Robinson Meyer

executive editor and “shift key” podcast host, @heatmap_news | contributing opinion writer, @nytimes

[Robinson Meyer @robinsonmeyer]

It’s the age of electricity and America isn’t ready.

Virtually every goal that Americans care about requires big changes to the power grid. I’m in @nytopinion today on why power bills are going up, whether AI is to blame, & what we need to do about it:
https://t.co/wgJeAEzF8h

[Robinson Meyer @robinsonmeyer]

Have often thought that Obama is as close as we’ve come to electing a magazine journalist as president, with all the attendant pros and cons. Very important that it happened but I feel like it’s taken us 10 years to lose all the resulting misunderstandings/distortions.

[Matthew Zeitlin @MattZeitlin]

Obama is one of the big time article readers in American politics, that man is reading the articles

[Robinson Meyer @robinsonmeyer]

Ignore the polls, ignore gas prices, the only indicator I take seriously is which party can produce a superior Florida-specific Spanish language jingle

[BeshearStan @BeshearStan]

David Jolly made a “Yo voy a votar” type jingle for his governor campaign, so he could be onto something

[Robinson Meyer @robinsonmeyer]

Regardless of what you think about climate change, climate policy is clearly structuring how people respond to the premise of AI existential risk. I wrote about it for @heatmap_news: https://t.co/f94bjN93ZZ

[Robinson Meyer @robinsonmeyer]

A senior researcher at one of America’s most important companies becomes convinced that the ongoing growth of its products could spell peril for humanity

Experts inside the firm agree with him. He presents his concerns to executives. How does the CEO respond?

I’m talking about Exxon in the 1980s of course

[Lauri Myllyvirta @laurimyllyvirta]

NEW from us: India's rapid clean power expansion has kept power sector emissions flat for two years, for the first time in over 50 years, and sharply reduced fossil fuel imports. Oil and gas consumption have also fallen for two years in a row, helping alleviate the Hormuz shock.

[John Davitt @johndavittontv]

I’m not crying…You’re crying. This is it! Last 7pm sunset for NYC until March. Hibernation begins now.

[Robinson Meyer @robinsonmeyer]

@MakeUSAVAT because of refinery constraints, it’s rising in price far faster than gasoline is (at least until very very recently), and basically the entire freight/cargo economy runs on diesel so its fuel prices matter much more for goods inflation

[Robinson Meyer @robinsonmeyer]

Helpful context for the current diesel surge:

– In inflation-adjusted terms, avg US diesel prices are already nearing spring '26 levels (but still below 2022 levels).

- Except in CA specifically, where diesel is now near 2022 highs.

This data came out on Sept 15, so omits past ~36h.
https://t.co/hf44nwTCzp

[Robinson Meyer @robinsonmeyer]

Part of it is clearly that they think we’ll regulate the wrong thing — focusing on p(doom), for instance, while ignoring emissions or surveillance. But it has also helped me understand why the old left resisted environmentalism in the 1970s. AI cannot be a crisis because it is the ‘wrong’ crisis.

[Nate Silver @NateSilver538]

I've been covering politics since 2008. The anti-AI-regulation takes from the left (by no means all/most of the left; Bernie disagrees!!!) might be the most literally incomprehensible political position I've ever encountered.

[Robinson Meyer @robinsonmeyer]

for Shift Key, I spoke to @_HannahRitchie about how https://t.co/lMM3AaEbWY came together, what she learned about the US economy putting it together, … and why the hardest part of running a *great* data website isn’t starting it: https://t.co/gUXSkCIPvA

[Robinson Meyer @robinsonmeyer]

I’m very excited about U.S. Energy Data, a new website that makes it far easier to access the federal government’s enormous trove of energy and industrial data. https://t.co/7sPmii3xVU

[Jake Sherman @JakeSherman]

VOTES THURSDAY CANCELED

today is the houses last day until after Election Day.

[The New York Times @nytimes]

Breaking News: Annie Dillard, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of the modern classic “Pilgrim at Tinker Creek,” has died at 81. https://t.co/JRwmez9tSc

[Patrick De Haan @GasBuddyGuy]

we've reached a new milestone- the U.S. average diesel price has hit $6.301/gal while gasoline is up to $4.355/gal. I expect both of these to jump noticeably over the next 48 hours. diesel could hit $6.60/gal in a few days, surpassing the inflation-adjusted peak seen in 2022.

[Robinson Meyer @robinsonmeyer]

His byline has graced our website for a long time, but I’m just thrilled to welcome @AlexCKaufman to Heatmap as a full-time correspondent today. A dream to finally work together in the same newsroom!

Sign up for his Heatmap AM newsletter here: https://t.co/3wUxqKfxc2

[Robinson Meyer @robinsonmeyer]

for @nytopinion, I wrote about Mary Peltola’s Senate campaign: https://t.co/L1fN2WO5KK

[Julian Brave NoiseCat @jnoisecat]

Alaska is a deeply pragmatic and heterodox state, just look at Senator Murkowski. While Peltola is formally a Democrat, she is carving a similar path, which is both smart and working!
https://t.co/NSA4gzWZnN

[Robinson Meyer @robinsonmeyer]

Just really wrong. The climate doomers are broadly anti-imperialist and wary of US state building (to a fault, as I’ve argued). The AI doomers believe that only US state action can save humanity. It’s partly a low v high trust, New Left v New Deal divide. https://t.co/mL22zKqvKG

[Erick Erickson @EWErickson]

The nuclear power doomers became the climate doomers and now they’re the AI doomers. The only commonality is they want the United States to recede.

[Robinson Meyer @robinsonmeyer]

These are three different groups of people. The AI doomers are almost painfully pro-nuclear. And the climate doomers have hated the AI doomers for 5+ years because they think their existential risk assessment (and philanthropic stategies) are wrong.

[Erick Erickson @EWErickson]

The nuclear power doomers became the climate doomers and now they’re the AI doomers. The only commonality is they want the United States to recede.

[Robinson Meyer @robinsonmeyer]

Fantastic story https://t.co/VYUPYwPXJF

[Emily Pontecorvo @emilypont]

House Dems published a big climate policy menu today, the first window into how they are thinking post IRA/OBBBA.

Well, I'm calling it climate policy, but they don't. I compared the rhetoric to the 2020 Select Committee on the Climate Crisis plan, which became the IRA, and...