Volts

Volts is a podcast about leaving fossil fuels behind. I've been reporting on and explaining clean-energy topics for almost 20 years, and I love talking to politicians, analysts, innovators, and activists about the latest progress in the world's most important fight. (Volts is entirely subscriber-supported. Sign up!)

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Last refreshed: June 24th, 2026 at 4:25 PM

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Episodes

Transmission month: how to make the existing grid work better

(If you’d rather listen to this post than read it, just click play above.) Welcome back to Volts, where every week is Transmission Week! In my three transmission posts so far, I have focused mostly on the challenges of building new long-distance energy transmission lines in the US — the poor planning, the inefficient financing, the permitting and siting hassles. Today I’m going to turn to a different subject: the various ways that the performance of the existing transmission system could be upgr...

Feb 12, 2021•27 min

Transmission fortnight: burying power lines next to rail & roads to make a national transmission grid

Happy Monday! Welcome back to Transmission Fortnight here at Volts. Today’s a fun one. In my previous post , I described the many difficulties facing new high-voltage, long-distance transmission projects, from planning to financing to permitting and siting. It’s a bureaucratic slog. Today we’re going to look at a clever idea for bypassing many of those problems, namely, stitching together a national power grid by burying power lines along existing rail and road infrastructure, where rights-of-wa...

Feb 01, 2021•17 min

Transmission week: how to start building more big power lines

Welcome back to Transmission Week here at Volts! In my previous post , I explained why the US needs lots of new high-voltage power lines. They will help stitch together America’s balkanized grids, connect remote renewable energy to urban load centers, prepare the country for the coming wave of electrification, and relieve grid congestion. And oh yeah — we won’t be able to decarbonize the country without them. Nonetheless, they are not getting built! It’s a problem. Today, we’re going to walk ste...

Jan 27, 2021•32 min

Transmission week: why we need more big power lines

[ If you would rather listen to the post than read it, click play above. ] Hello, Volties, and welcome to Transmission Week here at Volts! It’s been delayed almost as many times as Infrastructure Week, but it’s finally here. All week, we’re going to be digging into the US energy transmission system. For those of you new to the subject, “transmission system” refers to the big, high-voltage power lines that carry electricity over long distances, usually perched along tall metal towers. To use a ro...

Jan 25, 2021•18 min

A few interesting bits of news

[ If you don’t feel like reading this post, just click Play above and I’ll read it to you. ] Happy Inauguration Day, Voltsians! I know it’s getting somewhat tedious to keep saying this, but yes, I’m still working on that transmission post . I swore when I started my own publication that I was not going to rush anymore — that I would research and work on stuff until I was happy with it. But I never swore not to be neurotic and apologetic about it! Anyway, it’s in the works. Until then, let’s look...

Jan 20, 2021•11 min

Voltscast: How to decarbonize the electricity sector through budget reconciliation

Greetings, peoples of the Volts! I’ve got a special treat for you today. It’s not my first podcast , exactly, but it’s my first Official Podcast, with music and fancy-pants guests and everything. My guests are: * Dr. Leah Stokes , an assistant professor of political science at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and author of the excellent recent book Short Circuiting Policy: Interest Groups and the Battle Over Clean Energy and Climate Policy in the American States ; and * Sam Ricketts ...

Jan 13, 2021•1 hr 17 min

What the Georgia Senate wins do (and don't) mean for climate policy

[ If you do not feel like reading today’s post, you can listen to it. Just hit play above. ] Y’all, before we get started today I have to share the funniest thing that’s ever happened. You know how I went on MSNBC a few weeks ago to talk about how Joe Biden should do everything at once ? And you know how former Saturday Night Live comedienne and all-around awesome person Leslie Jones frequently tapes herself watching MSNBC and commenting on people and their rooms? Well get a load of this: Lol. I...

Jan 08, 2021•21 min

Why I am a progressive

Hey, Volts readers, guess what? Now you can be Volts listeners! If you would prefer to hear the post below read aloud, by me, just click play above. And if you like having the posts read like this, let me know. If enough people are into it, I might see about getting some better equipment and actually learning how to edit a sound file. Before we jump in, some housekeeping: * Remember, as of Jan. 1, free subscribers will receive one post a week. The other posts, and the ability to comment on posts...

Dec 30, 2020•21 min

The first Volts podcast!

Happy Christmas Eve, everyone. I hope you are somewhere safe and warm. Here’s a little holiday treat for you: I recorded my first Voltscast. Matt Yglesias runs a newsletter called Slow Boring . He is interested in the energy bill that Congress passed this week. I just wrote a long post about that energy bill . We wanted to chat about it. Starting a whole official podcast with professional editing and music and a name and all the rest sounded a bit daunting, so as an experiment, we decided, in th...

Dec 24, 2020•52 min

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