The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 80 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 0 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
Surprise: Make Sunsets' $10 cooling credits are scientifically dubious marketing
“They really, at this point, don't have any way to measure whether or not they're actually releasing the proper amount of sulfur if it's making it into the stratosphere, and it's, you know, easy, like, these just round, easy numbers of correlation from, well, o…”
Iseman: Academic geoengineering scientists need startup operators to execute real-world testing
“I've worked with PhDs before in previous roles, and, you know, I get what they do. They're very challenging, smart. They can look very far into the future, but at the end of the day, when the rubber meets the road, they need someone like me to actually The sci…”
Dr. Terrell: Cancer Alley disproportionately burdens communities of color with pollution and cancer
“To me, Cancer Alley is a place in southeast Louisiana where communities of color are disproportionately burdened with air pollution and with cancer.”
Patton: Some Louisiana plants have violated Clean Air permits for over a decade
“Some of these plants have been in consistent violation of their Clean Air Act permits for more than a decade, and they are still in operation every day.”
Patton: Marathon received $1.5M in ITEP tax exemptions per job created
“Under the ITEP program, Marathon was by far the largest benefactor from the program. At one point they were receiving 1.5 million dollars in tax exemptions per job that Marathon created.”
Biden: The World Will Need Oil for at Least Another Decade
“I said, we're going to need oil for at least another decade, and that's going to exceed... And beyond that, we're gonna need it.”
Shah: Solar and wind generated 36% annualized returns since 2007
“Most of us who've been in the solar and wind industry have generated 36% annualized returns every single year since we were in there from 2007.”
Shah: US transformer backlog stems from avoiding VPPs, not actual shortages
“This is why we have a three-year backlog on distribution transformers. It's not because we have a shortage of distribution transformers in this country. It's because everybody wants to fix the problem using 19 eighties approaches instead of virtual power plant…”
Gas stoves account for 12.7% of childhood asthma cases in the US
“We found that 12.7% of childhood asthma Could be attributed to gas stove use, but in some states it was much higher because, for example, in Illinois, 80% of households with children cook with gas, and so for, in that state, it was about 21%, similar in Califo…”
Gas stove asthma risk is directly comparable to secondhand smoke exposure
“So when we looked at, okay, who else has calculated this PAF, population tributal fraction, for other factors, we found that for childhood asthma, it was very similar to exposure to secondhand smoke.”
Friedman: Climate governance will see Article 6 completely collapse
“I think we will begin to see new laws and new protocols, everything from the revisions to the London Convention of the Sea to Article VI's complete collapse and dissolution.”
Cape Coral's low elevation makes it unsuitable for 200,000 residents
“And so the place was always, you know, not only in harm's way, but with these canals to carry the storm throughout the city when it does come incredibly low-lying, incredibly wet just not the kind of place where you should put 200,000 humans.”
Florida's coastal development model operates as an ecological Ponzi scheme
“And so that's what I mean by this ecological Ponzi scheme, where eventually, kind of, the bill comes due, and Hurricane Ian is one of those moments where suddenly we've put twenty million people in harm's way, And the harm arrived.”
Haspel: Corn and soy dominate due to crop efficiency, not subsidies
“There's a reason that soy and corn came to dominate the landscape, and it's not because of subsidies. It's because corn is the most efficient cereal grass, and soy is the most efficient leg.”
Corbeau: Germany decommissioning nuclear plants to burn coal is 'completely insane'
“The second reason is that Germany has continued with their nuclear power plant decommissioning, so a few gigawatt free nuclear power plants were decommissioned at the end of last year, and they are going to decommission another three at the end of this year, w…”
Paul claims the CBO is anything but a fair and honest broker
“Both teams agree that they are, you know, a fair and honest kind of broker in the policy situation. But in fact, CBO is anything but.”
Westhoff: US Is No More Suited to Solar Manufacturing Than iPhones
“However, I have to say that the United States is no more suitable to solar manufacturing than it is to iPhone manufacturing.”
Westhoff: Auxin Solar Is an Uncompetitive Manufacturer Seeking Government Aid
“I would suggest that they are just an uncompetitive manufacturer looking for any help they can get.”
Griffin: Hawaiian Electric's transition is like trading cigarettes for crack
“Your plan To me, amounts to a shift from one fossil fuel to another. We're going from cigarettes to crack. We're going from coal to oil.”
Musk: Congress should cancel Biden's federal climate legislation entirely
“I would say, honestly, I would just can this whole bill. Don't pass it. That's my recommendation.”
Musk: The government should eliminate all subsidies entirely
“I'm literally saying get rid of all subsidies.”
Wesoff: SolarCity would have gone bankrupt without Tesla's $2.6B acquisition
“If Tesla had not purchased SolarCity for 2.6 billion dollars plus the assumption of a couple of billion dollars worth of debt, SolarCity would for sure have gone bankrupt within a couple of months.”
Rathi: US and China originated the COP26 'phase down' coal language
“And that two or three page document that Came on Wednesday was what then set the tone for the deal to happen on the Saturday, and in that deal is where we had the language around phase down of coal, and that's the language that eventually made it into the fina…”
Gershenson: Climate VCs often give under-informed board advice with unearned certainty
“The challenge that I have with that group of investors is that oftentimes the advice that they give to founders, or the guidance that they give to founders while they're on their boards, is often not as informed as it should be, but is given as very definitive…”
Sam White claims Indian business culture freely accepts copying patented technology
“Even with a patent, you know, in India, the culture is, there's nothing wrong with stealing someone's technology. It's just the way it is.”
Domenech: US emissions declined as fast under Trump as Biden
“Well, emissions declined at about the same rate under Trump as they have under Biden. In fact, they declined more in the first two years than they did under Biden. And a lot of that was driven by U.S. Natural gas.”
LNG operators will actively undermine clean energy investment for decades
“These are projects that are going to take years to build and once they're built, they rely on streams of demand and markets for decades in order to make them profitable. And so they're going to be creating those markets. They're going to be doing everything th…”
Bowman: Carbon removal is proven tech; the real issue is scale
“This is a proven technology, and we have the ability to develop this technology now. I think the question that we really should be focused on is scale.”
Lacey: GOP threats to repeal IRA incentives are economically insane
“In any case, even if these are hollow threats, they are just economically insane.”
Paul argues CBO gives ammunition to climate deniers without good reason
“The only hurdle we're facing today is a purely political one, and CBO, for no good reason, is giving additional ammunition to climate deniers left and right.”
Lacey: Political Backlash Over Solyndra Was "Incredibly Stupid" Theater
“This was an incredibly stupid piece of political theater.”
Tampa Electric used lobbying funds to fight local gas bans
“Again, it was non-binding, but it scared the local investor-owned utility Tampa Electric, also known as TECO. So TECO did what a lot of other gas utilities are doing. It used its lobbying power and money to launch a more aggressive counter-strike.”