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Articles by Aaron Bergman
Rabbi Aaron Bergman | What Passover Teaches About Belonging and Compassion
“No one is a stranger to God, only to us. Every single person on Earth, no matter how much we may hate them or fear them, was born as a child of God with the capacity for goodness, growth and happiness. ” Rabbi Aaron Bergman I had a friend who was in a pretty bad relationship. It might not have been abusive, but it was certainly not kind. I asked why she stayed in it?
Public intellectuals need to say what they actually believe — LessWrong
This Twitter thread from Kelsey Piper has been reverberating around my psyche since its inception, almost six years now. You should read the whole thing for more context, but here are the important tweets: Link 1, link 2, link 3 I really like Kelsey Piper. She’s “based” as the kids (and I) say.
Torah Portion: What Makes a Leader? Original
Parshat Pesach (7): Exodus 13:17-15:26; II Samuel 22:1-51. It is the obligation of true leaders to build trust and mutual concern among their people. They use their power for the benefit of all, from the strongest to the most vulnerable. It takes a lot of time and effort and patience to accomplish this. They understand that many of their people are in pain and do not always react well skillfully to change.
Local Rabbis on the Meaning of Passover | Reflections on Freedom
Choosing Justice And Compassion The Jewish people are a family aggrieved. At Passover, we recount for ourselves, for our children and often for the non-Jews we invite to seder how, “in every generation, people rise up to destroy us.” This year is no exception.
Finding Our Way from Grief to Light
We will continue to sit with our pain and sorrow, not knowing when it will end. But it will end, and we will rise up and dance again. Jewish tradition has a series of guidelines and steps that helps mourners through the initial, overwhelming and surreal pain of first losing a loved one to the period at the end of a year, when they can once again begin to live meaningfully and joyfully.
Torah Portion: Our Obligation as Jews
Parshat Ki Tetze: Deuteronomy 21:10-25:19; Isaiah 54:1-10. One of the criticisms of the Torah is that it is poorly constructed as a work of literature, and, therefore, inferior to religious works that were written after it. Critics point to a narrative that is mostly chronological but interspersed with random laws. I believe they are missing the beautiful structure underlying the Torah, one that sustains Judaism to our own day.
AMA: Peter Wildeford (Co-CEO at Rethink Priorities) — EA Forum
Hi everyone! I’ll be doing an Ask Me Anything (AMA) here. Feel free to drop your questions in the comments below. I will aim to answer them by Monday, July 24. Who am I? I’m Peter. I co-founded Rethink Priorities (RP) with Marcus A. Davis in 2018. Previously, I worked as a data scientist in industry for five years. I’m an avid forecaster. I’ve been known to tweet here and blog here. What does Rethink Priorities do?
My tentative best guess on how EAs and Rationalists sometimes turn crazy — LessWrong
Epistemic status: This is a pretty detailed hypothesis that I think overall doesn’t add up to more than 50% of my probability mass on explaining datapoints like FTX, Leverage Research, the LaSota crew etc., but is still my leading guess for what is going on. I might also be really confused about the whole topic.
Purely Commentary: A Rabbi’s Guide to Extreme Metal | Detroit Jewish News
Power chords, weird imagery and drums that went right through. I was a pudgy, husky clothes, glasses-wearing nerd. It was the sound of how to transcend a boring and mundane life. I know the title of this article is kind of surprising, and if you don’t know me, sounds like the beginning of a joke. Even if you do know me, it might sound funny. I am a middle-aged rabbi who teaches meditation, does yoga and is, on the exterior at least, pretty calm, if not placid.
Torah Portion: The Need for Words of Truth | Detroit Jewish News
Parshat Mishpatim: Exodus 21:1-24:18, 30:11-6; II Kings 12:1-17. Calling something a conspiracy theory gives it too much credence and credibility. A theory is a serious idea that is tested against other serious ideas and evidence in order to come up with an objective truth. What we label as a conspiracy theory today is usually a paranoid delusion validated by a person’s prejudice and hate and one which they hope to share with other likeminded people against others with whom they violently disagree.
Most Ivy-smart students aren't at Ivy-tier schools — LessWrong
[I posted this on the EA Forum as well, and may as well leave the following note in :)] I've decided to share this here because it seems relevant to EA hiring and community building strategy and practice.
Torah Portion: Words To Live By — Detroit Jewish News
Parshat Bachaalotecha: Numbers 8:1-12:16; Zechariah 2:14-4:7. Whenever we take the Torah out from the ark, we sing the verse taken from our Torah portion (Numbers 10:35): “When the Ark was to set out, Moses would say: “Advance, our God! “May Your enemies be scattered, “And may Your enemies flee before You.” The verse takes place when the people of Israel were in the wilderness for 40 years. They were not traveling every day, though. They would stay in one place for a long time.
Precognition - LessWrong
It’s almost impossible to predict the future. But it’s also unnecessary, because most people are living in the past. All you have to do is see the present before everyone else does. To be less pithy, but more clear: Most people are slow to notice and accept change. If you can just be faster than most people at seeing what’s going on, updating your model of the world, and reacting accordingly, it’s almost as good as seeing the future.
The secret of Wikipedia's success — LessWrong
Why its reputation for unreliability is Wikipedia's greatest asset Wikipedia is everything the internet was supposed to be. Before social media became a battleground for foreign election meddling, corporate and political messaging wars, and algorithmic competition for our attention, it was going to be a means of sharing information across geographic, social, and political borders.
Torah Portion: Remembering Who We Are — Detroit Jewish News
Parshat Tetzaveh: Exodus 27:28-30:10; Ezekiel 43_10-27. (Shushan Purim) I read a story about a Jewish immigrant from Europe who moved to the lower east side of New York in the early years of the 20th century. To get a job, he changed his traditional clothes and worked on Shabbat and holidays. He needed to feed his family and felt he had no other choice. He often slept at work because of late hours at night and early hours in the morning. He often seemed distant, depressed and lost.
Torah Portion: An Opportune Time — Detroit Jewish News
Parshat Shemini Atzeret: Deuteronomy 14:22-16:17; Numbers 29:35-30:1; I Kings 8:54-66 Shemini Atzeret is the end of the High Holiday season. It is perfect for 2020. It is a holiday about being attached yet separate at the same time. It is about finding joy during moments of uncertainty. It is an optimistic message of the possibility of hope and renewal, even when it feels like everything has fallen apart.
Opacity (1998), by Onyx Ashanti
This is an archive of sonomorphic notes spanning the last 22 years. they chronical the journey through the many fields of electronic music mutation happening around us all. i find it most interesting to go chronologically to hears the various idea trajectories and their life arcs and transformation into offspring idea trajectories. the end of Node:0 begins a digest for further idea propagation. ... more
This Week's Torah Portion: A Basic Conflict — Detroit Jewish News
Parshat Ki Tetze: Deuteronomy 21:16-25:19; Isaiah 54:1-10. By Rabbi Aaron Bergman The comedian Jay Mohr said that the key to his marriage is not that he and his wife like the same things, but rather that they hate the same things. Their mutual loathing of other things brings them closer together and creates a deeper bond. At first, I thought this was kind of funny, but realized that it contained a darker truth about many of the problems in our society today.
Piffany - stacksear.ch
Piffany Sean L. McCarthy Epiphanies on what aren't we talking about in pop culture, what's really going on in the comedy business, and how we can better curate our cultural conversation. Created 21 Mar 2019
New workers’ compensation strategies needed in Florida
At the Florida Workers’ Compensation Forum (WCCP) in April, several speakers addressed the unique challenges emerging from the processing and defense of claims on behalf of some of Florida's largest employers and workers’ compensation service providers. Almost immediately following the conference came the Florida Supreme Court's reversal of Castellanos v. Next Door (2009). Then two months later, the court ruled another critical decision unconstitutional in Westphal v. City of St. Petersburg (2013).
Promoting Hydrogen: The Plan for Evaluating Hydrogen-Hub Project Proposals
Resources for the Future scholars offer analysis on a new funding opportunity announcement from the US Department of Energy for the development of regional hydrogen hubs.
Interpreting the Technology-Neutral Tax Credits in the Inflation Reduction Act
Why is the interpretation of “gasification” important? One way to produce hydrogen is by gasifying coal, a process which produces a lot of greenhouse gas emissions. One then can take that hydrogen and produce electricity using a fuel cell, a process which doesn’t involve combustion and doesn’t produce any greenhouse gas emissions.
In Focus: Developing Hydrogen in the United States
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How Will Changes to the Greenhouse Gas Protocol Affect Long-Term Contracts?
The Greenhouse Gas Protocol (GHGP) is an organization that determines the methodology by which most companies voluntarily report their greenhouse gas emissions. One of the most impactful methods corporations use to reduce the emissions they report is entering into long-term contracts for clean electricity. These long-term contracts reduce the risk of clean energy investment, enabling greater debt financing and reducing the financing cost for new clean energy.
In Focus: Deregulating the Clean Air Act and Air Pollutants
Last month, the US Environmental Protection Agency announced plans to roll back regulations of harmful air pollutants, including sulfur dioxide and particulate matter. For this In Focus video, Resources for the Future (RFF) Fellow Aaron Bergman discusses the Clean Air Act, which authorizes the regulation of important air pollutants; the health effects of the pollutants; and potential roadblocks to proposed deregulation.
What We’re Actually Talking About When We Talk About Clean Electricity
The simple idea that electricity is solely about electrons traveling down a wire is wrong, or at least incomplete. Even if you could label the electrons and track them through the grid, you still wouldn’t know where the electricity you consumed came from. In fact, the average speed of an electron in a wire is a few feet per hour. If you had to wait for an electron to come to your house from a wind farm, you’d be waiting a very long time.
Unpacking the Proposed Guidance on the 45V Tax Credit for Clean Hydrogen
The largest controversy surrounding the 45V tax credit always has been the treatment of life-cycle emissions from electricity production. In particular, debates have centered on how hydrogen producers can use energy attribute certificates (EACs) to claim to be using clean electricity, rather than electricity from the grid which includes generation from fossil fuels.
What Do Hydrogen-Hub Developers and Producers Want? Is the US Department of Energy Meeting Their Needs?
In September, the US Department of Energy released a funding opportunity announcement for its Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs program. Earlier this year, the agency requested feedback on the program from interested groups. In this new installment of an ongoing blog series, Resources for the Future scholars summarize the feedback from a selection of respondents—hydrogen-hub developers and producers—and examine how the funding announcement addresses their comments.
What are Renewable Energy Credits Good For?
A clean energy project developer has few avenues to reduce weather-related risks, but there are ways to reduce the risk associated with uncertain electricity prices. The most prominent option for a large electricity consumer, such as a company with a data center, is to enter into a long-term contract promising a fixed price for the electricity generated. These contracts, called power purchase agreements, come in a few different forms (including so-called “virtual” purchase power agreements).
The Department of Energy Wants to Spend $1 Billion to Support Hydrogen Demand. Is That a Good Idea?
DOE probably is hearing from companies, and other players in hub applications, that additional actions are needed to promote investments in hydrogen consumption. But, before taking these suggestions at face value, DOE should consider several points. First, the hub grants are stackable with the 45Q tax credit for blue hydrogen.
Reviewing the Possible Approaches to Subsidize Hydrogen Demand
In a previous blog post, we argued that the US Department of Energy (DOE) should rethink its plan to subsidize hydrogen end users (known as offtakers) with another $1 billion in funding. In this blog post, we take that subsidy as a given and offer thoughts on how best to design the subsidy. Both of these blog posts closely track the public comments that we submitted to DOE.
Product Carbon Intensity Standards Can Reduce Emissions While Keeping Costs Low
Understanding a PCIS is easier if we compare it to more traditional methods of emissions reductions. A carbon tax or a cap-and-trade system, for example, tends to increase the prices of products significantly. These price hikes incentivize consumers (both businesses and households) to buy less of the product and therefore reduce emissions. However, a major problem with price increases has become more salient in recent years: consumers hate high prices.
How Will Changes to the Greenhouse Gas Protocol Affect Short-Term Markets?
Late last year, the Greenhouse Gas Protocol (GHGP) proposed revisions to its Scope 2 emissions accounting guidance. If put into place, these revisions could significantly change how companies voluntarily report their greenhouse gas emissions through the program. One major effect of the proposed revision is an increase in the price of energy attribute credits (EACs) in a relatively small number of hours throughout the year.
How Can Hydrogen Producers Show That They Are “Clean”?
The Inflation Reduction Act includes a tax credit for hydrogen fuel that’s produced using renewable energy. To derive the value of the tax credit, the US Department of the Treasury must determine the life-cycle emissions of hydrogen production, including electricity inputs during the production process. However, assessing these life-cycle emissions presents several challenges.
Resources for the Future Evaluates First Set of Climate Policies under Carbon Scoring Project
The Carbon Scoring Project aims to assess emissions throughout the economy, including energy emissions (e.g., burning fossil fuels) and non-energy emissions (e.g., emissions from land use change). In our initial carbon score, we focus on energy-related emissions from the four sectors of the US economy that pollute the most: power, industry, transportation, and buildings.
How the Inflation Reduction Act Can Help Hydrogen Hubs Succeed
The Inflation Reduction Act contains incentives that can spur the use—and new use—of hydrogen fuels in industrial processes. We’ve yet to see the net effect of all these incentives. But whereas other bills left hydrogen with an uncertain future, the new law puts hydrogen hubs on a wider path to success. Clean hydrogen, that is, hydrogen production with little to no greenhouse gas emissions, can be a key component of decarbonizing the industrial sector.
How Could Changes to Corporate Greenhouse Gas Reporting Affect Emissions?
The Greenhouse Gas Protocol (GHGP) recently proposed revisions to its guidance for corporate greenhouse gas emissions accounting, opening a 60-day public comment period. The proposed revisions apply to greenhouse gas emissions associated with companies’ electricity consumption, otherwise known as “Scope 2” emissions.
What Do Prospective Hydrogen-Hub End Users Want? We’ve Summarized Comments They Submitted to the US Department of Energy
In September, the US Department of Energy released a funding opportunity announcement for its Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs program. Earlier this year, the agency requested feedback on the program from interested groups. In this new installment of an ongoing blog series, Resources for the Future scholars summarize the feedback from a selection of respondents—clean-hydrogen end users—and examine how the funding announcement addresses their comments.
New from Resources for the Future: The Carbon Scoring Project
Resources for the Future is launching its Carbon Scoring Project, an effort to provide policymakers with quantitative and qualitative climate information about their bills, reported in a standardized and accessible format. The project is taking steps to make sure that legislators always have the information they need to incorporate climate change in their decisions.
45V Hydrogen Tax Credit in the Inflation Reduction Act: Evaluating Emissions and Costs
With the US Treasury Department soon expected to decide how to implement the so-called “45V” tax credit for clean hydrogen fuel production, Resources for the Future Fellow Aaron Bergman reviews the research to date on the implementation of the credit. The new 45V tax credit for hydrogen production in the Inflation Reduction Act is a big deal, with potentially billions of dollars at stake to jump-start a domestic hydrogen-fuel industry.
Is Accuracy the Right Criterion for Updating Greenhouse Gas Accounting Standards?
The Greenhouse Gas Protocol (GHGP), the entity which manages the accounting system that forms the basis for how most companies report their greenhouse gas emissions, is in the process of updating its guidance. This revision tackles “Scope 2” emissions, the part of the protocol which attributes emissions from electricity and heat generation across electricity consumers.
Understanding the Inflation Reduction Act
I don’t see the distinction quite so starkly. For example, if various sectors of the economy embrace carbon capture, utilization, and storage, we’ll see spillovers across the sectors, and if the industrial sector develops new methods of transporting and storing carbon dioxide, the power sector will get those benefits, too. I do think that a sectoral approach is the most likely outcome, although I imagine that we’ll see spillovers across sectors. I’ve been thinking a lot about methane emissions.
The Consequences of the Supreme Court’s West Virginia v. EPA Ruling for Environmental Regulation
The Supreme Court’s ruling in West Virginia v. US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) last week reduced EPA’s authority to regulate emissions from power plants at the national level absent specific legislative directives. Resources for the Future scholars speak to some of the implications of this recent decision. What are your overall thoughts on the case?
Hydrogen Fuel Technology, Policy, and Environmental Risks, with Aaron Bergman and Alan Krupnick
The other main method that is not widely used right now in the world, but that we’ll see more of as we move towards a net-zero future, is producing hydrogen from water in a process in which you run electricity through the water, turning the water into separate components of hydrogen and oxygen. This process doesn’t have any direct carbon dioxide or greenhouse gas emissions.
The Trade-Off between Costs and Emissions for the Hydrogen Tax Credit
Each panel of Figure 1 shows the levelized cost of electricity on the vertical axis and the cumulative amount of capacity built on the horizontal axis. The scales are logarithmic because every time capacity doubles, the cost falls by a relatively constant fraction. The levelized cost of electricity is the price at which a generator, over its lifetime, must sell electricity to break even. One can see that the costs (mostly!) decline as more capacity is built.
What Have We Learned About the Inflation Reduction Act, One Year After the Law’s Passage?
RFF Senior Fellow and Industry and Fuels Program Director Alan Krupnick: “Both the 45Q and 45V tax credits, besides making decarbonization far cheaper, also could contribute to the success of the Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs program, which the US Department of Energy launched with passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The agency will award funding for 6–10 hubs across the country to develop regional networks of clean hydrogen producers and consumers.
A First Look at the Hydrogen Hubs Decisions
Although last Friday’s announcement is an important step for DOE’s Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs program, the announcement of the selected hubs is only the beginning; years will pass before any of these hubs start producing hydrogen. In fact, the “winners” announced on Friday were selected only to open negotiations to determine the terms of the awards. No money will flow out the door until these negotiations conclude.
The US Environmental Protection Agency Finalized Regulations for Power Plants Last Year. What Benefits Would the Regulations Yield-If They Remain in Place?
Section 111 of the Clean Air Act gives EPA the authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from new and existing power plants. EPA designs these regulations by identifying an “adequately demonstrated” best system of emission reduction (BSER) and requiring states to submit plans so that power plants in those states meet the emissions rate that the BSER deems possible (or achieve an even lower rate).
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