Energy, public lands, and the wild tradeoffs in between.

Welcome to The Conservation Current, a plain-English guide to where energy, public lands, and policy intersect.

Energy and wild lands can coexist, if we build smarter.
This newsletter is about making that coexistence visible, one story at a time.

If you’ve ever wondered how a transmission line ends up across a migration route, or what “siting reform” actually means, you’re in the right place.

Each week I unpack how we build the grid without bulldozing what makes the West wild.

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⚡ What You’ll Find Here

• The Weekly Pulse: a Friday roundup of the biggest stories in public-lands energy — policy, projects, and politics — told in 5 minutes.

• Deep Dives: long-form features on uranium, data centers, grid tech, and the messy trade-offs behind “clean energy.”

• Guides & Explainers: “Plain English” walk-throughs on permitting, siting, and conservation finance.

🗺 Topics We Cover

Public Lands - Where the federal footprint meets future power demand.

Energy Transition - The hard math behind decarbonizing without sprawl.

Siting & Wildlife - How to build big without breaking migration routes.

Policy & Permitting - Laws, loopholes, and the slow dance of reform.

Transmission & Storage - The connective tissue of a cleaner grid.

Data Centers & AI Power - The new heavy loads shaping tomorrow’s wires.

💬 Who Writes This

I’m Michael Khamis.
I work at the intersection of energy systems, conservation, and technology, with roots in Salesforce ops and a year-long clean-energy finance program at Yale.
When I’m not writing, I’m usually chasing light across public lands, running on trails, or showing my daughter about life outdoors.