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 240 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
Solomon: Utilities cite load growth panic to push back on EPA gas rules
“So I think there is Some reason to believe that the timing of the kind of panic conversation around load growth in addition to the proposed new combined cycle plants could, you know, have something to do with those proposed EPA rules.”
Solomon: AI does not inherently require new natural gas plants
“AI is not a special unicorn that requires a gas plant to meet its electricity demand.”
Belizaire: Data centers should leave population centers and go behind-the-meter
“Maybe data centers shouldn't be at population centers anymore. They should all be behind the meter and be dispatchable processes”
Delayed affordable cars and unready robotaxis create a crisis for Tesla
“I think it is a crisis. If you don't have the Model Two, and you don't have new affordable vehicles to bring out by the first quarter of next year like you promised, and you can't do the robo-taxi on time, what do you have? What are you going to say next year?…”
Domenech: Universal permitting reform benefits clean energy innovators most
“Republicans approach permitting as a, this should be across the board and fair for everyone. I say this as the person who negotiated the last permitting deal. We want to make this the most fair environment for every person who wants to build in America, which …”
Gurman: Apple views Vision Pro as an eventual iPhone and Mac replacement
“You know, I think Apple sees the Vision Pro as potentially a long-term replacement for multiple different product categories. I think they see it as something, ah, that has potential to replace the iPad as a consumption device, potential to replace the, ah, th…”
Munster: 45V additionality rules effectively exclude hydro and nuclear
“That essentially removes hydro and nuclear power from the running, Munster said.”
Lacey: AI data centers need grid transmission, not advanced nuclear breakthroughs
“I don't think we really need any energy breakthroughs to serve these data centers, though. We just need a lot more transmission to get clean power to these data centers, and it's, I mean, it's an infrastructure challenge and there are a lot of ways that you ca…”
Davis: Grid capacity constraints are slowing solar growth in key markets
“And I would argue that in all three of those markets, you're seeing slowing growth because of grid capacity constraints.”
Hamilton: Fossil Fuel Workers Resist Solar and Wind Jobs Due to Pay
“And we have 1.7 million folks working in the fossil fuel industry. And a lot of those people are going to be transitioning to clean energy jobs of one type or another, but they don't translate very well to solar and wind jobs because they make a lot more money…”
El Naggar: Nuclear energy deployment does not fit 10-year venture fund cycles
“I do worry that nuclear is for example, one of those technologies where, Where government needs to move the needle more because it just isn't on a time scale that fits a ten-year investment fund, you know, in venture capital.”
Senator Becker: Disincentivizing rooftop solar is a mistake given wind timelines
“So I think it's a big mistake to disincentivize
rooftop solar at this time and believe that we can both do that and do things like central procurement, make sure we actually build offshore wind, which is, as you know, is going to take seven to 10 years anyway…”
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.”
Naam: Continent-scale transmission is the most underrated clean energy technology
“The most underrated of those technologies is super long duration transmission. That is probably the one that... Ultra long distance, like coast-to-coast, continent-scale transmission. It's probably the one that has the best upside and the most certainty that w…”
Jaramillo: Lithium-ion cannot solve long-duration storage due to costs
“We saw what happened with lithium-ion, and we saw the progress that it is making, has made, and will continue to make, and yet, we saw a very large opportunity still in the market, and that was to address something that lithium-ion just was not addressing, can…”
Reiter: Germany's belief that Russian gas was politically neutral was an illusion
“There was the strong conviction in Germany that the country needed Russian gas, and there was also the Illusion that Russian natural gas was politically, politically neutral.”
Reiter: Poland financed the Kremlin by importing Russian coal
“Part of the Polish legitimate criticism was that Importing gas, natural gas from Russia was about financing the Kremlin and financing the aggressive policy of Kremlin. Well, and suddenly Poland did the same, not with natural gas, but with coal.”
Donti: Conditioned on AI or not, 'P-Doom' is high for power grids
“Conditioned or not conditioned on AI, P-Doom is high for the grid, right? We are dealing with climate change and extreme events. We are dealing with a lack of, you know, planning for these things as we saw in Texas, for example. So I don't know that AI increas…”
Lacey: GOP threats to repeal IRA incentives are economically insane
“In any case, even if these are hollow threats, they are just economically insane.”
Shah: Long-duration energy storage faces market failures with only $9B invested
“By contrast, you have two other liftoff reports we have in there the advanced nuclear liftoff report, and then the long duration energy storage report, where we're probably only on track to maybe nine billion dollars worth of investment in long duration energy…”
Adams: Paying retail rates for rooftop solar subsidizes owners at others' expense
“We still pay a retail rate for energy that people produce off the roof going back in the grid. So that means that some people are able to reduce their energy bill, but they're still taking advantage of the infrastructure. As the people who own solar on the roo…”
Kra: SVB's unhedged mortgage securities were a massive risk management failure
“I don't know how you invest In these, you know, the government collateralized mortgage-backed securities, that's like the ninety billion dollars of hold to maturity assets, and the other available for sale assets, the twenty billion that they sold at the 1.8 b…”
Buck: Make Sunsets is a provocative performance stunt, not real geoengineering
“I don't really see this effort as relating to geoengineering. Actually, like it's basically performance. You could call it performance art. I don't know if it meets the threshold of art, but it's more of like a performance that is meant to be A provocation or …”
Shah: Commercial-scale clean industrial plants cannot be built on equity alone
“That first commercial facility is a billion dollars. You tell me you're going to go out and raise a billion dollars of equity and then build that plant. No, you are not. You're going to have to use the loan programs office, but they're scared.”
Shah: EV charging stations should be legally required to co-locate battery storage
“Like, we should not allow any electric vehicle charging stations to be installed without co-locating batteries at that location. It literally makes no sense, because that, that use case needs batteries to be co-located to minimize grid impacts.”
Friedman: Scaling carbon removal requires oil and gas industry skills
“Not just the injecting CO₂ into the subsurface, which, like, they're the only people who know how to do that, Pulling together a two billion dollar project. That's something energy companies do kind of all the time. Putting together the capital stack. Managing…”
Corbeau: Expecting energy suppliers to build infrastructure without long-term contracts is madness
“Who thinks that these people are going to invest into heavy infrastructure without any long-term certainty? I mean, this is madness.”
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.”
Saudi Arabia gains geopolitical power by intentionally withholding oil production
“I think it's fair to say that Saudi Arabia has more influence in global geopolitics because they are the only country, even though shale can be ramped up and down more quickly than traditional oil. They're the only country that intentionally, at a cost to them…”
Cantú: Salton Sea lithium development is far from guaranteed
“I still think it's far from guaranteed. For all the hype, and for all the planning that have gone into it so far, I think there's still a chance that it could fall apart. I think the politics of the region are indicative of how these sorts of grand promises fo…”
Wesoff: Despite Musk's lies, Tesla catalyzed the global energy transition
“They are forcing the curve on EVs. They're forcing the price structure of batteries. It's hard not to see them as one of the greatest forces of the last decade in catalyzing the energy transition. For all of the lying and prevaricating and questionable busines…”
Sharma tearfully apologizes for late-stage changes but defends the climate pact
“May I just say to all delegates I apologize for the way this process has unfolded, and I'm deeply sorry. I also understand the deep disappointment, but I think, as you have noted, it's also vital that we protect this package.”
Dennett: Copper supply is the fundamental linchpin for humanity's future
“Copper is the fundamental linchpin in how humans are able to exist in the next thousand years. If we cannot fix it now, that is the thing that I truly believe will cause mass impacts to society.”
Gershenson: Climate founders' persistence keeps Enduring Planet default rates low
“Part of what allows us to have the default rate that we do is that people just don't give up. And so when stuff goes wrong, we modify alone, and they make it work.”
Pierpoint: Venture capital is the superhero of the climate movement
“I think venture is the superhero of the climate movement, right? Like, venture steps up in ways that other capital allocators really are not”
Paruri: Most past perovskite solar companies have been a joke
“Every perovskite company I've looked at has just not been compelling, and I think they're kind of a joke.”
Su: Window for quick return to normal Gulf capital flows has passed
“Obviously short contained conflicts tend to see repatriation for a few quarters, but then, like, resume business as usual, but honestly, Lara, I think that ship has sailed.”
Pierpoint: Many climate tech startups cut corners on pre-construction engineering
“When it comes to doing engineering studies and development work and everything that happens before you construct, a lot of folks cut corners and they don't want to spend a lot of time doing a huge amount of de-risking because there's a lot of binary risk in th…”
Dutta: Big tech is singularly focused on clean firm power for data centers
“I think the largest, most sophisticated technology companies in the history of the world That have built money printing machines are all singularly focused on clean firm power for their data centers. It is the top ranking, single most important issue for them.”
Dutta: Expensive clean commodity startups may need to locate in Europe
“If you need lots of capex to produce a facility that's producing a commodity stream that is indistinguishable from the fossil fuel cousin, but is much more expensive and maybe a longer payback, those may rightfully need to go to Europe.”
The hydrogen market decline is almost entirely confined to electrolysis
“I think that there's no doubt that there's maybe been a decline in a hydrogen interest, but That's really almost entirely hydrogen from electrolysis.”
Jewett: Nuclear industry gained immense marketing momentum despite being historically slow
“The nuclear energy industry has also been slow and sleepy for a long time, but has somehow gained an immense amount of marketing momentum or something over the last few years.”
Garabedian: Hydrogen is a molecule, not a solution to energy problems
“I also don't really care much for hydrogen. It's a molecule. It's an element. It's lovely. I don't see it in and of itself as a solution to any of the problems we have in energy.”
Madrone: Accelerators push climate founders toward VC instead of coalitions
“You can go through every single accelerator, even in the climate space, and they will all be setting you up to raise VC. There's not that much of how do we build a coalition. There's all how do we just graduate you to getting a pile of money so then you can go…”
Climate adaptation and disaster protection technologies are poor fits for VC
“I would create a program for founders who have technologies that are not a good match for VC, but which are so needed. Specifically, things around protection. And preservation, especially in the light of fires and floods, and the types of adaptation we need to…”