A California-based company with ties to billionaire investor and Trump ally Peter Thiel announced plans Friday to build America’s first U.S.-owned, privately developed facility to enrich uranium in far western Kentucky.

#EnergyMastodon #EnergyTransition #Kentucky #Climate #Nuclear #Uranium

https://www.wkms.org/energy/2025-07-25/billionaire-peter-thiel-backing-first-privately-developed-us-uranium-enrichment-facility-in-paducah

"#Dembecki 's work reveals the deep connections between #BigOil, political power & #Disinformation, especially in countries like Canada where fossil fuel expansion is still framed as a “nation-building” project when all the science and the stakes say otherwise."

https://www.podcastics.com/episode/377291/link/

We're excited to have a joint job opening in the Citizen Science Lab and Faculty of Governance and Public Affairs at Leiden University. Do you have experience with #CitizenScience and #PublicEngagement approaches, and are you passionate about the #EnergyTransition? Then this one could be for you!

Direct applications only via: https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/vacatures/2025-nl/q3/15885-postdoctoral-researcher-in-citizen-science--societal-engagement-for-an-inclusive-energy-transition

BC Ranchers: "We're all going to DIE!!!"

Conservatives*: "AXE THE TAX, AXE THE TAX, AXE THE TAX!!!"

Canadian Media: ¯\\(ツ)/¯

Mark Carney: "Pipelines anybody?"

#cdnpoli #abpoli #Climate #EnergyTransition #yyc #BigOil #SueBigOil #CarbonCapture #PetroleumPapers #MarkCarney #CleanEnergy #Renewables https://cfjctoday.com/2025/07/23/we-have-to-improve-or-well-die-b-c-ranchers-seek-water-solutions-in-long-drought/

Investigative journalist Geoff Dembicki of Desmog joins us to talk Petroleum Papers, what Big Oil really thinks about Carbon Capture and what it all means for Canada’s so-called Clean Energy future

PODCAST: https://www.podcastics.com/episode/377291/link/

Back when I was doing the 'This Week in Energy' podcast some fifteen years ago, it seems like I vaguely remember gas flaring was going to be phased out. Welp, I guess not or maybe it's back? This image alone shows seven gas flares. I saw 30-40 in this one area of Northeast Montana. I could feel the heat from this flare while making the photo from across the road! We can be such an ignorant species...

#EnergyTransition - 91% of New Renewable Projects Now Cheaper Than Fossil Fuels Alternatives - "Renewables maintain their cost leadership in global power markets, IRENA’s new report on Renewable Power Generation Costs in 2024 confirms. The report confirms that renewables maintained their price advantage over fossil fuels, with cost declines driven by technological innovation, competitive supply chains, and economies of scale." - IRENA - International Renewable Energy Agency https://www.irena.org/News/pressreleases/2025/Jul/91-Percent-of-New-Renewable-Projects-Now-Cheaper-Than-Fossil-Fuels-Alternatives

The Environmental Protection Agency said on Friday that it would eliminate its scientific research arm and begin firing hundreds of chemists, biologists, toxicologists and other scientists, after denying for months that it intended to do so.

#EnergyMastodon #EnergyTransition #Climate #EPA

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/18/climate/epa-firings-scientific-research.html?unlocked_article_code=1.X08.rLAK.gcgZyOqtdx-I&smid=url-share

Just a subtoot: If you don't 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 nuclear, you'll find reasons to be against it - facts, climate change and human flourishing be damned.

It is therefore the wrong approach to respond against anti-nuclear arguments with facts. Believe me, I've tried. You can reply to worries about nuclear waste (spent fuel) for example with facts - like it being manageable just fine, or it only needing safe storage for 300 years before it becomes radiologically harmless, or it being able to be recycled perfectly fine, or its volume being negligible... If you get a denial of these facts, just stop bothering as people are just being dishonest with you.

I'm also not arguing with people who deny climate change, vaccines, the Earth being a globe (ffs), or whatever crazy batshit stuff people come up with these days. It's just not worth my time. I'll just smile and move along. Being against nuclear is likewise a denial of the science.

What does tend to work (better) is setting an optimistic narrative: industrialised society cannot run on solar and wind alone (this isn't hard arithmetic, it's just not enough, even ignoring other problems inherent with them) and nuclear is a 𝘴𝘰𝘭𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 to this problem.

The third world, primarily Africa, is going to explode in energy consumption as they economically develop themselves (at long last) this century and, if we don't want them to burn coal for decades, nuclear energy is a 𝘴𝘰𝘭𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 to this problem.

All energy sources have toxic waste streams. Nuclear has the fewest and best managed. It is a 𝘴𝘰𝘭𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 to the problem of how to minimise our impact on the environment.

That spent fuel I was talking about earlier? It's full of energy still. So much so that it can power 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘴𝘰𝘤𝘪𝘦𝘵𝘺 for 𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴. No more mining needed if we wanted to. Nuclear 'waste' isn't waste at all, it is a 𝘷𝘢𝘭𝘶𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘤𝘦.

The degrowth movement has a view that we need to use radically less energy, up to 95% less for the West and 60% less globally. These are numbers degrowthers share. The underlying view, explicit or implicit, is that there are just too many people on this planet. A malthusian view of sinful people. Sometimes this is wrapped up in an anti-capitalist rhetoric that 'infinite growth on a finite planet is impossible'. Catchy slogan, but it doesn't actually align with (capitalist) reality.

Yes, as a communist I strive for the end of capitalism and class society in general. And yes, we'll need to rearrange society by quite a bit. 'Degrow' some sectors, grow others. But for humans to flourish we need loads of clean energy. We need to in fact 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘭𝘰𝘥𝘦 our energy production as a species, up it by a factor 2 or 3 compared to the 200,000 TWh we consume now. Nuclear can deliver that, for billions of years, for the smallest footprint.

TL;DR, the two takeaways are:

Set the narrative, don't be reactive. The latter will cost you time and energy to combat. With the former people will have to engage with you.

If humanity is to have a future, the future will have to be nuclear.

China continues to go at it hammer and tongs.

It seems that barely a week goes by without an announcement along the lines of "World's largest flow battery connects to Chinese Grid", or "Cheapest battery auction to date closes with record-low prices".

While the headline achievements are impressive, it's the trajectory that's jaw-dropping.

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Hugo will present "Rust Meets the Grid: Building Openleadr-rs for Real-World Demand Response" at LF Energy Summit Europe, 10-11 September in Aachen, Germany, together with Ton Smets from ElaadNL!

Interested? Attend the talk on Thursday 11 September!
https://events.linuxfoundation.org/lfenergysummit-europe/program/schedule/