Shift Key with Robinson Meyer and Jesse Jenkins

Apr 26 2024 116
Shift Key with Robinson Meyer and Jesse Jenkins Podcast artwork

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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The EPA’s Carbon Crackdown Is Finally Here

Apr 26 2024 51 mins  
One of the most important pieces of the Biden administration’s climate policy has arrived: On Thursday, the Environmental Protection Agency issued new rules restricting climate pollution from coal-fired plants and  natural gas plants that haven’t been built yet. The rules will eliminate more than a billion tons of greenhouse gas pollution by the middle of the century.They

How Jigar Shah Thinks About Risk

Apr 24 2024 40 mins  
Jigar Shah might have more control over America’s new wave of industrial policy — not to mention its climate policy — than anyone not named Joe Biden. And he’s not even a Cabinet-level official. As director of the Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office, which is akin to its in-house bank, Shah oversees how roughly $400 billion in lending authority will be spent. That

The U.S. Has a Tesla Problem

Apr 17 2024 62 mins  
It isn’t just bad vibes: Electric vehicle sales are slumping in the United States. Fewer than 300,000 EVs were sold nationwide during the first three months of 2024 — although it could be more than 350,000, depending on how you count and whose data you trust. That’s a slight decline from last quarter at a time when EV sales need to be accelerating.What caused the slump, and w

Is This a New Era of ‘Climate Capitalism’?

Apr 10 2024 63 mins  
Can capitalism solve climate change? Wrong question, argues the author and journalist Akshat Rathi: In fact, you can’t solve climate change without capitalism. Look around the world, as Rathi does in his new book Climate Capitalism, and he says you’ll find companies and leaders who are proving that cutting carbon emissions is not just possible, but also profitable. The ven

A Skeptic’s Take on AI and Energy Growth

Apr 03 2024 63 mins  
Will the rise of machine learning and artificial intelligence break the climate system? In recent months, utilities and tech companies have argued that soaring use of AI will overwhelm electricity markets. Is that true — or is it a sales pitch meant to build more gas plants? And how much electricity do data centers and AI use today?In this week’s episode, Rob and Jesse talk to

Why a Climate Startup Is Building the World’s Biggest Airplane

Mar 27 2024 58 mins  
Radia is a $1 billion climate tech startup with an unusual pitch: It is trying to build the world’s largest airplane. Its proposed aircraft, the Radia Wind Runner, would be as long as a football field, nearly as wide as a New York city block, and capable of carrying 12 times the volume of a Boeing 747. Such a plane could ferry massive wind-turbine blades, unlocking what the compa

What the New Rivians Say About the Future of EVs

Mar 20 2024 57 mins  
Earlier this month, the electric-car maker Rivian announced its new SUV, the R2 — a $45,000 family hauler that will get more than 300 miles in range. It also debuted the R3 and R3X hatchbacks, which entranced online car nerds. These new Rivian models are sleek and important, but they won’t go on sale until 2026 at the earliest. Can Rivian last that long? In this week’s e

A Conversation With Biden’s Former Top Economic Advisor, Part 2

Mar 15 2024 36 mins  
Few people have shaped Bidenomics more than Brian Deese. From 2021 to 2023, Deese led the National Economic Council at the White House, serving as President Joe Biden’s top economic aide. He’s now an Innovation Fellow at MIT, where he helps lead the new Clean Investment Monitor project.In part two of Shift Key’s conversation with Deese, we discuss electric vehicles, the futur

A Conversation With Biden’s Former Top Economic Advisor, Part 1

Mar 13 2024 44 mins  
Few people have shaped Bidenomics more than Brian Deese. From 2021 to 2023, Deese led the National Economic Council at the White House, serving as President Joe Biden’s top economic aide during such events as the post-pandemic recovery, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act. Before that, Deese was global head of sustainable inves

Does Rooftop Solar Actually Help the Climate?

Mar 06 2024 48 mins  
For a few weeks now, Heatmap’s staff writer, Emily Pontecorvo, has been trying to figure out if installing rooftop solar panels on your home actually reduces carbon pollution in a systematic way. In other words: If you own a home, and install solar panels on it, are you doing anything to change how much fossil fuel gets burned in your region or around the world? Or — somewhat c