John Farrell ☀️🌬🔋
@johnffarrell
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The guru of distributed energy, co-director @ilsr, host of Local Energy Rules, and unabashed nerd. I tweet for (energy) democracy. https://t.co/mqEZkpYWkE
Minneapolis
Joined October 2008
What the #Monopoly #Utility Model Really Costs Us –– a thread on my new report from @ILSR 🧵 . Care about #CleanEnergy? #Climate? #Affordability? #Equity? There's something for you >>> #EnergyTwitter
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More under the table, dark money political machinations by a #monopoly utility company, Michigan edition: h/t @PomTerkins. @ The Guardian.
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Utilities: let's try to take the "independent" out of Independent System Operator. FERC: Nope. h/t @AriPeskoe and others that intervened to stop this nonsense.👏👏👏.
On Friday night, FERC rejected the PJM utilities' attempted coup. Great work by state regulators in the region to oppose the utilities' self-serving proposal. FERC rejected the utilities on multiple grounds.
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The Big Ugly Bill will cost a lot of #solar jobs. "92.3% said cutting the tax credit would dramatically harm their businesses," say solar installers in an @EnergySage survey. h/t Emily Walker.
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This on top of the $150 per year premium you already pay to pad the profits of utility company shareholders:
Nationwide the average electric bill could rise by as much as $280 by 2035, thanks to the Republican's big bill.
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What really happened with clean energy in the GOP bill >>>.
Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill" will slaughter America's clean energy industry. It's so goddamned frustrating you might be tempted to look away. But surrendering to despair is not the answer. I've got details on the bill, and ideas for what comes next:
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Utilities have weaponized a technical utility ratemaking term to stifle competition from community solar. Legislators and regulators focus instead on how to capture and allocate the benefits:
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The Big Beautiful Bill will have a huge, inflationary impact on electric bills. Even the people raising your bills today agree.
Edison Electric Institute estimates that the House bill will cost ratepayers about 60 BILLION DOLLARS. This is just an insane way to do business - to pull the rug out from under investors and screw people on their bills.
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Minnesota alone has 210 municipal LIQUOR stores. If we can have publicly sold booze in the Midwest, New Yorkers should be able to have a public supply of avocados for their toast.
NEW: Two-thirds of NYC voters support creating municipal grocery stores to bring down prices. "The concept is imminently feasible. In fact, publicly owned grocery stores are quite common and already exist at scale—in the US military." . (@cplusci/@DataProgress)
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If a #monopoly utility's next rate increase is much higher than a fine it paid for negligence in starting wildfires, are its shareholders really paying a fine, or its customers? #ThomasElias @ChicoER.
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For years, restrictive covenants were used to keep Black people from moving into middle class neighborhoods. Now, businesses use them to deprive you of choices. Sounds like both should be illegal.
"Restrictive covenants can decrease food access and hurt local economies. Experts argue that 'scorched earth' deed restrictions contribute to food deserts, particularly in urban areas where there are few land parcels suitable for a grocery store." - @clairekelloway
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People who live near #solar panels like them. Maybe we should be building more: h/t Angharad Brewer Gillham and @SarahBanasMills.
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One reason I've been proud to work at @ilsr is that our co-founder David Morris called on the U.S. to scale up solar panels in a report he published. In 1975.
america inventing solar cells & lithium-ion batteries but failing to scale production or deployment is our own version of the ming burning zheng he’s fleet. china will race ahead while america remains behind. genuinely insane lack of industrial policy or foresight on display.
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This. And also a reminder that utilities don't want to build the transmission we need. Because profit.
I just don't see how people can look at this maps of wild price distributions day after day and think we DON'T need more interregional transmission.
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Big money in politics is the stain on the U.S. republic. I'm reminded of the constitutional amendment proposed by ILSR co-founder David Morris: "money is not speech."
The billionaires and their millions lost last night. Now we need to outlaw this kind of spending completely.
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RT @stacyfmitchell: Our Small Business town hall with Lina Khan is indeed online. We had hundreds of small businesses eagerly turn out for….
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Obviously Texas has a higher need being a non-integrated grid, but what might account for the slow growth in PJM / MISO? Lower wholesale energy prices? Bad policy? Both?.
Heat waves are tough on power grids. More solar + storage is particularly well suited to meet air conditioning loads reliably and affordably. Unfortunately, PJM and MISO, even though they operate in 28 states, have less solar + storage than Texas alone.
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RT @stacyfmitchell: @FreedZach Aww, thanks Zach! Here's a non-paywall version if anyone wants to read: .
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Love this -- NY mayoral candidate embraces the city's small businesses. @ILSR explains why that's a good political strategy.
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Not only do we have the extreme consequences of anti-vaccine bullshit, but we chew up valuable public hearing time explaining simple science to ideologues instead of solving other public problems.
.@RepKimSchrier schools @SecKennedy on the profound value of childhood vaccination.
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