Lucy Biggers

former climate activist. now at @theFP
Email: [email protected]

[Lucy Biggers @LLBiggers]

After a year of COVID lockdowns, global emissions fell by only about 5%. That was when I started to question what a 100% reduction in emissions would require.

[Lucy Biggers @LLBiggers]

@maggiemoda @SulkinMaya Thanks for having us on!

[Maggie @maggiemoda]

Newest episode of Breaking Containment with @LLBiggers and @SulkinMaya!!

[Matt Kramer ⛰ @kramerposts]

This feels eerily similar to how progressive environmental activists in the 1970s, scientifically illiterate and hopped up on their own moral infallibility, managed to successfully block widespread nuclear energy adoption at that critical juncture in history. Now we’re living in a world where energy is far less clean and abundant than it could have been, and—as is often the case with politics—nobody ever learns the lesson.

[Lydia Moynihan @LydiaMoynihan]

Save the abandoned parking lots

[Captain Eli @TheCaptainEli]

SpaceX did something on November 4 that most companies building AI infrastructure never bother to do. It sent its own people into an elementary school auditorium in Cochise, Arizona, put the numbers on the table and took questions from a packed room.

Riley Trettel, who leads energy and supercomputer development at SpaceX, said it plainly: "SpaceX is the owner, and with approval, will be the builder and the owner of the project long term."

Then he laid out what the county gets. Up to 40% off residential power bills for Sulphur Springs co-op members for the life of the project. $3.6 billion in new power lines paid by SpaceX and handed to the co-op, which takes on no debt. $30 to $100 million a year in new property tax, with a 20% cut in everyone else's county property taxes. Enough one-time sales tax to pay off the county jail bond. Dry cooling, so the whole campus uses about as much water as 20 to 30 homes. No gas turbines on site. Up to $50 billion invested and about 1,000 permanent jobs.

On the latest All-In, one of the hosts brought up the video of that night. "These two very bright, earnest people from SpaceX trying to explain how they're going to reduce electricity cost by 40%. They don't use water. They'll reduce property taxes by 20%." About Riley and Katie: "Good SpaceX employees. They should be proud of how they conducted themselves."

They were shouted over from the first slide. Months of headlines about data centers draining aquifers and spiking bills did that work before anyone walked in. Some residents stayed after the presentation to tell SpaceX they want it there. The county's planning and zoning hearing is December 9.

[Lucy Biggers @LLBiggers]

@thejmw once you compare it to 2024 - I don't think its odd at all. I think it shows Republicans don't turn out in midterms and Dems did this year.

[Lucy Biggers @LLBiggers]

The single greatest thing we can do for humanity is make energy cheap, abundant, and reliable.

[Lucy Biggers @LLBiggers]

@RubinReport once you put in 2024 - it makes complete sense

[Lucy Biggers @LLBiggers]

@kevinnbass It’s because Republicans stayed home and democrats turned out like it was a presidential election.

[Gabriella Hoffman @Gabby_Hoffman]

A friendly word of energy policy advice to Democrats who pledged lower gas prices:

You don’t lower prices by phasing out oil and gas with net-zero climate policies.

New natural gas and nuclear will lower costs. And passing permitting reform will actually unleash affordability.

Dismiss abundance at your own peril.

[Spencer Pratt @spencerpratt]

We're in a new era of communication, and only one side seems to be living in it. The old guard consultant class is about to be relegated to the dustbin of history.

If you think that high prices lost the election for the right, you don't understand marketing. Humans have no problem paying a premium for a good quality brand. Notice the word "brand", not "product". Are Nikes better than New Balance? Nope. But the brand is better. And notice what happened when they tinkered with the brand and screwed their core narrative? Nike stock fell through the basement. Did the product change? Nope. The brand did.

It's not the product, it's the brand. Results don't sell the product, the storytelling does. Will these newly-elected commies lower prices? Of course not. Are they gonna get you free healthcare? No, your insurance is gonna get even worse, just like it did the last time they tried socialized medicine. They're not going to do anything they've sold you, but...like Saul Goodman said: if you're committed enough, you can make any story work.

The committed storytelling of a couple insane podcasters was enough to fracture an entire political coalition from their own side in less than 2 years...they have zero power, zero credibility, they've never actually governed anything nor produced any results, but...they're good storytellers, and that's all that matters. Are they telling a good story? No, it's atrocious, but they're telling their atrocious story effectively and compellingly.

It is 100% true that everything's too damn expensive, and we all know that inflated prices are always sticky. Does anyone know that it's entirely the result of shutting down the global economy over the flu and (both naive republicans and democrats) printing infinity dollars for several years? Nope...because nobody has effectively told that story, and it's an unsexy story to tell. "Free stuff!" is a VERY easy story to tell, and when everyone's gotta take out a second mortgage just to pay their insurance premiums, "free healthcare" is an unbeatable story. It doesn't matter that "free healthcare" doesn't exist and socialized medicine is a terrible product...it's not the product, it's the brand. And "FREE!" is a great brand.

You can't get mad at people for having the financial literacy of a 9 year old. I mean, you can, but they outnumber you a million to one, so it's not going to be productive. You need to figure out how to make an unsexy story sexy, or else the "free stuff!" crowd is going to eat your lunch every time. If you give people a choice between earning a six pack on a treadmill or taking Ozempic, they're gonna choose Ozempic...they don't care about the side effects. If you give people a choice between fiscal discipline or free stuff...guess what they'll pick? They don't care about the side effects.

With projected growth of 5%, the economy right now is stronger than it's been in generations. Is that the story you hear? Nope. Is that the vibe you feel? Absolutely not, especially when every time you fill up your gas tank, it feels like a diesel enema.

It's not the product, it's the brand. A great product can fall into oblivion with bad messaging...a single bad review from one effective storyteller can tank a restaurant. The "influencer economy" is lucrative for a reason; everybody inherently understands the importance of effective storytelling...except the right. Zohran Mamdani gets it...he has an army of influencers on staff. In a perfect metaphor of this transitional phase of old guard vs new wave political messaging, Zohran nuked the Vice President into oblivion with maybe the biggest ratio in the history of the internet. By simply posting the subway assistant meme, Mamdani got 2 MILLION likes, quoting a post from the VP that had only 10K likes. If you're reading that sentence thinking "this is fucking ridiculous, you're talking about social media likes as political analysis now?"...you are the problem.

Yes, this stuff matters. Rizz matters. The President did a masterful job of this kind of retail politics in his historic 2024 campaign...you can be angry that this is what politics has been reduced to, but you can either adapt or die.

"No the problem is, you didn't deliver enough for the American people!" Are you a moron? Since when does anybody care about that? What have democrats delivered for Californians in the last 20 years? Unmitigated wildfires, homeless drug zombies everywhere, roads that look like Fallujah in 2004...people don't care about results. They think they care about results. That want you to believe they care about results, just as Nike wants you to believe their shoes are better than New Balance...but at the end of the day, all people really care about is the swoosh.

Adapt or die.

[Joe @MinuteComedy]

@LLBiggers I'm glad the sane side has a small mic holder of our own.

[Lucy Biggers @LLBiggers]

@MinuteComedy holding a small mic is a powerful thing

[Lucy Biggers @LLBiggers]

We actually want another ice age you guys!

[Lucy Biggers @LLBiggers]

@TiberiusChris haha i love that

[Bjorn Lomborg @BjornLomborg]

20 years ago, Nicholas Stern wrongly predicted that climate change would cause immense economic losses from extreme weather events

Now, we know he was wrong

Ironically, but not surprisingly, The Guardian celebrates him for being right

https://t.co/0clU2mXcjc

[Lucy Biggers @LLBiggers]

Watch here! https://t.co/Aj39OSvaGa

[Lucy Biggers @LLBiggers]

I still care about the environment and our planet.

The climate movement is not about protecting our environment it’s about controlling our energy system.

[Lucy Biggers @LLBiggers]

As a former climate activist who played a part in pushing plastic straw bans, I’m so sorry!

A new study from South Korea found that plastic straws are overall better for the environment than paper straws. So the soggy straws and all the head aches were for nothing.

[Lucy Biggers @LLBiggers]

@PanAmPetro yep

[Lucy Biggers @LLBiggers]

After a year of COVID lockdowns, global emissions fell by only about 5%. That was when I started to question what a 100% reduction in emissions would require.