Fred Stafford
@fredstaffordcs.bsky.social
STEM professional, socialist, @jacobin, @catalyst_theory, @thenation, @TheBTI contributor. @damagemag editor. Interested in decarb, tech, power sector, labor.
Substack: www.publicpowerreview.org
Email: fred@publicpowerreview.org
Substack: www.publicpowerreview.org
Email: fred@publicpowerreview.org
Kudos for asking McKibben about his groups' opposition to nuclear in NYS. His answer is total BS though. He claims not to know anyone saying nuclear is too risky, and yet that's exactly his groups' position. Why can't he take any responsibility here? Why not say he'll course correct?
August 22, 2025 at 12:29 PM
Kudos for asking McKibben about his groups' opposition to nuclear in NYS. His answer is total BS though. He claims not to know anyone saying nuclear is too risky, and yet that's exactly his groups' position. Why can't he take any responsibility here? Why not say he'll course correct?
Why are two of Bill McKibben's own organizations, 350 and Third Act, actively opposed to new nuclear plants in New York State?
August 10, 2025 at 10:16 PM
Why are two of Bill McKibben's own organizations, 350 and Third Act, actively opposed to new nuclear plants in New York State?
15/ In closing, too many undermine the achievement of the grid in their zeal for "the planet," effectively *individualizing* the responsibility for reliable electricity that has been *socialized* over the past century.
The Left's path forward should be TVA, not Bill McKibben.
The Left's path forward should be TVA, not Bill McKibben.
April 28, 2025 at 5:04 PM
15/ In closing, too many undermine the achievement of the grid in their zeal for "the planet," effectively *individualizing* the responsibility for reliable electricity that has been *socialized* over the past century.
The Left's path forward should be TVA, not Bill McKibben.
The Left's path forward should be TVA, not Bill McKibben.
14/ At the Tennessee Valley Authority, my major focus, progressives motivated by climate ideas and 100% renewables ignore the tremendous contribution of nuclear to TVA's actually-quite-low-carbon grid, while dismissing new gas, largely to replace coal, as simply unnecessary.
April 28, 2025 at 5:04 PM
14/ At the Tennessee Valley Authority, my major focus, progressives motivated by climate ideas and 100% renewables ignore the tremendous contribution of nuclear to TVA's actually-quite-low-carbon grid, while dismissing new gas, largely to replace coal, as simply unnecessary.
13/ Many rightly see a return to the old-fashioned progressive idea of public power as a key part of expanding our energy system. But today's climate-motivated public power proponents focus exclusively on fossil-vs-renewables and not enough on reliability, as in New York.
April 28, 2025 at 5:04 PM
13/ Many rightly see a return to the old-fashioned progressive idea of public power as a key part of expanding our energy system. But today's climate-motivated public power proponents focus exclusively on fossil-vs-renewables and not enough on reliability, as in New York.
12/ According to institutions tasked with operating the grid and ensuring its reliability, we'll need more than just renewables to decarbonize the grid and as much of the economy as we can. More wind and more solar alongside retiring fossil plants is setting up a big challenge.
April 28, 2025 at 5:04 PM
12/ According to institutions tasked with operating the grid and ensuring its reliability, we'll need more than just renewables to decarbonize the grid and as much of the economy as we can. More wind and more solar alongside retiring fossil plants is setting up a big challenge.
11/ A major problem w/ 100% renewables is how it obfuscates the grid. It's easy to live in the lala-land of financial accounting; it's harder to reckon with something thornier like reliability of the grid. (Followers know I've written much on this, and more precisely.)
April 28, 2025 at 5:04 PM
11/ A major problem w/ 100% renewables is how it obfuscates the grid. It's easy to live in the lala-land of financial accounting; it's harder to reckon with something thornier like reliability of the grid. (Followers know I've written much on this, and more precisely.)
10/ Bill McKibben, a prominent environmentalist who founded climate NGO 350.org and who heavily influences progressive thinking toward 100% renewables, has spent years preaching the gospel of a false prophet, Mark Z. Jacobson, even influencing our guy Bernie.
April 28, 2025 at 5:04 PM
10/ Bill McKibben, a prominent environmentalist who founded climate NGO 350.org and who heavily influences progressive thinking toward 100% renewables, has spent years preaching the gospel of a false prophet, Mark Z. Jacobson, even influencing our guy Bernie.
9/ Many undermine the social achievement of the grid by seeking to individualize responsibility for reliable electricity. But progressives and socialists abdicate that responsibility entirely with their bonkers notion of "100% renewable."
Bill McKibben is uniquely to blame.
Bill McKibben is uniquely to blame.
April 28, 2025 at 5:04 PM
9/ Many undermine the social achievement of the grid by seeking to individualize responsibility for reliable electricity. But progressives and socialists abdicate that responsibility entirely with their bonkers notion of "100% renewable."
Bill McKibben is uniquely to blame.
Bill McKibben is uniquely to blame.
8/ NEM policies set up rooftop solar owners to benefit from their misbelief in their rugged individualism at the expense of the system - and everyone else. They still rely on the same reliable grid, however, and even expect everyone to pay for upgrades to enable it.
April 28, 2025 at 5:04 PM
8/ NEM policies set up rooftop solar owners to benefit from their misbelief in their rugged individualism at the expense of the system - and everyone else. They still rely on the same reliable grid, however, and even expect everyone to pay for upgrades to enable it.
7/ But rooftop solar is costlier than utility-scale, so its owners rely on extra revenues. Enter net energy metering (NEM) as the widely-argued policy needed to meet climate goals. Argued by rooftop solar developers, the affluent, and solar-affiliated nonprofits, that is.
April 28, 2025 at 5:04 PM
7/ But rooftop solar is costlier than utility-scale, so its owners rely on extra revenues. Enter net energy metering (NEM) as the widely-argued policy needed to meet climate goals. Argued by rooftop solar developers, the affluent, and solar-affiliated nonprofits, that is.
6/ It's not just Elon Musk & libertarians who love the idea of producing their own local solar energy. Beloved, trusted climate liberals like Leah Stokes sell rooftop solar as a way to individually fight climate change, citing consumer choice against bad monopoly utilities.
April 28, 2025 at 5:04 PM
6/ It's not just Elon Musk & libertarians who love the idea of producing their own local solar energy. Beloved, trusted climate liberals like Leah Stokes sell rooftop solar as a way to individually fight climate change, citing consumer choice against bad monopoly utilities.
5/ If you like the individual responsibility of reliable electricity but don't like the fossil fuel combustion of Generac generators ... Enter the rooftop solar and storage combo as a consumer panacea! Off-grid living for the masses without the emissions, right?
April 28, 2025 at 5:04 PM
5/ If you like the individual responsibility of reliable electricity but don't like the fossil fuel combustion of Generac generators ... Enter the rooftop solar and storage combo as a consumer panacea! Off-grid living for the masses without the emissions, right?
4/ Conservatives shirk responsibility for decarbonization - a disservice to everyone, to be sure - but liberals and the Left shirk it for reliable electricity service. They even dismiss concerns about reliability as climate change denial! A profound abdication of responsibility.
April 28, 2025 at 5:04 PM
4/ Conservatives shirk responsibility for decarbonization - a disservice to everyone, to be sure - but liberals and the Left shirk it for reliable electricity service. They even dismiss concerns about reliability as climate change denial! A profound abdication of responsibility.
3/ But lately, as high-profile failures of the grid happen alongside new business models of withdrawing from it, many people are increasingly seeing *electrical reliability* as something to individualize, not something to socialize via the grid.
April 28, 2025 at 5:04 PM
3/ But lately, as high-profile failures of the grid happen alongside new business models of withdrawing from it, many people are increasingly seeing *electrical reliability* as something to individualize, not something to socialize via the grid.
2/ The electrical grid is a modern miracle; we open the article with a quote from the National Academy of Engineer stating as much in 2000. We can't forget just what a social achievement the grid is, nor can we forget the immense, 24/7 responsibility of balancing it.
April 28, 2025 at 5:04 PM
2/ The electrical grid is a modern miracle; we open the article with a quote from the National Academy of Engineer stating as much in 2000. We can't forget just what a social achievement the grid is, nor can we forget the immense, 24/7 responsibility of balancing it.
1/ NEW from me & @matthuber.bsky.social from the new Damage Magazine print issue, Responsibility:
WON'T SOMEBODY PLEASE
THINK OF THE GRID?
Now online for all to read. 🧵 damagemag.com/2025/04/28/w...
WON'T SOMEBODY PLEASE
THINK OF THE GRID?
Now online for all to read. 🧵 damagemag.com/2025/04/28/w...
April 28, 2025 at 5:04 PM
1/ NEW from me & @matthuber.bsky.social from the new Damage Magazine print issue, Responsibility:
WON'T SOMEBODY PLEASE
THINK OF THE GRID?
Now online for all to read. 🧵 damagemag.com/2025/04/28/w...
WON'T SOMEBODY PLEASE
THINK OF THE GRID?
Now online for all to read. 🧵 damagemag.com/2025/04/28/w...
The Daily Memphian has fantastic story, part 2 in series, on xAI's voracious power demand in Memphis, TN and how the current machinations at the Tennessee Valley Authority might result in new nuclear plants they - & the region, & the country - need. 14/ dailymemphian.com/article/5101...
April 8, 2025 at 11:26 AM
The Daily Memphian has fantastic story, part 2 in series, on xAI's voracious power demand in Memphis, TN and how the current machinations at the Tennessee Valley Authority might result in new nuclear plants they - & the region, & the country - need. 14/ dailymemphian.com/article/5101...
As fate of TVA hangs in the air, consider one group that might be licking their chops at prospect of breaking it up: the renewables industry & cheerleading enviro nonprofits.
In recent report on TVA, industry group ACORE floated privatization of TVA transmission as good for renewables. 11/
In recent report on TVA, industry group ACORE floated privatization of TVA transmission as good for renewables. 11/
April 3, 2025 at 12:39 PM
As fate of TVA hangs in the air, consider one group that might be licking their chops at prospect of breaking it up: the renewables industry & cheerleading enviro nonprofits.
In recent report on TVA, industry group ACORE floated privatization of TVA transmission as good for renewables. 11/
In recent report on TVA, industry group ACORE floated privatization of TVA transmission as good for renewables. 11/
TVA has submitted SEC filing about this 2nd Board member departure and about the lack of quorum. They summarize what this means below.
If GOP called on TVA to do something new with nuclear, then they cannot do any such thing until Trump appoints and Senate confirms someone. 9/
If GOP called on TVA to do something new with nuclear, then they cannot do any such thing until Trump appoints and Senate confirms someone. 9/
April 2, 2025 at 7:30 PM
TVA has submitted SEC filing about this 2nd Board member departure and about the lack of quorum. They summarize what this means below.
If GOP called on TVA to do something new with nuclear, then they cannot do any such thing until Trump appoints and Senate confirms someone. 9/
If GOP called on TVA to do something new with nuclear, then they cannot do any such thing until Trump appoints and Senate confirms someone. 9/
GOP continues its attack on TVA and TVA Board independence. This local Congressman is neglecting to mention that the independent Board hiring a CEO to manage the utility is precisely the arrangement his party set up in 2000s.
April 1, 2025 at 8:13 PM
GOP continues its attack on TVA and TVA Board independence. This local Congressman is neglecting to mention that the independent Board hiring a CEO to manage the utility is precisely the arrangement his party set up in 2000s.
Hot take: NYPA has *12* gas-powered generators in NYC, not just the 10 at the peaker plants. Of the other two, one owned by NYPA, one long-term PPA. Both produce way more power - and more pollution - than the peakers and both in Astoria, Queens. But the enviro left, and new law, ignores them.
March 27, 2025 at 1:50 AM
Hot take: NYPA has *12* gas-powered generators in NYC, not just the 10 at the peaker plants. Of the other two, one owned by NYPA, one long-term PPA. Both produce way more power - and more pollution - than the peakers and both in Astoria, Queens. But the enviro left, and new law, ignores them.
Knox News covers op-ed from TN GOP Senators, calls some bullshit. Eg, Sens demand new TVA board apply for DOE SMR grant but don't mention Biden created grant & TVA applied in Jan. IBEW reiterates call for new *big* nuclear at existing site, not just SMR. www.knoxnews.com/story/news/p...
March 24, 2025 at 12:15 PM
Knox News covers op-ed from TN GOP Senators, calls some bullshit. Eg, Sens demand new TVA board apply for DOE SMR grant but don't mention Biden created grant & TVA applied in Jan. IBEW reiterates call for new *big* nuclear at existing site, not just SMR. www.knoxnews.com/story/news/p...
🚨 for TVA. TN's two GOP senators pen op-ed blaming TVA for caring about DEI instead of new nuclear & regional workforce.
What've they done to raise TVA's debt limit that precludes financing new nuclear? To not put huge FOAK cost solely on Valley workers' bills? 1/ www.powermag.com/americas-nuc...
What've they done to raise TVA's debt limit that precludes financing new nuclear? To not put huge FOAK cost solely on Valley workers' bills? 1/ www.powermag.com/americas-nuc...
March 21, 2025 at 10:09 AM
🚨 for TVA. TN's two GOP senators pen op-ed blaming TVA for caring about DEI instead of new nuclear & regional workforce.
What've they done to raise TVA's debt limit that precludes financing new nuclear? To not put huge FOAK cost solely on Valley workers' bills? 1/ www.powermag.com/americas-nuc...
What've they done to raise TVA's debt limit that precludes financing new nuclear? To not put huge FOAK cost solely on Valley workers' bills? 1/ www.powermag.com/americas-nuc...
Ah I misremembered. It was Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN) who called it "Operation Warp Speed." Wright called the project the "launch" of "the American nuclear renaissance." From TVA press transcript:
March 10, 2025 at 7:24 PM
Ah I misremembered. It was Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN) who called it "Operation Warp Speed." Wright called the project the "launch" of "the American nuclear renaissance." From TVA press transcript: