Daniel Cohan
dscohan.bsky.social
Daniel Cohan
@dscohan.bsky.social
Professor of environmental engineering at Rice University; author of Confronting Climate Gridlock; https://cohan.rice.edu
To see just how fast emerging car markets can pivot to electric vehicles, check out Vietnam's jump from zero to 54% in this report by CSIS's Ilaria Mazzocco
www.csis.org/analysis/ele...
August 5, 2025 at 8:02 PM
New paper with Chen Chen and Carrie Hashimoto examines how investments in power plants, transmission, storage, or efficiency would improve resource adequacy and reduce emissions in ERCOT
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Impacts of potential investments on electricity resource adequacy and emissions in Texas
Growing demand, an increasingly variable power supply, and blackouts during a 2021 winter storm prompted the Texas legislature to incentivize the cons…
www.sciencedirect.com
July 9, 2025 at 10:15 PM
It wasn’t until researching this article that I realized quite how bad the Big Beautiful Bill is for clean energy — reduced royalty rates for fossil fuels, a gutting of fuel economy standards, and subsidies for biofuels & coal, along with the IRA cuts we all knew

theconversation.com/big-beautifu...
‘Big Beautiful Bill’ will have Americans paying higher prices for dirtier energy
The new federal law favors energy technologies that are already profitable and increase global warming over cleaner approaches that could use the investment support.
theconversation.com
July 9, 2025 at 12:49 PM
Perhaps the worst energy provision I’ve ever seen in a federal bill

G.O.P. Bill Adds Surprise Tax That Could Cripple Wind and Solar Power www.nytimes.com/2025/06/29/c...
G.O.P. Bill Adds Surprise Tax That Could Cripple Wind and Solar Power
www.nytimes.com
June 29, 2025 at 7:20 PM
Reposted by Daniel Cohan
If your “energy bill” helps billionaires get richer while we get dirtier air and higher prices…
It’s not giving “big” or “beautiful.” It’s giving bought & paid for.

zurl.co/9kkoD

@dscohan.bsky.social

#StandUpForScience
#OBBB
#ClimateCrisis
How the ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ positions US energy to be more costly for consumers and the climate
Some technologies could rapidly cut emissions, while others do little to fight climate change. The House bill favors the latter while nixing support for the former.
zurl.co
June 20, 2025 at 2:55 PM
My take on what the House-passed ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ would mean for energy and climate theconversation.com/how-the-big-...
How the ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ positions US energy to be more costly for consumers and the climate
Some technologies could rapidly cut emissions, while others do little to fight climate change. The House bill favors the latter while nixing support for the former.
theconversation.com
June 10, 2025 at 6:33 PM
Video from last month's True Climate Solutions panel
www.progressiveforumhouston.org/speaker/true...
The Progressive Forum
www.progressiveforumhouston.org
May 9, 2025 at 7:50 PM
I started my career with an EPA STAR grant, which supported my first PhD student. It’s hard to see how early career environmental scientists, engineers and health scholars will get their start with EPA’s main program for external grants being dismantled.
www.nytimes.com/2025/04/21/c...
E.P.A. Set to Cancel Grants Aimed at Protecting Children From Toxic Chemicals (Gift Article)
The cancellations, set to apply to pending and active grants, also affect research into “forever chemicals” contaminating the food supply.
www.nytimes.com
April 22, 2025 at 12:10 PM
Wow

on.ft.com/4inhS2X China’s CATL says it has overtaken BYD on 5-minute EV charging time
China’s CATL says it has overtaken BYD on 5-minute EV charging time
New version of flagship battery cell can achieve 520km range compared with BYD’s 470km, claims company
on.ft.com
April 22, 2025 at 2:22 AM
Reposted by Daniel Cohan
This is a profoundly important attack on American leadership in environmental science. #fightfightfight
March 18, 2025 at 2:28 PM
The air quality and health models I have used throughout my career have emerged from EPA’s Office of Research and Development. Shuttering it would be a devastating loss.
www.nytimes.com/2025/03/17/c...
Trump Administration Aims to Eliminate E.P.A.’s Scientific Research Arm (Gift Article)
More than 1,000 chemists, biologists and other scientists could be laid off under a plan to dismantle the Office of Research and Development.
www.nytimes.com
March 18, 2025 at 11:34 AM
Reposted by Daniel Cohan
All websites that depend on NOAA data should display something like this.

earth.nullschool.net
March 1, 2025 at 7:41 PM
Reposted by Daniel Cohan
February 15, 2025 at 8:17 PM
Reposted by Daniel Cohan
Please pass to Energy Dept. employees (or others at agencies doing work that Trump and Musk seem eager to scrutinize). I heard through a solid source that employees were asked one day last week to take a break for a few hours at one of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management offices. 🧵
February 15, 2025 at 10:29 PM
A 50% discount for the audio version of my book, Confronting Climate Gridlock, available through March 7th
www.audiobooks.com/promotions/p...
50% OFF Confronting Climate Gridlock: How Diplomacy, Technology, and Policy Can Unlock a Clean Energy Future
An atmospheric scientist explains why global climate change mitigation and energy decarbonization demand American diplomacy, technology, and policy Professor of environmental engineering Daniel Co...
www.audiobooks.com
February 12, 2025 at 7:57 PM
Reposted by Daniel Cohan
My annual decarbonization presentation is here.

200 slides, covering everything from water levels in Lake Gatún to sulfur dioxide emissions to ESG fund flows to Chinese auto exports to artificial intelligence. www.nathanielbullard.com/presentations
January 30, 2025 at 12:28 PM
Reposted by Daniel Cohan
I think some people hear “grants” and think that without them, scientists and government workers just have less stuff to play with at work. But grants fund salaries for students, academics, researchers, and people who work in all areas of public service.

“Pausing” grants means people don’t eat.
White House pauses all federal grants, sparking confusion
The Trump administration has put a hold on all federal financial grants and loans, affecting tens of billions of dollars in payments.
www.washingtonpost.com
January 28, 2025 at 3:03 AM
Reposted by Daniel Cohan
New by me in @heatmap.news: The LA fires have accelerated the looming financial crisis facing gas utilities from 2035/2040 to today.

Preventing that disastrous cost spiral, though, can help make burned areas safer, easier to rebuild, and more insurable! (1/12)

💡🔌

heatmap.news/ideas/la-fir...
The Los Angeles Fires Accelerated the Looming Natural Gas Crisis
All American cities are at risk.
heatmap.news
January 22, 2025 at 10:04 PM
Reposted by Daniel Cohan
Devastating for scientists and their research, and everyone who benefits from that research.

I’m not sure if everyone outside academia is aware that a delay or “pause” in grant funding often means the researchers themselves are lost from the field, along with their expertise.
NIH appears to have canceled/postponed all of its study sections—the independent review panels that approve federal grants for health research.

Such grants fund the work/salaries of 300k people at more than 2,500 institutions
All NIH study sections canceled indefinitely. This will halt science and devastate research budgets in universities.
January 22, 2025 at 11:24 PM
Reposted by Daniel Cohan
For folks who are new to BlueSky, I created a climate journalists starter pack (it’s full already but if there are enough folks to warrant a second one I can make it…or YOU can, anyone can!)

go.bsky.app/1ivUnG
January 21, 2025 at 1:13 PM
Electric vehicles, circa 1980
January 15, 2025 at 10:41 PM
Reposted by Daniel Cohan
🚨job alert🚨
Would you, or someone you know, like to channel something into thinking rigorously about how safe and electrified housing for everyone might also save the grid?

I'm hiring a postdoc! 1-2 years, remote ok, $75k/year. Focus: model scenarios on deep building efficiency & grid impacts
January 14, 2025 at 6:55 PM
Reposted by Daniel Cohan
Batteries are reshaping ERCOT’s ancillary services procurement

Battery generation capacity has made up 50%+ of awards for reg up and responsive reserves since 2022. In these, coal and gas regularly account for <20% of capacity.

#energysky 🔌💡
December 23, 2024 at 6:58 PM
Reposted by Daniel Cohan
“The second is that Solyndra had real technology risk, & we don’t take real technology risk anymore at the Loan Programs Office.” - @jigarshahdc.bsky.social in this important interview with @robinsonmeyer.bsky.social. Agreed, & we have a “missing middle” in energy.

www.nytimes.com/2024/12/20/o...
Opinion | Yes, Biden’s Green Future Can Still Happen Under Trump
Jigar Shah and Robinson Meyer discuss how the decarbonization rollout can continue during the second Trump administration.
www.nytimes.com
December 25, 2024 at 2:46 PM
Reposted by Daniel Cohan
France has added a 1.6 GW reactor to its grid after 17 yrs building. It will be taken off line shortly for repairs as discussed in the thread. In that time, the US added 191.8 GW of solar. After accounting for capacity factor (~25%) that's still 30x the capacity added. 🧪🔌💡☀️💨🔋
December 22, 2024 at 3:54 PM