Alexander C. Kaufman

@kaufman

68 Following

589 Followers

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Alexander C. Kaufman

Biden’s climate law provided states billions to give taxpayers rebates for energy efficient appliances and home renovations. All but one — South Dakota — state opted in. Trump froze the spending. Now, right as checks were going out, the programs are getting canceled. https://www.cnbc.com/2025/03/05/california-pauses-home-energy-rebate-program-amid-trump-funding-freeze.html?__source=iosappshare%7Ccom.apple.UIKit.activity.CopyToPasteboard

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Alexander C. Kaufman

Uh oh, another scary consequence of the new tariff spat: NERC, North America’s grid reliability watchdog, says that restricting the flow of electricity between the U.S. and Canada risks blackouts. on.ft.com/4kwcWv9

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Alexander C. Kaufman

This guy looks straight out of Mad Men central casting.

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Alexander C. Kaufman

China dominates the supply of rare earths processing. But this chart from the FT illustrates how much China also dominates the actual supply of raw ore, too.

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Alexander C. Kaufman

It’s cute that you guys all call it “the purple app”

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Alexander C. Kaufman

yoooo what's good my fellow New Yorkers

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Alexander C. Kaufman

One of the places where I'm writing regularly these days is GZERO, the media arm of the Eurasia Group risk consultancy. You probably saw the pieces I posted earlier today on South Sudan's latest upheaval. I spent a little time this morning digging in for the editors at GZERO, and found a pretty depressing state of play on the ethnic tensions between the majority Dinka (represented by President Salva Kiir) and the second-largest group, the Nuer (represented by Vice President Riek Machar, whose home was surrounded by South Sudanese soldiers today. A depressing trajectory for the world's youngest country. https://www.gzeromedia.com/news/watching/south-sudan-on-brink-of-civil-war-as-senior-officials-arrests-inflame-ethnic-tensions

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Alexander C. Kaufman

Wouldn't be the first time they accidentally found themselves on the wrong side of history with the Germans.

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Alexander C. Kaufman

I didn't expect to like Warpcast as much as I do, but this site is really great. I definitely have some learning to do about blockchain and crypto, but you guys are all so decent, curious and earnest. Really a breath of fresh air for a journalist who has spent many years on Twitter. UX is excellent, too.

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Alexander C. Kaufman

Bad news for “drill, baby, drill” https://on.ft.com/43i6yRY

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Alexander C. Kaufman

A big question for future small nuclear reactors -- can they power cargo vessels and decarbonize the shipping industry? China is experimenting with some designs. Now a South Korean company is unveiling its blueprints for a nuclear powered cargo ship. https://www.nucnet.org/news/south-korean-shipbuilder-unveils-design-for-nuclear-powered-vessel-2-4-2025

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Alexander C. Kaufman

A new competitor to build Indonesia's first nuclear power plant has entered the ring: Singapore's Thorcon. The company is aiming to build molten salt reactors in shipyards. https://www.nucnet.org/news/singapore-s-thorcon-apples-to-build-first-nuclear-power-olant-in-indonesia-3-3-2025

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Alexander C. Kaufman

Tragic in that you pay a lot in taxes on this withdrawals — and lose even more in future gains.

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Alexander C. Kaufman

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez seems to have stepped into political quicksand yet again. His deals with Catalan and Basque separatists already fueled the rise of a far-right party in Spain, a country whose recent experience with Franco was supposed to render it immune to hardliners. (I reported on this when I visited Barcelona in 2020 https://www.huffpost.com/entry/spain-far-right_n_5e28f82ac5b67d8874ac8893) Now the center-left Socialist Sánchez is pissing off his leftist allies by making a deal with the right wing of the Catalan separatist movement to give the Catalonia more control over who gets to migrate there. https://www.euractiv.com/section/politics/news/puigdemont-and-sanchezs-socialists-formalise-controversial-deal-to-transfer-migration-policy-powers-to-catalonia/ On top of all that, as I reported on my Substack last month, Sánchez's plans to phase out nuclear power are growing more unpopular. https://kaufman.substack.com/p/europes-last-nuclear-phaseout-shows

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Alexander C. Kaufman

Absolutely wild detail about the Myanmar junta strongman's visit to Moscow -- apparently he gifted Putin a rare book from 1941 that claimed the Buddha prophesied that a Russian king would restore the golden age of Buddhism through being the "master of weapons." https://www.asiasentinel.com/p/min-aung-hlaing-russia-visit?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=23934&post_id=158438617&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=9wuu&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

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Alexander C. Kaufman

Weeks ago, oil started flowing again in South Sudan, bringing much needed money into the economy: https://www.dw.com/en/south-sudan-can-oil-production-save-the-economy/a-71345060 But now the petroleum minister is in jail amid a government crackdown that shows "signs of a coup." https://www.dw.com/en/south-sudan-minister-and-general-arrested-in-crackdown/a-71832976

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Alexander C. Kaufman

Here's another piece you guys might find interesting. Costa Rica is looking to position itself as a new hub for semiconductor manufacturing as the U.S. looks to diversify away from Taiwan. What advantage does the Central America country have? Lots of the clean, firm power chipmakers want. While Taiwan is phasing out the nuclear plants that once powered its industrialization and growing more dependent on expensive natural gas instead, Costa Rica is virtually 100% renewably powered by hydroelectric dams and geothermal plants. https://kaufman.substack.com/p/costa-rica-taiwan-semiconductors

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Alexander C. Kaufman

Here's a scoop I published yesterday on Substack. While the U.S. is hyping a mineral deal with Ukraine, America is actually advancing rare earth mining in another part of the former Soviet Union: Central Asia. Specifically, Kazakhstan. https://kaufman.substack.com/p/forget-ukraine-americas-real-rare

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Alexander C. Kaufman

Hello. I'm excited to start posting here. To introduce myself, I'm an award-winning reporter and writer who's covered energy, climate change and geopolitics for more than a decade. My reporting has spanned four continents, and I definitely keep an international focus. I also love plants, tea, books and music.

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