Costa Samaras
@costasamaras.com
Climate, energy, emerging tech, resilience, & policy professor. Carnegie Mellon Univ. Institute for Energy Innovation Director. Former Biden-Harris White House OSTP Chief Advisor for the Clean Energy Transition. Personal account. He/Him. costasamaras.com
Pinned
Costa Samaras
@costasamaras.com
· Jan 21
If you’re new to Bluesky, welcome. A starter pack is an easy way to find folks to follow. Want to know what all these new energy regulations mean for your wallet, your lungs, and the climate? Here are my computer friends who work on climate: go.bsky.app/Aa1sErQ
Reposted by Costa Samaras
this week, congress has agreed to ban trans participation in sports at military academies and the opening bid to fix aca subsidies bans trans care coverage on obamacare exchanges
why does it feel like we’re not seeing a five alarm fire from the lgbtq+ advocacy groups yet
why does it feel like we’re not seeing a five alarm fire from the lgbtq+ advocacy groups yet
December 9, 2025 at 2:29 AM
this week, congress has agreed to ban trans participation in sports at military academies and the opening bid to fix aca subsidies bans trans care coverage on obamacare exchanges
why does it feel like we’re not seeing a five alarm fire from the lgbtq+ advocacy groups yet
why does it feel like we’re not seeing a five alarm fire from the lgbtq+ advocacy groups yet
[Andy Rooney voice] And another thing, I don't want to "find link in the comments", I want to find the link in the thing we in the news business like to call, the post"
December 9, 2025 at 2:25 AM
[Andy Rooney voice] And another thing, I don't want to "find link in the comments", I want to find the link in the thing we in the news business like to call, the post"
RETVRN
Major Questions Doctrine: not real, neither cool nor hot, made up by the supreme court
McDLT hamburger: simultaneously cool and hot, but no longer exists
McDLT hamburger: simultaneously cool and hot, but no longer exists
December 9, 2025 at 2:16 AM
RETVRN
Reposted by Costa Samaras
NYC’s congestion pricing cleaned the air. This is also what happened when EZ-Pass was put in place in NJ.
Congestion pricing improved air quality in NYC and suburbs | Cornell Chronicle
Cornell researchers tallied the environmental benefits of New York City’s congestion pricing program and found air pollution dropped by 22% in Manhattan, with additional declines across the city’s fiv...
news.cornell.edu
December 9, 2025 at 2:05 AM
NYC’s congestion pricing cleaned the air. This is also what happened when EZ-Pass was put in place in NJ.
me during the Presidential fitness test in elementary school
December 8, 2025 at 11:07 PM
me during the Presidential fitness test in elementary school
True Story: On this guy's watch a plane trying to land at the airport in DC collided with a helicopter and 67 people lost their lives.
Duffy on what he's doing to improve the airport experience for travelers: "Maybe I want a workout area where people might get some blood flowing doing some pull ups or step ups in the airport."
December 8, 2025 at 10:54 PM
True Story: On this guy's watch a plane trying to land at the airport in DC collided with a helicopter and 67 people lost their lives.
Reposted by Costa Samaras
👋 Breastfeeding & infant feeding expert here! All babies need safe, accessible nutrition. Most people already want to breastfeed and 84% start out doing so but can’t realize their goals. What we need are *policies* that make it possible to breastfeed for all who desire to do so and…
RFK Jr: "All of the ingenuity of corporate America has not produced an infant formula that is superior in nutrition and all the qualities that we want to the infant formula that God made, which is the infant formula in a mother's breast."
December 8, 2025 at 9:27 PM
👋 Breastfeeding & infant feeding expert here! All babies need safe, accessible nutrition. Most people already want to breastfeed and 84% start out doing so but can’t realize their goals. What we need are *policies* that make it possible to breastfeed for all who desire to do so and…
I don't think the general public knows that law review articles for legal scholarship aren't peer-reviewed at all, just kind of edited by the (overworked and underappreciated) student journal clubs, and well, the future of the country can't rest on that.
The current SCOTUS majority is a bunch of sophists who like to dismiss evidence in favor of hypotheticals. They are spending enormous political capital trying to empower a guy that tried to overthrow the US government. If any good comes of this, hopefully it will radicalize people about SCOTUS.
The conservative justices have their talking point -- what if Congress turned every department into a multimember commission -- and it is totally absurd considering that has never happened under the existing law.
December 8, 2025 at 8:18 PM
I don't think the general public knows that law review articles for legal scholarship aren't peer-reviewed at all, just kind of edited by the (overworked and underappreciated) student journal clubs, and well, the future of the country can't rest on that.
If we can magically find $12B for an agriculture bailout caused because of made up tariffs, we can find funding for trains, libraries, & clean energy. Btw the annual budget of the EPA is $9B. The whole thing! About the same with the National Science Foundation. Cut bad stuff, triple good stuff.
Not only can the country absolutely afford to do a lot more good things that help people– in housing, healthcare, infrastructure, and environment– there is no reason not to do it. Pretty simple: We should do big things that help people and not do things that hurt people. bsky.app/profile/cost...
How many times in your life have you heard a member of Congress or someone on TV say “we can’t afford it” when talking about something small but very important? It’s been happening my entire life. We can’t afford it? They’re putting seven times the annual budget of the EPA into immigrant detention.
December 8, 2025 at 5:17 PM
If we can magically find $12B for an agriculture bailout caused because of made up tariffs, we can find funding for trains, libraries, & clean energy. Btw the annual budget of the EPA is $9B. The whole thing! About the same with the National Science Foundation. Cut bad stuff, triple good stuff.
Reposted by Costa Samaras
Fast forward 1 year, and rule-making is a target under the current administration
2/2 "Rulemaking serves as the most common form of policymaking today, as agencies are tasked with the seemingly mundane job of “filling in the gaps” of thousands of existing and new statutes." www.milbank.org/quarterly/op...
Out of Sight, Out of Mind? Agency Rulemaking as an Overlooked Source of Health Disparities | Milbank Memorial Fund
Health disparities—the differences in access to health care and related services as well as in health utilization and outcomes—are influenced by a wide
www.milbank.org
December 8, 2025 at 5:04 PM
Fast forward 1 year, and rule-making is a target under the current administration
MQD: not real
MCDLT: not available
Know the difference
MCDLT: not available
Know the difference
December 8, 2025 at 4:26 PM
MQD: not real
MCDLT: not available
Know the difference
MCDLT: not available
Know the difference
Reposted by Costa Samaras
Analogizing the EU to the Nazi regime is embarassingly ignorant of history, and it's shameful that our new national security strategy seems to say that those promoting international cooperation in Europe are bad and those trying to rehabilitate violent nationalism are good
The EU was created in by people who lived through WWII and saw political and economic integration as a means to bringing peace and stability to the continent.
It is being opposed by Putin, Musk and the others who support Neo Nazis in Europe.
It is being opposed by Putin, Musk and the others who support Neo Nazis in Europe.
December 8, 2025 at 4:43 AM
Analogizing the EU to the Nazi regime is embarassingly ignorant of history, and it's shameful that our new national security strategy seems to say that those promoting international cooperation in Europe are bad and those trying to rehabilitate violent nationalism are good
Analysis: the EU is p cool ngl
December 8, 2025 at 4:42 AM
Analysis: the EU is p cool ngl
“The words as written in the Constitution don’t really mean that, they mean this other thing” -legal scholar who nobody would have ever heard of but for this exact type of gambit
December 7, 2025 at 11:10 PM
“The words as written in the Constitution don’t really mean that, they mean this other thing” -legal scholar who nobody would have ever heard of but for this exact type of gambit
Reposted by Costa Samaras
🧵 “idk, how about triple it”
First, on day one, just restore everything - NSF, NIH, Title VI Dept of Education, everything - to the December 2024 baseline. Then this.
First, on day one, just restore everything - NSF, NIH, Title VI Dept of Education, everything - to the December 2024 baseline. Then this.
December 7, 2025 at 5:24 PM
🧵 “idk, how about triple it”
First, on day one, just restore everything - NSF, NIH, Title VI Dept of Education, everything - to the December 2024 baseline. Then this.
First, on day one, just restore everything - NSF, NIH, Title VI Dept of Education, everything - to the December 2024 baseline. Then this.
Reposted by Costa Samaras
trying to fit in here on bsky, so I'm turning 30 to 40 years old
trying to fit in here on bsky, so I'm listening to Sigur Rós
December 7, 2025 at 5:52 AM
trying to fit in here on bsky, so I'm turning 30 to 40 years old
It could take decades to recover from where we are.
My teen, who had dreamt of being an astrophysicist, just told me he wants to go to law school because, “Science isn’t going to be a priority in the US in the future…I don’t want a job where I’ll be constantly worried my funding will be taken away.”
Gutting. How many future scientists have we lost?
Gutting. How many future scientists have we lost?
December 7, 2025 at 5:49 AM
It could take decades to recover from where we are.
trying to fit in here on bsky, so I'm listening to Sigur Rós
December 7, 2025 at 5:20 AM
trying to fit in here on bsky, so I'm listening to Sigur Rós
Reposted by Costa Samaras
Y'all, I just wrote an answer to a question about the sensationalized news headlines circulating about the Chernobyl containment structure.
The bottom line is that there's a hole in the structure, which is not good, but it's not the end of containment, which some reports make it sound like.
🧵
The bottom line is that there's a hole in the structure, which is not good, but it's not the end of containment, which some reports make it sound like.
🧵
The way this is being reported is extremely irresponsible.
There is a hole in the containment structure, about 10 feet across. No other damage is reported. That hole can allow some of the dusty radioactive material to escape.
That is what "can no longer do its job of containment" means.
There is a hole in the containment structure, about 10 feet across. No other damage is reported. That hole can allow some of the dusty radioactive material to escape.
That is what "can no longer do its job of containment" means.
December 7, 2025 at 1:02 AM
Y'all, I just wrote an answer to a question about the sensationalized news headlines circulating about the Chernobyl containment structure.
The bottom line is that there's a hole in the structure, which is not good, but it's not the end of containment, which some reports make it sound like.
🧵
The bottom line is that there's a hole in the structure, which is not good, but it's not the end of containment, which some reports make it sound like.
🧵
Reposted by Costa Samaras
If you have any documented instances of cocaine use in the Pentagon or by senior administration officials, my Signal is jmkatz.18
December 7, 2025 at 2:39 AM
If you have any documented instances of cocaine use in the Pentagon or by senior administration officials, my Signal is jmkatz.18
Reposted by Costa Samaras
On January 1, Illinois begins to regulate employer use of AI, making it a civil rights violation to use AI tools that result in discrimination based on protected characteristics in hiring, promotion, discipline, termination, or other employment terms and requiring notice of AI use. #AIBillofRights
Illinois becomes one of the few states to regulate employer use of AI. House Bill 3773 amends the Illinois Human Rights Act to make it a civil rights violation for employers to use AI tools that result in discrimination based on race, gender, age, or disability.
www.mystateline.com/news/local-n...
www.mystateline.com/news/local-n...
www.mystateline.com
December 6, 2025 at 10:49 PM
On January 1, Illinois begins to regulate employer use of AI, making it a civil rights violation to use AI tools that result in discrimination based on protected characteristics in hiring, promotion, discipline, termination, or other employment terms and requiring notice of AI use. #AIBillofRights
Reposted by Costa Samaras
not to put too fine a point on it but every guy doing the “we need to reboot masculinity!!!” schtick has fewer masculine virtues than I do and I’m nonbinary
"we're having a crisis of masculinity!11!" - a man-baby dork
December 7, 2025 at 1:55 AM
not to put too fine a point on it but every guy doing the “we need to reboot masculinity!!!” schtick has fewer masculine virtues than I do and I’m nonbinary
FIFA prize? Wake me up when there's a Mario Kart 64 Prize
NHL94 prize actually would be an honor
December 7, 2025 at 1:58 AM
FIFA prize? Wake me up when there's a Mario Kart 64 Prize
"we're having a crisis of masculinity!11!" - a man-baby dork
December 7, 2025 at 1:50 AM
"we're having a crisis of masculinity!11!" - a man-baby dork
Reposted by Costa Samaras
December 6, 2025 at 10:16 PM