There’s more political momentum than ever around achieving net zero emissions by 2050, especially following the release of House Democrats’ new Congressional Action Plan for a Clean Energy Economy. But where do we currently stand on that trajectory? And is the path to zero as inclusive as it should be? On this episode, the last in our monthly “ Path to Zero ” series supported by the public policy think tank Third Way, we talk climate targets and what it’s going to take to meet them. To bookend t...
Jul 02, 2020•54 min
There aren’t many sporting events taking place amid the pandemic, but athletes and the brands that support them aren’t sitting idle. Protect Our Winters, a non-profit representing the outdoor sports community on climate issues, recently spent a week virtually lobbying Congress for bolder climate action and environmental protections. Professional snowboarder and two-time X-Games gold medalist Danny Davis was among the participants in POW’s advocacy week. Steve Fechheimer, CEO of New Belgium Brewi...
Jun 25, 2020•42 min
Lyft is going 100% electric. The rideshare company just pledged to transition every vehicle on its platform to an EV by 2030. But this decision isn’t as simple as buying a few new cars. It will require building out an entire ecosystem of electric vehicle infrastructure and incentives, and getting into the weeds on policy. On this episode, we speak to Lyft’s director of sustainability, Sam Arons, about this bold new strategy. We talk to Sam about the EV target and how to meet it, as well as relat...
Jun 17, 2020•47 min
Deep-seated racial justice issues have been brought to the fore in recent weeks by a series of nationwide protests over police violence. These protests are taking place in the midst of a global pandemic, which has exposed, and in many cases worsened, long-standing issues of racial inequality. The energy and climate space is not immune to racial discrimination. But some politicians have questioned whether this is the right moment to talk about issues such as pollution, calling it a misplaced poli...
Jun 11, 2020•35 min
Democrats are beginning to rally around a progressive, three-part climate platform that prioritizes environmental justice. But will Joe Biden fully embrace it? If so, could it sway the 2020 election? Or will few voters care in this turbulent year? On this episode of Political Climate , we speak to Maggie Thomas, political director at Evergreen Action, a new group created by former Jay Inslee campaign staffers to promote a comprehensive climate plan for Democrats. We discuss how the left came to ...
Jun 04, 2020•45 min
Buckle up. Electric vehicle sales are expected to take a big hit this year amid the current health and economic crisis. Industry analysts say the long-term prospects for EVs remain strong, but the jury’s still out on how quickly the market will rebound. The EV market outlook could have a major impact on the U.S. economy overall. Boosting government investment in clean transportation is being championed by advocates and several lawmakers as a way to put Americans back to work and build out of the...
May 28, 2020•1 hr
The skies may look clearer these days. But don’t get too excited. Levels of smog and other short-lived climate pollutants (remember HFCs?) are still high and climbing. The good news: there’s a long track record of international cooperation to get these harmful pollutants in check. The challenge: finding the political will to eliminate them entirely. Short-lived climate pollutants include black carbon or soot, methane, hydrofluorocarbons and tropospheric ozone, or what we think of as city smog. I...
May 21, 2020•42 min
Late last year, the European Union introduced a $1 trillion plan to reach carbon neutrality by 2050 and achieve a just transition away from polluting technologies. Europe’s Green Deal enjoys strong backing from many of the EU’s top political figures. But it faces pushback from coal-heavy member states. Implementation of the Green Deal has now been further complicated by the urgent need for governments to respond to the coronavirus pandemic. On this episode, we bring you a conversation with EU Am...
May 14, 2020•1 hr 6 min
Are progressive ideas on how to tackle climate change a political poison pill? New opinion polling challenges this commonly held assumption. On this week's episode of Political Climate , we discuss how data is helping decode where the American public stands on progressive issues with Julian Brave NoiseCat, vice president of policy and strategy at the left-wing think tank Data for Progress. We dig into new polling on the Green New Deal and passing a green stimulus bill in response to COVID-19. We...
May 07, 2020•1 hr 10 min
African Americans are struggling with a disproportionate death toll from COVID-19 and severe financial strain from the economic downturn. This crisis has exposed preexisting racial disparities created by deep-seated social, economic and political factors. These same underlying issues make African Americans more vulnerable to health damage from pollution, as well as from heat waves, storms and other effects of climate change. Meanwhile, African Americans are missing out on wealth creation opportu...
Apr 30, 2020•1 hr 2 min
John Kerry isn’t pleased. As the world celebrates the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, the former senator and secretary of state says a profound lack of leadership is causing the United States to fall behind on climate action and clean energy innovation. In this episode of Political Climate , we speak to Secretary Kerry about his outlook on combatting climate change. We get his views on abolishing the Senate filibuster, decarbonizing the power grid, the future role of fossil fuels, American leader...
Apr 23, 2020•48 min
The 2020 election is crawling forward amid the coronavirus pandemic. Former Vice President Joe Biden has become the presumptive nominee for the Democratic Party, with Senator Bernie Sanders announcing his withdrawal from the race. With the primary settled, the next question is: can Biden win over Bernie’s climate supporters? And how much do these supporters matter? Speaking of support, clean energy stakeholders say they're in dire need of government help. Industry researchers project that the cl...
Apr 16, 2020•37 min
The coronavirus outbreak continues to loom large over the world. Across the globe, countries face major challenges as consumer demand contracts, employee payroll is cut, and capital shrinks as billions of people remain in quarantine. The combination of an economic downturn, cheap oil and gas, and global supply chain disruptions will have big consequences for clean energy markets and climate action in the U.S and abroad. But is it all bad news? In this episode, we bring you a conversation on the ...
Apr 09, 2020•1 hr 4 min
Climate change didn’t stop while the world turned its attention to combating the coronavirus. Will leaders seize the moment to tackle more than one crisis? The $2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act offered no explicit support for the energy sector. Will Congress use the next stimulus bill to accelerate the green economy as part of the COVID-19 recovery? If so, when and how? Or will climate friendly stimulus measures fall by the wayside for now? Plus, the U.S. Env...
Apr 02, 2020•49 min
Labor groups and environmentalists have a complicated relationship. Efforts to mitigate climate change stand to create new employment opportunities in a thriving, low-carbon economy. But they also stand to eliminate many unionized jobs, particularly in the fossil fuel industry. So how can organized labor and the environmental movement work together to promote a just and sustainable society? We discuss in a candid conversation with Lee Anderson, director of government affairs at the Utility Worke...
Mar 26, 2020•52 min
With cases recorded in more than 140 countries, the novel coronavirus has become a global health crisis. In the U.S., bars and offices have been closed, conferences cancelled and kids kept home from school in an attempt to slow the spread. President Trump has declared a national emergency and invoked the Defense Production Act to accelerate the virus response. So why aren’t we reacting as swiftly to climate change -- another human-propelled global catastrophe that could harm human health and wel...
Mar 19, 2020•55 min
It's been pretty hard to miss the latest news. Coronavirus spreads! Oil prices plummet! Stock market crashes! What does all of this have to do with climate and clean energy? A lot, actually. On Monday, oil prices had their worst day since the 1991 Gulf War, falling 24 percent to around $34 per barrel. So how did we get here? And what does the combination of rock bottom oil prices and the coronavirus mean for clean energy? We break it down on this episode of Political Climate in an interview with...
Mar 12, 2020•37 min
Joe Biden had a super, Super Tuesday. We discuss the results and what they mean for climate in the 2020 Democratic Primary. We also touch on the sweeping Senate energy bill that could come to a vote any day now. Plus, there was another big winner this week! We share the results of our policy bracket competition from last week’s Decarb Madness episode. In the latter half of this show (26 min), we discuss how to pick the best policies for decarbonizing the U.S. economy with experts at the think ta...
Mar 06, 2020•59 min
Welcome to Decarb Madness! The policy bracket game for energy wonks who don’t want to play with our future. With March Madness just around the corner and a climate crisis closing in, Political Climate challenged four energy experts to build their ideal policy bracket for decarbonizing the electricity sector. For the third episode in our “Path to Zero” series, contestants were asked to select five federal-level policies that they think will win the day — both in terms of carbon reductions in 2050...
Feb 27, 2020•1 hr 8 min
Is the United States positioned to lead long-term as the global energy mix continues to shift? Fossil fuels have shaped the geopolitical map over the last two centuries. Now, the rapid deployment of renewables has set in motion a global energy transition that could have profound geopolitical consequences. In this episode of Political Climate , we speak to Daniel Simmons, assistant secretary for the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, about how the U.S. Energy Department is thinking...
Feb 21, 2020•1 hr
We’re off to the races! The Democratic primary started slow off the blocks in Iowa, but the nomination process is now well underway following the New Hampshire vote. What have we learned so far in this election? Where have we seen climate and energy play in? And what’s to come next? On this week’s episode of Political Climate, we discuss the latest developments in arguably the most consequential — or at least the most contentious — election in U.S. history. Plus we touch on a handful of energy...
Feb 13, 2020•40 min
What the heck happened in Iowa? Democratic co-host Brandon Hurlbut shares a first-hand account of the caucus reporting glitch and top voter issues in the first state to hold a presidential nominating contest. We look at where climate ranked. Meanwhile in the capitol, House Democrats have unveiled draft legislation and policy roadmap to reach net zero emissions by 2050. Is this the kind of bold climate leadership that advocates have been calling for? And are there proposals in the CLEAN Future Ac...
Feb 06, 2020•47 min
Science tells us we must reach net zero emissions by 2050 to stave off the most devastating impacts of climate change. But do we have all of the technologies we need to do it? In the second episode of Political Climate's “Path to Zero” series, we put that question to physicist, professor, Nobel Laureate, and former U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu. Under his leadership, the DOE launched several new initiatives to help put the United States at the forefront of cleantech development, including ...
Jan 30, 2020•38 min
This is a pivotal moment in the fight against climate change. There is a need to act now and there are a lot of open questions on how to do that. Net zero emissions by 2050 has emerged as the target that the world must hit in order to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. Policymakers and activists in the U.S. are working to put the net zero goal into law, and multiple major companies have already pledged to achieve carbon neutrality. But what will it really take to reach zero? That’s what ...
Jan 23, 2020•22 min
Hello and happy new year! It’s January, so we can still say that — right? Between devastating wildfires in Australia, conflict in the Middle East, and a rapidly approaching Democratic presidential primary there’s been no shortage of news since 2020 began. In this week's episode, we discuss what the latest headlines mean for climate and energy policy. Plus, we bring you a sit-down interview with former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who put in place many of the state’s foundational cl...
Jan 16, 2020•46 min
We're technically on break this week, but couldn’t resist the opportunity to bring you our full interview with Emily Atkin, author of the popular climate newsletter HEATED . Emily came on Political Climate in early December to talk about the fossil fuel industry’s climate change disinformation campaign in our episode “Big Oil on Trial.” We had a lot to cover on that show, so we weren’t able to share the entire conversation between Emily and podcast host Julia Pyper. But there was lot of great co...
Dec 31, 2019•42 min
Is radical reform needed to remake the U.S. electricity grid? What’s the role of nuclear power in the U.S. energy mix? Which Democratic presidential candidate has the best climate plan? What’s the most effective approach to climate advocacy? And how should journalists be covering highly politicized issues in today’s highly polarized information landscape? On this week's episode on Political Climate , we put these and other questions to David Roberts, acclaimed energy and politics reporter for Vo...
Dec 19, 2019•1 hr 30 min
It’s week two of the United Nations COP25 climate summit, and it’s the last few days of Congress before the winter recess. What have American policymakers accomplished? We get an update from the U.S. Climate Action Center on site at the UN climate talks. We look at wildfire victim relief in California. And we discuss 12 pieces of clean energy legislation that House Republicans are calling on Democrats to support. What's the political strategy at play? Plus, a prominent former senator weighs in o...
Dec 12, 2019•59 min
Fossil fuel companies could be facing a Big Tobacco moment. This fall, Exxon Mobil went to court, facing charges that the oil giant lied to shareholders and to the public about the costs and consequences of climate change. And that’s just one of several legal cases seeking to hold oil and gas firms responsible for their contribution to global warming. As we discuss with UCLA environmental law professor Ann Carlson in this episode of Political Climate , the litigation could cost fossil fuel compa...
Dec 05, 2019•1 hr 3 min
The holidays can be difficult. It can be tough to get along in these polarized times. Family conversations on climate change can get heated. We get it. Sometimes we have those heated conversations on this show. But it’s all in the interest of breaking out of our self-contained opinion bubbles. So in the spirit of Thanksgiving, on this episode of Political Climate we say thank you to our listeners for engaging with this podcast — even when the feedback comes in the form of a mean Tweet. Then we c...
Nov 28, 2019•25 min
