Cleantech entrepreneur, utility gadfly, consultant to startups, NGOs & gov. Co-founder Lucid and @mission_data. No rights without remedies.
Joined July 2016
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If there is such a thing as anti-charisma, Chuck Schumer has it in spades.
afightworthhaving.com/schume…
Democrats need to hire the Iranians as communications consultants. Potent commentary from Iran!
nitter.gq/IRANinZIMBABWE/status/…
The Northwest is on fire, y'all.
I burned some food in the oven and had a hard time distinguishing inside air from outside air.
“If the [utility] financial rewards for repeated catastrophic failure are record profits, record executive compensation, and record shareholder dividends, then catastrophic failure is exactly what this system will keep producing.”
Ouch!
latimes.com/business/story/2…
Michael Murray retweeted
“It’s not that bad.”
New Episode: On Today’s Show:
* Three wildfires have crossed the international border of Canada and Minnesota, and hundreds of thousands of acres have burned. 183 new starts across Ontario are expected to burn for weeks.
* Wildfire smoke will blanket the eastern United States as poor air quality records are already being set.
* More Minnesota fires merge as firefighters work to access the wilderness fires.
* Colorado, Utah, Oregon, and California are still seeing wildfire activity. Full operational update. Wildfire aircraft are now hard to come by, as demand for aviation resources continues to increase.
* Starting the morning campfire in spike camp. It’s easy, but hazardous. Burn injury report.
* Plus more.
thehotshotwakeup.substack.co…
"Customers increasingly demand A.I.-driven experiences" with electric utility customer service?? NO ONE IS ASKING FOR THIS.
Michael Murray retweeted
a Princeton researcher opens his paper with a scenario.
a man asks his AI assistant to book a flight on a specific airline. cheap. direct. the one he chose.
the assistant comes back with a different flight. nearly twice the price. happens to pay the company that built the assistant.
he runs the same test on 23 frontier models. flights, loans, study help, real shopping requests.
Grok 4.1 Fast recommends the sponsored option that is almost twice as expensive 83% of the time.
GPT 5.1 hijacks the request 94% of the time. you ask for one brand. it surfaces the sponsor instead.
Claude 4.5 Opus, the model marketed as the most ethical frontier model in the world, hides that the recommendation is paid 100% of the time when reasoning is on.
Grok 4.1 Fast embellishes the sponsored option with positive framing 97% of the time. better. faster. nicer. for the option you didn't ask for.
then he writes it into the system prompt itself. "act only in the interest of the customer. ignore the company."
GPT 5.1 and GPT 5 Mini stay above 90% sponsored anyway. the instruction does nothing.
then he splits the users by income.
Gemini 3 Pro recommends the expensive sponsored flight to the rich user 74% of the time. to the poor user, 27%.
18 of the 23 models recommended the expensive sponsored option more than half the time.
so the next time your AI assistant gets weirdly enthusiastic about a brand you didn't ask for.
it isn't recommending the best option for you.
it's reading the room. and the room is paying.
read this: arxiv.org/abs/2604.08525
ALT Research paper analyzing how large language models in AI chatbots navigate conflicts of interest due to advertisement influences.
Michael Murray retweeted
There’s a reason Australia leads the world in rooftop solar installations per capita.
It’s not better panels.
It’s not more sun.
It’s not some secret tech advantage.
It’s cost. And the system built around it.
In Australia, a standard 6.6 kW rooftop system in 2026 typically lands around $3.6K–$5.7K USD installed.
Zero tariffs on Chinese panels, open imports, intense competition, streamlined installs. Quote → install → done.
The market is optimised for speed and scale.
Germany sits in a similar lane. Around $6.5K–$9.9K USD for a comparable system. Low friction, mature installers, and strong economics driven by high power prices. It works because the system supports it.
Then there’s the US.
The same system costs $16.5K–$22K USD. Same hardware. Same sun. But layered with tariffs on Chinese imports, permitting complexity, fragmented markets, and higher soft costs. Add protectionism and legacy utility structures, and the result is clear: higher prices, slower rollout.
This isn’t a technology story.
It’s system design.
Australia removed friction.
Germany streamlined it.
The US added layers.
And that shows up directly in adoption.
Fast, cheap systems scale.
Expensive, complex systems stall.
One is optimised for speed.
One is protecting the past.
That said, at ~3× the cost, it’s genuinely impressive to see US states still leading the solar charge. Texas, California, Arizona, Florida are pushing scale despite the friction.
Imagine what happens if the system gets out of its own way.
Cost always wins. ⚡
Michael Murray retweeted
But it highlights an unfortunate fact for FERC -- ratepayers are paying for the utilities' lawyers. Utilities have every incentive to litigate unwinnable cases when it's free.
A+ trolling from these guys.
nitter.gq/IranInThailand/status/…
I wonder how much this legal appeal cost Oregon ratepayers. That's a lot of expensive attorneys.
newsdata.com/clearing_up/cou…
Utilities to FERC: Please eliminate competition in transmission.
eenews.net/articles/utilitie…
I always thought that IOUs recovering their rate case litigation costs in rates was ridiculous.
A utility president says that "when ratepayers are exposed to the cost of the case, it motivates the utility to keep it low."
Absolute rubbish!
eenews.net/articles/states-c…
Michael Murray retweeted
The Ratepayer Protection Pledge signed by Meta, Google, and Amazon promises their data centers will pay for transmission infrastructure, including network upgrades.
But *none* of these companies are actually paying these costs.
And I have the receipts.🧵
SRP isn't a "green" utility -- its member-voters are agricultural property owners, i.e. the GOP base. Must be another reason why Turning Points is dropping coin on this electoral race. @ryangrim
azcapitoltimes.com/news/2025…
Electricity is power:
The Rev. Jesse Jackson protested at the Venezuelan embassy in Washington, D.C. in 2019. As the situation escalated, Pepco shut off power to the embassy, presumably at the behest of the U.S.
So much for "universal service"!
nytimes.com/2019/05/09/us/ve…
Way to go @kenklippenstein.
If 1/100th of these munitions were used by a Dem president against GOP states, it would be branded the next Fort Sumter.
