Emily Pontecorvo
@emilypont
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Staff writer @heatmap_news | energy & climate | obsessed with buildings | signal: emilypont.89
Joined September 2010
🧵Today, @heatmap_news is releasing a big project we've been working on for the past year — a series of extremely in-depth guides to help individuals take the "highest-leverage" actions to tackle climate change. This is not just about carbon footprints.
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⚡️On Friday night, Washington state quietly became the first state in the country to ban gas heating in new residential buildings. The new building codes will go into effect quickly, starting next July.⚡️.
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XR protesters interrupted opening night at the Met last week, shouting "There will be no opera on a dead planet!". My friend was there & said a German man sitting near him kept shouting back "There VILL be opera! There VILL be opera!".
Climate change protests strike tonight at Met Opera! Tannhäuser is a great opera btw!
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NYCHA has asked companies to compete to design an induction stove that doesn't require an electric upgrade. It will buy 10,000 stoves from the winner. The contest could lowers the barriers to induction stoves for everyone. My latest:
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A Massachusetts gas company broke ground on the first utility-owned geothermal heating/cooling network in the U.S. yesterday. "I would say it's not just being watched nationally, it's being watched globally," @zeynebmagavi told me.
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Homeowners are struggling to find electricians. Contractors are swamped with calls and struggling to find workers. Voc schools are tight on funds and short on teachers. And what might be inconvenient today could soon hamstring attempts to cut carbon.
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Brand new building in Brooklyn that seems to have a heat pump in every apt. Kind of surprised each one has its own outdoor unit rather than a more central system for the building. Would love to learn more about when/why you would design multifamily this way vs the other 🤓
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Did you know that all but 4 states are currently refining, or making their first-ever, climate action plans, because of the IRA? Some states don't even track their emissions! Now they will!.
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🧵We finally have some data on how many Americans are using the Inflation Reduction Act's tax credits to use clean energy at home and make their homes more energy efficient. Here's what we learned from the data: (1/6)
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My last story for @grist (🥲) is out today, and it's quite different than anything I've written before. I hope you'll give it a read.
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Love to learn about distinctly British energy challenges.
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Is Colorado's ballot measure to reintroduce grey wolves the closest race in the country?
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A new report by @climatejobs estimates the # of clean energy jobs likely covered by the IRA's prevailing wage/apprenticeship rules. I tried to find out whether those provisions are really working to turn these jobs into "good" (or at least better) jobs.
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Is this real, a scam, or the best activist art of 2021?
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Will heat pumps pay for themselves in bill savings? Will you even see bill savings? NREL recently published the most in-depth look at these questions yet, and the study has tons of fascinating conclusions. Here are a few. 🧵
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I've been reporting on electrification for an upcoming story. People like to say #electrifyeverything is a solution that's "available to us right now!" But that framing belies the 1,000,000 social/administrative/financial obstacles we have to solve first. Some stories in a🧵. .
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🙆♀️Today is very bittersweet. It's my last day at @grist, where I've been for 3+ years and grown so much as a writer and reporter. I'm heartbroken to leave my colleagues and this amazing organization, whose mission I believe in deeply and that I've felt so honored to be a part of!.
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I'm thrilled to be recognized by the SEAL awards this year among so many accomplished colleagues. 5 yrs ago I started to try to change careers, but I wasn't sure it would be possible to become a working climate journalist. Grateful that I get to do this, for however long I can.
Congratulations to our 2023 Environmental Journalism Award Winners! . We are proud to celebrate these twelve brave and resourceful people whose investigations and reporting elevate the public discourse on ecology and climate justice. Read more:
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Many think EVs require fewer workers to make than gas cars. The claim is so logical that it's been taken for granted. But researchers have found that's not yet the case in the US, and if you look at potential jobs in battery production, it may never be.
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🤠. But I couldn't be more excited about what's next! Next week I'm starting at @heatmap_news as a founding staff writer. Thrilled to join the outstanding team they've assembled and continue writing about the complicated project of decarbonization. I hope you'll subscribe!
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Putting this into the universe bc I'd like to attend: There should really be some kind of workshop or class for journalists to learn about electricity markets.
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Sublime Systems has found a way to make zero-carbon cement without carbon capture. Now they are building their first commercial plant on the site of a former paper mill Holyoke, MA.
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California just passed the first ever emissions rules for trains! This is a huge win for public health.
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every time a reporter writes carbon removal when they really mean point source carbon capture, an angel loses its wings.
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There is a simple Sudafed cure for our congested grid — replace the old wires with new, better wires. It can't solve everything, but the opportunity is huge. My latest on my favorite new energy transition word: Reconductoring.
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This is huge. NY State agency says two new gas power plants “would be inconsistent with New York’s nation-leading climate law, and are not justified or needed for grid reliability” and denies permits. Has this even happened yet in any other state with a climate law?.
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BIG NEWS! On Friday, Washington became the first state to mandate that new buildings install heat pumps for heating + hot water. The new code applies to most commercial and large multifamily bldgs. The code council will take up residential later this year.
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I wrote about a few highlights in the slew of climate bills Colorado just passed, which show how states can try to bring in as much IRA $$ as possible, and also mold its programs to their own goals.
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Why did Isabelle Boemeke, a successful fashion model, suddenly torpedo her social media accounts and start posting exclusively about nuclear energy?.
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In October, I drove to Portland Maine where activists interested in public power from all over met for a 3-day workshop. I wanted to understand why so many in the climate movement were turning to this idea, and why now. Here’s what I learned.
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Fires have burned through at least 6 forests that were supposed to be storing carbon to offset fossil fuel polluters in California. @shannonosaka and I dug into the system ensuring those offsets remain valid, and whether wildfire could push it to collapse.
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At first blush, green H2 sounds great—use solar or wind to split water molecules, and get a flexible, carbon-free fuel. Until you find out that most producers will actually get power from the grid. This is worse, climate-wise, than natural gas-based H2.
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On the 1 year anniversary of the Inflation Reduction Act, I recommend that if homeowners do nothing else this year, they should consider getting a home energy audit. You can get a $150 tax credit for it!. and many other tips in here!.
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Huge: Vermont's climate superfund bill just became law. I did a deep dive on the policy, which could be a sort of workaround to lawsuits to get fossil fuel companies to pay for climate damages, in March. Learn more here:
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I wrote about Washington's nation-leading electric building codes for commercial buildings earlier this year.
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There is simply not enough support for homeowners to pay for electrification or navigate the process. I wrote about an innovative plan to "aggregate demand" to drive down costs, led by @rewiringamerica and others, w/ $2 billion in govt. funding
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Excited to share this feature on the workforce shortage that could hold back climate action. .You can also listen to the podcast version that @herrcaitlin and I produced for @CarbonCopy_Pod!
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🧵Last year, when @stripe announced four promising carbon removal startups it was funding, I was intrigued by @CharmIndustrial. They had a strange idea to turn plants into oil, and stash the oil underground. 1/9.
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Happy 1-yr birthday 🎂to @heatmap_news! .Also, happy bday to me! 🎈.I love this job and am so excited for all we have in store. If you read our stuff but haven’t bought a sub, today is a great day to do so. (Code ANNIVERSARY gets you 25% off!)
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Why did @heatmap_news invest so much in a package to help individuals fight climate change? I love the way @robinsonmeyer put it in our intro piece:.
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Really proud that my story about the shortage of electricians was included in this @MotherJones package on what it will take to decarbonize the economy among some incredible writers and thinkers. Check out the whole series!
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I wrote about New York's rejection of two proposed natural gas plants, and why it's a big freaking deal for the whole country.
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Where do companies' estimates of their GHG emissions come from? Are they even accurate?? .This is the story I didn't know I was desperate to read. @robinsonmeyer on Big Carbon Data
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Another climate solution naming challenge:.- Networked geothermal.- Thermal energy network.- Geomicrodistrict.- Community geothermal.- Thermal highway.- ATL / Ambient temperature loop.- Heatnet.- 5G network.😰What would you call it?.
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Very cool and useful story-finding tool for any state/local climate reporters -- @EvergreenAction and @RockyMtnInst made a spreadsheet mapping out every state's Priority Climate Action Plan submitted to the EPA this year.
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With a ban on gas in new buildings, a cap-and-invest plan, and a new avenue for publicly owned renewable energy, New York's budget deal starts to fill in big gaps in its climate strategy. Will other states see it as a blueprint?.
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🎉🐣Heatmap has officially been in the world for 6 months, and I'm so proud of the journalism and analysis we've published so far. We've got a lot more planned, so I hope you'll consider subscribing. For the next 48 hrs, you can get an annual sub for $66!
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2023 could forever be remembered as the start of the American clean manufacturing boom. I wrote about the 'keystone' policy driving all this investment: the ~45X tax credit~.
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i did all the emailing and the talking and the reading and now i must do the writing. ugh.
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Surprise! Climeworks just announced it has developed its next gen tech that it claims doubles carbon capture capacity and halves energy use. First plant with the new tech will be Project Cypress in Louisiana.
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Highly recommend taking 15 minutes to read @lisalsong's latest investigation into newer forms of plastic recycling that the industry is marketing. I feel desperate for high quality nonbiased information on this and learned so much.
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We often hear about how the gas industry is fighting building electrification around the country. But today I have a story about a gas utility that's embracing heat pumps, and why reading the writing on the wall doesn't make the transition any easier.
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Fantastic reporting on soil carbon offsets, where the market is way ahead of the science.
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lol @ our entire newsroom signing up for free trials of live tv streaming in order to watch this trainwreck
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Every add'l cost, every friction will cause ppl to throw up their hands, install more gas, put off insulation. Incentives have to be better & easier to navigate, utilities more proactive, need more skilled workers equipped with better info. The tech might be ready, but we are not.
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Me, trying to explain hydrogen: The fight is about electrolysis. But the central question is about clean electricity. But the debate boils down to book and claim. But the disagreement centers around about timing. But at the heart of it is. 😓.
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Really interesting interview in @grist today with @johnpodesta, who is leading IRA implementation.
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it makes me very exceedingly anxious how often carbon capture and carbon removal are conflated, even by the policymakers that are trying to distinguish them. makes it very hard to pin down what people are actually talking about or arguing for/against. 😑.
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Today @grist published the most fascinating and well-written human story about climate I've read in a while. From @shannonosaka, on France's experiment w/ asking 150 ordinary ppl to design climate policy, and other precedents for "citizen assemblies."
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I've been amassing excerpts of @UN @antonioguterres' scathing, heart wrenching, poetic, climate missives for years. Now you can read some of his greatest hits all in one place.
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"The institutions best poised to distribute direct aid are also the most likely to enable disaster capitalists to exploit this tragedy. once the spotlight moves from our island, what’s to come of those monies & who’s going to benefit?" - @KanielaIng
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One clarifying part of my talks w/ Climeworks: .Orca is designed to grab 4,000t of CO2 from the air per year. But it will only ever deliver ~3,000t of "net" removal due to losses throughout, incl. supply chain emissions. They urge others to be more transparent about net removal.
In 2021, @Climeworks launched the largest carbon removal plant to date. Two years later, they agreed to talk to me about how it's going. 1/3
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Join me, former @Grist journalist-turned-electrician @SavorTooth, Adewale OgunBadejo of @GRID, & Janell Hills of @IRECUSA for a panel Wednesday about what it's like to become an electrician and how to grow the workforce to realize the promise of the IRA.
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It's pretty wild to me that this ad campaign exists. (This one from Semafor.) What % of news consumers do you think know what the phrases "annual matching" and "hourly matching" mean?
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It's difficult, maybe impossible, to measure or manage corporate emissions with precision. What if we focused on the point of extraction instead?.This piece is about a scathing critique of life cycle analysis and the case for a "carbon takeback obligation".
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1. Uptake of the clean energy tax credit in 2023 was more than 3x what the Joint Committee on Taxation projected. That's largely due to a huge amount of claims for rooftop solar installations. (2/6)
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I wrote about the hottest ticket in Brooklyn last week — the 'energy industry underground' meetup #DERvos23 by @DER_Task_Force
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appreciate this helpful visual from @carbon_180 distinguishing carbon removal from carbon capture.
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There is *so much* riding on this project. Many climate advocates see this as the future for gas utilities, and a way to increase access to geothermal heating -- the most expensive to install, but cheapest to run, hvac solution.
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My extremely unscientific anecdotal evidence is that a lot of people think their utilities are publicly owned when they aren't. Talked to my mom about this a few days ago and she had no idea that PSE&G was a private company.
NEW POLL: A strong majority of likely voters nationwide (68%) support having a publicly owned utility as their local utility provider.
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Missed connections: If you were the bro holding the "decarbonize your mind" sign at the climate march yesterday, pls know that I searched everywhere for you after I missed my initial opportunity to take your pic (cc @BrosForDecarb)
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do you have an earth day brand announcement?.does it include:.- near-term scope 1,2,3 emissions targets?.- transparent info about which emissions you are cutting and how? .- and which ones you aren't/can't and what you plan to do about that?. No? don't bother emailing me.
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I think a lot about the amt of land required to get our grid on renewables. More and more, this stuff is going to encroach on where ppl live. “The social, cultural, and institutional challenges are coming to the forefront,” @rand_joseph told me.
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Why should H2 factories have to build their own clean power source, when we don't ask the same of EV or heat pump owners? A bunch of reasons, actually .Another piece on the IRA's ~clean h2 tax credit~.
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Cement is one of the most carbon-intensive businesses in the world, but it's also a weird one. It's hyper local. Nobody transports it very far. So how do you connect clean cement startups w/ buyers willing to pay extra if they aren't in the same place?
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I would like to have the option to opt-out of AI summaries on Google, Otter, etc.
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oh no my friend is carbon offsetting her wedding. what should i tell her?.
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🧵on my latest feature for @grist: .Millions of oil and gas wells have been abandoned. Some contaminate soil and groundwater. Some leak methane. Some are just hazardous pipes sticking out of the ground. Where will the $$ come from to clean them up? 1/10.
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@xiaowang1984 But in the photo you sent, it looks like these may have been added after the building was already built?.
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Excited to share that @zteirstein and I are spearheading a limited-run weekly newsletter @grist about DROUGHT! Sign up here if you want to learn what a drought actually is, and what it means for clean energy, health, tourism, water futures, & so much more.
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This story refers to a married couple, one tech worker and one teacher, who moved to Michigan from San Francisco to avoid wildfire smoke, as "climate refugees."
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"I was just in a blockbuster movie about climate change but honestly i don't know anything about what to do about it, but my girlfriend wanted me to tell you something. hold on let me get my notes. ".
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This exposé on Blocpower from @leee_harris, which I missed when it came out last week, deserves more attention. An extremely deeply reported and well-sourced account of how the company has inflated its claims at every turn.
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Live shot of the @EENewsUpdates staff attacking every conceivable angle of the EPA power plant rules within 24 hours
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Utilities are partnering with Habitat for Humanity to build 'net-zero' homes. with gas appliances. The programs are "intentionally launched in a state that is “on the frontlines” of attempts to quell reliance on gas" writes @dharnanoor
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campaign to align the PR industry and the journalism industry on whether or not job titles should be capitalized.
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"Heat pumps transfer heat to heat and cool homes" - an editor's nightmare.
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A new study from @arvindpawan1 and colleagues shows it's basically impossible for blue H2 projects in Texas to be "clean" per @ENERGY's standard b/c of upstream emissions in the Permian. But federal guidelines don't accurately account for those emissions.
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A small ~personal update~.After 4 yrs away I’m . somewhat reluctantly. moving back to NYC next month. Excited to bother @zteirstein in person and meet some Twitter friends in real life. Hit me up!.
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. Nonetheless, union leaders, even in the union-hostile south, told me they've seen a big difference, and a big opportunity in clean energy that wasn't there before. Developers are calling them up asking how they can work together. More in my story!
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I wrote about the other thing that could change the energy world for decades to come, and that you should really be following as closely as the replication of a room temperature super conductor. The clean hydrogen tax credit rules!
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🧵A few key points about why NY blocking gas plants is such a big deal:. 1. It may seem obvious that a new fossil fuel plant accomplishes the opposite of climate goals, but it's unusual for a govt agency to say that directly. Much more common to talk vaguely about "emissions."
I wrote about New York's rejection of two proposed natural gas plants, and why it's a big freaking deal for the whole country.
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