Michael E. Webber
@MichaelEWebber
Author of http://energy101.com & Power Trip & Thirst 4 Power & http://www.powertripshow.com | @UTAustin @WebberEnergy | Father, Husband | RT≠E, opinions my own
ENERGY PREDICTIONS (April 19, 2025): Trump’s 2nd Administration is now 3 months old, which is enough time to know his policy priorities. Based on these policy initiatives & other macro-trends, I've made some predictions for the state of domestic energy at the end of his term. 🧵
Utility veterans call the early 2000s boom-bust cycle “the dash for gas”.
"The turbine market has been prone to boom-bust cycles. The most dramatic bust followed the dot-com bubble, when some experts predicted, incorrectly, that the internet would herald a new era of rising electricity demand" "Caution is warranted, not least because of uncertainty…
“Coal is reliable blah blah blah…”
"Coal has exhibited reliability problems in serving the grid... From July 11 to July 12, 5,019 MW of coal-fired generation was offline across ERCOT—totaling 36.9% of the system’s accredited coal capacity of 13,596 MW." pv-magazine-usa.com/2025/07/22/sol…
Nothing says you believe in energy dominance quite like doing whatever you can to hobble investments in energy infrastructure. via @NYTimes nytimes.com/2025/07/23/cli…
Investing in emergency systems that save lives strikes me as among the best possible uses of tax dollars.
Exclusive: Kerr County river authority chose tax cuts over alert system upgrades before deadly floods statesman.com/story/news/inv…
It was a privilege for me to be on the panel moderated by @MichaelEWebber ! We talked about Nuclear, Geothermal, Battery, Energy Investments and Workforce - absolutely amazing time. With Jeff Navin @TerraPower, Avra van der Zee - Elemental Impact and Carl Hoiland -Zanskar.
In a session at @aspenideas Climate, our Energy Technologies Initiative's founding faculty director @YingShirleyMeng of @UChicagoPME discussed the most promising #EnergyTechnologies today—as well as the innovations that lie just over the horizon. Watch: climate.uchicago.edu/uchicago-at-as…
What are we doing here?
GM said its second-quarter earnings were impacted by $1.1 billion from tariffs imposed by President Trump, with the automaker warning that the financial strain is likely to intensify in the coming months reut.rs/3IYOkfZ
Nothing says you want to remove bureaucracy to unleash American energy dominance quite like adding bureaucracy to hobble American energy dominance.
On the Trump admin requiring Secretary-level approval of renewable project permits, via @JasonGrumet on @politico energy pod:
Fun conversation today @AspenIdeas Climate Chicago—and I finally got to meet @ShanuMathew93 in person! CC: @WebberEnergy
The man, the myth, the legend @MichaelEWebber
Yes, more of this, please. We have a lot of innovation to celebrate and more work to do and national labs are a key ingredient of the national innovation ecosystem.
25 years ago today, the DONUT collaboration @Fermilab made the FIRST-ever direct detection of tau neutrino interactions. The elusive tau neutrinos discovery unlocked the potential of new physics. Our National Labs' discoveries are constantly advancing us!
Yes. Writing is not a second thing that happens after thinking. The act of writing is an act of thinking. Writing *is* thinking. Students, academics, and anyone else who outsources their writing to LLMs will find their screens full of words and their minds emptied of thought.
That is a really big dam. And it puts China in significant strategic position over its downstream neighbors.
It's done: China just launched the construction of the Yarlung Tsangpo dam project (scmp.com/news/china/dip…). It'll be by far the world’s largest hydroelectric facility, generating 3 times more electricity than the Three Gorges dam, 300 billion kilowatt-hours. This dam project…
Those three flew that rocket to the Moon, and with Mike orbiting, Neil and Buzz walked on the surface 56 years ago today. One of the greatest achievements in all of history, it still inspires the world.
I have the @AmericanAir Aadvantage account numbers memorized for me, my wife, and my mother-in-law, which feels like a strange set of numbers to have memorized. I guess that means I use them a lot.
Not sure who needs to hear this, but #science cuts don’t just affect researchers. They ripple out to the food we eat, the air we breathe, the safety of our water, and our health. This is personal for you. Me. All of us.
It’s true that fossil fuels have enabled an insane level of development, but we now have better options. These options need less destructive mining, reduce air pollution, and mitigate climate change. It’s just human progress.
.@SecretaryWright tells it like it is: Climate change is a by-product of human progress—not an existential threat. We do not apologize for American energy; it is the foundation of EVERYTHING! economist.com/by-invitation/…
This is great. More support for innovation, please.
.@SecretaryWright visited the front lines of America’s future today at @Fermilab. The takeaway is clear: The U.S. is securing our energy future through groundbreaking innovation and discovery with the best of the best. We do not outsource innovation—we LEAD in it.
What's interesting about this is that it's distinctly false. According to @energy we important many millions of barrels per day of oil.
We do not rely on foreign nations for fuel. We DRILL, MINE, and BUILD because American energy is American strength. 🇺🇸