Volts
A newsletter, podcast, & community focused on the technology, politics, and policy of decarbonization. In your inbox once or twice a week.
- Update frequency
- every 4 days
- Average duration
- 57 minutes
- Episodes
- 357
- Years Active
- 2020 - 2025
Volts podcast: Jack Lienke & Kirti Datla on the ridiculous (but extremely important) EPA case before the Supreme Court
In this episode, two Clean Air Act experts — Jack Lienke, regulatory policy director at the Institute for Policy Integrity, and Kirti Datla, director of strategic legal advocacy at Earthjustice — dis…
Volts podcast: David Hsu on the grassroots policy that lets communities control own energy supply
In this episode, MIT Professor David Hsu discusses a paper he wrote that charts the history, evolution, and current fortunes of community choice aggregation, a tool whereby a community can take owner…
Volts podcast: Erin Mayfield on the massive consequences of Build Back Better
In this episode, Dartmouth professor Erin Mayfield discusses some new modeling on the Build Back Better Act, showing how and where it would reduce emissions in the US economy, how it would affect inf…
Focusing on the climate actions that can make a real difference
Two veteran climate experts -- analyst Hal Harvey & journalist Justin Gillis -- have released a new book that seeks to home in on the climate policies that offer the most impact for the least effort.…
What's up with Manchin's plan to reform energy permitting?
As part of his price for agreeing to pass the Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act, Senator Joe Manchin extracted a promise from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to pass a "sidecar deal” addressing…
Talking through the Inflation Reduction Act with Don't Look Up director Adam McKay
In this episode, director Adam McKay returns to hash over some of his reservations about the Inflation Reduction Act and the larger political situation in the US. I try to persuade him to be happy ab…
Diving further into the Inflation Reduction Act: Part Two
In this episode, energy modeler and expert Jesse Jenkins is back yet again, completing our two-part discussion of the details of the Inflation Reduction Act. This time around, we get into the tax cre…
Diving further into the Inflation Reduction Act: Part One
In this episode, professor and energy expert Jesse Jenkins returns to the pod to dig further into the details of the Inflation Reduction Act. We discuss what the models can and can't tell us, the ugl…
Some thoughts on the Inflation Reduction Act
In this episode, it’s just me by my lonesome, sharing some thoughts about the history and context of the Inflation Reduction Act, the most significant climate legislation ever passed by the US Congre…
Volts podcast: when transmission planning actually goes well
A long-range transmission plan just announced by the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, or MISO, lays out a roadmap for $10 billion worth of investment in some 2,000 miles of new transmission …
Volts podcast: what to make of the Democrats' last-minute climate bill
In this episode, two Volts favorites — Princeton professor Jesse Jenkins and UC Santa Barbara professor Leah Stokes — join me discuss the Inflation Reduction Act, the somewhat miraculous last-minute …
Volts podcast: how Biden can address climate change through executive action
Another note to readers
Readers, I am keenly aware that you subscribed to this newsletter to get articles and podcasts about clean energy, not to hear about my life and travails. And I’ve already sent you one life-and-trava…