Alex TD
@alextd.bsky.social
Program Director @ MIT. Climate, transit, sci-fi, toddlers. Opinions my own. Mostly lurking?
Reposted by Alex TD
Reposting because this really is an excellent thread.
December 12, 2025 at 1:10 PM
Reposting because this really is an excellent thread.
Reposted by Alex TD
In addition to all of the other benefits already reported about NYC congestion pricing, "In the first six months of the program, air pollution – in the form of particulate matter 2.5 micrometers and smaller – dropped by 22% in the Congestion Relief Zone (CRZ)"
news.cornell.edu/stories/2025...
news.cornell.edu/stories/2025...
Congestion pricing improved air quality in NYC and suburbs | Cornell Chronicle
Cornell researchers tallied the environmental benefits of New York City’s congestion pricing program and found air pollution dropped by 22% in Manhattan, with additional declines across the city’s fiv...
news.cornell.edu
December 9, 2025 at 2:19 AM
In addition to all of the other benefits already reported about NYC congestion pricing, "In the first six months of the program, air pollution – in the form of particulate matter 2.5 micrometers and smaller – dropped by 22% in the Congestion Relief Zone (CRZ)"
news.cornell.edu/stories/2025...
news.cornell.edu/stories/2025...
The networked geothermal effort here in MA is a win on so many levels, and my favorite unique local innovation story (among some options). Congrats on this doubling grant!
The US Department of Energy approved an $8.6 million grant that will allow the nation’s first utility-led geothermal heating and cooling network (in MA) to double in size. www.canarymedia.com/articles/uti... 🔌💡
First utility-owned geothermal network to double in size with DOE…
The $8.6 million grant for Eversource’s pioneering project in Framingham, Massachusetts, is a rare win for renewable energy under the Trump administration.
www.canarymedia.com
December 7, 2025 at 9:19 PM
The networked geothermal effort here in MA is a win on so many levels, and my favorite unique local innovation story (among some options). Congrats on this doubling grant!
Reposted by Alex TD
Congrats to HEET for a segment on national news about the Framingham geothermal project. If you haven't heard of this trial of decarbonized district heat, have a look. We should be adopting this where ever it's feasible. @zeynebmagavi.bsky.social
www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAxe...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAxe...
Unlikely alliance builds cleaner geothermal energy network in Massachusetts community
YouTube video by PBS NewsHour
www.youtube.com
October 11, 2025 at 12:27 AM
Congrats to HEET for a segment on national news about the Framingham geothermal project. If you haven't heard of this trial of decarbonized district heat, have a look. We should be adopting this where ever it's feasible. @zeynebmagavi.bsky.social
www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAxe...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAxe...
Reposted by Alex TD
Reposted by Alex TD
Hiring Dr. Nelson is only a thing you do if you're serious about governing.
Honored to serve on Mayor-elect @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social Transition Committee on Technology. For too long, too many New Yorkers have been left behind. NYC deserves governance that centers affordability, equity, and the public good-looking forward to the work ahead. www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news...
NYC Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani announces transition committees
New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani announced Monday the creation of 17 transition advisory committees made up of more than 400 people.
www.cbsnews.com
November 24, 2025 at 11:01 PM
Hiring Dr. Nelson is only a thing you do if you're serious about governing.
Reposted by Alex TD
A Sharon Begley byline, almost 5 years after her death.
Upon hearing the news James Watson had died, a STAT reporter said in our Slack, "I wish I could read what Sharon would have written."
Incredible news: Sharon in fact did pre-write a Watson obit. And it is masterful and excoriating.
🧪🧬🧫
Upon hearing the news James Watson had died, a STAT reporter said in our Slack, "I wish I could read what Sharon would have written."
Incredible news: Sharon in fact did pre-write a Watson obit. And it is masterful and excoriating.
🧪🧬🧫
James Watson, dead at 97, was a scientific legend and a pariah among his peers
James Watson, the co-discoverer of the structure of DNA who died Thursday at 97, was a scientific legend and a pariah among his peers.
www.statnews.com
November 8, 2025 at 1:39 PM
A Sharon Begley byline, almost 5 years after her death.
Upon hearing the news James Watson had died, a STAT reporter said in our Slack, "I wish I could read what Sharon would have written."
Incredible news: Sharon in fact did pre-write a Watson obit. And it is masterful and excoriating.
🧪🧬🧫
Upon hearing the news James Watson had died, a STAT reporter said in our Slack, "I wish I could read what Sharon would have written."
Incredible news: Sharon in fact did pre-write a Watson obit. And it is masterful and excoriating.
🧪🧬🧫
Reposted by Alex TD
The truly maddening thing is that, unlike when I was a young man in science and the materials and engineering just weren’t there yet, the future is *right there.* The problem is *solved*. What’s holding us back is not just greed, but this bizarre nostalgia, an obsession with petro- masculinity.
Australia has so much electricity from solar power that it is going to start offering free electricity to everyone for at least three hours during the day as the wholesale price of power goes negative
electrek.co/2025/11/04/a...
electrek.co/2025/11/04/a...
Australia has so much solar that it's offering everyone free electricity
Australia's extensive solar power penetration makes so much energy that the government wants to offer free electricity at peak hours.
electrek.co
November 6, 2025 at 2:08 PM
The truly maddening thing is that, unlike when I was a young man in science and the materials and engineering just weren’t there yet, the future is *right there.* The problem is *solved*. What’s holding us back is not just greed, but this bizarre nostalgia, an obsession with petro- masculinity.
Reposted by Alex TD
What we know so far, 9:30pm
—Dems flip VA-Gov & VA-LG.
—BIG Dem gains in VA House
—Dems win NJ-Gov
—Mamdani up
—Dems seem to flip 2 statewide offices in GA
—JD Vance's half-brother loses in Cincy.
—Dems sweep Orlando council
—PA: Dem justices up big
—Maine anti-mail vote measure down
—Krasner wins
—Dems flip VA-Gov & VA-LG.
—BIG Dem gains in VA House
—Dems win NJ-Gov
—Mamdani up
—Dems seem to flip 2 statewide offices in GA
—JD Vance's half-brother loses in Cincy.
—Dems sweep Orlando council
—PA: Dem justices up big
—Maine anti-mail vote measure down
—Krasner wins
November 5, 2025 at 2:36 AM
What we know so far, 9:30pm
—Dems flip VA-Gov & VA-LG.
—BIG Dem gains in VA House
—Dems win NJ-Gov
—Mamdani up
—Dems seem to flip 2 statewide offices in GA
—JD Vance's half-brother loses in Cincy.
—Dems sweep Orlando council
—PA: Dem justices up big
—Maine anti-mail vote measure down
—Krasner wins
—Dems flip VA-Gov & VA-LG.
—BIG Dem gains in VA House
—Dems win NJ-Gov
—Mamdani up
—Dems seem to flip 2 statewide offices in GA
—JD Vance's half-brother loses in Cincy.
—Dems sweep Orlando council
—PA: Dem justices up big
—Maine anti-mail vote measure down
—Krasner wins
Reposted by Alex TD
YES YOU SHOULD VOTE IN LOCAL ELECTIONS TOMORROW EVEN IF MAMDANI IS NOT ON THE BALLOT WHERE YOU LIVE
November 3, 2025 at 9:02 PM
YES YOU SHOULD VOTE IN LOCAL ELECTIONS TOMORROW EVEN IF MAMDANI IS NOT ON THE BALLOT WHERE YOU LIVE
Reposted by Alex TD
Bill Gates hasn’t made sense on Climate since he teamed up with Bjorn Lomberg in 2009. This is just a restating of Bjorn’s book from this year about how we have a finite amount of money and we shouldn’t use it for climate. What they get wrong is that climate solutions are now fully profitable.
Bill Gates has a new memo out calling for a “strategic pivot” on climate change, downplaying “doomsday” talk to focus on filling enormous post-USAID budget gaps in global health and vaccine funding. I got an early glimpse of his thinking last week:
7 New Takes From Bill Gates on Climate ‘Doomsday’ Talk and Global Health
“I mean, God bless the Europeans for caring about climate.”
heatmap.news
October 29, 2025 at 11:43 AM
Bill Gates hasn’t made sense on Climate since he teamed up with Bjorn Lomberg in 2009. This is just a restating of Bjorn’s book from this year about how we have a finite amount of money and we shouldn’t use it for climate. What they get wrong is that climate solutions are now fully profitable.
Reposted by Alex TD
“Now Scientific American has updated and re-released what it calls the “classic graphic” that shows that a human on a bicycle—able to coast, or freewheel, without pedaling—remains the world’s most energy effecient traveler.” @carltonreid.com on the re-release of the iconic graph in @forbes.com.
October 17, 2025 at 12:52 PM
“Now Scientific American has updated and re-released what it calls the “classic graphic” that shows that a human on a bicycle—able to coast, or freewheel, without pedaling—remains the world’s most energy effecient traveler.” @carltonreid.com on the re-release of the iconic graph in @forbes.com.
Reposted by Alex TD
Wyoming is by an order of magnitude the US's largest coal producer (and produces more than the whole of the northern Appalachia and Midwest states *combined*).
Nearly all of that comes out of the Powder River Basin.
Coal is a dead industry.
Nearly all of that comes out of the Powder River Basin.
Coal is a dead industry.
October 13, 2025 at 7:16 PM
Wyoming is by an order of magnitude the US's largest coal producer (and produces more than the whole of the northern Appalachia and Midwest states *combined*).
Nearly all of that comes out of the Powder River Basin.
Coal is a dead industry.
Nearly all of that comes out of the Powder River Basin.
Coal is a dead industry.
SB79 is a big (wonky) win 🎉 Every one of those should come with explainers like this - clear, illustrated, and with important nuances, caveats, and motivations called out.
Everything You Need To Know About SB 79
…but were too afraid to read about in the actual bill.
mnolangray.substack.com
October 14, 2025 at 3:54 PM
SB79 is a big (wonky) win 🎉 Every one of those should come with explainers like this - clear, illustrated, and with important nuances, caveats, and motivations called out.
Reposted by Alex TD
Western Alaska was hit hard by the recent storms. Houses floated away in Kipnuk, houses flipped over, people lost everything from the flooding that came with the storms. Please donate if you can. This group has a long history of supporting AK communities.
alaskacf.fcsuite.com/erp/donate/c...
alaskacf.fcsuite.com/erp/donate/c...
October 13, 2025 at 11:27 AM
Western Alaska was hit hard by the recent storms. Houses floated away in Kipnuk, houses flipped over, people lost everything from the flooding that came with the storms. Please donate if you can. This group has a long history of supporting AK communities.
alaskacf.fcsuite.com/erp/donate/c...
alaskacf.fcsuite.com/erp/donate/c...
Reposted by Alex TD
I've been following Aaron since before the latest ICE immigration stuff and he is one of the most valuable ones you can have. True professional context and experience of the headlines. He's not just bloviating he actually understands the full legal case history.
Wow, wow, wow. This has always been legally possible but the law has virtually never been enforced — and now this is the SECOND case I've heard of in the last month (first involving a person with a green card) of a noncitizen being charged for failure to carry their papers.
NEWS: ICE gave a Rogers Park man a $130 ticket for not having his papers on him. They rounded him up last week and eventually let him go, but not without a fine that some critics say is un-American. Trump admin enforcing little-used law
www.chicagotribune.com/2025/10/13/i...
www.chicagotribune.com/2025/10/13/i...
October 14, 2025 at 2:35 AM
I've been following Aaron since before the latest ICE immigration stuff and he is one of the most valuable ones you can have. True professional context and experience of the headlines. He's not just bloviating he actually understands the full legal case history.
Reposted by Alex TD
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.
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
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
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.
The solar farm that the Admin just cancelled could have produces 6.2 GW of power. That's more than 3 Hoover Dams.
Reposted by Alex TD
Political violence is evil, killing people is evil, a country with more guns in it than people is broken, and what the government is saying about political violence right now being a primarily leftwing phenomenon is factually, statistically untrue. They are using this moment to rewrite history.
September 15, 2025 at 8:21 PM
Political violence is evil, killing people is evil, a country with more guns in it than people is broken, and what the government is saying about political violence right now being a primarily leftwing phenomenon is factually, statistically untrue. They are using this moment to rewrite history.
Reposted by Alex TD
ICE must stop using a facial recognition app to identify people on our streets. These technologies are inaccurate, dangerous, and threaten our right to privacy and free speech. I’m leading my colleagues in demanding answers.
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/09/11/m...
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/09/11/m...
Senator Markey calls for ICE to halt use of facial recognition, other biometric technology - The Boston Globe
The letter, addressed to acting director of ICE, called on the agency to cease its reported use of “Mobile Fortify,” a smartphone application that allows agents to identify people.
www.bostonglobe.com
September 12, 2025 at 12:47 AM
ICE must stop using a facial recognition app to identify people on our streets. These technologies are inaccurate, dangerous, and threaten our right to privacy and free speech. I’m leading my colleagues in demanding answers.
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/09/11/m...
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/09/11/m...
Reposted by Alex TD
This is so crucial. When people think about these land comparisons, they don't think about the entire sprawling infrastructure behind FF.
"0.3 per cent of the world’s land area – yes, just the land – would be needed to meet the current energy demand from solar alone, which is LESS THAN THE CURRENT LAND FOOTPRINT OF FOSSIL FUEL INFRASTRUCTURE."
Why solar power is the only viable power source in the long run
Not only is solar more than capable of supplying all the world’s energy, in the long term it is the only power source that won’t fry the planet
www.newscientist.com
September 11, 2025 at 6:46 PM
This is so crucial. When people think about these land comparisons, they don't think about the entire sprawling infrastructure behind FF.
Reposted by Alex TD
Charlie Kirk called me a ‘lunatic’ and a ‘prostitute’ and demanded I be deported.
Nothing, *nothing*, justifies killing him, or robbing his kids of their dad.
We don’t know the identity or motive of the shooter but murder can *never* be the response to political disagreements.
Nothing, *nothing*, justifies killing him, or robbing his kids of their dad.
We don’t know the identity or motive of the shooter but murder can *never* be the response to political disagreements.
September 10, 2025 at 9:58 PM
Charlie Kirk called me a ‘lunatic’ and a ‘prostitute’ and demanded I be deported.
Nothing, *nothing*, justifies killing him, or robbing his kids of their dad.
We don’t know the identity or motive of the shooter but murder can *never* be the response to political disagreements.
Nothing, *nothing*, justifies killing him, or robbing his kids of their dad.
We don’t know the identity or motive of the shooter but murder can *never* be the response to political disagreements.
The slow boring of hard boards at a local level (and a lot of double meanings not quite intended!). Congrats!
1/x 🧵 🔌💡 #Greensky. Hey climate peeps! Here’s a local victory to celebrate, and some lessons from it. Last night, the Town of Poughkeepsie, NY, voted to overturn its 18-month moratorium (6 months, renewed twice) on grid-scale battery energy storage systems (BESS).
September 10, 2025 at 2:34 AM
The slow boring of hard boards at a local level (and a lot of double meanings not quite intended!). Congrats!
Reposted by Alex TD
A judge in Massachusetts today issued what I think is the first judgment against the DOJ's attempt to subpoena doctors who treat trans patients. The judge quashed the subpoena the DOJ issued against Boston Children's Hospital, home to the country's first gender clinic for adolescents.
September 9, 2025 at 10:21 PM
A judge in Massachusetts today issued what I think is the first judgment against the DOJ's attempt to subpoena doctors who treat trans patients. The judge quashed the subpoena the DOJ issued against Boston Children's Hospital, home to the country's first gender clinic for adolescents.
Reposted by Alex TD
Some people maybe want to see automation, more powerful weapons, scientific agriculture, or computers as hallmarks of modernity. That’s all rich people stuff. The bright line for everyone not-rich is public health. That’s why these guys in power hate it.
September 7, 2025 at 7:06 PM
Some people maybe want to see automation, more powerful weapons, scientific agriculture, or computers as hallmarks of modernity. That’s all rich people stuff. The bright line for everyone not-rich is public health. That’s why these guys in power hate it.
Reposted by Alex TD
Until the 20th century the United States had repeated epidemics of *cholera.* in the mid 1960s nearly half of Americans smoked. Now it’s just over 10%. Until the last couple years, measles was basically eliminated in the US. In 1952 more than 3000 people in the US died of polio; there 58k cases.
FOX: What would say is the last great success that our govt public health agencies have had?
RFK Jr: I don't think there have been successes
(Kennedy said days ago that Trump should get a Nobel for Operation Warp Speed)
RFK Jr: I don't think there have been successes
(Kennedy said days ago that Trump should get a Nobel for Operation Warp Speed)
September 7, 2025 at 6:53 PM
Until the 20th century the United States had repeated epidemics of *cholera.* in the mid 1960s nearly half of Americans smoked. Now it’s just over 10%. Until the last couple years, measles was basically eliminated in the US. In 1952 more than 3000 people in the US died of polio; there 58k cases.