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It's an ugly picture when science offers solutions and political animals hide them in the trash. That's what Trump's appointees at DOE have been doing for the past 2 years. Today they are under a spotlight @TheAtlantic and @InvW. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/08/how-trump-appointees-short-circuited-grid-modernization/615433/ @EEREgov #whokilledthegrid
In 2018 @NREL - a federal lab funded by taxpayers - showed that a national power grid would eliminate up to 35 megatons of CO2 and save US consumers $3.6 billion a year. That irked Trump's coal-loving politicos, and internal emails show they hit back hard. https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/7040450-EMAIL-Update-From-NREL-August-22-2018.html
Under DOE pressure @NREL grounded scientists, scrapped talks incl. one @CIGREWorld's global confab in Paris, scrubbed its website, and blocked submission of a paper to a prestigious @IEEE_pes journal.
The "Seams" study's final report remains unpublished 2 years later.
The "Seams" study's final report remains unpublished 2 years later.
14 rounds of edits to @NREL's Interconnections Seam Study report show the politicos' handiwork. References to CO2 and coal disappeared, as did colorful charts showing how enhanced grid links slashed coal-fired power down to a thin black line. https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/7039256-NREL-Seams-Study-v14-Draft-Released-at-Iowa.html
900+ pages of emails and documents obtained via #FOIA and over a dozen interviews underpin the @NREL Seams story. More about and from those sources can be found at InvestigateWest, the nonprofit journalism studio that helped me develop this story. @InvW https://www.invw.org/2020/08/20/who-killed-the-supergrid/
Big thanks to the Fund for Investigative Journalism for $$, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press for legal advice, @CenterForBioDiv's Energy Justice Program for documents, and @AmyNordrum and @IEEESpectrum for getting my FOIAs planted.
@FundFIJ @RCFP
@FundFIJ @RCFP
And many thanks to a great team at InvestigateWest and The Atlantic for burning the midnight oil to bring this story out of the darkness! @fhill_official @RMcClureIW @SDeneen @AWritingComplex @FactCheckPros @AllisonAugustyn Yvonne Rolzhausen and more!
