Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Brendon Slotterback

Brent Toderian @brenttoderian.bsky.social · 17h

“Once rare, 7-year car loans are fast becoming the norm. They’re often the only way buyers can afford new rides, with average sale prices surging 28% in 5 years to approach $50k.”

Designed-in car dependency, surging car prices, longer loan periods with more interest.

Sound like “freedom” to you?

Cars are so expensive that buyers need 7-year loans

Once rare, seven-year car loans are fast becoming the norm. They’re often the only way buyers can afford new rides, with average auto prices nearing $50,000.

www.seattletimes.com

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Tim Dickinson @timdickinson.bsky.social · 1d

The Portland ICE protest camp literally has a rack full of inflatable costumes for demonstrators who want to try one on...

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Brendon Slotterback @bslotterback.bsky.social · 19h

It would be more representative because they’d have to care about statewide public opinion not a narrow slice. And larger states could see candidates with diverse, just as senate elections do within single states

Reposted by Brendon Slotterback

Josh Lappen @jlappen1.bsky.social · 1d

This, of course, is what it looks like when a political party cares deeply about whales, and is definitely not just doing the bidding of the fossil fuel industry in blocking offshore-wind development.

Dustin Mulvaney @dustinmulvaney.bsky.social · 2d

Republicans are aiming next to dismantle the marine mammal protection act, which protects whales, dolphins, manatees, polar bears, and sea otters.. among other ocean wildlife. 🦦

Horror Tor, friend of Union ghosts @splitrailfence.bsky.social · 2d

I love it. Makes me happy.
Weird that I'm now seeing your post here after I just read about the bill to end the 1970s marine mammal legislation to protect these beautiful creatures.
abcnews.go.com/Politics/wir...

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John Farrell @johnffarrell.bsky.social · 1d

What really sucks about this ratcheting battle for Congress is that is means fewer and fewer competitive elections, leaving more and more Americans rightly feeling powerless and un-represented. We'd be much better off with as many competitive seats as possible.

The New York Times @nytimes.com · 1d

Republican lawmakers in North Carolina announced plans on Monday to redraw the state’s already gerrymandered congressional maps to further favor their party. The most likely target is the First Congressional District, which has the state’s only competitive House seat.

North Carolina Republicans Plan to Redraw Congressional Map to Add a Seat

The Trump administration has pushed Republican leaders to redraw House district maps before the midterm elections next year. His party already holds 10 of North Carolina’s 14 congressional seats.

nyti.ms

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Brendon Slotterback @bslotterback.bsky.social · 20h

Or just get rid of districts altogether

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Jan Rosenow @janrosenow.bsky.social · 1d

Grid scale batteries are changing our electricity system. Excellent new visual story on batteries in FT today shows just how far this technology has evolved.

Fasten your seatbelts, this is just the beginning.

ig.ft.com/mega-batteri...

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Brendon Slotterback @bslotterback.bsky.social · 3d

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Jess Piper @piperformissouri.bsky.social · 4d

Soybean farmers should dump their beans on Capitol Hill…

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Brendon Slotterback @bslotterback.bsky.social · 3d

Gotta make that bread! (Now pre-sunrise ☹️)

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Brendon Slotterback @bslotterback.bsky.social · 4d

fiction and sci-fi in particular are good and important

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Brendon Slotterback @bslotterback.bsky.social · 4d

This could get really really dark and I don't want to trivialize it but the first thing I thought of was Ghorman

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 4d

Mike Johnson: "This hate America rally that they have coming up for October 18? The antifa crowd, the pro-Hamas crowd, and the Marxists, they're all gonna gather on the Mall. It is an outrageous gathering for outrageous purposes ... all this has gotta come to an end."

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Brendon Slotterback @bslotterback.bsky.social · 4d

🔥

Brendon Slotterback @bslotterback.bsky.social · 4d

e-bikes are so good

Mike Eliason @holz-bau.bsky.social · 5d

since denver launched its e-bike rebate program - the have sold 10,000 e-bikes and reduced an estimated 1,000,000 car trips - replacing millions of VMTs and reducing air pollution

there are no climate silver bullets... but damn - e-bikes and e-cargo bikes are close

denvergov.org/Government/A...

Denver Celebrates 10,000 E-Bike Rebates

Since its inception in April 2022, Denver has distributed over 10,000 electric bikes (e-bikes) to community members through its pioneering e-bike rebate program. As the first U.S. city to implement su...

denvergov.org

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工an🎃Monroe👹 @eean.dev · 4d

End of an era. RIP Housing Twitter, gone but not forgotten.

Max Dubler 🏳️‍🌈 @maxdubler.com · 4d

Big day for the posting to policy pipeline.

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Micah @rincewind.run · 4d

this is a recipe for a four year government shutdown

you simply cannot make deals with people who are telling you up front they are going to break those deals and claw back everything you won in them

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 4d

Q: Rescission are something Dems have said is a reason for a lack of trust. What rescissions are you discussing?

JOHNSON: We have more than $37t in debt. We're doing everything we can to get us back to sound fiscal responsibility. What does that include? A rescission package is part of our process

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Brendon Slotterback @bslotterback.bsky.social · 4d

As a thought experiment, you could take the newly enormous budget of a very controversial federal agency and pay to put rooftop solar on 1/3 of all homes that need a new roof each year (adding 10 GW of capacity every year). www.energy.gov/eere/solar/s...

Solar Rooftop Potential

To help consumers quantify the potential benefits of going solar, national laboratories and private companies have developed a number of tools.

www.energy.gov

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jael holzman @jael.bsky.social · 5d

This is enough carbon-free energy to power maybe two thirds of Vegas btw

jael holzman @jael.bsky.social · 5d

SCOOP: The Bureau of Land Management says the largest solar project in Nevada — the Esmeralda 7 mega-farm — has been canceled

The news was quietly dropped via a sudden website update with no public word from any of the companies involved or a statement from the agency

@heatmap.news

Esmeralda 7 Solar Project Has Been Canceled, BLM Says

It would have delivered a gargantuan 6.2 gigawatts of power.

heatmap.news

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Brendon Slotterback @bslotterback.bsky.social · 4d

Trump just cancelled a NUCLEAR POWER PLANT’s worth of electricity capacity by withholding a permit.

Let us hear no more about enviro groups engaging in the legal NEPA process for the next three years.

jael holzman @jael.bsky.social · 5d

SCOOP: The Bureau of Land Management says the largest solar project in Nevada — the Esmeralda 7 mega-farm — has been canceled

The news was quietly dropped via a sudden website update with no public word from any of the companies involved or a statement from the agency

@heatmap.news

Esmeralda 7 Solar Project Has Been Canceled, BLM Says

It would have delivered a gargantuan 6.2 gigawatts of power.

heatmap.news

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Nick Gerakines @ngerakines.me · 4d

"When authoritarians seize power, it is crucial to recognize courageous defenders of freedom who rise and resist," the committee said.

Reuters @reuters.com · 5d

BREAKING: Venezuela's Maria Corina Machado wins the Nobel Peace Prize for 2025 reut.rs/42uh3Aw

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Brendon Slotterback @bslotterback.bsky.social · 4d

So the precedent now is take money from any program you don't like, regardless of what Congress said, and spend it on whatever you want? www.latitudemedia.com/news/how-doe...

How DOE is using Biden-era funds to keep coal plants open

The department is allotting $625 million, largely via cost share awards managed, ironically, by the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations.

www.latitudemedia.com

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Profit Greenly @profitgreenly.bsky.social · 4d

~40% of the ENTIRE corn crop of the US is used to make ethanol. This gets blended with gasoline to power well under 10% of our vehicle miles. If we converted 100% of our vehicles to EVs installing solar on a small fraction of the land this corn is grown on would power them all.

US domestic corn use graph from 1980 to 2020. The orange bar representing "Alcohol for fuel use" (aka ethanol) starts growing in early 2000s, explodes before 2010 and stays huge through the graphs 2022 end. This explains most of the increased corn production in the US.

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Indivisible ❌👑 @indivisible.org · 4d

We’re eight days away from No Kings Day, and we have 2,500 protests planned in all 50 states and across the world.

October 18 is going to be the biggest day of nonviolent protest in US history — and we want to see you there. Find your local event: www.nokings.org?SQF_SOURCE=i... #NoKings

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Tony Dutzik @frontiertony.bsky.social · 4d

All the lip gloss being put on the AI boom as somehow good for climate or the energy transition is masking that, at the present moment, it's a disaster.

Not only more gas generation, but the worst, dirtiest, least efficient kind. Turning the clock back 25 years.
heatmap.news/energy/natur...

Data Centers Have Solved Their Speed-to-Power Problem — With Natural Gas

“Old economy” companies like Caterpillar and Williams are cashing in by selling smaller, less-efficient turbines to impatient developers.

heatmap.news

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Brendon Slotterback @bslotterback.bsky.social · 5d

I’m still excited about utility scale type stuff starting to go behind the meter. They also get backup power!

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