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Energy & Climate
Power, grids, minerals and the economics of the transition.
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★★★★★ Pick of the week Added 28/10/2026
Pemex's oil spills, counted three different ways
How many oil spills does Mexico's state oil company really have, and who pays when one reaches the coast? Rodrigo Soberanes sets public information requests and regulatory filings against what fishers and turtle volunteers on the Gulf coast are living through. Read it to see how one company's spills can be counted in ways that do not agree, and what that does to accountability and compensation. We picked it because it pairs original data with reporting from the beaches, which few accounts of Pemex do. Soberanes reported from the affected coast for Dialogue Earth; we found no stake.
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★★★★☆ Added 28/10/2026
The natural monopoly hiding in your power bill
Why is it so hard to set an electricity price that pays for the poles and wires and also tells customers what their extra use really costs? Severin Borenstein goes back to the economics of natural monopoly to explain a problem that most debates about power prices step around. Read it to see why arguments over who should pay for the local grid miss the underlying difficulty, which matters for heat pumps and electric cars. We picked it for a clear account of a mechanism behind every power bill. Borenstein writes for the Energy Institute at Haas blog; we found no stake.
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★★★★☆ Added 28/10/2026
Should California's utilities pay for every fire they start?
When a power line sparks a catastrophic wildfire, who should pay: the utility, its customers, insurers or taxpayers? Meredith Fowlie argues against the instinct that the utility should carry the whole cost, states that position openly and takes the case for full liability seriously. Read it to understand how liability rules shape where wildfire risk actually gets reduced, not just who writes the cheque. We picked it because it argues plainly and meets the strongest objections head on. Fowlie writes for the Energy Institute at Haas blog at UC Berkeley; we found no stake.
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★★★★☆ Added 28/10/2026
What is really pushing up British energy bills
Why are UK household energy bills so high, and which of the many proposed fixes would actually bring them down? Molly Lempriere works through each part of the bill, from wholesale gas to network charges and policy costs, then weighs the options on the table, including calls to slow the transition. Read it for a careful map of where the money goes, useful well beyond Britain. We picked it because it splits a crowded political argument into parts that can be checked. The piece leans towards electrification as the answer. Lempriere writes for Carbon Brief; we found no stake.
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★★★★☆ Added 28/10/2026
Nigeria's clean-cooking gains, seen from the roadside stall
Nigeria brings millions of people to clean cooking every year, so why are firewood and charcoal still everywhere? Ini Ekott sets the national figures against the kitchens and market stalls of Uyo and Abuja, where traders and households explain what they actually cook with and why. Read it to understand the gap between having access to clean cooking and being able to afford it, and what that gap costs in health and forests. We picked it for reporting from the ground that puts official numbers to the test. Ekott reported the piece for Mongabay; we found no stake.
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★★★☆☆ Added 28/10/2026
How America's big climate law was made, told by one of its makers
How did the Inflation Reduction Act get through a divided Senate, and how much of it is left? David Roberts talks with Leah Stokes before a live audience in Seattle about Stokes's new book, an insider account of the fight that is also the story of a hard pregnancy. Read it for the view from inside the negotiations and for a frank look at what survives. We picked it for its long view of a law still being fought over. Stokes, a climate policy scholar, helped make the law and is promoting the book, and Roberts admires it openly: that is the stake.
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★★★☆☆ Added 28/10/2026
Medellín's trees, and the neighbourhoods they never reached
Medellín has spent almost two decades planting trees to keep cool, and won praise abroad for it. So who has felt the benefit as temperatures keep climbing? Oscar Parra contrasts the shaded south with the concrete hillsides of the north, through residents, planners and a doctor, to test a celebrated model of urban adaptation. Read it to see why greening a city is also a question of where. We picked it for a view of climate adaptation from a Latin American street rather than a policy paper. Parra wrote it for a Dialogue Earth project with Boston University funded by Wellcome; we found no stake.
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★★★☆☆ Added 28/10/2026
When whales and dolphins took an oil company to court
Can whales and dolphins be parties to a lawsuit? In the Philippines they were, in a case against oil exploration in the Tañon Strait. Maverick Avila, in a piece edited by Yenni Kwok, interviews Rose Liza Eisma-Osorio, one of the lawyers who brought it. Read it for an inside account of how a legal idea first treated as a joke reached the Supreme Court. We picked it as our wildcard: fossil fuels seen from a courtroom in Cebu. Eisma-Osorio now leads campaigns at Oceana Philippines and is preparing a new case; we found no stake for Avila.
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★★★★★ Pick of the week Added 27/10/2026
Who Killed Offshore Wind?
Did the government's lease buyout kill American offshore wind, or was the industry already in trouble? James Sallee sorts out what a lease actually is and when the damage was really done. Read it to understand why a headline-grabbing refund says less about the industry than it seems, and who gains from it. We picked it for clear economic reasoning on a story mostly told as politics. Sallee is an economist writing for the Energy Institute at Haas, UC Berkeley; we found no stake.
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★★★★★ Added 27/10/2026
How the Strategic Petroleum Reserve Works
How does a country store hundreds of millions of barrels of oil, and how low can it safely let the stock fall? Brian Potter explains the engineering and history of the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve, from salt caverns to the politics that built them. Read it for the physical limits behind a policy tool now in heavy use. We picked it because it explains a mechanism few people know, with unusual care. Potter writes Construction Physics, a newsletter on how things get built; we found no stake.
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★★★★☆ Added 27/10/2026
Buying Time, Burning Gas
Why are data centres building their own gas power instead of waiting for the grid? Meredith Fowlie looks at the economics behind the rush, and at who pays for the pollution it leaves behind. Read it for a clear account of how a race for market share changes what firms will pay for speed, and what policy could do about it. We picked it because it turns a hot topic into a precise economic argument. Fowlie is an economist at the Energy Institute at Haas, UC Berkeley, and writes critically about the AI race; we found no stake.
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★★★★☆ Added 27/10/2026
Geothermal Insiders Unpack the Fervo Short
Is the most celebrated geothermal start-up in trouble, or did a short seller get it wrong? Emily Pontecorvo tests a short report on Fervo Energy against specialists in a small field that mostly wants it to succeed, and says so. Read it to learn how enhanced geothermal works and where it can fail, beyond the market drama. We picked it for weighing claims carefully instead of taking sides. Pontecorvo is a reporter at Heatmap, a climate publication; we found no stake.
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★★★★☆ Added 27/10/2026
What impact will climate change have on malaria?
Will climate change make malaria worse? Hannah Ritchie expected the answer to be yes and found something more complicated. Read it to see how temperature shapes transmission, what the best recent research shows about Africa, and how warming compares with the effect of prevention and treatment. We picked it for following the evidence where it leads, against a common assumption. Ritchie is a researcher at Our World in Data, a non-profit data publisher; we found no stake.
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★★★★☆ Added 31/08/2026
American transit is bad because of scope creep
Argues that US transit agencies have accumulated so many secondary mandates, environmental, social equity, local job creation, community consultation, that funding and attention are diverted from the core job of moving people, and that the low-income riders who depend on transit lose out most. A clean mechanism for a familiar complaint, told through what agencies are actually required to optimise for.
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14 picks
How we rate
How the stars work
★★★★★ Original reporting or data, explains a mechanism, argues fairly.
★★★★ Excellent, one soft spot: a frame, narrow scope, or an interview.
★★★ Solid, if the subject already interests you.
Rated on the piece, never its politics. A frame tag, in italics, names the position a piece argues from so you can weigh it before you read.