Mike Schmidt

Wildlife Biologist by profession | Web Developer on the side | I love making digital things | Obsessed with Rstats | He/Him

[Tuna @antea04]

I'm a data scientist @OurWorldinData and I need help from a botanist or someone local to Kyoto, Japan! 🌸

We present one of the world’s longest climate records: 1,200 years of peak cherry blossom dates in Kyoto.

The researcher who maintained it, Professor Yasuyuki Aono, sadly passed away last year.

[Mike Schmidt @mikejschmidty]

@ThomasHochman Are these verified? Cancelling a project over tiger salamander makes absolutely zero sense.

[Mike Schmidt @mikejschmidty]

@dollarsanddata I feel like coding can be like writing in that it can help you think about a thing. Doing the analysis by hand helps me learn or understand things about the thing or dataset that I didn't know before. I feel like AI helps me do that, but doing the work in analysis helps me think

[Michael Thomas @curious_founder]

New report out today:

Electricity demand is rising faster than it has in decades.

But this year, US developers have cancelled 1,891 power projects with a combined 266 GW of generation capacity.

While each region and grid faces unique challenges, five patterns emerged across the 1,891 cancelled projects that we analyzed:

1/ Local opposition is killing projects where electricity demand is growing fastest.

Virginia—home to the country’s largest data center market—lost 6.7 GW of potential capacity. In Indiana, another data center hotbed, 44% of proposed data centers are located in counties that restrict renewable energy development.

2/ A failure to build transmission lines is resulting in high interconnection costs.

High-voltage transmission construction has plummeted from 4,000 miles in 2013 to just 322 miles in 2024. In MISO, average interconnection costs for canceled projects hit $753,116 per MW—roughly half of a typical project's total capital cost.

Louisiana and Missouri, with costs exceeding $900k per MW, lost 26 GW of capacity combined in 2025.

3/ Battery storage economics are worsening from market saturation and tariffs.

"Battery cannibalization"—where growing capacity drives down the prices batteries earn—is making it harder to build profitable battery projects. Texas battery revenues crashed 70% from $192/kW in 2023 to $55/kW in 2024, while ancillary service prices fell 90%. California saw similar declines, with revenues falling from $103/kW in 2022 to just $53/kW in 2024. Meanwhile, Trump’s tariffs have increased the cost of batteries significantly.

(Lower battery revenues isn't necessarily bad; it's been great for consumers).

4/ Trump's War on Wind killed gigawatts of potential capacity.

Since taking office, the Trump administration has systematically dismantled offshore wind development through sweeping policy actions, funding cancellations, and construction halts. These moves led to massive waves of project cancellations in New York (13 GW), New England (11 GW), and California (2.5 GW).

5/ Grid operators cleaned up their interconnection queues.

Starting in 2023, ISOs implemented sweeping reforms to eliminate speculative projects from their queues. While reforms improved queue quality, they accelerated project cancelations.

(Queue reform is good, but there's no doubt it's accelerating cancellations).

These project cancelations will affect nearly every American, resulting in higher electricity prices and less economic growth.

We estimate that the 1,891 projects canceled this year would have generated $400 billion in investment—capital that would have flowed disproportionately to rural communities in need of economic revitalization.

The current trajectory is unsustainable: America is simultaneously approving unprecedented electricity demand while canceling the generation needed to meet it, creating policy incoherence that threatens grid reliability, affordability, and the country's competitiveness in the global AI race.

You can read the full report here: https://t.co/oIgNkOWvjw

[Senator Adam Schiff @SenAdamSchiff]

Trump's federal funding freeze has stopped the hiring of thousands of essential, seasonal firefighters.

Yes. You read that right.

I'm demanding answers from the Trump administration ASAP.

They must reverse this freeze.

[Mike Schmidt @mikejschmidty]

@brookebosborne Dig a soil pit and hand texture each soil horizon.

[Victor Danneyrolles @victor_dnr]

Fire dynamics in North American boreal forests are widely discussed with the ongoing record-breaking 🔥 season. So here is a 🧵on long-term 🔥 dynamics (~1700-present), which is mostly a synthesis of our article on the subject (Chavardès et al. 2022; https://t.co/nt1BsKxtF4) 1/19

[Fabien Wagner @FabienWagner]

🌳✨Prepare to be amazed! Now, we can accurately map tree heights at a sub-meter scale for entire countries using aerial images and AI 🤖. Take a look at our tree height map of California, home to the tallest and largest tree species on our planet ✈️🌲🌎
https://t.co/N0G6gHuDzb

[Mike Schmidt @mikejschmidty]

I made a screen capture of the bug. It happened on multiple browsers.

[Mike Schmidt @mikejschmidty]

@Vanguard_Group I found a bug on your website. While trying to add a bank account, if there are multiple accounts when linking a bank, you can only select the first account. If you select the first account it works. If u select any other it toggles the selection of the first.

[Mike Schmidt @mikejschmidty]

@BenCAugustine This sucks. I’d call HR and appeal the decision. I’ve been referred several times after appeal. Another maddening example of federal HR disfunction.

[Anna Ortega @migration_anna]

Incredibly excited to share some recent work from @UWyoPiEE on migrating mule deer! This was a huge effort that required years of data and would not have been possible without all coauthors and collaborators from the @BLMNational and @WGFD!

https://t.co/zZXfInUsmF

[Mike Schmidt @mikejschmidty]

TLs seem to be controversial to some and I had someone say that other states don’t use them like we do in Colorado. I’d be grateful if others would share their experiences.

[Mike Schmidt @mikejschmidty]

#wildlifebiologists of twitter, particularly those of you who work for a the fed land mgmt. agency, do you use timing limitations to protect wildlife? If so what species and what habitats do you implement them on? If not, why not? Do you think there are better alternatives?

[Mike Schmidt @mikejschmidty]

Excluding T and E, I have predominantly used them
- to protect raptor nests with the addition of a buffer.
- to protect big game critical winter range and production areas.

[Mike Schmidt @mikejschmidty]

A very good explanation of how to use mark recapture to estimate the total number of individuals in a population.

[Kareem Carr, Ph.D. @kareem_carr]

Mark and Recapture is a powerful statistics trick for counting a large number of things without actually counting most them.

I love this concept. It's so easy it feels like magic plus it's really useful in a lot of everyday situations.

Read this thread to learn more about it.

[Mike Schmidt @mikejschmidty]

@brad_frost Beloved Beasts: fighting for life in an age of extinction by Michelle Nijhus was amazing. Also Song of the Cell by Siddhartha Mukherjee is also amazing.

[Mike Schmidt @mikejschmidty]

1. HTML, (S)CSS
2. PHP
3. R
4. Javascript
5. Python…ish

[Richard McElreath 🐈‍⬛ @rlmcelreath]

The replies (also see quote retweets) are much more diverse than I would have guessed.

All I will reveal about my own path is the first two:
1. BASIC
2. Assembly

Do not follow this path

[Mike Schmidt @mikejschmidty]

@Nv_pyromelana @wild_ecology I’ll second this answer. For #Rstats users https://t.co/gFbWnu42gp

[Mike Schmidt @mikejschmidty]

@drvolts where can I find IRA rebates/incentives for clean(er) energy appliances and energy efficient upgrades for new construction? Seems like most incentives are for upgrading existing things. Am I wrong?

Could be a podcast…IRA benefits for new construction….Just saying.