Shift Key with Robinson Meyer and Jesse Jenkins

Heatmap News
Shift Key with Robinson Meyer and Jesse Jenkins

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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  1. 1D AGO

    Climate Policy in America: Where We Go From Here

    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 the Trump administration implements the law? What does this mean for U.S. economic competitiveness? And how are we feeling about the climate fight today?  Jillian Goodman, Heatmap’s deputy editor, joins us to discuss all these questions and more. Shift Key is hosted by Jesse Jenkins, a professor of energy systems engineering at Princeton University, and Robinson Meyer, Heatmap’s executive editor.   Mentioned: The REPEAT Project report on what the OBBBA will mean for the future of American emissions The Bipartisan Policy Center’s foreign entities of concern explainer The new White House executive order about renewables tax credits  And here’s more of Heatmap’s coverage from the endgame of OBBBA. -- This episode of Shift Key is sponsored by … The Yale Center for Business and the Environment’s online clean energy programs equip you with tangible skills and powerful networks—and you can continue working while learning. In just five hours a week, propel your career and make a difference. Music for Shift Key is by Adam Kromelow. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    1h 11m
  2. JUL 9

    How Does a Power Plant Work?

    Just two types of machines have produced the overwhelming majority of electricity generated since 1890. This week, we look at the history of those devices, how they work — and how they have contributed to global warming. This is our second episode of Shift Key Summer School, a series of “lecture conversations” about the basics of energy, electricity, and the power grid for listeners of all backgrounds. This week, we dive into the invention and engineering of the world’s most common types of fossil- and nuclear-fueled power plants. What’s a Rankine cycle power station, and how does it use steam to produce electricity? How did the invention of the jet engine enable the rise of natural gas-generated electricity? And why can natural gas power plants achieve much higher efficiency gains than coal plants? Shift Key is hosted by Jesse Jenkins, a professor of energy systems engineering at Princeton University, and Robinson Meyer, Heatmap’s executive editor. Mentioned: Powering the Dream: The History and Promise of Green Technology, by Alexis Madrigal -- This episode of Shift Key is sponsored by … The Yale Center for Business and the Environment’s online clean energy programs equip you with tangible skills and powerful networks—and you can continue working while learning. In just five hours a week, propel your career and make a difference. Music for Shift Key is by Adam Kromelow. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    53 min
  3. JUN 18

    It’s Easiest to Electrify This Type of Truck

    You might not think that often about medium-duty trucks, but they’re all around you: ambulances, UPS and FedEx delivery trucks, school buses. And although they make up a relatively small share of vehicles on the road, they generate an outsized amount of carbon pollution. They’re also a surprisingly ripe target for electrification, because so many medium-duty trucks drive fewer than 150 miles a day. On this week’s episode of Shift Key, Rob and Jesse talk with John Henry Harris, the cofounder and CEO of Harbinger Motors. Harbinger is a Los Angeles-based startup that sells electric and hybrid chassis for medium-duty vehicles, such as delivery vans, moving trucks, and ambulances.  Rob, John, and Jesse chat about why medium-duty trucking is unlike any other vehicle segment, how to design an electric truck to last 20 years, and how President Trump’s tariffs are already stalling out manufacturing firms. Shift Key is hosted by Jesse Jenkins, a professor of energy systems engineering at Princeton University, and Robinson Meyer, Heatmap’s executive editor.   Mentioned:  Harbinger Motors CalStart’s data on medium-duty electric trucks deployed in the U.S. Here’s the chart that John showed Rob and Jesse. It draws on data from Bloomberg in China, the ICCT, and the Calstart ZET Dashboard in the United States. Jesse’s case for EVs with gas tanks — which are called extended range electric vehicles Thor’s extended range electric vehicle RV Jesse’s upshift; Rob’s downshift. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    1h 3m
  4. JUN 11

    A New Grand Theory of Why Decarbonization Is So Hard

    Why has it been so hard for the world to make progress on climate change over the past 30 years? Maybe it’s because we’ve been thinking about the problem wrong. Academics and economists have often framed climate change as a free-rider or collective action problem, one in which countries must agree not to emit greenhouse gases and abuse the public commons. But maybe the better way to understand climate action is as a fight that generates winners and losers, defined primarily by who owns what.  On this week’s episode of Shift Key, Rob and Jesse talk with Jessica Green, a political science professor at the University of Toronto. She calls for “radical pragmatism” in climate action and an “asset revaluation”-focused view of the climate problem. Green is the author of the forthcoming book Existential Politics: Why Global Climate Institutions Are Failing and How to Fix Them. Shift Key is hosted by Jesse Jenkins, a professor of energy systems engineering at Princeton University, and Robinson Meyer, Heatmap’s executive editor.  Mentioned: Asset Revaluation and the Existential Politics of Climate Change, by Jessica Green, Jeff Colgan, and Thomas Hale Tax Policy Is Climate Policy by Jessica Green  Why Carbon Pricing Falls Short, by Jesse Jenkins Jesse’s 2014 article on asset specificity and climate change  Jesse’s downshift; Rob’s downshift. -- Music for Shift Key is by Adam Kromelow. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    1h 16m
  5. JUN 4

    The Supreme Court’s Double-Edged Change to Permitting Law

    Did the Supreme Court just make it easier to build things in this country — or did it give a once-in-a-lifetime gift to the fossil fuel industry? Last week, the Supreme Court ruled 8-0 against environmentalists who sought to use a key permitting law, the National Environmental Policy Act, to slow down a railroad in a remote but oil-rich part of Utah. Even the court’s liberals ruled against the green groups.  But the court’s conservative majority issued a much stronger and more expansive ruling, urging lower courts to stop interpreting the law as they have for years. That decision, written by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, may signal a new era for what has been called the “Magna Carta” of environmental law. On this week’s episode of Shift Key, Rob and Jesse talk with Nicholas Bagley, a University of Michigan law professor and frequent writer on permitting issues. He is also Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s former chief legal counsel. Rob, Jesse, and Nick discuss what NEPA is, how it has helped (and perhaps hindered) the environment, and why it’s likely to change again in the near future. Shift Key is hosted by Jesse Jenkins, a professor of energy systems engineering at Princeton University, and Robinson Meyer, Heatmap’s executive editor.  Mentioned:  The Supreme Court Just Started a Permitting Revolution The Supreme Court’s Green Double Standard, By Nick Bagley Bagley’s article on the procedure fetish Key statistics about how NEPA works in the government Judge Skelly’s 1971 Calvert Cliffs ruling House Republicans’ NEPA reform proposal  Jesse’s downshift; Rob’s downshift.  -- Music for Shift Key is by Adam Kromelow. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    56 min
  6. MAY 28

    Shift Key Classic: The World Will Miss 1.5C. What Comes Next?

    Shift Key is off this week for Memorial Day, so we’re re-running one of our favorite episodes from the past. With Republicans in the White House and Congress now halfway to effectively repealing the Inflation Reduction Act, the United States’ signature climate law, we thought now might be a good moment to remind ourselves why emissions reductions matter in the first place. To that end, we’re resurfacing our chat from November with Kate Marvel, an associate research scientist at Columbia University and the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. At the time, Trump had just been reelected to the presidency, casting a pall over the annual United Nations climate conference, which was then occurring in Azerbaijan. Soon after, he fulfilled his promise to pull the U.S. out of the Paris Agreement, with its goal of restraining global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels. In this episode, we talk with Kate about why every 10th of a degree matters in the fight against climate change, the difference between tipping points and destabilizing feedback loops, and how to think about climate change in a disappointing time. Shift Key is hosted by Robinson Meyer, the founding executive editor of Heatmap, and Jesse Jenkins, a professor of energy systems engineering at Princeton University. Mentioned:  The GOP Tax Bill Is a Dangerous Gamble at a Precarious Moment The UN Environmental Program’s emissions gap report The IPCC’s monumental report on the risks of 1.5C of temperature rise Jesse’s post-Trump op-ed: Trump Is Not the End of the Climate Fight Rob’s piece from 2023 on the “end of climate science” Trump’s Energy Secretary-designate Chris Wright’s speech at the American Conservation Coalition Summit -- Music for Shift Key is by Adam Kromelow. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    43 min
4.8
out of 5
93 Ratings

About

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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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