Taylor Kate Brown

@taylorkatebrown

Investigative and solutions climate journalism. Signal: taylorkatebrown.98 | taylorkatebrown.com | previously: ProPublica, SFChronicle and BBC. I can also make your emails not suck.

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Taylor Kate Brown@taylorkatebrown· 13d

omg @buttondown.com

A screenshot of a tooltip saying "placeholder text- remember to fill this in before sending - as cursor hovers over "tk"

Taylor Kate Brown@taylorkatebrown· May 15

I enjoy fact-checking because now I know what a sandhill crane sounds like.

Barb Deardorff loves her living room’s wide picture windows. She can gaze out at the cornfields, where sandhill cranes warble and graze, and in the evening, she can unwind from her hectic job as a teachers’ union organizer by watching the sun go down

Taylor Kate Brown@taylorkatebrown· Mar 25

Okay, let me check in with some local news... COME ON

As the United States marks its 250th anniversary, WTOP presents "250 Years of America," a multipart series examining the innovations, breakthroughs and pivotal moments that have shaped the nation since 1776.
The American Petroleum Institute is proud to partner with WTOP to bring you this series.
Before the flip of a switch could brighten a room, Americans relied on the flickering glow of kerosene lamps to light their homes.
The widespread use of kerosene, a petroleum-based fuel, was more than just a convenience.

Taylor Kate Brown@taylorkatebrown· Mar 19

I am *shocked*, shocked that this gambling establishment isn't real. (h/t @barredindc.bsky.social 's Insta)

(image of instagra story from the realbarredindc) - Looks like the polymarket bar is just a friday-sunday buyout of @proper21dcon K St NW this weekend)

X post from Spencer Allen Brooks - Polymarket never responded to my email. But the manager at proper 21 tells me that after they close Thursday night, whoever is in charge of the polymarket pop-up will be installing more TVs and they expect to be busy all weekend. He told me people have started asking questions only within the last couple hours when the rumor started to spread that it was

Taylor Kate Brown@taylorkatebrown· Mar 19

Ray Ratto on Scott Ostler retiring is great, but the comments are the bonus for this former SFC employee defector.com/who-told-sco...

Holy shit, I did not think I'd wake up today and read a Steve Rubenstein reference. I learned a lot about sports in school reading leftover copies of the Sporting Green that our teachers would pass along. Hats off to Ostler, he will be missed

Someone please get the city and county of SF to wrap Ann Killion in bubble-wrap and create an ordinance preventing her from leaving for the next 35 years

Taylor Kate Brown@taylorkatebrown· Feb 11

I was shocked that plug-in electric didn't have as high of a share but then I remember the last five years of GM history www.eia.gov/todayinenerg...

two charts -- electric vehicle sales fell as hybrid vehicle sales continue rise in 2025. title is quartely us light-duty vehicle sales by powertrain (1q15 to 4q25). One chart shows cumulative for hybrid electric, battery electric and plug-hybrid as total share of vehicles, the other chart shows rapidly rising hybrid electric share, rising battery electric with a sharp drop off in sept 2025

Taylor Kate Brown@taylorkatebrown· Dec 2

Court cases, extremely complicated mode

Order on Motion for Leave to File AND Order on Motion for Leave to File AND Order on Motion for Leave to File AND Order on Motion for Leave to File AND Order on Motion to Intervene AND Order on Motion to Intervene AND Order on Motion to Intervene AND Order on Motion to Intervene AND Order on Motion to Intervene AND Order on Motion to Intervene

Taylor Kate Brown@taylorkatebrown· Nov 20

Just, for example, anybody who follows electricity markets, this is ... not common. But it also oversimplifies a somewhat significant seasonal shift AND also the zero-emission energy california is exporting during the spring to other western states.

Greening California's Power Supply: Chart shows two lines, one for 2019, where about 60% of the state's power generation was fossil fuels, and one for 2024, where, it is closer to 35%

Taylor Kate Brown@taylorkatebrown· Nov 19

Not all heroes wear... etc etc

I have previously mentioned a guy (sorry to assume gender, but, c’mon) who goes into WNBA blogs not about Caitlin Clark, angrily comments about why the blog doesn’t mention Caitlin Clark, gets banned, and then buys a new subscription. As of this writing, he has spent at least $168 across at least seven distinct, permanently banned subscriptions. (When a commenter gets banned, their comment history disappears, so you won’t find his past comments.) Thanks to this guy for supporting independent media.

Taylor Kate Brown@taylorkatebrown· Nov 19

Where else are you gonna get details like this?

The special guest for the Season 9 premiere of Normal Gossip was Malala Yousafzai. We were thrilled to hear from her PR people that she was a fan of the show and wanted to be a guest, but we were surprised to find out that Malala’s team did not yet possess a professional-caliber podcast microphone. After an internal back-and-forth on whether we should mail them the Defector podcasting travel kit with a self-addressed box back to us, we decided to just buy her some new gear. In the future, when you see Malala do a BBC interview with a Shure MV7+ mic just out of frame, remember that Defector underwrote that equipment.

Taylor Kate Brown@taylorkatebrown· Nov 7

Why are people always adding "quantum" to things that have nothing to do with actual quantum computing? It's like "cyber" but less accurate

Mickelson declined to comment directly to Hunterbrook despite repeated outreach. In a message to the group chat, which is called “Sable Quantum Offshore Compute,” he warned that Hunterbrook was “looking into this chat as if we have inside info.”

Taylor Kate Brown@taylorkatebrown· Oct 30

new heights of service journalism from @londoncentric.media www.londoncentric.media/p/london-pho...

Subject line: “Your stolen phone”.

There was only one problem: The person didn’t reply.

We chased again, and a response came back: Yes, that’s their phone. Yes, they’d like it back. And they had been slow to reply because they had been confused by the subject line of the email.

Somewhat improbably, the person whose stolen phone had randomly come into our possession was a London Centric reader. She had been busy and thought the email subject line from us was “just a particularly pertinent article”.

Which is how we ended up meeting Catherine Butler.

Taylor Kate Brown@taylorkatebrown· Oct 15

I assume this is going to be appealed but latest "youth versus the federal govt on climate change" case (Lighthiser v Trump) is dismissed. from the judge's opinion: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Plaintiffs have presented overwhelming evidence that implementation of the
Challenged EOs will increase the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide,
thereby exacerbating the harms Plaintiffs experience from an already-warming
climate. (Doc. 25-24 ¶ 17; Doc. 25-20 ¶ 9.) Specifically, Plaintiffs’ expert Jesse
Jenkins, Ph.D., estimates that the Challenged EOs will result in an immediate rise
in carbon dioxide. By 2027, Plaintiffs estimate the Challenged EOs will generate
an additional 205 million annual metric tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent; by
2035, this number will rise to 510 million metric tons annually. (Doc. 25-20 ¶¶ 21,
9, 18.)
Yet while this Court is certainly troubled by the very real harms presented
by climate change and the Challenged EOs’ effect on carbon dioxide emissions,
this concern does not automatically confer upon it the power to act.

Taylor Kate Brown@taylorkatebrown· Sep 25

this is from Jan 1 2025. I got the Trump text message CTA after putting in an email on the mailchimp popup form on the white house main page, so very likely they are connected. Honestly not sure what to make of it.

screenshot that reads: "We Want to Hear from You" - send a text message to President Biden or contact the White House. Message and data rates may apply. Reply HELP for help or STOP to cancel.

Taylor Kate Brown@taylorkatebrown· Aug 21

Electricity usage has been flat over the same time period, but the share of electricity powered by coal has shrunk, taken over by gas and renewables, so there's less pollution for the same amount of power. If renewables had taken off earlier, that line would have been even more dramatic.

a graph of electric power generation and emissions.

Taylor Kate Brown@taylorkatebrown· Aug 11

This @bloomberg.com reader survey is extremely motivated/poorly coded or both. I don't have the option to select "I don't use/don't plan to use" for any of these use cases. There's a row at the very bottom that is "I don't expect to use AI for business news" but it doesn't clear the other options

an image of a reader survey from bloomberg asking where the respondent "How to you use/plan to use, AI tools" etc with two columns of check boxes for multiple use cases. The columns say: Currently use/would like to use".

Taylor Kate Brown@taylorkatebrown· Aug 7

- 25% less lending from last year? How does this compare with their wider lending -- is it also down 25%? - What fossil sector is driving the drop (coal? less oil drilling?)

In all, financing provided to oil, gas and coal projects by Wall Street’s top six banks fell 25% to $73 billion this year through Aug. 1 from the same period in 2024, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The biggest decline was at Morgan Stanley, where fossil-fuel financing dropped 54%. The smallest was at JPMorgan Chase & Co, which saw a roughly 7% decline.

Taylor Kate Brown@taylorkatebrown· Jul 28

this bit's not the press release. so yet another reason to support @51st.news drive to hire @maustermuhle.bsky.social full time. 51st.news/probably-the...

Enforces constitutional oversight of the District of Columbia by:

Maintaining pro-life safeguards on the use of government funds.
Retaining the conscience clause on any D.C. contraceptive requirement.
Banning D.C.’s harmful and addiction enabling needle exchange program.
Repealing D.C.’s assisted suicide legalization law.
Recognizing valid concealed carry licenses from other states in the District of Columbia and the Washington Metropolitan Area.

Taylor Kate Brown@taylorkatebrown· Jul 7

This is only through May, but notable that battery % of car sales is going up versus all LDVs (including non-commercial trucks, suvs etc) going down. Espnotable when US Tesla sales have dropped (meaning other car/sedan models have to make up for that percentage) www.cbsnews.com/news/tesla-s...

graph of yearly battery electric and plug-in cars as percentage of sales

Taylor Kate Brown@taylorkatebrown· Jun 24

I am very very strict about always reading beyond a headline but I think I'll take an exception on this one www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Jeff Bezos alters Venice wedding plans after threat of inflatable crocodiles

Taylor Kate Brown@taylorkatebrown· Jun 13

"The only way out of this mess begins with resisting the distortions. In many cases, the first step is to state things plainly." www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...

The only way out of this mess begins with resisting the distortions. In many cases, the first step is to state things plainly. Los Angeles is not a lawless, postapocalyptic war zone. The right to protest is constitutionally protected, and protests have the potential to become violent consider how Trump is attempting to use the force of the state to silence dissent against his administration. There are thousands more peaceful demonstrations scheduled nationally this weekend. The tools that promised to empower us, connect us, and bring us closer to the truth are instead doing the opposite. A meaningful percentage of American citizens appears to have dissociated from reality. In fact, many of them seem to like it that way.

Taylor Kate Brown@taylorkatebrown· Jun 13

THE GOOGLE ADWORDS after these graphs.

Taylor Kate Brown@taylorkatebrown· Jun 8

Extremely specific sign at World Pride parade

Taylor Kate Brown@taylorkatebrown· Jun 2

oh are they just advertising for DDOS networks now?

Have you thought about how to generate supplemental cash flow by leveraging your underused free internet capacity?

Connect and start earning now by and quietly convert that unused broadband connection into a new income stream with no disruption

Endorsed by more than 465,000 happy users

Taylor Kate Brown@taylorkatebrown· May 28

I am not a gov't bonds expert but I hope this lawsuit is really really settled before they do that financing.

The toll brought in $159 million in the first three months of the program and is on target to raise $500 million this year after expenses, according to MTA officials. The MTA anticipates borrowing against the revenue collections to finance $15 billion of transit upgrades that will renew train signals from the 1930s, add elevators to stations and extend the Second Avenue Subway to Harlem.

Taylor Kate Brown@taylorkatebrown· May 28

Some people are better at adapting memetic language than others www.boisestatepublicradio.org/2025-05-23/r...

Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum said in a press release that “We Map, Baby, Map” these resources to support domestic energy production. Now the question is whether companies will

Taylor Kate Brown@taylorkatebrown· May 6

The Pulitzer for public service for the Life of the Mother series is so deserved -- and made even better by this: www.propublica.org/article/prop...

These stories ignited outrage around the country, became talking points during the presidential election and inspired action. Lawmakers have filed more than a dozen bills to expand abortion access in at least seven states.

Last week, the Texas Senate unanimously passed Senate Bill 31, called The Life of the Mother Act, which aims to prevent maternal deaths under the state’s strict abortion ban by making clear that a life-threatening medical emergency doesn’t need to be imminent for doctors to follow their medical standards and intervene to terminate pregnancies.

The bill represents a significant reversal for Republican leaders who had for years insisted no changes were needed. It was written by state Sen. Bryan Hughes, the author of the original ban who initially said that exceptions for medical emergencies were “plenty clear.” The bill stops short of removing what doctors say are the ban’s biggest impediments to care, including its threat of major criminal penalties for medical professionals, and it doesn’t expand abortion access to cases of fetal anomalies, rape or incest. Sen. Carol Alvarado, the Democratic lawmaker who co-authored the bill, said that its limits were a “real hard pill to swallow” but that it could still make a difference. “I believe this bill will save lives,” she said.

Taylor Kate Brown@taylorkatebrown· Apr 3

graph of us clean-tech grid queipment and battery metal imports by sector.

Taylor Kate Brown@taylorkatebrown· Apr 1

Work at @propublica.org , copy edit a truck

Soon, the truck became an operation that drew in people from across the newsroom, from interactive designers who usually work on the ProPublica website to copy editors who commented on how they’d never been asked to proofread a truck before.

The final design of the truck ad was simple, but getting there was an iterative process informed in large part by security concerns. The team batted around the idea of including a QR code on the truck to make sending in a tip as simple as scanning the code, but decided against it out of concerns that someone might manipulate the code in photos reposted online.

Taylor Kate Brown@taylorkatebrown· Mar 14

A crucial point I didn't realize before talking with Emily: in areas of Alaska that are off the road system, a school is far more than a school www.propublica.org/article/alas...