Costa Samaras

@costasamaras.bsky.social

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Climate, energy, emerging tech, & policy professor. Director of the Carnegie Mellon University Institute for Energy Innovation. Former Biden-Harris White House OSTP Chief Advisor for the Clean Energy Transition. Personal account. He/Him. costasamaras.com

Posts Replies Media Lists

Idea for a gritty reboot: Speed, but instead of keeping the bus above 50 mph Keanu has to post at least once a minute

Reply to

Monica Carmean

[In a briefing in the Oval] Mr President, we must not allow a floating train gap

The President should say he is making a major announcement tomorrow morning and announce that the United States is beginning construction on this high speed rail network effective immediately

Hey you know everybody's talking about the "good old days" Everybody! The good old days Well, let's talk about the good old days

Under the Biden-Harris Administration's investing in America agenda, nearly $900 billion dollars in private sector investment has been announced all over the country. We're going through a clean energy and clean manufacturing investment and jobs boom, right now. From: invest.gov

FYI under the Biden-Harris Administration more than $4B in investment has been announced in Wisconsin in the clean industries of the future. From: Invest.gov

Hey @whysharksmatter.bsky.social did you use your Pittsburgh magic to get a Shark Week display at Page’s?

Reply to

Costa Samaras

Staff can sign up for slots to lead folks on a West Wing tour and the last stop is the Press Briefing Room. Smaller than you think. Used to be a swimming pool until the Nixon Admin. On the roof is where Carter’s solar panels were.

Something good: Congrats to a new CMU PhD: Dr. Marissa Webber! Her dissertation is titled “Monitoring and Modeling Urban Stormwater Infrastructure & Nature-Based Solutions for Effective and Equitable Climate Change Adaptation”. Cite this climate resilience expert: scholar.google.com/citations?us...

I’m back from Athens where I spoke about getting a zero emissions transport system at the Sustainability Symposium of the Hellenic Institute for Advanced Studies. Household solar hot water heating is very common in Greece. I saw the world’s 1st computer but couldn’t use it to post anything. Cool tho

Two years ago we were on the White House South Lawn for the 4th of July Celebration. I love being on the lawn. I love the fountain. The Inflation Reduction Act, the largest climate action in history, would pass a few weeks later. On July 4th next year, let’s pass another Inflation Reduction Act.

Chèvre Deference

Reply to

Costa Samaras

banger

I got extremely lucky once to be one of four background actors for a couple days of filming with the amazing Oscar-nominated cast of the film Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. Watching those professionals work at the height of their craft was out of this world.

There’s an alternate history where I became a theater kid and maybe that would’ve been better

Chevy Deference

Paris Accord is good

[whimpers] it’s the Paris Agreement not the Accords

Reply to

Costa Samaras

The invest.gov map already had bio, semiconductors, EV, battery, power manufacturing but didn’t have clean power plants. So WH leadership asked us to do it. So we did. The dots are all the clean power plants & energy storage plants announced since 2021. $155B+ in total investment. It’s so beautiful.

Reply to

#1 EV Hater

you’re never gonna believe this boss

Now is the moment for GM to introduce an electric Geo Tracker and sell a million units this year

Tesla's US EV market share is now below 50%, as a flood of competitors each gets a bite of its one-time monopoly. Plenty of meat still on the bone.

I feel like people don't talk about how cool electricity is often enough. The turbines go spinny spinny down by the river, and somehow that keeps my beer cold?? Absolute first class feature of civilization.

Something good: An hour from Pittsburgh, you can walk behind a waterfall. The Buttermilk Falls area is now a park but used to belong to the family of Mr. Rogers, and he dreamed up a bunch of his TV show’s characters while hanging out at the waterfall as a kid. 10/10

Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act & Bipartisan Infrastructure Law make the largest investment in climate resilience in history, and has billions of dollars for habitat restoration. It will help a lot of vulnerable folks be resilient to climate impacts. In the next climate bills, let’s include more.

@costasamaras.bsky.social All the future IRAs should include nature restoration. It’s hugely popular among the local and regional communities. Less contentious as changing the power system or transport, both being key to decarbonization but people should have nice things while at it

AI is now writing music and naming songs after itself, concerning

excited to read this updated column

The US electricity system hardly uses any oil to make electricity (0.4% oil), which is why moving transportation from gasoline to electricity helps displace oil use. Islands in the US do use sone oil, which is why we need to keep growing solar and storage everywhere. www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/f...

ok i have another quote tweet prompt. what's something, big or small, related to your job or hobby, that most people don't know that you would like to have them know? it can be a concept, a piece of history, some vocabulary, or something else.

the cybertruck could never

dads only want one thing and that’s to visit a bog

@mgerrydoyle.bsky.social Maybe relevant to your interests

ah the two states of the human condition

Talked about AI & climate at the National Press Club, here’s the summary: - AI & the internet turn electricity into cash - we need policy to ensure AI doesn’t cook the climate- we can do this - AI can help with the grid & resilience but only if we’re intentional - electrifying stuff is good