Every week, Heatmap News Executive Editor Robinson Meyer and Princeton University Professor and energy systems expert Jesse Jenkins make sense of the biggest shift of our time -- navigating the energy transition away from fossil fuels. Drawing on their years of experience reporting on and researching climate change and decarbonization, Meyer and Jenkins unpack the most important issues of the week and how the impacts of climate change and efforts to address it are transforming our economy, politics, and society at large. Music by Adam Kromelow.
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Every year, Heatmap asks dozens of climate scientists, officials, and business leaders the same set of questions. It’s an act of temperature-taking we call our Insiders Survey — and our 2026 edition is live now . In this week’s Shift Key episode, Rob puts Jesse through the survey wringer. What is the most exciting climate tech company? Are data centers slowing down decarbonization? And will a country attempt the global deployment of solar radiation management within the next decade? It’s a fun o...
Over the weekend, the U.S. military entered Venezuela and captured its president, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife. Maduro will now face drug and gun charges in New York, and some members of the Trump administration have described the operation as a law enforcement mission. President Donald Trump has taken a different tack. He has justified the operation by asserting that America is going to “take over” Venezuela’s oil reserves, even suggesting that oil companies might foot the bill for the broader ...
Shift Key is off for the holidays, but we hope you’ll enjoy this classic episode. Rooftop solar is four times more expensive in America than it is in other countries. It’s also good for the climate. Should we even care about its high cost? Yes, says Severin Borenstein, an economist and the director of the Energy Policy Institute at the University of California, Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. In a 2024 blog post, he argued that the high cost of rooftop solar will shift nearly $4 billion on...
2025 has been a rough year for climate and energy news. But enough about that. Let’s start looking at 2026! On this week’s episode of Shift Key, Rob is joined by some of Heatmap’s writers and editors to discuss our biggest stories and predictions for 2026 — what we’re tracking, what could surprise us, and what could happen next. We also discuss a recent op-ed in The New York Times arguing that Democrats should work more closely with the U.S. oil and gas industry. Today’s panel includes Heatmap’s...
Over the past decade, the oil and gas industry has sharpened its drilling skills, extracting fossil fuels at greater depths — and with more precision — than ever before. What if there was a way to tap those advances to generate zero-carbon energy? The Canadian company Eavor (pronounced “ever”) says it can do so. Its closed-loop geothermal system is already producing heat at competitive prices in Europe, and it says it will soon be able to drill deep enough to fuel the electricity system, too. It...
China’s electric vehicle industry, it’s now well understood, is churning out cars that rival or exceed the best products coming out of the West. Chinese EVs are cheaper, cooler, more innovative, and have better range. And now they’re surging into car markets around the world — markets where consumers are hungry for clean, affordable transportation. On this week’s episode of Shift Key, Rob talks to Ilaria Mazzocco about her new report on how six countries around the world are dealing with the ris...
2025 has been incredibly eventful for decarbonization — and not necessarily in a good way. The return of Donald Trump, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, and the rise of data centers and artificial intelligence led to more changes for climate policy and the clean energy sector than we’ve seen in years. Some of those we saw coming. Others we really did not. On this week’s episode of Shift Key, Rob and Jesse look back at the year’s biggest energy and decarbonization stories and examine what they got ...
It’s been a tumultuous year for climate politics — and for climate nonprofits. The longtime activist group 350.org suspended its operations in the U.S. (at least temporarily), and Bill Gates, the world’s No. 1 climate funder, declared that the decarbonization movement should make a “strategic pivot” to poverty reduction. How should someone who wants to help the global climate navigate this moment? Our guest has recommendations. On this week’s episode of Shift Key, Rob talks to Dan Stein, the fou...
The boom in artificial intelligence has become entangled with the clean energy industry over the past 18 months. Tech companies are willing to pay a lot for electricity — especially reliable zero-carbon electricity — and utilities and energy companies have been scrambling to keep up. But is that boom more like a bubble? And if so, what does that mean for the long-term viability of AI companies and data center developers, and for the long-term health of decarbonization? On this week’s Shift Key, ...
It’s been a huge few weeks for climate news. Democrats swept state and local elections in New Jersey, Virginia, California, and New York City — and won two crucial regulatory races in Georgia. A few weeks before, the climate tech investor and philanthropist Bill Gates released a memo arguing for a pivot on climate funding vis a vis global health. On this special episode of Shift Key, Rob talks to Heatmap staff writers Emily Pontecorvo and Matthew Zeitlin about what the 2025 elections might mean ...
Robinson Meyer and Jesse Jenkins are off this week. Please enjoy this selection from the Shift Key archive. China’s greenhouse gas emissions were essentially flat in 2024 — or they recorded a tiny increase, according to a November report from the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, or CREA. A third of experts surveyed by the report believe that its coal emissions have peaked. Has the world’s No. 1 emitter of carbon pollution now turned a corner on climate change? Lauri Myllyvirta is th...
Data centers aren’t the only driver of rising power use. The inexorable shift to electric vehicles — which has been slowed, but not stopped, by Donald Trump’s policies — is also pushing up electricity use across the country. That puts a strain on the grid — but EVs could also be a strength. On this week’s episode of Shift Key, Rob and Jesse talk to Apoorv Bhargava, the CEO and cofounder of Weavegrid , a startup that helps people charge their vehicles in a way that’s better and cleaner for the gr...
Electricity prices are the biggest economic issue in the New Jersey governor’s race, which is perhaps next month’s most closely watched election. Mikie Sherrill, the Democratic candidate and frontrunner, has pledged to freeze power prices for state residents after getting elected. Can she do that? On this week’s episode of Shift Key, Rob talks to Skanda Amarnath, the executive director of Employ America , a center-left think tank that aims to encourage a “full-employment, robust-growth economy.”...
Simply operating America’s buildings uses more than a third of the country’s energy. A major chunk of that is temperature control — keeping the indoors cool in the summer and warm in the winter. Heating eats into families’ budgets and burns a tremendous amount of fuel oil and natural gas. But what if we could heat and cool buildings more efficiently, cleanly, and cheaply? On this week’s episode of Shift Key, Rob and Jesse talk to Dulcie Madden, the founder and CEO of Dig Energy , a New Hampshire...
Julian Brave NoiseCat is a writer, Oscar-nominated filmmaker, champion powwow dancer, and student of Salish art and history. His first book, We Survived the Night , was released this week — it uses memoir, reporting, and literary anthology to tell the story of Native families across North America, including his own. NoiseCat was previously an environmental and climate activist at groups including 350.org and Data for Progress. On this week’s episode of Shift Key, Rob talks with Julian about Nati...
China announced a new climate commitment under the Paris Agreement at last month’s United Nations General Assembly meeting, pledging to cut its emissions by 7% to 10% by 2035. Many observers were disappointed by the promise, which may not go far enough to forestall 2 degrees Celsius of warming. But the pledge’s conservatism reveals the delicate and shifting politics of China’s grid — and how the country’s central government and its provinces fight over keeping the lights on. On this week’s episo...
It’s been a busy few weeks for climate and energy. New York Climate Week brought hundreds of events — and thousands of people — to the city to discuss decarbonization and energy policy. The New Jersey governor’s race has raised the salience of electricity rates. And suddenly everyone is talking about energy affordability. On this week’s episode of Shift Key, Rob is joined by his colleagues at Heatmap to discuss some of the biggest topics in energy and climate. What did they take away from New Yo...
Artificial intelligence is helping to drive up electricity demand in America. Energy costs are rising, and utilities are struggling to adjust. How should policymakers — and companies — respond to this moment? On this special episode of Shift Key, recorded live at Heatmap House during New York Climate Week, Rob leads a conversation about some potential paths forward. He’s joined first by Representative Sean Casten, the coauthor of a new Democratic bill seeking to lower electricity costs for consu...
A new stack of electricity technologies — including solar panels, batteries, electric vehicles, and power electronics — seem to be displacing fossil fuels across China and the developing world. Are we watching an irresistible technological revolution happen? Or is something weirder going on — something that has far more to do with China’s singular scale and policy goals than physics and economics? Kingsmill Bond argues that a global electrotech revolution has already begun — and that it will soo...
We live in a new energy era — one in which the inputs and technologies key to clean electricity production are at the heart of international politics. What will that mean for decarbonization? And how should climate tech companies prepare? On this week’s episode of Shift Key, Rob chats about those questions and more with Dr. Sarah Kapnick. She is the Global Head of Climate Advisory at J.P. Morgan, where she advises the bank's clients on climate, energy, biodiversity and sustainability topics. She...
Shift Key investigates the surprising cause of soaring electricity prices: the "last mile" distribution grid. It argues that current utility regulation, designed decades ago for generation, incentivizes capital investment in poles and wires over cost-effective solutions and operational efficiency. The hosts propose advanced regulatory models, like Totex-based capitalization and revenue caps from Europe, alongside government financing and tax-based funding, to address this critical issue and manage the grid's future demands.
How did life first form on Earth? What does entropy have to do with the origins of mammalian life — or the creation of the modern economy? And what chemical process do people, insects, Volkswagens, and coal power plants all share? On this week’s episode of Shift Key, Rob chats with Peter Brannen, the author of a new history of the planet, The Story of CO2 Is the Story of Everything . The book weaves together a single narrative from the Big Bang to the Permian explosion to the oil-devouring econo...
This episode of Shift Key explores the critical issue of interconnection queue delays, which significantly hinder the deployment of new wind, solar, and battery projects on the U.S. power grid. Guests Tyler Norris and Claire Wayner detail the outdated "first-come, first-serve" process, explaining how it leads to skyrocketing electricity prices and threatens grid reliability. They discuss potential solutions, including Texas's "energy-only" model, proactive transmission planning, FERC reforms, and the urgent need for systemic innovation to accelerate clean energy adoption.
This episode features Mark Rothleder, COO of the California Independent System Operator (CAISO), who provides an in-depth look at managing one of the world's largest grids. He details daily operations, including real-time balancing, integrating inverter-based resources, and the role of electricity markets. The discussion also covers long-term planning, addressing load growth, resource adequacy, and future challenges like electrification and interconnection queues, highlighting the critical work behind ensuring grid reliability.
This episode explores the complex world of wholesale electricity markets in the U.S., explaining how prices are set by the marginal generator and the unique blend of physics and economics required to keep the grid running. It delves into concepts like economic dispatch, baseload generation, and locational marginal prices, highlighting the impact of natural gas prices, renewable energy, and grid congestion on electricity costs. The discussion also touches on the evolution of markets from utility monopolies to competitive systems, and the potential for future automation to enhance demand response.
The Trump administration has formally declared that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are not dangerous pollutants. If the president gets his way, then the Environmental Protection Agency may soon surrender any ability to regulate heat-trapping pollution from cars and trucks, power plants, and factories — in ways that a future Democratic president potentially could not reverse. On this week’s episode of Shift Key, we discuss whether Trump’s EPA gambit will work, the arguments that the ad...
The U.S. electricity grid is on the brink of an affordability crisis, experiencing the fastest demand growth since the 1970s, fueled by AI, electric vehicles, and manufacturing. This surge in demand is met with severe supply constraints, including a backlog in gas power plant components, increasing natural gas exports, and tariffs on crucial materials like copper and steel. Political interference and inefficient grid interconnection processes further exacerbate the issue, leading to market price spikes and higher consumer bills. The episode explores these multifaceted challenges and their implications for decarbonization and the broader economy.
Shift Key Summer School delves into the core technologies behind the energy transition: solar and wind power. The hosts explain the intricate physics of solar panels, from semiconductors and band gaps to doping and manufacturing advancements that drove dramatic cost reductions. They then explore the origins of wind, the engineering of massive turbines, and the economic drivers behind their increasing size and efficiency, concluding with a look at their growing impact on the US power mix.
It’s official. On July 4, President Trump signed the Republican reconciliation bill into law, gutting many of the country’s most significant clean energy tax credits. The future of the American solar, wind, battery, and electric vehicle industries looks very different now than it did last year. On this week’s episode of Shift Key, we survey the damage and look for bright spots. What did the law, in its final version, actually repeal, and what did it leave intact? How much could still change as t...
Shift Key Summer School delves into the two primary machines that have generated most of the world's electricity since 1890: the dynamo and the steam turbine. The discussion covers the basic principles of converting mechanical motion into electricity, the historical battle between direct and alternating current, and the evolution of thermal power plants utilizing the Rankine cycle. It also explains the advent of nuclear fission for heat generation and the more recent development of Brayton and combined-cycle gas turbines, detailing their efficiency, economic impact, and role in the modern energy landscape.
