We don’t have an alternative energy problem, we have a storage and transmission problem.

TWwashingtonpost.comApr 22, 2024 3:02pm

California and its grid operator are grappling with a strange reality: There is so much solar on the grid that, on sunny spring days when there’s not as much demand, electricity prices go negative. Gigawatts of solar are “curtailed” — essentially, thrown away.

Rooftop solar panels are flooding California’s grid. That’s a problem.

As electricity prices go negative, the Golden State is struggling to offload a glut of solar power.

I had a great convo w/ The Hustle: "Gig drivers don’t face an edict for speed like past Domino’s drivers, but...the requirement to be fast is built into the job, w/ drivers hurrying to make financial incentives, avoid bad ratings, & ensure the food is warm." thehustle.co/originals/th...

The failure of the Domino’s 30-minute delivery guarantee

A spate of deaths and lawsuits ended the famous pizza marketing ploy. Is delivery any safer now?

Oh, and I forgot to put upfront in this thread: Ashley is uninsured. The new face of the American Healthcare Industry are uninsured app-based workers for ShiftKey, Clipboard, CareRev. (Ready for Gabriel Winant to talk about this NEXT Next Shift.) /end

A DoorDash program offers drivers a tiny subsidy of 4% of earnings (which means $80 on $2k earnings). While gig companies promote such a program as a policy innovation, in reality it is (a) an inferior contribution for workers & (b) a public giveaway for corporations.

These gig companies want the power that comes w/ being an employer while disowning the responsibilities enacted over the past century by fed & state lawmakers. Portable benefits are a new strategy to cement a business model built on worker misclassification & tax avoidance.

We're in a new chapter of the battle: After a decade of disregarding laws and engaging in deceptive practices, gig companies have begun pitching proposals like portable benefits to soften the image of their exploitative independent contractor model.

As I document in my new book (and in a forthcoming piece for the NYRB), Uber has been at the forefront of this decade-long and nation-wide campaign to minimize federal, state, and municipal regulation, especially around labor standards.

App-based labor platforms like ShiftKey, which raised $300 million in funding last year, are part of a robust lobbying effort to enact minimal, and sometimes zero, government oversight of app-based labor platforms.

As she puts it: “You get treated differently [because] you’re not an employee.” Workers for multibillion dollar companies like Shiftkey deserve something much more robust than the gig companies’ portable benefit shams.

To win shifts, she bids against other nurses. She lowers her hourly rate, again and again, well below a decent wage. ShiftKey provides no paid sick leave or unemployment insurance. Yet Ashley must pay $6 in fees for each shift & foot annual bills for drug tests & vaccines.