In this episode, Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN) discusses a policy that she has proposed in the Senate and is working to get included in the upcoming reconciliation bill: a Clean Electricity Payment Program (CEPP), which would aim to reduce carbon emissions in the US electricity sector 80 percent by 2030. She also shares some excellent thoughts on the filibuster! Full transcript of Volts podcast featuring Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN), September 1, 2021 ( PDF version ) David Roberts: There are lots and lots of...
Sep 01, 2021•37 min
As we speak, Democrats in Congress are hashing out the details of the budget reconciliation bill that will contain the vast bulk of President Joe Biden’s domestic agenda. It is meant to be passed alongside the recent bipartisan infrastructure package that came out of the Senate. One of the unique features of this political moment is that virtually every individual Democrat has the power to sink the whole enterprise — there are zero Dem votes to spare in the Senate and only a handful in the House...
Aug 25, 2021•13 min
A trickle of transcripts! First up, an administrative note: many, many people have requested written transcripts of the Volts podcasts. And I want to provide them. But it’s going to take a while. I could produce the transcripts in a few hours if I were willing to simply send the sound files through a robot transcriber like Otter and accept the somewhat choppy results (which are generally around 85 percent accurate). However, I’m way too anal retentive to do that. And Volts readers deserve better...
Aug 18, 2021•16 min
This is it, folks! The home stretch. It’s time to pay attention, call your members of Congress, and mobilize your networks. Congress is working on what is likely to be its last big shot at climate change policy for a decade or more. If things go well, the legislation will include a clean energy standard (CES) and clean energy tax credits, which together would revolutionize the US electricity system. If things don’t go well, there will be no substantial climate legislation for many years to come....
Aug 07, 2021•12 min
(If you prefer listening to reading, just click Play above.) I’ve spent a lot of time on Volts discussing energy storage. As those who read my battery series know, lithium-ion batteries (LIB) currently dominate short-duration storage — in devices, cars, and buildings — and the durations they are able to economically provide are creeping up, from two to four to eight hours and beyond. However, as I explained in a separate post , the grid of the future, run primarily on renewable energy, will also...
Aug 04, 2021•12 min
Fossil fuel subsidies are a vexed and peculiar topic. On one hand, everyone seems to agree they’re bad and should be eliminated ( it’s in Biden’s jobs bill , for instance). On the other hand, they never go anywhere. In part, it’s because we lack a clear understanding of what constitutes a subsidy and what impact they have. Analysts are forever arguing over exactly what counts , trying to tally up the total subsidies fossil fuels receive , but there are very few bottom-up attempts to document the...
Jul 30, 2021•13 min
In this episode, Rep. Sean Casten (D-Il.), the House Democrats’ resident clean-energy expert, discusses the importance of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the influence it has over US decarbonization, and the urgent need for Biden to appoint a new commissioner. We also get into our favorite FERC orders! Full transcript of Volts podcast featuring Rep. Sean Casten, July 28, 2021 ( PDF version ) David Roberts: Greetings. Welcome to the Volts Podcast. I am your host, David Roberts. As Volts...
Jul 28, 2021•1 hr 12 min
In this episode, career environmental regulator Cynthia Giles discusses the rampant rule-breaking common in environmental rule and regulations and how to solve the problem — not with greater enforcement, but with smarter rule design. Full transcript of Volts podcast featuring Cynthia Giles, July 14, 2021 ( PDF Version ) David Roberts: The US has hundreds of environmental rules and regulations on the books, meant to achieve various environmental goals — clean up coal plants, reduce toxins in cons...
Jul 14, 2021•1 hr 16 min
Last week, I wrote that there is no “moderate” position on climate change . Either we act rapidly and at massive scale to avoid the worst consequences … or we suffer the worst consequences. Either outcome involves radical change. There’s no avoiding radicalism. Lots of activists, politicians, and ordinary citizens understand this need for ambitious action — they are convinced by the scale and severity of the problem — but there is less clarity about what qualifies as ambitious. In an atmosphere ...
Jul 09, 2021•13 min
In this episode, longtime activist Tzeporah Berman discusses the need to track and reduce fossil fuel production (not just consumption) and the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty that she and other activists created to help coordinate those efforts. Full transcript of Volts podcast featuring Tzeporah Berman, July 7, 2021 ( PDF version ) David Roberts: For as long as I've been covering climate change, it's been conventional wisdom among economists — and the kind of people who aspire to please e...
Jul 07, 2021•1 hr
Perhaps the most politically difficult aspect of climate change is that, after decades of denial and delay, there is no longer any coherent “moderate” position to be had. To allow temperatures to rise past 1.5° or 2°C this century is to accept unthinkable disruption to agriculture, trade, immigration, public health, and basic social cohesion. To hold temperature rise to less than 1.5° or 2°C this century will require enormous, heroic decarbonization efforts on the part of every wealthy country. ...
Jun 30, 2021•17 min
In this episode, Saul Griffith (co-founder of Rewiring America ) and Arch Rao (founder and CEO of Span , which makes smart electrical panels) discuss the need to electrify US homes, the challenges standing in the way, the kinds of solutions that will ease the process, and much more. Full transcript of Volts podcast featuring Saul Griffith and Arch Rao, June 28, 2021 ( PDF version ) David Roberts: Those of you who have been reading or listening to Volts for a while know that I am fairly obsessed ...
Jun 28, 2021•1 hr 12 min
Here at Volts, I recently spent a week … OK, a month writing about batteries, which store energy for electronic devices, electric vehicles, and, at least for short periods of time (four to six hours), the power grid. Lithium-ion batteries are extremely good at those tasks — and they’re getting better, and cheaper, all the time. But here’s the thing: a net-zero-carbon grid is going to need storage that lasts a lot longer than six hours. It’s going to need durations of up to 100, 300, 500 hours or...
Jun 09, 2021•26 min
Long-time readers know that I am a veteran hater of the US Senate, the graveyard of good ideas and progressive policies. America’s upper chamber is one of the world’s least productive and most ridiculous legislative bodies, its dysfunctions matched only by its boundless self-regard. Don’t get me started. Instead, get Adam Jentleson started! Now there’s a guy who has earned his ire at the Senate. As a senior aide to Democratic leader Harry Reid from 2011 to 2016, Jentleson saw up close and person...
Jun 04, 2021•53 min
(If you’d rather listen than read, just click Play above.) Energy nerds love arguing over the value of distributed energy resources (DERs), the rooftop solar panels and customer-owned batteries that are growing more popular by the day. There’s a fight in California right now over the value of energy from rooftop solar, just the latest skirmish in a long war that has ranged over numerous states . The conventional wisdom in wonk circles is that the value provided by DERs is not sufficient to overc...
May 28, 2021•27 min
I have been reading Will Wilkinson’s writing since I was a baby blogger, way back in the early 2000s. By then, I had already left behind the libertarianism that gripped me in college, but Will was still a professional libertarian at the Cato Institute. I disagreed with him about many things, but I always found him rigorous and engaging. Over the years, I’ve followed as he’s moved from Cato to the center-right Niskanen Center (where he got canceled ) to, now, the Progressive Policy Institute, whe...
May 26, 2021•1 hr 48 min
It is now widely agreed among energy wonks that the fastest, cheapest way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is to, as I like to put it, electrify everything . That means cleaning up the electricity system while shifting other energy uses — especially transportation and buildings — off of fossil fuels, onto electricity. When it comes to electrification, one technology in particular sits at the nexus, helping to decarbonize the electricity system, vehicles, and buildings all at once. I'm speaking...
May 21, 2021•1 hr 15 min
As you might have gathered from the name, when Battery Week began … a month ago, I did not anticipate it going on quite so long. Since it has dragged out a bit, I thought it might be helpful to pull everything together in one place. If you click play above, you will find a lithium-ion battery megapod: all the battery pieces read aloud, plus the podcast with Chloe Holzinger, strung together into one three-hour-long beast. Links to all the pieces: * Why lithium-ion batteries are so important * A p...
May 19, 2021•3 hr 11 min
Welcome back, my Volts friends, to the Battery Week that never ends. (Just kidding — this is the last of it.) For several weeks now, I have had my head buried in batteries, specifically, lithium-ion batteries: how they work, why they have taken over so fast, what different varieties are competing for which markets, and where innovation will take them in the future. Even with as many PDFs as I’ve read, I'm still learning every day just how much I don't know. I'm not going to lie: I still have the...
May 17, 2021•1 hr 47 min
(If you don’t want to read, you can listen! Just click play above.) Hello! Welcome back to Battery Week here at Volts … where we use the term “week” somewhat loosely. Up to now, we’ve been focusing on lithium-on batteries (LIBs) — why they are so important , how they work , and the varieties of LIBs that are battling it out for the biggest battery market , electric vehicles (EVs). It’s fairly clear from that discussion that LIBs, in some incarnation, are going to dominate EVs for a long while to...
May 14, 2021•22 min
Greetings! Last week, I wrote about the ambitious slate of climate and energy policies that the state of Washington has put in place over the last two years — culminating, a few weeks ago, with the passage of the Climate Commitment Act, which would cap the state’s emissions and reduce them 95 percent by 2050. It’s a dizzying amount of progress in a short period of time. As I talked to those involved about how it happened, one name came up again and again: Rep. Joe Fitzgibbon (D) of the 34th Dist...
May 10, 2021•1 hr 10 min
In May 2019, I wrote in Vox that “ one weird trick can help any state or city pass clean energy policy .” Spoiler: the one weird trick is electing Democrats. My home state of Washington elected a whole mess of Democrats over the last several cycles and it is paying off handsomely. Without much national attention, the last few years have seen Washington quietly put into place the most comprehensive and ambitious slate of climate and energy policies of any US state. Yes, I’m talking to you, Califo...
May 05, 2021•36 min
(Hey Volties! The following was going to be a column on Vox, but they decided they wanted something newsier, so I’ll be doing something about Biden’s pledge over there, soon. In the meantime, enjoy this writeup of a fun new paper, or listen by clicking play above. We’ll get back to Battery Week next week.) Climate change can sometimes seem like an intractable problem, so it is useful to remember periodically that progress is possible — indeed, that we are making progress, and know how to make mo...
Apr 23, 2021•16 min
(If you would rather listen than read, just click play above.) Hello, everyone, and welcome back to Battery Week! We’ve talked about why lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) are so important and we went through a basic primer on how they work . Today, we’re going to get into the competition within the broad lithium battery family, among all the different kinds of batteries that use lithium and exchange charged lithium ions. (See the previous post for a full list.) There are a few clear leaders — lithium...
Apr 21, 2021•24 min
(If you don’t want to read, you can listen. Just click play above.) Greetings! Welcome back to Battery Week here at Volts. In my last post, I went over why lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) are so important to decarbonizing both transportation and the electricity sector. Next week, we’re going to get into the nuts and bolts of different kinds of LIBs, to see how different chemistries offer different kinds of performance and are competing for different market niches. Before that, though, it’s worth th...
Apr 16, 2021•22 min
People of Volts! At long last, Battery Week is here. It is time to get into batteries. Waaay into batteries. Over the next few posts, I’m going to cover how lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) work and the different chemistries that are competing for market share, but I thought I would start off with a post about why I’m doing this — why batteries are important and why it’s worth understanding the variety and competition within the space. Lithium-ion batteries are crucial to decarbonization in two impo...
Apr 14, 2021•15 min
(If you’d rather listen than read, just click play above.) President Joe Biden has released the tax plan that is meant to pay for his $2+ trillion infrastructure plan . You can read the New York Times for a full breakdown. The bulk of the revenue will come from a set of changes to corporate tax law, raising the corporate tax rate from 21 to 28 percent, imposing a minimum tax on global profits, and discouraging offshore tax havens. All that stuff is great. I just want to say a few quick things ab...
Apr 09, 2021•8 min
Hey, everybody! President Joe Biden has unveiled his first infrastructure proposal and … hot damn. The eight-year " American Jobs Plan " would spend $2.25 trillion on a huge range of initiatives, from highways to the energy grid, water systems, airports, transit systems, broadband, energy R&D, and — paging a Sen. Joe Manchin — abandoned coal mine clean-up. This is an amazing document. Yes, there’s stuff in it that I would take out (some highway spending) and stuff I would add (more transit s...
Apr 02, 2021•23 min
(If you don’t want to read the post, click play above and I’ll read it to you.) Hello, beloved readers and listeners! Today I’m going to make an argument that is very important to me: Democrats must pass substantial democracy reform before the 2022 elections . If Dems don’t get this done, the US is in for a long period of political darkness. Democracy in America could very well perish. Climate change will become unsolvable. Every goal progressives seek — taxing the rich, funding infrastructure, ...
Mar 12, 2021•19 min
Hello, People of Volts! Today I’ve got a special treat for you: a podcast with Jesse Jenkins , energy modeler and assistant professor at Princeton. Those of you on #EnergyTwitter already know Jesse . He’s been doing this as long as I have, working his way up from take-haver to think tanker to graduate researcher at MIT to Princeton prof. Along the way he’s developed a reputation not only as one of the sharpest, most empirically informed energy analysts in the country, but as a scrupulously nice ...
Mar 05, 2021•1 hr 38 min
