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THE ORIGINS OF EFFICIENCY
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Why Is Everyone Trying to Build a Solid-State Battery?
A battery technology that’s getting a lot of attention is solid-state batteries, lithium-ion batteries that replace the liquid electrolyte with a solid…
Jul 30
•
Brian Potter
158
6
9
Reading List 07/25/26
China’s EV subsidies, the future of aeroderivative gas turbines, a US-Saudi nuclear deal, defective roadway guardrails, and more.
Jul 25
•
Brian Potter
98
2
2
Can We Lower Construction Costs with Cheaper Labor or Materials?
Last time in our series on the nature of the construction productivity problem, we looked at economies of scale, finding that capturing economies of…
Jul 23
•
Brian Potter
156
21
9
Reading List 07/18/26
A setback for California Forever, a $500 million artillery shell plant not producing any shells, the difficulty of recycling EV batteries, manufacturing…
Jul 18
•
Brian Potter
118
2
2
How Predictable Are Laws?
An enormous amount of ink has been spilled (some of it by me) on the trials and tribulations of complying with the National Environmental Policy Act…
Jul 16
•
Brian Potter
156
21
12
Reading List 07/11/26
Adults living with their parents, Samsung’s profits, Native American data centers, Puerto Rico’s electricity grid, and more.
Jul 11
•
Brian Potter
108
2
2
Reading List 07/04/26
Households without homeowners insurance, crackdowns on AI chip smuggling, Japan’s two electrical frequencies, Meta’s AI compute business, and more.
Jul 4
•
Brian Potter
122
2
3
The Fall and Rise of Screwworm
Every spring, as sure as the seasons, and for generations unknown, screwworms began their annual march northward from their overwintering sanctuaries in…
Jul 3
•
Brian Potter
354
20
45
June 2026
Reading List 06/27/26
Trump refuses to sign a housing bill, the high cost of US-made doors, slow trucking, why we stopped making new land, and more.
Jun 27
•
Brian Potter
113
1
US Subways Build Too Many Cross Passages
I wrote the following piece for IFP’s Transit Abundance Playbook, a collection of 15 ideas to improve transit delivery in the US.
Jun 25
•
Brian Potter
178
9
7
Reading List 06/20/26
A new housing bill, General Motors joining the grid-scale battery game, skepticism about data center delays, solid-state air conditioning, and more.
Jun 20
•
Brian Potter
111
2
Converting Coal Plants to Natural Gas
For the better part of the last several hundred years, coal was the fuel of choice for generating power.
Jun 19
•
Brian Potter
160
6
9
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