevins Prize | Society of American Historians
sah.columbia.edu
Interrupting my usual programming to share that my doctoral dissertation has won the Society of American Historians' Allan Nevins Prize!
I'm so grateful to the friends and mentors who have taught me this beautiful profession, especially in dark times.
sah.columbia.edu/content/priz...
I'm so grateful to the friends and mentors who have taught me this beautiful profession, especially in dark times.
sah.columbia.edu/content/priz...
Just had my bike stolen - second time for me. This time was a break-in, but last time I had two different styles of lock cut - it's incredible to me how much more able we are to cut things than to prevent them being cut. Angle grinders are mind-boggling!
November 24, 2025 at 10:03 PM
Just had my bike stolen - second time for me. This time was a break-in, but last time I had two different styles of lock cut - it's incredible to me how much more able we are to cut things than to prevent them being cut. Angle grinders are mind-boggling!
Reposted by Josh Lappen
As I argue in The Language of Climate Politics: we are stuck not because climate politics are polarized, but because they’re UNIFIED (across the right and center-left) on the lie that we can keep using oil and gas but still deal with climate change anyway.
Here’s a good example of that discourse.
Here’s a good example of that discourse.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said today that the fight against climate change was not against the fuels that cause it — only the pollution they emit.
Von der Leyen says EU is not fighting fossil fuels, only emissions
The comment could undermine European countries’ push at COP30 to move away from coal, oil and gas.
www.politico.eu
November 21, 2025 at 7:24 PM
As I argue in The Language of Climate Politics: we are stuck not because climate politics are polarized, but because they’re UNIFIED (across the right and center-left) on the lie that we can keep using oil and gas but still deal with climate change anyway.
Here’s a good example of that discourse.
Here’s a good example of that discourse.
Loose Chicken Fowls N Train
hire me, NY Daily News
hire me, NY Daily News
A train crew found a loose chicken on an N train this morning—and couldn’t get it to leave.
Loose chicken fouls N train as subway stowaway slows morning commute
A loose chicken gave new meaning to “free range,” scoring a gratis subway ride to Coney Island on the N train Thursday morning after it was discovered fouling a subway car in storage.
www.nydailynews.com
November 21, 2025 at 3:27 AM
Loose Chicken Fowls N Train
hire me, NY Daily News
hire me, NY Daily News
Now is the time for California to strengthen its Coastal and State Lands Commissions!
Today, the California coast we cherish and the delicate ocean ecosystems just beyond it face a renewed threat from offshore drilling. We oppose the Trump Administration’s 5-year oil and gas leasing program and will continue to defend our coastline, wildlife, economy, and health from this threat.
November 21, 2025 at 3:21 AM
Now is the time for California to strengthen its Coastal and State Lands Commissions!
Reposted by Josh Lappen
Pretty much everything interesting going on in the world is captured in the story of Simandou, the soon-to-be-operational gigantic iron ore mine in Guinea, West Africa.
www.ft.com/content/9fe8...
www.ft.com/content/9fe8...
How the world’s biggest mining project is a win for China
The $23bn Simandou mine in Guinea has taken almost three decades to begin operating but could tilt the balance of power in the global iron ore market
www.ft.com
November 20, 2025 at 3:53 AM
Pretty much everything interesting going on in the world is captured in the story of Simandou, the soon-to-be-operational gigantic iron ore mine in Guinea, West Africa.
www.ft.com/content/9fe8...
www.ft.com/content/9fe8...
Reposted by Josh Lappen
I'm in the @chicagotribune.com today calling on @govpritzker.illinois.gov to protect the Illinois wetlands that keep floods out of our basements & our water clean.
EPA's new rule would strip the vast majority of Illinois wetlands of Clean Water Act protections.
Article by @adrianaperez.bsky.social
EPA's new rule would strip the vast majority of Illinois wetlands of Clean Water Act protections.
Article by @adrianaperez.bsky.social
Illinois lawmakers urged to ‘step up’ and ‘fight like hell’ as EPA moves to cut wetlands protections
New U.S. EPA rule would strip protections from 72% of the state’s remaining wetlands, which play a crucial role in mitigating flooding and filtering drinking water.
www.chicagotribune.com
November 19, 2025 at 7:08 PM
I'm in the @chicagotribune.com today calling on @govpritzker.illinois.gov to protect the Illinois wetlands that keep floods out of our basements & our water clean.
EPA's new rule would strip the vast majority of Illinois wetlands of Clean Water Act protections.
Article by @adrianaperez.bsky.social
EPA's new rule would strip the vast majority of Illinois wetlands of Clean Water Act protections.
Article by @adrianaperez.bsky.social
for my birthday I would please like housing folks of all stripes to stop making wild historical claims long enough to read one (1) book about what living in a late 19th/early 20th century city was actually like
November 20, 2025 at 12:35 AM
for my birthday I would please like housing folks of all stripes to stop making wild historical claims long enough to read one (1) book about what living in a late 19th/early 20th century city was actually like
We have known for 150 years that dual-fuel homes are dangerous - and more fundamentally, that gas in buildings is dangerous. Neighborhood-scale gas removal is a fire-safety policy. In the wake of yet more disastrous fires, CA is ignoring it at its peril!
www.latimes.com/california/s...
www.latimes.com/california/s...
House explosion caused by child turning on lamp during a gas leak, neighbor says
Officials have determined a gas leak caused a home explosion in Chino Hills over the weekend that injured eight people, forced temporary evacuations and damaged nearby homes.
www.latimes.com
November 19, 2025 at 6:23 PM
We have known for 150 years that dual-fuel homes are dangerous - and more fundamentally, that gas in buildings is dangerous. Neighborhood-scale gas removal is a fire-safety policy. In the wake of yet more disastrous fires, CA is ignoring it at its peril!
www.latimes.com/california/s...
www.latimes.com/california/s...
deeply disgraceful stuff.
It turns out that the white supremacist Curtis Yarvin recently gave a lecture at Oxford's Sheldonian, the same hall in which I graduated. The University is denying it had anything to do with the lecture, which is obviously untrue.
Oakeshott Lectures: Curtis Yarvin - The End of the End of History
www.sheldonian.ox.ac.uk
November 18, 2025 at 11:32 PM
deeply disgraceful stuff.
Reposted by Josh Lappen
Parcel 0712 is part of a complex of oil and gas leases in ecologically valuable sagebrush-steppe that the Bureau of Land Management has proposed for auction in June.
"It's the largest lek on the planet, at least that I'm aware of," a biologist said.
Read more ➡️ wyofile.com/drilling-lea...
"It's the largest lek on the planet, at least that I'm aware of," a biologist said.
Read more ➡️ wyofile.com/drilling-lea...
November 18, 2025 at 7:28 PM
Parcel 0712 is part of a complex of oil and gas leases in ecologically valuable sagebrush-steppe that the Bureau of Land Management has proposed for auction in June.
"It's the largest lek on the planet, at least that I'm aware of," a biologist said.
Read more ➡️ wyofile.com/drilling-lea...
"It's the largest lek on the planet, at least that I'm aware of," a biologist said.
Read more ➡️ wyofile.com/drilling-lea...
Oh I think you're definitely correct!
November 18, 2025 at 10:38 PM
Oh I think you're definitely correct!
Reposted by Josh Lappen
I’ve written a piece on the curious lack of media and political interest in the issues faced by our national @britishlibrary.bsky.social. This is strange given we live in a world where ideas, knowledge and research are a long-term source of innovation and insight
www.cityam.com/the-british-...
www.cityam.com/the-british-...
The British library is in crisis: why does nobody care?
The widespread indifference to the British Library's crippling cyberattack demonstrates a perilous failure to value the knowledge infrastructure vital for national prosperity
www.cityam.com
November 18, 2025 at 6:27 AM
I’ve written a piece on the curious lack of media and political interest in the issues faced by our national @britishlibrary.bsky.social. This is strange given we live in a world where ideas, knowledge and research are a long-term source of innovation and insight
www.cityam.com/the-british-...
www.cityam.com/the-british-...
Reposted by Josh Lappen
If the youth and the vulnerables in the Global South have not given up on COP yet, I am not sure middle-aged educated people in the Global North should either
November 6, 2025 at 9:52 AM
If the youth and the vulnerables in the Global South have not given up on COP yet, I am not sure middle-aged educated people in the Global North should either
among other things!
November 16, 2025 at 8:03 AM
among other things!
some politicians are Skilled and Reasonable and the bad things they do aren't worth reporting on now, bc they're probably part of some sort of grand plan we'll be let in on later. other politicians are Naive and Suspect, so we should devote most of our time to checking whether they've fucked up yet.
November 15, 2025 at 7:20 PM
some politicians are Skilled and Reasonable and the bad things they do aren't worth reporting on now, bc they're probably part of some sort of grand plan we'll be let in on later. other politicians are Naive and Suspect, so we should devote most of our time to checking whether they've fucked up yet.
Hard to feel optimistic about the UK's will to impose adequate sanctions on a symbolic American company right now - but the least they can do is not allow Ford to recapture its own penalty like Volkswagen did.
November 15, 2025 at 7:14 PM
Hard to feel optimistic about the UK's will to impose adequate sanctions on a symbolic American company right now - but the least they can do is not allow Ford to recapture its own penalty like Volkswagen did.
I actually think riding circuit is a good thing in principle as well as a potentially effective disciplining measure! Every justice should have to share a flea-ridden twin bed in a roadside tavern with the young Abraham Lincoln.
Riding the circuit. No clerks. No building. No shadow docket. Nothing, until the Wizards In Robes stop ignoring the law, data, history, precedent, & the plain meaning of words in the Constitution. And there will be 25, with 9 chosen by lottery for any case.
What I first said in sarcasm I increasingly think is a real thing to consider:
Move SCOTUS to a strip mall in rural Kansas.
We can’t fire them. Impeachment* is functionally dead. The 18-yr term thing is a fantasy.
But we can kill a lot of their perks.
Bet Kav would retire fast.
Move SCOTUS to a strip mall in rural Kansas.
We can’t fire them. Impeachment* is functionally dead. The 18-yr term thing is a fantasy.
But we can kill a lot of their perks.
Bet Kav would retire fast.
November 15, 2025 at 7:09 PM
I actually think riding circuit is a good thing in principle as well as a potentially effective disciplining measure! Every justice should have to share a flea-ridden twin bed in a roadside tavern with the young Abraham Lincoln.
Another Dieselgate - hopeful but not optimistic that the eventual settlement money will get spent better!
www.theguardian.com/business/202...
www.theguardian.com/business/202...
About 1m Ford diesel cars sold in UK with defective emissions controls, court told
Ford denies having created ‘defeat devices’ in legal action on behalf of 1.6 million owners against five carmakers
www.theguardian.com
November 15, 2025 at 6:30 PM
Another Dieselgate - hopeful but not optimistic that the eventual settlement money will get spent better!
www.theguardian.com/business/202...
www.theguardian.com/business/202...
Genuine shared governance is the only way to save American higher education and scholarship.
WE WON. I am *begging* you to take note of who did this. *Not* UCLA admin—they’re still scuttling around behind closed doors, attempting to appease—but FACULTY AND STAFF, led by AAUP.
BREAKING: In AAUP et al v. Trump (wall-to-wall union lawsuit challenging the administration’s unlawful use of TItle VI to reshape the University of California system), the faculty and staff of the UC system WON!!!
We were granted our preliminary injunction! @aaup.org
We were granted our preliminary injunction! @aaup.org
November 15, 2025 at 12:51 AM
Genuine shared governance is the only way to save American higher education and scholarship.
"The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. ... As our case is new, we must think anew and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves"
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/12/o...
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/12/o...
Opinion | Democrats Sure Taught Trump a Lesson
www.nytimes.com
November 15, 2025 at 12:47 AM
"The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. ... As our case is new, we must think anew and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves"
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/12/o...
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/12/o...
Reposted by Josh Lappen
Equalizing electricity prices between residential, commercial, and industrial customers would save households - aka voters - 21% on their electricity bills. Commercial prices would go up 1%. Industrial prices would go up 59% because residential and commercial customers deeply subsidize them today.
7. Residential customers - aka you and me, aka voters - pay 28% more (16.5 c/kWh, 2024 average) than commercial customers (12.9 c/kWh) and 201% more than industrial (8.2 c/kWh). This trend is accelerating: Residential prices rose 27% from 2019-2023, vs. 21% for commercial and 19% for industrial.
November 13, 2025 at 11:21 PM
Equalizing electricity prices between residential, commercial, and industrial customers would save households - aka voters - 21% on their electricity bills. Commercial prices would go up 1%. Industrial prices would go up 59% because residential and commercial customers deeply subsidize them today.
Fantastic thread. Want some facts about electricity prices after the past nine months of frothy supposition? Dig in!
1. Rising electricity bills are becoming a hotbutton issue, but pundits and politicians often talk about them in ways that are misleading or flat-out wrong. A new paper from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory examines actual data on retail electricity prices.
The results may surprise you. 🧵
The results may surprise you. 🧵
Factors influencing recent trends in retail electricity prices in the United States
This study analyzes the primary drivers of recent state-level trends in U.S. retail electricity prices. We summarize pricing trends, explore descripti…
www.sciencedirect.com
November 14, 2025 at 12:10 AM
Fantastic thread. Want some facts about electricity prices after the past nine months of frothy supposition? Dig in!
In many industrial sectors, cost equalization might just prompt operators to finally realize the low-hanging efficiency gains we've been trying to get them to act on for 50 years...
November 14, 2025 at 12:09 AM
In many industrial sectors, cost equalization might just prompt operators to finally realize the low-hanging efficiency gains we've been trying to get them to act on for 50 years...
Yeah, I'd note also that it's likely these programs are encouraged by traffic-reduction provisions in the companies' General Use Permits, issued by their home counties on the Peninsula and in the South Bay. Those counties could seek to amend their GUPs to preference use of public transit.
November 13, 2025 at 3:18 PM
Yeah, I'd note also that it's likely these programs are encouraged by traffic-reduction provisions in the companies' General Use Permits, issued by their home counties on the Peninsula and in the South Bay. Those counties could seek to amend their GUPs to preference use of public transit.