Resources Radio
Resources for the Future
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Resources Radio is a weekly podcast by Resources for the Future. Each week we talk to leading experts about climate change, electricity, ecosystems, and more, making the latest research accessible to everyone.
Available episodes
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2 days ago
Climate Hits Home: Flooding in Appalachia, with Nico Zegre
This week’s episode is the fifth and final installment of a multipart series called Climate Hits Home, in which guests discuss the effects of climate change on cities and towns across the United States and how local communities are addressing those effects. In this episode, host Margaret Walls talks with Nico Zegre, an associate professor at West Virginia University, about flooding in Appalachia. Zegre discusses the growing problem of floods in the area, including in West Virginia and eastern Kentucky; the unique vulnerability of local communities to this issue; and how local, state, and federal governments can mitigate flooding risks and impacts.
References and recommendations:
“You’re It!” song by Wookiefoot; https://soundcloud.com/wookie-foot/youre-it
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May 30, 2023
Climate Hits Home: Urban Heat Islands in Las Cruces, with Lisa LaRocque
This week’s episode is the fourth in a multipart series called Climate Hits Home, in which guests discuss the effects of climate change on cities and towns in the United States and how local communities are addressing those effects. In this episode, host Kristin Hayes talks with Lisa LaRocque, sustainability officer for the city of Las Cruces in New Mexico, about how urban infrastructure can intensify heat. LaRocque discusses the ways in which climate change affects temperatures in urban areas, how extreme heat disproportionately impacts certain communities, and the methods applied by Las Cruces and other jurisdictions to mitigate the risks of urban heat islands.
References and recommendations:
“Planning for Urban Heat Resilience” by Ladd Keith and Sara Meerow; https://www.planning.org/publications/report/9245695/
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May 21, 2023
Climate Hits Home: Wildfires in the American West, with Kimi Barrett
This week’s episode is the third in a multipart series called Climate Hits Home, in which guests discuss the effects of climate change in the United States and how local communities are addressing those effects. In this episode, host Margaret Walls talks with Kimi Barrett, a research and policy analyst at Headwaters Economics, about wildfires in the American West. Barrett discusses the growing wildfire problem in the West; how climate change is affecting wildfire in the region; the ecological function of wildfire; and how local and state governments in the West are mitigating wildfire risk.
References and recommendations:
“Building for Wildfire” from Headwaters Economics; https://headwaterseconomics.org/headwaters/building-for-wildfire/
Books by Stephen J. Pyne; https://www.stephenpyne.com/works.htm
“The Big Burn” by Timothy Egan; https://www.timothyeganbooks.com/the-big-burn
“How risk management can prevent future wildfire disasters in the wildland-urban interface” by David E. Calkin, Jack D. Cohen, Mark A. Finney, and Matthew P. Thompson; https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1315088111
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May 14, 2023
Climate Hits Home: Water Availability in Phoenix, with Kathryn Sorensen
This week’s episode is the second in a multipart series called Climate Hits Home, in which guests discuss the effects of climate change in US cities and towns and how local communities are addressing those effects. In this episode, host Kristin Hayes talks with Kathryn Sorensen about how the city of Phoenix, Arizona, has been preparing for uncertainty around water availability. Sorensen is a professor of practice at Arizona State University and a former director of Phoenix Water Services. Sorensen discusses how climate change is affecting the desert Southwest, how Phoenix encourages responsible water use, the importance of water-delivery infrastructure, and water-related lessons that other cities can learn from Phoenix.
References and recommendations:
“A Quiet Revolution: Southwest Cities Learn to Thrive Amid Drought” by Jim Robbins; https://e360.yale.edu/features/a-quiet-revolution-southwest-cities-learn-to-thrive-amid-drought
“The Unreasonable Virtue of Fly Fishing” by Mark Kurlansky; https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/unreasonable-virtue-of-fly-fishing-9781635578751/
“Khrushchev Remembers” by Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev; https://books.google.com/books?id=a4YjAQAAIAAJ
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May 6, 2023
Climate Hits Home: Rising Seas in Norfolk, Virginia, with Skip Stiles
This week’s episode is the first in a multipart series called Climate Hits Home, in which guests discuss the effects of climate change in US cities and towns and how local communities are addressing those effects. In this episode, host Margaret Walls talks with Skip Stiles, executive director of the nonprofit Wetlands Watch, about how the coastal city of Norfolk, Virginia, is adapting to sea level rise, frequent flooding, and other effects of climate change. Stiles discusses how flooding and other climate impacts affect daily life in Norfolk; how wetlands can help mitigate the effects of climate change on the coast; and how local, state, and federal policies can support efforts to help communities adapt to climate change.
References and recommendations:
“The Future of Life” by Edward O. Wilson; https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/191845/the-future-of-life-by-edward-o-wilson/
“A Sand County Almanac” by Aldo Leopold; https://www.aldoleopold.org/about/aldo-leopold/sand-county-almanac/
“The Land Ethic” essay by Aldo Leopold; https://www.aldoleopold.org/about/the-land-ethic/
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Apr 30, 2023
From Rails to Trails, with Peter Harnik
In this week’s episode, host Margaret Walls talks with Peter Harnik, cofounder of the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, about grassroots and legislative efforts to repurpose abandoned railroad lines as recreational trails. Harnik discusses why the United States has so many abandoned railroad lines, the process of converting a railroad line into a trail, and the legislation that provides funding for trail projects.
References and recommendations:
“From Rails to Trails: The Making of America’s Active Transportation Network” by Peter Harnik; https://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/nebraska/9781496222060/
Rails-to-Trails Conservancy; https://www.railstotrails.org/
“Stolen Focus” by Johann Hari; https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/634289/stolen-focus-by-johann-hari/
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Apr 22, 2023
Environmental Education through the Smithsonian, with Carol O’Donnell
In this week’s episode, host Margaret Walls talks with Carol O’Donnell, executive director of the Smithsonian Science Education Center in Washington, DC, about educating students in kindergarten through grade 12 about sustainability and environmental issues. O’Donnell discusses how the Sustainable Development Goals, formulated by the United Nations, provide a global framework for youth education; how working with educational material in a local context can help students gain data literacy skills; and how the Smithsonian Science Education Center tailors curricula on environmental issues and climate change to different age groups.
References and recommendations:
“Data, discourse, and development: Building a sustainable world through education and science communication” by Heidi Gibson, Mary E. Short, and Carol O’Donnell; https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2023.981988/full
Smithsonian Science Education Center; https://ssec.si.edu/
Smithsonian Science for Global Goals Project; https://ssec.si.edu/global-goals
EJScreen: Environmental Justice Screening and Mapping Tool, from the US Environmental Protection Agency; https://www.epa.gov/ejscreen
“Science Denial: Why It Happens and What to Do About It” by Gale Sinatra and Barbara Hofer; https://academic.oup.com/book/39889
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Apr 13, 2023
Dancing toward Net Zero: Greening New York City’s Nightlife, with Amer Jandali
In this week’s special Earth Day episode, host Kristin Hayes talks with Amer Jandali, founder and CEO of Future Meets Present and a consultant to the New York City Office of Nightlife, about climate solutions for the nightlife industry in New York City. Jandali discusses how major metropolises can promote sustainable practices in the service industry and advocate for climate policy, how the New York City Office of Nightlife is engaging nightclubs in climate efforts, and the climate solutions that the nightlife industry in New York has been pursuing to date.
References and recommendations:
“Climate Solutions at Work” from Project Drawdown; https://drawdown.org/publications/climate-solutions-at-work
“New York’s Scoping Plan for Climate Action, with Maureen Leddy” from the “Resources Radio” podcast; https://www.resources.org/resources-radio/new-yorks-scoping-plan-for-climate-action-with-maureen-leddy/
“Leave Looking Up” podcast; https://www.leavelookingup.com/
“Atomic Habits” by James Clear; https://jamesclear.com/atomic-habits
“We need the right kind of climate optimism” by Hannah Ritchie; https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/23622511/climate-doomerism-optimism-progress-environmentalism
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Apr 9, 2023
Progress on Goals of the Paris Agreement: Do Recent Pledges Close the Gap?, with Lara Aleluia Reis
In this week’s episode, host Kristin Hayes talks with Lara Aleluia Reis, a scientist at the RFF-CMCC European Institute on Economics and the Environment, about the extent of progress that’s been made internationally on climate goals that aim to limit global warming to below 2°C. Reis discusses the significance of the Conference of the Parties meetings in Paris and Glasgow (which were held in 2015 and 2021, respectively), how national climate pledges compare with the goals in the Paris Agreement, and how economic models can incorporate and inform climate policy.
References and recommendations:
“Glasgow to Paris—The impact of the Glasgow commitments for the Paris climate agreement” by Lara Aleluia Reis and Massimo Tavoni; https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S258900422300010X
“The Last of Us” television show; https://www.hbo.com/the-last-of-us
“In the Country of Last Things” by Paul Auster; https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/301190/in-the-country-of-last-things-by-paul-auster/
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Apr 1, 2023
Getting to Yes: Building Cleaner, Faster, with Katie McGinty and Jim Connaughton
In this week’s episode, host Kristin Hayes talks with Katie McGinty and Jim Connaughton about how to accelerate the permitting process for clean energy projects. McGinty is vice president and chief sustainability and external relations officer at Johnson Controls, and Connaughton is chair of Nautilus Data Technologies and a member of the board of directors at Resources for the Future. McGinty and Connaughton discuss why project delays are a central challenge in the clean energy transition, how clean energy projects can support environmental justice communities, and the types of permitting reforms that can help deploy funding for clean energy that’s available through recent laws such as the Inflation Reduction Act.
References and recommendations:
“Building Cleaner, Faster: Creating Permitting Systems that Enable Decarbonization Infrastructure Deployment” from the Aspen Institute, by James L. Connaughton, Katie McGinty, Brent Alderfer, Roger Ballentine, Donnel Baird, Dan Esty, Roger Martella, Manisha Patel, Nancy Pfund, Rich Powell, Bill Ritter, Emily Schapira, and Michael Skelly; https://www.aspeninstitute.org/publications/building-cleaner-faster-report/
“Termination Shock” by Neal Stephenson; https://www.harpercollins.com/products/termination-shock-neal-stephenson
Princeton faculty member Jesse Jenkins; https://cpree.princeton.edu/people/jesse-jenkins
Donnel Baird and BlocPower; https://www.blocpower.io/
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Mar 26, 2023
Shining Light on Clean Energy Workforce Development, with Adewale OgunBadejo
In this week’s episode, host Kristin Hayes talks with Adewale OgunBadejo, vice president for workforce development at GRID Alternatives, the largest nonprofit installer of solar panels in the United States. OgunBadejo and Hayes discuss how an organization can recruit and train people effectively in the solar industry, how partnerships with organizations in clean energy industries can bolster workforce development, and how the clean energy transition offers important opportunities for positive socioeconomic change.
References and recommendations:
“Key Recommendations: Cultivating a Diverse and Skilled Talent Pipeline for the Equitable Transition” from the Interstate Renewable Energy Council; https://irecusa.org/resources/key-recommendations-cultivating-a-diverse-and-skilled-talent-pipeline-for-the-equitable-transition/
“National Solar Jobs Census 2021” from the Interstate Renewable Energy Council; https://irecusa.org/resources/national-solar-jobs-census-2021/
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Mar 19, 2023
Energy Transition in Canada’s Oil Sands, with Andrew Leach
In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Andrew Leach, a professor at the University of Alberta, about the oil and gas industry in Alberta, Canada. Leach discusses how oil and gas are extracted in Alberta’s oil sands region, the environmental liabilities that result from this type of extraction, tensions between provincial and national leaders over environmental policies and emissions-reduction goals, how First Nations participate in the decisionmaking related to energy development, the energy transition, and more.
“The Patch” by Chris Turner; https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Patch/Chris-Turner/9781501115103
“How to Be a Climate Optimist” by Chris Turner; https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/668167/how-to-be-a-climate-optimist-by-chris-turner/9780735281974
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Mar 12, 2023
Protecting Habitats and Meeting Net-Zero Emissions Targets, with Grace Wu
In this week’s episode, host Margaret Walls talks with Grace Wu, an assistant professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, about the intersection of land use change and the adoption and implementation of clean energy technologies. Wu discusses the impacts of land use change on species and ecosystems, the land use requirements of different clean energy technologies, and strategies that can help us meet net-zero energy targets while minimizing negative impacts on habitats and ecosystems.
References and recommendations:
“Minimizing habitat conflicts in meeting net-zero energy targets in the western United States” by Grace C. Wu, Ryan A. Jones, Emily Leslie, James H. Williams, Andrew Pascale, Erica Brand, Sophie S. Parker, Brian S. Cohen, Joseph E. Fargione, Julia Souder, Maya Batres, Mary G. Gleason, Michael H. Schindel, and Charlotte K. Stanley; https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2204098120
“Clean Energy Solutions that Protect People and Nature in the West” f…
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Mar 5, 2023
An Environmental and Economic History of the Bering Strait, with Bathsheba Demuth
In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Bathsheba Demuth, an associate professor at Brown University, about the history of the Bering Strait, which separates Alaska and northeastern Russia. Demuth discusses the ecosystems, peoples, and economic systems in the region and how interactions between Indigenous peoples and colonial settlers affected the local environment and social and political life around the Bering Strait.
References and recommendations:
“Floating Coast: An Environmental History of the Bering Strait” by Bathsheba Demuth; https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393635164
“Wolfish: Wolf, Self, and the Stories We Tell About Fear” by Erica Berry; https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250821621/wolfish
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Feb 26, 2023
Opportunities and Risks of Scaling Up Carbon Dioxide Removal, with Gregory Nemet
In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Gregory Nemet, a professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, about technologies and natural processes that can remove carbon dioxide from Earth’s atmosphere. Nemet discusses efforts in the public and private sectors to deploy new technologies, benefits and costs of different methods of carbon dioxide removal, and the risks and challenges of using carbon dioxide removal to reach global climate goals.
References and recommendations:
“The State of Carbon Dioxide Removal” by Stephen M. Smith, Oliver Geden, Jan C. Minx, and Gregory F. Nemet; https://www.stateofcdr.org/
“Scrubbing the Sky: Inside the Race to Cool the Planet” by Paul McKendrick; https://www.figure1publishing.com/book/scrubbing-the-sky/
“Purple Mountains” film; https://www.purplemountainsfilm.com/
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Feb 18, 2023
How Can Disasters Damage Local Budgets?, with Yanjun (Penny) Liao
In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Yanjun (Penny) Liao, a fellow at Resources for the Future, about the effect of weather-related disasters on local government finances. Liao discusses how municipalities, states, and the federal government provide disaster aid; how these disasters can affect tax revenues and the ability of local governments to provide community services; and how the fiscal impacts of natural disasters differ between higher- and lower-income communities.
References and recommendations:
“The Fiscal Impacts of Wildfires on California Municipalities” by Yanjun (Penny) Liao and Carolyn Kousky; https://www.rff.org/publications/journal-articles/the-fiscal-impacts-of-wildfires-on-california-municipalities/
“Extreme Weather Events and Local Fiscal Responses: Evidence from U.S. Counties” by Qing Miao, Michael Abrigo, Yilin Hou, and Yanjun (Penny) Liao; https://www.rff.org/publications/journal-articles/extreme-weather-events-and-local-fiscal-respons…
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Feb 12, 2023
Environmental Justice and the Cumulative Impacts of Pollution, with Ana Baptista
In this week’s episode, host Margaret Walls talks with Ana Baptista, an associate professor at the New School in New York City and codirector of its Tishman Environment and Design Center. Baptista discusses the cumulative impacts of pollution on environmental justice communities; the sources of pollution in these communities; and the groundbreaking legislation and data tools that are being employed by state governments, researchers, and environmental justice groups to mitigate cumulative impacts in overburdened communities.
References and recommendations:
“Understanding the Evolution of Cumulative Impacts: Definitions and Policies in the U.S.” by Ana Isabel Baptista, Adrienne Perovich, Maria Fernanda Pulido-Velosa, Enrique Valencia, Marisa Valdez, and Jennifer Ventrella; https://www.tishmancenter.org/blog/new-research-understanding-the-evolution-of-cumulative-impacts-definitions-and-policies-in-the-us
Articles by Rachel Morello-Frosch; https://scholar.google.com/citations?user…
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Feb 5, 2023
Hydrogen Fuel Technology, Policy, and Environmental Risks, with Aaron Bergman and Alan Krupnick
In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Aaron Bergman and Alan Krupnick—both scholars at Resources for the Future—about the technology and policy landscape of hydrogen fuel. Bergman and Krupnick discuss methods of hydrogen fuel production, the raft of new federal policies that incentivize the production of low-emissions hydrogen and build up the regional marketplaces known as “hydrogen hubs,” why some communities oppose hydrogen development, and how hydrogen can contribute to global warming.
References and recommendations:
“The Opposite of Butterfly Hunting” by Evanna Lynch; https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/677563/the-opposite-of-butterfly-hunting-by-evanna-lynch/
“Clue” movie; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clue_(film)
“Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” movie; https://www.netflix.com/title/81458416
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Jan 28, 2023
New York’s Scoping Plan for Climate Action, with Maureen Leddy
In this week’s episode, host Kristin Hayes talks with Maureen Leddy, who serves as director of the Office of Climate Change at the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. Leddy discusses the state’s recently approved Scoping Plan, which proposes strategies for meeting the state’s emissions-reduction goals that are required by the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act of 2019. Leddy reviews how the plan was developed, the community engagement involved in the development process, and specific emissions-reduction strategies that are outlined in the Scoping Plan.
References and recommendations:
“New York State Climate Action Council Scoping Plan” from the New York State Climate Action Council; https://climate.ny.gov/ScopingPlan
“Estimating the Value of Carbon: Two Approaches” by Resources for the Future and New York State Energy Research and Development Authority; https://www.rff.org/publications/reports/estimating-the-value-of-carbon-two-approac…
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Jan 22, 2023
Measuring Scholarly Diversity in Environmental Economics, with Neha Khanna and Nick Kuminoff
In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with researchers Neha Khanna and Nick Kuminoff about the diversity of scholars in the field of environmental and resource economics. Khanna is a professor of economics at Binghamton University, and Kuminoff is an associate professor of economics at Arizona State University. Khanna and Kuminoff discuss the gender equity of authorship in environmental economics journals, equity in tenure-track academic jobs, how diversity in a research field contributes to the advancement of scientific knowledge, the state of the community of environmental economists, and prospects for early-career scholars.
References and recommendations:
“New Evidence on Diversity in Environmental and Resource Economics” by Nicolai V. Kuminoff, Katherine E. Ciaramello, Hanna M. Dooley, Martin D. Heintzelman, Neha Khanna, Lea-Rachel Kosnik, Lynne Y. Lewis, and Eric Trimble; https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/722907
“Don’t Look Up” film; https://ww…
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Jan 15, 2023
A History of America’s Public Lands, with John D. Leshy
In this week’s episode, host Margaret Walls talks with John D. Leshy, an emeritus professor at the University of California College of the Law, San Francisco, about the history of public lands in the United States. Leshy discusses the legislation that enabled the creation and conservation of public lands, common myths about public lands, and how the government may open up public lands for mining or clean energy projects in the future.
References and recommendations:
“Our Common Ground: A History of America’s Public Lands” by John D. Leshy; https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300235784/our-common-ground/
“The Mining Law: A Study in Perpetual Motion” by John D. Leshy; https://www.routledge.com/The-Mining-Law-A-Study-in-Perpetual-Motion/Leshy/p/book/9781138951877
“End of the Megafauna: The Fate of the World’s Hugest, Fiercest, and Strangest Animals” by Ross D. E. MacPhee; https://wwnorton.com/books/End-of-the-Megafauna/
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Jan 10, 2023
Does Cap and Trade Exacerbate Environmental Injustice in California?, with Danae Hernández-Cortés
In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Danae Hernández-Cortés, an assistant professor at Arizona State University, about a recent study that investigates how California’s cap-and-trade program affects levels of harmful pollutants in environmental justice communities. Hernández-Cortés discusses how carbon markets can shift concentrations of local air pollutants, environmental justice outcomes of the cap-and-trade program in California, and the need for policies that target issues of environmental justice.
References and recommendations:
“Do environmental markets cause environmental injustice? Evidence from California’s carbon market” by Danae Hernández-Cortés and Kyle C. Meng; https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047272722001888
“Cracking the Case of the Vanishing Air Pollution Data, with Eric Zou” on Resources Radio; https://www.resources.org/resources-radio/cracking-the-case-of-the-vanishing-air-pollution-data-with-eric-zou/
“The…
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Jan 1, 2023
2022 Year in Review: Energy and Environmental Policy, with Catherine Wolfram and John Larsen
In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi recaps 2022 with Catherine Wolfram, a visiting professor at the Harvard Kennedy School and member of the board of directors at Resources for the Future, and John Larsen, a partner at Rhodium Group. Wolfram and Larsen offer insights on the year’s biggest stories in energy and environmental policy at the state, national, and international levels, including US climate legislation and how Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has affected energy markets. They also look ahead to the developments in energy and environmental policy that are likely to become important in 2023.
References and recommendations:
“Catalyst with Shayle Kann” podcast from Canary Media; https://www.canarymedia.com/podcasts/catalyst-with-shayle-kann
“California Burning: The Fall of Pacific Gas and Electric—and What It Means for America’s Power Grid” by Katherine Blunt; https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/670012/california-burning-by-katherine-blunt/
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Dec 25, 2022
Does Environmental Cleanup Lead to Environmental Gentrification?, with Elaine Hill
In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Elaine Hill, an associate professor at the University of Rochester, about a recent study that examines the effects of hazardous-waste cleanup on local communities. Hill discusses whether a particular federal cleanup program—the Corrective Action Program established under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act—benefits the residents it intends to help, or if it instead may lead to higher housing prices that could push lower-income residents out of their communities.
References and recommendations:
“Who Benefits from Hazardous Waste Cleanups? Evidence from the Housing Market” by Alecia W. Cassidy, Elaine L. Hill, and Lala Ma; https://www.nber.org/papers/w30661
“Moving Beyond Cleanup: Identifying the Crucibles of Environmental Gentrification” by H. Spencer Banzhaf and Eleanor McCormick; https://www.epa.gov/environmental-economics/working-paper-moving-beyond-cleanup-identifying-crucibles-environmental
“The Economi…
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Dec 17, 2022
Hurricane Impacts on Birth Outcomes, with Jacob Hochard
In this week’s episode, host Margaret Walls talks with Jacob Hochard, an assistant professor at the University of Wyoming, about a new study that explores how hurricanes affect birth outcomes. Hochard discusses why hurricanes produce negative birth outcomes, the long-term effects of negative birth outcomes, and further research and policies that could help reduce the negative impacts of tropical storms.
References and recommendations:
“Associations of hurricane exposure and forecasting with impaired birth outcomes” by Jacob Hochard, Yuanhao Li, and Nino Abashidze; https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-33865-x
“Integrating Nature into US Economic Statistics, with Eli Fenichel” on Resources Radio; https://www.resources.org/resources-radio/integrating-nature-into-us-economic-statistics-with-eli-fenichel/
“The Social Value of Predicting Hurricanes” by Renato Molina and Ivan Rudik; https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4266614
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Dec 10, 2022
Who Wants Wind and Solar in Their Communities?, with Sarah Mills
In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Sarah Mills, a researcher at the University of Michigan, about rural communities in the Great Lakes region and their perspectives on local renewable energy projects. Mills and Raimi discuss how rural communities tend to receive and perceive renewables projects, why large-scale projects often face opposition, and the extent to which outside interests may be fostering local opposition.
References and recommendations:
“The Rural Review” newsletter; https://www.ruralreconcile.org/ruralreview
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Dec 4, 2022
Understanding Water and Energy in the Navajo Nation, with Andrew Curley
In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Andrew Curley, an assistant professor at the University of Arizona and a member of the Navajo Nation. Curley works on how Native nations and the US government manage water and energy resources in a complex social, political, and geographic landscape. Curley and Raimi discuss water and energy issues in the Navajo Nation where Andrew lives, and how history, politics, economics, and social factors affect the decisions that relate to the governance of these essential resources.
References and recommendations:
“Our Winters’ Rights: Challenging Colonial Water Laws” by Andrew Curley; https://direct.mit.edu/glep/article/19/3/57/14963/Our-Winters-Rights-Challenging-Colonial-Water-Laws
“Floating Coast: An Environmental History of the Bering Strait” by Bathsheba Demuth; https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393635164
“Carbon Technocracy: Energy Regimes in Modern East Asia” by Victor Seow; https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/c…
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Dec 3, 2022
Wildfires: Burning through State Budgets, with Colin Foard
In this week’s episode, host Kristin Hayes talks with Colin Foard, a manager at the Pew Charitable Trusts, about a new report that documents how efforts to reduce wildfire risks are stressing state budgets. Foard and Hayes acknowledge that figuring out how to pay for wildfire mitigation and recovery is critical for many levels of government; discuss how local, state, and federal governments collaborate on wildfire suppression; and walk through recommendations for reducing the costs of wildfire management.
References and recommendations:
“Wildfires: Burning through State Budgets” from the Pew Charitable Trusts; https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/reports/2022/11/wildfires-burning-through-state-budgets
“Disaster Recovery: Actions Needed to Improve the Federal Approach” from the US Government Accountability Office; https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-23-104956
“Highlights Hello” magazine; https://www.nappaawards.com/product/highlights-hello-magazine-by-highli…
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Nov 27, 2022
Overcoming the Obstacles in the Mid-Transition to Clean Energy, with Emily Grubert
In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks about the clean energy transition with Emily Grubert, an associate professor of sustainable energy policy at the University of Notre Dame. Grubert discusses challenges associated with the “mid-transition,” a period of the clean energy transition when both fossil fuels and clean energy infrastructure may be necessary. Grubert and Raimi examine the investments, policies, and communication strategies that could help maintain a reliable and affordable energy system during the tricky mid-transition period.
References and recommendations:
“Designing the mid-transition: A review of medium-term challenges for coordinated decarbonization in the United States” by Emily Grubert and Sara Hastings-Simon; https://wires.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/wcc.768
“Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago” by Eric Klinenberg; https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/H/bo20809880.html
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Nov 18, 2022
One Rural Community’s Uncertain Energy Future, with Kelli Roemer
In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Kelli Roemer, a PhD candidate in earth sciences at Montana State University. Roemer discusses a small town in Montana called Colstrip, which historically has been dependent on coal mining and coal-fired power generation. Their conversation examines the importance of the local coal industry to Colstrip’s community and how local stakeholders are planning for the possible closure of the Rosebud Mine and power plant in Colstrip.
References and recommendations:
“The energy transition as fiscal rupture: Public services and resilience pathways in a coal company town” by Kelli F. Roemer and Julia H. Haggerty; https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2214629622002560
“Coal Communities in Transition: A Case Study of Colstrip, Montana” by Kelli Roemer, Daniel Raimi, and Rebecca Glaser; https://www.rff.org/publications/reports/coal-communities-in-transition-a-case-study-of-colstrip-montana/
“Richest Hill” podcas…
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Nov 13, 2022
Fostering the Forest Economy in the United States, with James Boyd
In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with James Boyd, a senior fellow at Resources for the Future, about the implications of recent private-sector and government investments in US forests for wildlife management, forest products markets, and forest conservation efforts. Boyd examines how these investments could affect wildfire risk, communities that rely on nearby forests, and the scale at which forests can store carbon dioxide.
References and recommendations:
“Aubrey-Maturin series” of nautical historical novels; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aubrey%E2%80%93Maturin_series
“Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World” film; https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0311113/
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Oct 28, 2022
Choking on Wildfire Smoke: Quantifying Its Effects on Air Pollution, with Marissa Childs
In this week’s episode, host Kristin Hayes talks with Marissa Childs, a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard University Center for the Environment, about a recently published study that explores the prevalence and dangers of wildfire smoke in the United States. Childs discusses changes in the location and frequency of wildfire smoke, the degree to which increased prevalence of air pollution can be attributed to wildfire smoke, and the disproportionate effect of wildfire smoke on certain groups of people.
References and recommendations:
“Daily Local-Level Estimates of Ambient Wildfire Smoke PM2.5 for the Contiguous US” by Marissa L. Childs, Jessica Li, Jeffrey Wen, Sam Heft-Neal, Anne Driscoll, Sherrie Wang, Carlos F. Gould, Minghao Qiu, Jennifer Burney, and Marshall Burke; https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.2c02934
“All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis” edited by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Katharine K. Wilkinson; https://www.allwecansa…
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Oct 22, 2022
Integrating Nature into US Economic Statistics, with Eli Fenichel
This week, podcast co-host Margaret Walls joins Resources Radio for her first episode, with guest Eli Fenichel, the Assistant Director for Natural Resource Economics and Accounting in the Office of Science and Technology Policy at the White House. Fenichel and Walls discuss the recently announced plan from the Biden-Harris administration to integrate the value of natural resources and the environment with measurements of the national economy, such as GDP.
References and recommendations:
“National Strategy to Develop Statistics for Environmental-Economic Decisions: A US System of Natural Capital Accounting and Associated Environmental-Economic Statistics” from the Office of Science and Technology Policy, the Office of Management and Budget, and the Department of Commerce; https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Natural-Capital-Accounting-Strategy.pdf
“This Explains Everything” by John Brockman; https://www.harpercollins.com/products/this-explains-everything-john…
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Oct 14, 2022
A Funder’s View on Energy and the Environment, with Evan Michelson
This week, host Kristin Hayes talks with Evan Michelson, a program director at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation who oversees the foundation’s energy and environment program. They discuss the world of energy and environmental research from a funder’s perspective: how philanthropies set funding priorities, how the world of environmental philanthropy has evolved, and why research matters.
References and recommendations:
“Philanthropy and the Future of Science and Technology” by Evan S. Michelson; https://www.routledge.com/Philanthropy-and-the-Future-of-Science-and-Technology/Michelson/p/book/9780367498832
“The Genesis of Technoscientific Revolutions: Rethinking the Nature and Nurture of Research” by Venkatesh Narayanamurti and Jeffrey Y. Tsao; https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674251854
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Oct 9, 2022
Getting to a Net-Zero Resilient Economy, with Billy Pizer
This week, host Daniel Raimi talks with Billy Pizer, the vice president for research and policy engagement at Resources for the Future, about getting to a net-zero resilient economy. Pizer discusses the meaning of “net-zero resilient economy,” the existing suite of global net-zero goals and pledges, and how recent federal policy has moved the United States closer to its net-zero goals. Pizer and Raimi also talk about barriers to achieving a net-zero future, including the potential tension between reducing emissions deeply and reducing emissions quickly.
References and recommendations:
Net-Zero Economy Summit from Resources for the Future; https://www.rff.org/events/conferences/net-zero-economy-summit/
“US Federal Government Subsidies for Clean Energy: Design Choices and Implications” by Richard G. Newell, Billy Pizer, and Daniel Raimi; https://www.rff.org/publications/journal-articles/us-federal-government-subsidies-clean-energy-design-choices-and-implications/
“Inflation…
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Oct 2, 2022
A Global Look at Urban Air Quality, with Pallavi Pant
In this week’s episode, host Kristin Hayes talks about air pollution with Pallavi Pant, the head of global health at the Health Effects Institute. Pant discusses a new study that explores the prevalence of fine particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide pollution in more than 7,000 cities worldwide. Pant and Hayes also delve into the health effects of air pollution, trends in urban air quality in regions around the world, and how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted air quality.
References and recommendations:
“Air Quality and Health in Cities: A State of Global Air Report” from the Health Effects Institute; https://www.stateofglobalair.org/resources/health-in-cities
“Agents of Change in Environmental Justice” podcast; https://agentsofchangeinej.org/podcast/
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Sep 25, 2022
The Latest in Nuclear Energy Innovation and Deployment, with Alex Gilbert
In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks about the latest developments in nuclear energy innovation, policy, and deployment with Alex Gilbert, a PhD student and fellow at the Payne Institute for Public Policy at Colorado School of Mines and the Director of Space and Planetary Regulation at Zeno Power. Gilbert discusses the types of nuclear technologies in the development pipeline, how they differ from older technologies, which technologies are being piloted, and how recent policies—especially the Inflation Reduction Act—incentivize the deployment of these technologies.
References and recommendations:
“Global Energy Outlook 2022: Turning Points and Tension in the Energy Transition” by Daniel Raimi, Erin Campbell, Richard G. Newell, Brian C. Prest, Seth Villanueva, and Jordan Wingenroth; https://www.rff.org/publications/reports/global-energy-outlook-2022/
“Our Great National Parks” television series; https://www.netflix.com/title/81086133
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Sep 18, 2022
Diving In: Who Has Clean Water in the United States?, with Gregory Pierce
In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks about drinking water with Gregory Pierce, the codirector of the Luskin Center for Innovation at the University of California, Los Angeles. Pierce discusses who has and who lacks clean drinking water in the United States, what factors have contributed to differing levels of access to clean water, the potential policies and investments that can help expand access to clean water, and the challenges that climate change and pollutants may pose to this expansion.
References and recommendations:
“Waste: One Woman’s Fight Against America’s Dirty Secret” by Catherine Coleman Flowers; https://thenewpress.com/books/waste
“The Water Knife” by Paolo Bacigalupi; https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/237233/the-water-knife-by-paolo-bacigalupi/
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Sep 11, 2022
Unveiling Hidden Energy Poverty, with Destenie Nock
In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Destenie Nock, an assistant professor at Carnegie Mellon University. Nock shares insights from a recent paper she coauthored that shows how, on hot days, Black and low-income households wait relatively longer than other households to turn on their air-conditioning units, which puts them at a greater risk of heat-related illnesses. She examines the reasons behind this behavior and provides an overview of energy insecurity and energy poverty in the United States.
References and recommendations:
“Unveiling hidden energy poverty using the energy equity gap” by Shuchen Cong, Destenie Nock, Yueming Lucy Qiu, and Bo Xing; https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-30146-5
“Heat-Associated Mortality in a Hot Climate” by Sally Ann Iverson, Aaron Gettel, Carly P. Bezold, Kate Goodin, Benita McKinney, Rebecca Sunenshine, and Vjollca Berisha; https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7485058/
“Doughnut Economics” by Kate Raw…
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Sep 4, 2022
A New Social Cost of Carbon, with Brian Prest and Kevin Rennert
In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with two fellows at Resources for the Future: Brian C. Prest and Kevin Rennert. Prest and Rennert, alongside a large team of collaborators, recently released a paper in the journal “Nature” that provides a new estimate of the social cost of carbon—the quantification, in dollars, of the economic damages associated with emitting an incremental ton of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. For the podcast, they describe what’s new about this estimate, how it differs from previous numbers, and its implications for policymaking. They also discuss the important uncertainties associated with the estimate, along with assertions made by some critics that we should put less focus on using the social cost of carbon.
References and recommendations:
“Comprehensive Evidence Implies a Higher Social Cost of CO2” by Kevin Rennert, Frank Errickson, Brian C. Prest, Lisa Rennels, Richard G. Newell, William Pizer, Cora Kingdon, Jordan Wingenroth,…
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Aug 28, 2022
Sweet Fuel: How Sugar Came to Power Brazil’s Vehicles, with Jennifer Eaglin
In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Jennifer Eaglin, an associate professor of history and faculty member in the Sustainability Institute at the Ohio State University. Eaglin discusses the evolution of sugar-based ethanol as a fuel source for transportation and the lessons that governments can draw from that evolution for their own development of alternative energy sources. Eaglin and Raimi also talk about how the ethanol industry came to prominence in Brazil and how its use improved air quality while damaging water quality, ecosystems, and certain Brazilian communities.
References and recommendations:
“Sweet Fuel” by Jennifer Eaglin; https://global.oup.com/academic/product/sweet-fuel-9780197510681 (offer code “AAFLYG6” provides a discount)
“The Organic Machine: The Remaking of the Columbia River” by Richard White; https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780809015832/theorganicmachine
“Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water” by Mark…
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Aug 21, 2022
Illegal Mining in the Amazon, with Manuela Andreoni
In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Manuela Andreoni, a writer at the climate desk of the New York Times. Andreoni discusses illegal mining operations in the Brazilian Amazon, why so-called wildcat mining has proliferated in recent years, and how these mining activities affect the environment and Indigenous people. Andreoni and Raimi talk about the measures that governments in Brazil and elsewhere could take to stop illegal mining in the Amazon and how the mined materials have been entering the global economy.
References and recommendations:
“The Illegal Airstrips Bringing Toxic Mining to Brazil’s Indigenous Land” by Manuela Andreoni, Blacki Migliozzi, Pablo Robles, and Denise Lu; https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/08/02/world/americas/brazil-airstrips-illegal-mining.html
“The Falling Sky: Words of a Yanomami Shaman” by Davi Kopenawa and Bruce Albert; https://www.hup.harvard.edu/features/the-falling-sky/
“Ideas to Postpone the End of the World…
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Aug 14, 2022
Upending Conventional Wisdom on Carbon Pricing in the Power Sector, with Ryan Kellogg
In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Ryan Kellogg, a professor at the Harris School of Public Policy and affiliated faculty at the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago. Kellogg discusses why carbon pricing, long the preferred emissions-reduction tool for most economists, actually may not be as efficient as other policy options. Kellogg and Raimi explore how economic theory has led many to favor carbon pricing, and why the conventional wisdom on carbon pricing may turn out to be wrong in the real world.
References and recommendations:
“Carbon Pricing, Clean Electricity Standards, and Clean Electricity Subsidies on the Path to Zero Emissions” by Severin Borenstein and Ryan Kellogg; https://www.nber.org/papers/w30263
“Superpower: One Man’s Quest to Transform American Energy” by Russell Gold; https://www.russellgold.net/superpower
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Aug 5, 2022
Sustainable Aviation Fuels, with Zia Abdullah
In this week’s episode, host Kristin Hayes talks with Zia Abdullah, a program manager at the US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Abdullah and Hayes discuss what sustainable aviation fuels are made of, how they are refined and manufactured, and how they compare to traditional jet fuel. Abdullah also discusses the challenges in store for the United States in reaching the federal government’s sustainable aviation fuel production goals for 2030.
References and recommendations:
“Climate Friendly Jet Fuel: 3 Strategies for Accelerating its Production” by Zia Abdullah; https://www.energy.gov/eere/bioenergy/articles/climate-friendly-jet-fuel-3-strategies-accelerating-its-production
“The economic outlook for converting CO₂ and electrons to molecules” by Zhe Huang, R. Gary Grim, Joshua A. Schaidle, and Ling Tao; https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2021/ee/d0ee03525d
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Jul 28, 2022
Critical Materials in the Energy Supply Chain, with Helena Khazdozian
In this week’s episode, host Kristin Hayes talks with Helena Khazdozian, a senior technology manager at the US Department of Energy and program manager for the agency’s Critical Materials Institute. Khazdozian and Hayes discuss why the materials that the institute prioritizes are important to future decarbonization efforts. They also talk about supply chains, research efforts, and breakthroughs happening more broadly with other teams throughout the Department of Energy.
References and recommendations:
“Securing America’s Clean Energy Supply Chain” from the US Department of Energy; https://www.energy.gov/policy/securing-americas-clean-energy-supply-chain
“His Dark Materials” trilogy of books by Philip Pullman, including “The Golden Compass,” “The Subtle Knife,” and “The Amber Spyglass”; https://www.philip-pullman.com/hdm
“Happy-Go-Lucky” by David Sedaris; https://www.davidsedarisbooks.com/titles/david-sedaris/happy-go-lucky/9780316392457/
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Jul 25, 2022
Climate and Weather, with Jason Samenow of the Capital Weather Gang
In this week’s episode, host Kristin Hayes talks with Jason Samenow, weather editor for the Washington Post and one of the leaders of the Post’s Capital Weather Gang. They discuss the intersection of climate change and weather, with a particular focus on how meteorologists communicate with the public about climate change in a scientifically rigorous way and how that communication has evolved alongside climate science. Samenow and Hayes also talk about the increasing number of extreme weather events occurring both globally and in the Washington, DC, area.
References and recommendations:
Climate Central; https://www.climatecentral.org/
World Weather Attribution; https://www.worldweatherattribution.org/
Penn State Weather Camps; https://weather-camp.outreach.psu.edu/
Lenticular clouds; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenticular_cloud
Mammatus clouds; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mammatus_cloud
Kelvin-Helmholtz clouds; https://scied.ucar.edu/image/kelvin-helmholtz-clouds
Snowmag…
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Jul 16, 2022
No Such Thing as “Standard” Oil, with Deborah Gordon
In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Deborah Gordon, a senior principal in the Climate Intelligence Program at RMI and a senior fellow at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University. They discuss Gordon’s new book, No Standard Oil, which elucidates the wide variety of different kinds of crude oils and natural gases and why the differences among those various types matter for climate policy. Gordon and Raimi also talk about the reasons that data transparency and precisely targeted policies are crucial for the evolution of the oil and gas industry in an era of climate change.
References and recommendations:
“No Standard Oil” by Deborah Gordon; https://www.nostandardoil.com/
Oil Climate Index plus Gas at RMI; https://ociplus.rmi.org/
“Project Escape: Lessons for an Unscripted Life” by Lucinda Jackson; https://lucindajackson.com/project-escape/
“Licorice Pizza” movie; https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11271038/
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Jul 8, 2022
Sensing Air Pollution Exposure in New York City Schools, with Beia Spiller
In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Beia Spiller, who recently joined Resources for the Future (RFF) as a fellow and the director of RFF’s Transportation Program; she’s also a member of the board of directors at the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists. Spiller and Raimi discuss the historical context and current policies related to air pollution exposure in New York City, particularly for schools in the Bronx. They also talk about how community-engaged research produces new knowledge, can inform policymaking, and can benefit the communities that are involved in the work.
References and recommendations:
PurpleAir sensors that measure air quality data; https://www2.purpleair.com/
“Prehistoric Planet” television series; https://tv.apple.com/us/show/prehistoric-planet/umc.cmc.4lh4bmztauvkooqz400akxav
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Jul 3, 2022
Imagine Our Future Planet, from the Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change
For this week’s episode, we’re mixing things up a bit by introducing not just an individual guest or two, but an entirely new podcast series for our listeners to consider. Just a few weeks ago, one of Resources for the Future’s closest partner organizations in Europe, the Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change, launched its own podcast series called “Foresight: Deep into the Future Planet.” We’re pleased to share the first episode of the new podcast with you, in the spirit of solidarity with our fellow scholars and in service of our mission to introduce listeners to a range of perspectives on issues related to our planet. Our regular “Resources Radio” programming will return next week.
This first episode of the “Deep into the Future Planet” podcast investigates the future of climate change, acknowledging that the planet is being shaped by today’s ideas, solutions, and decisions. Host Elisabetta Tola features the perspectives of two guests: Carolina Aragón,…
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Jun 23, 2022
Bridging the Divide Between Energy and Climate Models, with Michael Craig
In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Michael Craig, an assistant professor at the University of Michigan who studies energy systems. Craig and Raimi discuss a recent study coauthored by Craig that explores how energy models can better incorporate variations in weather and climate and why an exchange of data between energy and climate modelers is crucial to helping keep the lights on. Craig outlines a research agenda that describes near-term and long-term steps to bridge the divide between energy and climate models; he also shares advice for interdisciplinary collaboration.
References and recommendations:
“Overcoming the disconnect between energy system and climate modeling” by Michael T. Craig, Jan Wohland, Lauren P. Steep, Alexander Kies, Bryn Pickering, Hannah C. Bloomfield, Jethro Browell, Matteo De Felice, Chris J. Dent, Adrien Deroubaix, Felix Frischmuth, Paula L. M. Gonzalez, Aleksander Grochowicz, Katharina Gruber, Philipp Härtel, Martin Kittel, Leander…
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Jun 19, 2022
The Future of Energy Storage, with Dick Schmalensee
In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Dick Schmalensee, a professor emeritus of the MIT Sloan School of Management and a former chair of the board of directors at Resources for the Future. Schmalensee and Raimi cover the takeaways from a recent study on the future of energy storage that Schmalensee coauthored, along with related insights and implications for current and future policy. They discuss the role of energy storage in a net-zero-emissions electricity system, the strengths and weaknesses of key energy storage technologies, and what these technologies might cost.
References and recommendations:
“The Future of Energy Storage” by Robert Armstrong, Yet-Ming Chiang, Howard Gruenspecht, Fikile Brushett, John Deutch, Seiji Engelkemier, Emre Gençer, Robert Jaffe, Paul Joskow, Dharik Mallapragada, Elsa Olivetti, Richard Schmalensee, Robert Stoner, Chi-Jen Yang, Bjorn Brandtzaeg, Patrick Brown, Kevin Huang, Johannes Pfeifenberger, Francis O’Sullivan, Yang Shao-H…
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Jun 12, 2022
Nudging Behavior Toward Climate Solutions, with Elke Weber
In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Elke Weber, a social psychology professor at Princeton University who studies how people make choices. Weber and Raimi discuss how people’s choices matter for climate change; the ways that companies, governments, and society shape decisions on energy use and civic engagement; how those decisions get incorporated into policy analysis; and more.
References and recommendations:
Project Drawdown; https://drawdown.org/
“Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming” edited by Paul Hawken; https://drawdown.org/the-book
“Elements of Choice: Why the Way We Decide Matters” by Eric Johnson; https://theelementsofchoice.com/
“All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis” edited by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Katharine K. Wilkinson; https://www.allwecansave.earth/anthology
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Jun 4, 2022
Driving Toward Justice: Transportation and Equity, with Regan Patterson
In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Regan Patterson, an incoming assistant professor at UCLA who recently completed a fellowship as a Transportation Equity Research Fellow at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation. Patterson describes how the US transportation system has led to environmental injustice and inequitable access to mobility services. She and Raimi talk about how this situation came to be; potential policy solutions; and how cities, states, and the federal government can address these issues moving forward.
References and recommendations:
“Gender, Climate and Transport in the United States” by Regan Patterson from the Women’s Environment and Development Organization; https://wedo.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/WEDO_PolicyBriefonTransport_July15.pdf
“Dangerous by Design 2021” by Smart Growth America; https://smartgrowthamerica.org/dangerous-by-design/
“Carbon trading, co-pollutants, and environmental equity: Evidence from California’s c…
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May 29, 2022
Houston, We Have an Opportunity: The Future of Energy, with Bobby Tudor
In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Bobby Tudor, the chair of the Houston Energy Transition Initiative and the founder and former CEO of the Houston-based investment and merchant bank Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. In his new role with the Houston Energy Transition Initiative, Tudor focuses on how Houston can take the lead in the energy transition away from fossil fuels. He and Raimi talk about the history of Houston, how oil and gas came to play such a big part in the city’s economy, the strengths that the current energy incumbents can leverage in a transition to net-zero emissions, what Houston’s economy might look like in 20 or 30 years, and what roadblocks could stand in the way.
References and recommendations:
“How to Avoid a Climate Disaster” by Bill Gates; https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/633968/how-to-avoid-a-climate-disaster-by-bill-gates/
“Once-Oil-Dependent Texas Economy to Keep Growing as Renewable Energy Expands” by Christopher Slijk…
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May 22, 2022
70 Years of RFF: Looking Ahead with Young Economists at Resources for the Future
This week’s episode is the final installment of a three-part series that celebrates the 70th anniversary of Resources for the Future (RFF). In this episode, host Daniel Raimi looks toward the future of RFF, as seen through the eyes of the organization’s talented and dedicated research analysts and associates. RFF’s research analysts gather and analyze data, review published studies, help write papers and reports, and do it all with dedication and enthusiasm. They’re an essential part of the organization’s research. In this episode, Raimi talks with RFF Research Analysts Emily Joiner, Sophie Pesek, Nicholas Roy, and Steven Witkin, along with Senior Research Associate and Geographic Information Systems Coordinator Alexandra Thompson. While these young scholars share how they first got interested in environmental economics, they mostly focus on the future by lending insights about the topics they think RFF scholars will be working on in 20 or 30 years—and what role they see fo…
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May 16, 2022
70 Years of RFF: A Day in the Life at Resources for the Future, with RFF staff
This week’s episode is the second in a three-part series that celebrates the 70th anniversary of Resources for the Future (RFF). First and foremost, RFF is a research organization—which means that it’s typically the researchers who are the focus of the work and attention at RFF. But on one fateful day, “Resources Radio” podcast hosts Kristin Hayes and Daniel Raimi did something pretty different from their usual podcast routine: they gave listeners a flavor of what RFF looks like today, across the spectrum of the organization. A lot happens behind the scenes at RFF, and many fantastic contributors help get the work done. This quite spontaneous episode involved wandering from office to office, tapping people on the shoulder to hear their thoughts, with precious little advance notice. This episode showcases diverse voices that speak to the various ways people at RFF contribute to the organization’s mission.
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May 7, 2022
70 Years of RFF: The Legacy of Resources for the Future, with Ray Kopp and Kerry Smith
This week’s episode is the first in a three-part series that celebrates the 70th anniversary of Resources for the Future (RFF). Over that time span, RFF has had a significant impact on the fields of environmental economics and policy. In this episode, host Kristin Hayes talks with Ray Kopp, RFF’s recently retired vice president for research and policy engagement, and Kerry Smith, an RFF university fellow (who also happened to be Ray Kopp’s graduate school advisor). Kopp continues to lead the organization’s Comprehensive Climate Strategies Program. Kopp, Smith, and Hayes discuss the 70-year history and legacy of RFF, the real-world impacts of its research, and how the act of conducting research itself has changed through the decades. They take a trip down RFF memory lane to explore how the world of environmental economics has evolved over the past 70 years—and how RFF has helped shape that evolution.
References and recommendations:
“Scarcity and Growth: The Economics of Na…
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May 3, 2022
Getting to the Bottom of the Barrel: Understanding Volatile Oil Markets, with Helima Croft
In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Helima Croft, a managing director and the Head of Global Commodity Strategy and Middle East and North Africa Research at RBC Capital Markets. Croft talks about how the oil market has responded to historical events in the past and how current events have been influencing the oil market today. Croft and Raimi’s conversation ranges from Russia to Europe to China to Saudi Arabia to Texas and beyond. They discuss how the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Ukraine, and the US government have responded to recent high oil prices; the implications of sanctions on Russian oil and gas; and how the perception of Russian sanctions may vary across the international energy sector.
References and recommendations:
“The World for Sale: Money, Power, and the Traders Who Barter the Earth’s Resources” by Javier Blas and Jack Farchy; https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-world-for-sale-9780190078959
“Syriana”…
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Apr 23, 2022
The History of the Defense Production Act in the Energy Sector, with Ty Priest
In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Ty Priest, associate professor of history and geography at the University of Iowa. Priest explains the origin, history, and potential future of the Defense Production Act in the context of US energy development. Priest and Raimi discuss how the act has evolved and expanded under different presidential administrations since it was enacted in 1950 and how the act has been invoked to promote domestic energy security in the face of major concerns such as COVID and climate change.
References and recommendations:
“Global Gambits: Big Steel and the US Quest for Manganese” by Tyler Priest; https://typriest.com/global-gambits/
“‘Can We Please Stop Talking about Energy Independence?’” by Daniel Raimi; https://www.resources.org/common-resources/can-we-please-stop-talking-about-energy-independence/
“Energy Crises: Nixon, Ford, Carter, and Hard Choices in the 1970s” by Jay Hakes; https://www.oupress.com/9780806190983/energy-…
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Apr 17, 2022
Ports and Parts: Building a US Offshore Wind Supply Chain, with Matt Shields
In this week’s episode, host Kristin Hayes talks with Matt Shields, a senior offshore wind analyst at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Among other research projects, the lab conducts offshore wind techno-economic analysis, which involves developing cost models, analyzing market and technology trends, and projecting the future costs of offshore wind. Shields is the lead author of a new study that explores the demand for a domestic offshore wind energy supply chain following the Biden administration’s March 2021 goal to install 30 gigawatts of offshore wind in the United States by 2030.
Shields and Hayes discuss some challenges to achieving the 2030 goal—including constraints on the number of turbine installation vessels and ports—along with the potential employment impacts of building a domestic supply chain for offshore wind, and how best to synchronize the design of turbines, installation vessels, and ports along the supply chain.
References and recommendations:…
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Apr 9, 2022
Logging into the Deep History of Climate, with Erika Wise
In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Erika Wise, a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Wise discusses some of her research, which combines tree ring data with historical climate data drawn from artifacts such as ship logs and diaries, to provide insights about the North American climate of the mid-1800s. Wise enumerates the strengths and weaknesses of different types of paleoclimate records and historical sources. She also highlights the importance of understanding past climate patterns and extreme weather events, which can help inform contemporary adaptations to extreme weather and climate change.
References and recommendations:
“Sub-Seasonal Tree-Ring Reconstructions for More Comprehensive Climate Records in US West Coast Watersheds” by Erika K. Wise; https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2020GL091598
“Climate Factors Leading to Asymmetric Extreme Capture in the Tree-Ring Record” by Erika K. Wise and Matthew P. Dann…
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Apr 1, 2022
2021: Carbon Markets in Recovery, with Stefano De Clara
In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Stefano De Clara, head of secretariat at the International Carbon Action Partnership (ICAP), an international forum for governments and public authorities that have implemented (or are planning to implement) emissions trading systems (ETSs). De Clara discusses this year’s status report from ICAP, which provides the latest updates on global ETSs; the role of ETSs in the carbon market; how ETSs are being implemented with increasingly ambitious emissions reduction policies; specific ETSs in China, the European Union, and California; the potential for integrating negative emissions (carbon removal) into ETSs; and more.
References and recommendations:
“Emissions Trading Worldwide Status Report” by the International Climate Action Partnership; https://icapcarbonaction.com/en/publications/emissions-trading-worldwide-2022-icap-status-report
“Collapse” by Jared Diamond; https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/288954/collapse-b…
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Mar 27, 2022
Something’s Fishy: A Deep Dive into Seafood Mislabeling, with Kailin Kroetz
In this week’s episode, host Kristin Hayes talks with Kailin Kroetz, an assistant professor at Arizona State University and university fellow at Resources for the Future. Kroetz discusses some of her research, which takes an empirical look at the scale of seafood mislabeling in the United States. Seafood is the most globally traded food commodity, with supply chains that can be particularly hard to trace, and with systematic evidence of environmental impacts from high rates of mislabeling. Kroetz discusses commonly mislabeled seafood products, identifies where more data is needed, shares ideas for mitigating some of the challenges, and explores efficient policy solutions for fisheries management.
References and recommendations:
“Consequences of seafood mislabeling for marine populations and fisheries management” by Kailin Kroetz, Gloria M. Luque, Jessica A. Gephart, Sunny L. Jardine, Patrick Lee, Katrina Chicojay Moore, Cassandra Cole, Andrew Steinkruger, and C. Josh Donlan; ht…
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Mar 20, 2022
Fitting Behavior and Politics into Climate Models, with Fran Moore
In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Fran Moore, an assistant professor at the University of California, Davis. Moore discusses a paper she recently coauthored that expands the way we model the future of the climate system. The model examines how human behavior, political decisionmaking, and technological progress can interact with one another to speed or stall efforts to limit climate change. Moore and Raimi discuss the range and likelihood of outcomes the model has produced, and how these possible pathways are impacted by the complex systems that have been taken into account.
References and recommendations:
“Determinants of emissions pathways in the coupled climate-social system” by Frances C. Moore, Katherine Lacasse, Katharine J. Mach, Yoon Ah Shin, Louis J. Gross, and Brian Beckage; https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04423-8
“Why Trust Science?” by Naomi Oreskes; https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691179001/why-trust-science
“Th…
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Mar 12, 2022
Magnetized Concrete: the Future of Electric Vehicle Charging?, with Nadia Gkritza
In this episode, host Kristin Hayes talks with Nadia Gkritza, a professor at Purdue University. Gkritza is leading a team that’s independently evaluating a new product developed by Holcim, a global building materials and concrete company, and Magment, a German startup that is developing wireless charging infrastructure for electric vehicles. The team envisions a world where electric vehicles can recharge by simply driving over magnetized concrete, eliminating the need for separate charging stations and potentially reducing the need for larger batteries to combat range anxiety. Gkritza discusses the development, implementation, and benefits of the magnetized concrete technology; the next steps for the project; the collaboration involved; and the importance of funding electric vehicle charging infrastructure.
“Could Roads Recharge Electric Cars? The Technology May Be Close.” by Kerry Hannon; https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/29/technology/electric-cars-magnetic-roads.html
“Indian…
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Mar 7, 2022
Managing the Commons: Insights from Elinor Ostrom, with Erik Nordman
In this episode, host Kristin Hayes talks with Erik Nordman, professor of natural resources management and adjunct professor of economics at Grand Valley State University, and affiliate scholar at Indiana University’s Ostrom Workshop. Nordman discusses his new book, “The Uncommon Knowledge of Elinor Ostrom: Essential Lessons for Collective Action,” which introduces Ostrom’s Nobel Prize–winning economic concepts to a broader audience. Nordman discusses his inspiration behind writing the book, how locally tailored solutions are essential to resource management today, and Ostrom’s research legacy in establishing the Bloomington School of Political Economy.
References and recommendations:
“The Uncommon Knowledge of Elinor Ostrom: Essential Lessons for Collective Action” by Erik Nordman; https://islandpress.org/books/uncommon-knowledge-elinor-ostrom
“The Cambridge Handbook of Commons Research Innovations” edited by Sheila R. Foster and Chrystie F. Swiney; https://www.…
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Feb 26, 2022
Building a Carbon Trading System in New York City, with Danielle Spiegel-Feld
In this episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Danielle Spiegel-Feld, executive director of the Guarini Center on Environmental, Energy and Land Use Law at New York University. Spiegel-Feld discusses a paper she recently coauthored, which explores how a carbon trading system could be implemented in the buildings sector—the largest source of carbon emissions in the city—to help reach New York’s decarbonization goals. Spiegel-Feld describes New York City’s historical emissions policies for buildings, which stakeholders may be impacted by a new carbon trading system, and implications for environmental justice communities.
References and recommendations:
“Carbon Trading for New York City’s Building Sector” by Danielle Spiegel-Feld and Katrina Wyman; https://policyintegrity.org/publications/detail/carbon-trading-for-new-york-citys-building-sector
“Pipe Dreams” episode of the “99% Invisible” podcast; https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/pipe-dreams/
“Yellow Bird:…
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Feb 19, 2022
Prospects for the California Emissions Market, with Dallas Burtraw
In this episode, host Kristin Hayes talks with Dallas Burtraw, a senior fellow at Resources for the Future and chair of California’s Independent Emissions Market Advisory Committee (IEMAC), a body that was created by legislation to help the state of California examine and refine its cap-and-trade program for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. California’s climate policy success matters on a global stage: given the size of its economy and the sophistication of its policy designs, many other jurisdictions worldwide watch closely to see how things are faring in the Golden State. Burtraw takes a deep dive into California’s carbon market, with a particular focus on IEMAC’s recent report and its recommendations to the California Air Resources Board.
References and recommendations:
Independent Emissions Market Advisory Committee (IEMAC) in California; https://calepa.ca.gov/independent-emissions-market-advisory-committee/
“2021 Annual Report of the Independent Emissions Market Ad…
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Feb 12, 2022
New Insights about Uber’s Impacts on Air Pollution, with Luis Sarmiento
In this week’s episode, host Kristin Hayes talks with Luis Sarmiento, a postdoctoral researcher at RFF’s sister institution in Italy, the RFF-CMCC European Institute on Economics and the Environment. Sarmiento recently coauthored a working paper that explores the air pollution impacts of Uber across the United States. The study aims to clarify the environmental consequences of ridesharing companies like Uber. Sarmiento discusses his surprising results and potential areas for future research.
References and recommendations:
“The Air Quality Effects of Uber” by Luis Sarmiento and Yeong Jae Kim; https://www.rff.org/publications/working-papers/the-air-quality-effects-of-uber/
“Iran: A Modern History” by Abbas Amanat; https://yalebooks.co.uk/display.asp?k=9780300248937
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Feb 7, 2022
Building Walls or Bridges? Economic Development and Technological Change, with Glenn Hubbard
In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Glenn Hubbard, dean emeritus and Russell L. Carson Professor of Finance and Economics at Columbia University’s business school, and a member of the board of directors at Resources for the Future. Hubbard shares insights from his new book, “The Wall and the Bridge: Fear and Opportunity in Disruption’s Wake,” which is about the role of economics in shaping policy, effecting structural change, and preparing communities for the forthcoming transition to a low-carbon economy. Raimi and Hubbard discuss lessons from economic transitions of the past, related policies, the importance of “social insurance” in the labor market, and the need to build bridges of opportunity rather than walls of protection—all with an eye toward ensuring a just transition.
References and recommendations:
“The Wall and the Bridge: Fear and Opportunity in Disruption’s Wake” by Glenn Hubbard; https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300259087/wall-…
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Feb 4, 2022
Untangling the Wires in Electricity Market Planning, with Kate Konschnik
In this episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Kate Konschnik, a former senior lecturer at Duke University Law School who recently joined the Biden administration. Konschnik describes RTOGov, a research initiative that aims to evaluate how decisions are made in US electricity markets and the overlooked importance of regional transmission organizations (RTOs) in the electricity sector. Konschnik and Raimi discuss how different RTOs operate differently across the United States; why transparency matters in RTO governance and decisionmaking; and potential ways that RTOs can evolve to provide more reliable, affordable, and clean electricity in the years ahead.
References and recommendations:
RTOGov, the Regional Transmission Organization Governance project from the Duke Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions; https://nicholasinstitute.duke.edu/project/rtogov
“RTO governance structures can affect capacity market outcomes” by Seth Blumsack and Kyungjin Yoo; https://pennst…
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Jan 24, 2022
California Crude: Seeking a Just Transition in the Golden State, with Kyle Meng
In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Kyle Meng, an associate professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Meng discusses California’s ongoing economic transition away from oil production and refining, the need for policies that reduce oil production and consumption across the state over the next couple decades, and the challenges involved in making related legislative progress. Meng describes the role of fossil fuels in local economies across counties in California and the importance of ensuring that those communities can participate, engage, and derive benefits in the transition to a new low-carbon economy. The conversation covers these types of questions: What will new policies mean for regions that depend on oil production and refining to support local economies? How might new policies be designed to benefit communities that experience disproportionate harm from oil and gas pollution?
References and recommendations:
“Enhancing equity while elimin…
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Jan 16, 2022
Sunken Treasures? Rising Waters and Historic Preservation, with Rodney Rowland
In this week’s episode, host Kristin Hayes talks with Rodney Rowland, the director of facilities and environmental sustainability at Strawbery Banke Museum in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. As his job title indicates, one of Rowland’s main responsibilities at the museum is to focus on environmental sustainability. He’s helping to implement a proactive adaptation strategy for the facilities at Strawbery Banke, which is rich in history and uniquely tied to its physical location, as the nine-acre living-history museum contends with the risks posed by climate change. Rowland and Hayes discuss the perils of sea level rise in historic preservation, and how institutions that face this problem (ranging from the Smithsonian museum and research complex in Washington, DC; to the Maritime Museum in Jakarta, Indonesia; to Strawbery Banke in New Hampshire) are making plans to safeguard their treasures.
References and recommendations:
“Saving History with Sandbags: Climate Change Threatens the…
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Jan 8, 2022
Integrating Air Pollution Impacts into Climate Policy, with Lara Aleluia Reis
In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Lara Aleluia Reis, a scientist at our sister institution, the RFF-CMCC European Institute on Economics and the Environment. Reis and her coauthors have recently released a new study in “Lancet Planetary Health” about the connection between air pollution and climate change. The study explores how policymakers can most effectively accomplish two important goals at the same time: reducing air pollution, which contributes to millions of deaths per year, and achieving our long-term objectives in mitigating climate change.
References and recommendations:
“Internalising Health-Economic Impacts of Air Pollution into Climate Policy: a Global Modelling Study” by Lara Aleluia, Laurent Drouet, and Massimo Tavoni; https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanplh/article/PIIS2542-5196(21)00259-X/fulltext
“The Invisible Killer: The Rising Global Threat of Air Pollution—and How We Can Fight Back” by Gary Fuller; https://www.penguinrandom…
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Jan 2, 2022
2021 Year in Review: Energy and Environmental Policy, with Jennifer Haverkamp and Sarah Ladislaw
In this episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Jennifer Haverkamp, director of the Graham Sustainability Institute at the University of Michigan, and Sarah Ladislaw, managing director of the US Program at RMI. This week is our annual year-in-review episode, in which we talk about what happened during the past year and what we’ll be watching for in the year to come. Haverkamp and Ladislaw highlight the most significant developments in energy and environmental policy during 2021, identify some important issues that may have been overlooked, and give a sense of what they’ll be watching closely in 2022.
References and recommendations:
“Under a White Sky” by Elizabeth Kolbert; https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/617060/under-a-white-sky-by-elizabeth-kolbert/
“The Invention of Nature: Alexander Von Humboldt’s New World” by Andrea Wulf; https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/227866/the-invention-of-nature-by-andrea-wulf/
“Speed & Scale: An Action Plan for Solving Our…
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Dec 25, 2021
Big Dollars, Big Rewards? The Roles of Prizes in Driving Innovation, with Zorina Khan (Rebroadcast)
What’s a better strategy for incentivizing innovation: the existing patent system or flashy, high-dollar prizes? This year, Elon Musk (Person of the Year in 2021, according to “Time” magazine) inspired heated debate when he announced a $100-million prize for novel carbon removal technologies. Some environmentalists were enthusiastic, though Zorina Khan—a professor of economics at Bowdoin College and a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research—expressed skepticism in conversation with the “New York Times” and on an episode of “Resources Radio.”
In this rebroadcasted episode, host Kristin Hayes talks with Khan about her research on the history of offering prizes for innovation. Khan contends that such contests historically have benefited elite members of society and that patent systems more regularly produce transformative technologies. Reflecting on Musk’s carbon removal prize, Khan concludes that such a contest could generate more awareness of…
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Dec 18, 2021
Barriers and Solutions to Growing the Grid, with Paul Joskow
In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Paul Joskow, an economics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a member of the President’s Council at Resources for the Future. Joskow has had a long and distinguished career that spans a wide range of energy and environmental topics. In his conversation with Raimi, Joskow discusses his new working paper about the challenges related to expanding the electricity grid. Growing the grid will be a critical component for achieving long-term decarbonization goals, but growth comes with a lot of hurdles. Joskow describes those hurdles, alongside what solutions might help knock them down.
References and recommendations:
“Facilitating Transmission Expansion to Support Efficient Decarbonization of the Electricity Sector” by Paul L. Joskow; http://ceepr.mit.edu/publications/working-papers/758
“Churchill: Walking with Destiny” by Andrew Roberts; https://www.andrew-roberts.net/books/churchill-walking-destiny/…
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Dec 12, 2021
Smarter Thermostats, Lower Bills, and Lower Emissions, with Casey Wichman
In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Casey Wichman, an assistant professor in the School of Economics at Georgia Tech and an RFF university fellow. Wichman and several coauthors recently published a working paper that uses a field experiment to estimate how smart thermostats and time-varying electricity pricing can help reduce household utility bills and demands on the power sector. As more and more of us install smart thermostats, Wichman discusses how much money these devices can help us save, how the devices affect the temperatures in our homes, and what smart thermostats might mean for the grid’s reliability and environmental impact.
References and recommendations:
“Smart Thermostats, Automation, and Time-Varying Prices” by Joshua Blonz, Karen Palmer, Casey Wichman, and Derek C. Wietelman; https://www.rff.org/publications/working-papers/smart-thermostats-automation-and-time-varying-prices/
“Savings Versus Comfort: How Smarter Thermostats Can Respond to…
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Dec 5, 2021
The Highs and Lows of Fracking in Rural America, with Colin Jerolmack
In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Colin Jerolmack, a professor of sociology and environmental studies at New York University. Jerolmack recently published “Up to Heaven and Down to Hell: Fracking, Freedom, and Community in an American Town”—a book that Raimi insists is one of the best on the shale revolution that’s been written to date. Jerolmack lived for several months in a rural Pennsylvania county that had been experiencing the shale revolution; he documented what residents experienced over a span of eight years. The result is a thoughtful, nuanced, and human portrait of how shale development has affected one community—for better and for worse.
References and recommendations:
“Up to Heaven and Down to Hell: Fracking, Freedom, and Community in an American Town” by Colin Jerolmack; https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691179032/up-to-heaven-and-down-to-hell
“Not in Your Backyard! Organizational Structure, Partisanship, and the Mobili…
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Nov 27, 2021
Facing Fears and Imagining Innovation for Climate Change, with Kim Stanley Robinson
In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Kim Stanley Robinson, acclaimed author of many books, most recently “The Ministry for the Future.” Robinson’s books vividly illustrate some of the most devastating potential consequences of climate change, but that’s not all they do—the books also offer innovation and optimism, imagining the ways in which we can prevent some of the worst impacts of climate change and adapt to the impacts that are unavoidable. Robinson discusses his recent visit to COP 26 and his views on climate economics, modern monetary theory, space opera, and more.
References and recommendations:
“The Ministry for the Future” by Kim Stanley Robinson; https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/kim-stanley-robinson/the-ministry-for-the-future/9780316300162/
“The Price of Peace: Money, Democracy, and the Life of John Maynard Keynes” by Zachary D. Carter; https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/563378/the-price-of-peace-by-zachary-d-carter/
“…
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Nov 21, 2021
The Last Straw: Assessing Alternatives to Single-Use Plastics, with Shelie Miller
In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Shelie Miller, a professor at the University of Michigan’s School for Environment and Sustainability. Miller describes her recent research, which investigates whether reusable products like straws and coffee cups are really more sustainable than their single-use counterparts. In part because manufacturing these products and then keeping them clean over their lifetimes can be water intensive, Miller says that consumers need to reuse alternatives to plastics many times if they want to minimize their environmental impacts. Today’s episode is very much news-you-can-use when you’re trying to decide whether you should buy that reusable sandwich wrapper or straw, or take home that canvas bag from the latest conference you’ve attended.
References and recommendations:
“Environmental payback periods of reusable alternatives to single-use plastic kitchenware products” by Hannah Fetner and Shelie A. Miller; https://www.springerpr…
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Nov 14, 2021
COP26 Wrap-Up: What Did We Accomplish?, with Billy Pizer
In this week’s episode, host Kristin Hayes talks with Billy Pizer, the Vice President for Research and Policy Engagement at Resources for the Future. The episode was recorded on the second-to-last day of COP26, closing out our three-part COP-focused podcast series. Pizer joins Resources Radio live from Glasgow, where he has been RFF’s eyes and ears, to discuss how this critical negotiating session has unfolded. He shares his reflections on the conference proceedings and outcomes, along with what needs to happen next.
References and recommendations:
“Fixing the Climate: Strategies for an Uncertain World” by Charles F. Sabel and David G. Victor; https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691224558/fixing-the-climate
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Nov 7, 2021
COP26 Week 2: Progress to Date, with Suzi Kerr
In this week’s episode, host Kristin Hayes talks with Suzi Kerr, chief economist at Environmental Defense Fund. Kerr’s areas of expertise include emissions pricing, climate change policy, land use, and—most relevant for this podcast episode—international climate cooperation. Kerr originally hails from New Zealand, where she helped found Motu, an economics and public policy research institution that serves the needs of Kiwi decisionmakers. Kerr is the second podcast guest in our three-part series on COP26. She shares her reflections on the action at COP26 to date—major agreements that already have been forged, deals that have been scuttled, and key issues still on the negotiating table—with a particular lens on developing-country interests.
References and recommendations:
“Tears of Rangi: Experiments Across Worlds” by Anne Salmond; https://aucklanduniversitypress.co.nz/tears-of-rangi/
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Oct 28, 2021
COP26 Week 1: What’s Ahead and What’s at Stake, with Rachel Cleetus
In this episode, host Kristin Hayes talks with Rachel Cleetus, policy director of the Climate and Energy program at the Union of Concerned Scientists. Cleetus is an expert on the process used by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, or UNFCCC, and has been attending international climate negotiations since 2009. As this podcast episode airs, we are two days into this year’s negotiations in Glasgow, at the meeting known as COP26.
Cleetus joins Resources Radio as the first guest in a three-part COP-focused podcast series; she’ll help set the stage for what we can expect out of COP26 over the next two weeks, including the issues under discussion, where progress this year is particularly critical, and how US action—or lack thereof—will affect the dialogue in this pivotal year for international climate negotiations.
References and recommendations:
“On Being” podcast episode, “Our future is still in our hands,” with guest Katharine Hayhoe; https://onbe…
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Oct 24, 2021
Understanding the Impacts of Product Packaging, with Boma Brown-West
In this episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Boma Brown-West, director of consumer health at Environmental Defense Fund. Brown-West works on a wide range of issues related to the safety of consumer products, and she discusses some of the risks associated with packaging. Along with the well-known environmental damages from plastic pollution, Brown-West and Raimi dig into the lesser-known risks to human health from the chemicals that are part of the packaging people consume every day. Whether it’s single-use plastics, food containers, or even pizza boxes, there’s reason to be concerned, and there’s a lot we don’t know about how these products affect our long-term health.
References and recommendations:
“The world has a packaging problem—a new tool gives companies the ability to fix it” by Boma Brown-West; https://www.greenbiz.com/article/world-has-packaging-problem-new-tool-gives-companies-ability-fix-it
The “Understanding Packaging Scorecard” from Environmental Def…
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Oct 15, 2021
Fighting for Environmental Fairness in San Antonio, with Char Miller
In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Char Miller, a professor at Pomona College and a senior fellow at the Pinchot Institute for Conservation. Miller recently published a book called “West Side Rising: How San Antonio’s 1921 Flood Devastated a City and Sparked a Latino Environmental Justice Movement.” It’s a fascinating look back at how decades of environmental discrimination led to a new type of organizing and activism among the city’s residents, even before the term “environmental justice” was widely used. Miller explores the history of this movement and how it has blossomed over time to shape the politics and policies of today and tomorrow.
References and recommendations:
“West Side Rising: How San Antonio’s 1921 Flood Devastated a City and Sparked a Latino Environmental Justice Movement” by Char Miller; https://tupress.org/9781595349385/west-side-rising/
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Oct 9, 2021
How Much Do Fine Particulates Matter for Public Health?, with Inês Azevedo
In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Inês Azevedo, an associate professor of energy resources engineering at Stanford University, a senior fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment, and a fellow at the Precourt Institute for Energy. Azevedo publishes on a very wide range of topics, but the conversation in this episode focuses on her work that examines the effects of particulate matter emissions from the power sector and how those emissions affect public health. Azevedo describes where the emissions come from, how the pollution affects different parts of the country, how effects vary across racial and demographic characteristics, and much more.
References and recommendations:
“Fine Particulate Air Pollution from Electricity Generation in the US: Health Impacts by Race, Income, and Geography” by Maninder P. S. Thind, Christopher W. Tessum, Inês L. Azevedo, and Julian D. Marshall; https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.est.9b02527
“Optimizing Emissio…
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Oct 2, 2021
Illinois’s Illuminating and Ambitious Power Plan, with Gilbert Michaud
In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Gilbert Michaud, an assistant professor at Loyola University Chicago. Michaud is an expert on the power sector and economic development, and he discusses a new state law in Illinois called the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act. The bill aims to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions from the power sector by mid-century and includes other provisions to help make the state’s energy transition more equitable.
References and recommendations:
Captain Planet television show; https://captainplanetfoundation.org/about/captain-planet-the-planeteers-legacy/
The Energy Gang podcast; https://www.greentechmedia.com/podcast/the-energy-gang
“Incorporating equity in the clean energy economic development landscape” with Gilbert Michaud on the Solar for All podcast; https://solarforall.show/podcast/gilbert-michaud
“Illinois’s brilliant new climate, jobs, and justice bill” by David Roberts in the Volts newsletter; https://www.volts.wtf/p/il…
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Sep 26, 2021
Bridging the Data Gap in Oil and Gas Methane Emissions, with Arvind Ravikumar
In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Arvind Ravikumar, an associate professor at the Hildebrand Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. Ravikumar is a leading researcher on the topic of methane emissions from oil and gas systems; he recently coauthored a paper demonstrating how the US Environmental Protection Agency can better account for these emissions, which are notoriously hard to measure. Ravikumar and Raimi discuss federal policies that are designed to reduce methane emissions, along with the voluntary commitments made by some companies recently to do just that.
References and recommendations:
“Closing the methane gap in US oil and natural gas production emissions inventories” by Jeffrey S. Rutherford, Evan D. Sherwin, Arvind P. Ravikumar, Garvin A. Heath, Jacob Englander, Daniel Cooley, David Lyon, Mark Omara, Quinn Langfitt, and Adam R. Brandt; https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-25017-4
Comprehens…
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Sep 19, 2021
Financing the Energy Transition around the World, with Afsaneh Beschloss
In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Afsaneh Beschloss, founder and CEO of RockCreek Group. Before founding RockCreek, Beschloss worked with the World Bank and other financial institutions to develop energy projects around the world. As pressure mounts on banks to move away from fossil fuels, Beschloss and Raimi discuss the special role of multilateral development banks in the transition to clean energy. They also talk about recent guidance from the US Treasury Department that seeks to curb fossil fuel financing at these institutions, and what it all means for the future.
References and recommendations:
“They Knew: The US Federal Governments Fifty-Year Role in Causing the Climate Crisis” by James Gustave Speth; https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/they-knew
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Sep 11, 2021
Border Tax Adjustments, with Brian Flannery
In this week’s episode, host Kristin Hayes talks with Brian Flannery, a visiting fellow at Resources for the Future and an expert on international climate policy. Flannery describes how border carbon adjustments—essentially taxes imposed on goods from countries with relatively less ambitious climate standards—are gaining traction, with proposals circulating in the United States and the European Union. However, Flannery cautions that these policy tools will confront a number of challenges before they can be implemented, including backlash from countries that could be negatively affected and the need to abide by World Trade Organization rules.
References and recommendations:
“Policy Guidance for US GHG Tax Legislation and Regulation: Border Tax Adjustments for Products of Energy-Intensive, Trade-Exposed and Other Industries” by Brian Flannery, Jennifer A. Hillman, Jan Mares, and Matthew C. Porterfield; https://www.rff.org/publications/reports/policy-guidance-us-ghg-tax-legisl…
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Sep 5, 2021
When Will the Sun Set on Fossil Fuel Subsidies?, with Joseph Aldy
In this week’s episode, host Kristin Hayes talks with Joseph E. Aldy about fossil fuel subsidies—an area that Aldy has researched extensively and a subject that has been rekindled in the policy dialogue after President Joe Biden suggested removing such subsidies when he released his American Jobs Plan in April this year. But this somewhat amorphous concept of fossil fuel subsidies has been notoriously difficult to define and equally difficult to take action on. Aldy and Hayes reflect on how the Biden administration is approaching these definitional questions and what they’re hoping to achieve, both in terms of policy action and emissions outcomes.
References and recommendations:
“Testimony on the Elimination of Fossil Fuel Subsidies to the US Subcommittee on the Environment” delivered by Joseph E. Aldy at an Earth Day hearing hosted by the US House Oversight Committee; https://www.rff.org/publications/testimony-and-public-comments/testimony-to-the-us-subcommittee-on-the-env…
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Aug 28, 2021
Cracking the Case of the Vanishing Air Pollution Data, with Eric Zou
In this episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Eric Zou, an assistant professor of economics at the University of Oregon. Zou has published fascinating work on how air pollution monitors work—or don’t work, as the case may be—to detect harmful levels of air pollution in the United States. Using data from satellites and ground-based monitors, his work has uncovered how local actors, particularly local governments, may be manipulating air quality data to avoid penalties under the Clean Air Act.
References and recommendations:
“Unwatched Pollution: The Effect of Intermittent Monitoring on Air Quality” by Eric Zou; https://static1.squarespace.com/static/56034c20e4b047f1e0c1bfca/t/603afc5c6607da3e67640175/1614478432535/monitor_zou_202101.pdf
Fort Lee lane closure scandal; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Lee_lane_closure_scandal
“Next-Generation Compliance: Environmental Regulation for the Modern Era” by Cynthia Giles; https://eelp.law.harvard.edu/2020/09/next-generation-…
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Aug 22, 2021
How Much is a Tree Worth?, with Hannah Druckenmiller
In this episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Hannah Druckenmiller, a new fellow at Resources for the Future (RFF). This is the second part of a two-part series that introduces new RFF fellows, and Druckenmiller is another welcome addition to RFF and to Resources Radio. Druckenmiller discusses her fascinating paper that estimates the value of forests—not just in the marketplace, but for society. She and Raimi also talk about a project she’s involved in that’s using millions of photographs from the 1950s through the 1990s to construct what are essentially satellite images of the developing world, but from before satellite images even existed.
References and recommendations:
“Estimating an Economic and Social Value for Healthy Forests: Evidence from Tree Mortality in the American West” by Hannah Druckenmiller; https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5f60e3b9a38e910134a8aeab/t/5fb6df90721aae50818579d2/1605820322700/JMP_11.19.2020.pdf
“Migrations” by Charlotte McConaghy; ht…
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Aug 14, 2021
Risks and Rewards in Homeownership and Flood Insurance, with Penny Liao
In this week’s episode, host Kristin Hayes talks with Penny Liao, a scholar of behavioral and market responses to environmental risk, who joined Resources for the Future as a fellow earlier this month. Liao elaborates on a new working paper she coauthored about how home equity shapes a household’s decision to purchase flood insurance. In the end, Liao finds that homeowners with more home equity are especially likely to purchase flood insurance because they do not want to default on their mortgage, while households with highly leveraged mortgages have less incentive to insure against flood risks.
References and recommendations:
“What’s at Stake? Understanding the Role of Home Equity in Flood Insurance Demand” by Penny Liao and Philip Mulder; https://www.rff.org/publications/working-papers/whats-at-stake-understanding-the-role-of-home-equity-in-flood-insurance-demand/
“The Tragedy of the Commons” by Garrett Hardin; https://science.sciencemag.org/content/162/3859/1243…
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Aug 8, 2021
Wyoming’s Energy Economy in Transition, with Robert Godby
In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Robert Godby, an associate professor of economics at the University of Wyoming. Wyoming is the subject of their conversation: It’s been a major energy-producing state for over a century and is the nation’s largest producer of coal by far. But energy production in Wyoming has declined substantially in recent years, raising major challenges for the state’s economy and public revenues. And with the need to reduce emissions much further, the outlook for Wyoming’s energy future is highly uncertain.
References and recommendations:
“The Grid: The Fraying Wires between Americans and Our Energy Future” by Gretchen Bakke; https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/grid-9781632865687
“Short Circuiting Policy: Interest Groups and the Battle Over Clean Energy and Climate Policy in the American States” by Leah Stokes; https://www.leahstokes.com/book
“Decommissioning Orphaned and Abandoned Oil and Gas Wells: New Estimates and Cost Driver…
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Jul 31, 2021
Managing Wildfires to Combat Climate Change, with David Wear
In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with David Wear, a nonresident senior fellow at Resources for the Future (RFF). As anyone knows who’s recently breathed the air in the northeastern or midwestern United States, wildfires increasingly are posing risks to human health, the environment, and the climate. In a recent RFF issue brief, Wear analyzes how scaling up wildfire management in federal forests—specifically, through methods of clearing the forest undergrowth, collectively called “forest fuel treatments”—could reduce wildfires and the damage that wildfires cause. Wear discusses recent trends in wildfires, how forest fuel treatments can address this growing problem, and more.
References and recommendations:
“Wildfire Risk Reduction: Effects of the Draft Energy Infrastructure Act” by David N. Wear; https://www.rff.org/publications/issue-briefs/wildfire-risk-reduction-effects-of-the-draft-energy-infrastructure-act/
“The Ministry for the Future” by Kim…
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Jul 25, 2021
Leading by Example: Launching New Federal Building Performance Standards, with Veronique Bugnion
In this week’s episode, host Kristin Hayes speaks to Veronique Bugnion, a scientist, entrepreneur, and energy industry leader. Bugnion—a climate physicist by training who spent years in the private sector, focusing on energy and carbon markets—cofounded and serves as the CEO of ClearlyEnergy, which provides innovative solutions that help reduce emissions from buildings. Hayes and Bugnion discuss federal building performance standards—a particularly relevant topic, given that the Biden administration announced on May 17 that the Council on Environmental Quality will lead an effort to develop performance standards for federal buildings. Bugnion talks about how such standards could be designed, what impact they’re likely to have, and what the federal government can learn from other jurisdictions that have already implemented such standards.
References and recommendations:
“Fact Sheet: Biden Administration Accelerates Efforts to Create Jobs Making American Buildings More Affo…
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Jul 18, 2021
Exploring the Future of Space Governance, with Timiebi Aganaba
In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Timiebi Aganaba, an assistant professor at Arizona State University’s School for the Future of Innovation and Society. Aganaba has worked on a fascinating array of space issues on multiple continents, and she speaks about that work and its implications in this extremely wide-ranging conversation. Aganaba discusses the broad notions of space and society; the history, current status, and future of space governance; the Biden administration’s approach to space policy; Richard Branson; and afro-futurist and African-futurist music and art.
References and recommendations:
Timiebi Aganaba at Arizona State University; https://sustainability-innovation.asu.edu/person/timiebi-aganaba/
“Losing the Sky” by Andy Lawrence; https://andyxlastro.me/losing-the-sky/
“Earthrise” photograph by William Anders; https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/apollo-8-earthrise
Anthony Braxton; https://tricentricfoundation.org/
Sun Ra; http://www.sun…
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Jul 11, 2021
It Takes a Village: Public Engagement in Invasive Species Detection, with Rebecca Epanchin-Niell
In this week’s episode, host Kristin Hayes talks with Rebecca Epanchin-Niell, a senior fellow at Resources for the Future (RFF). Epanchin-Niell’s research focuses on ecosystem management—in particular, understanding how human behavior affects ecological resources and identifying strategies to improve ecosystem management. Much of her work has focused on invasive species, including strategies to control established invaders, improved monitoring, and cooperative management. Hayes and Epanchin-Niell discuss a new paper that Epanchin-Niell coauthored—with RFF colleagues Alexandra Thompson and Tyler Treakle—about public contributions to the early detection of new invasive pests, the critical role of citizens in identifying emerging threats from invasive species, and the quantification of public contributions to pest detection.
References and recommendations:
“Hidden Brain” podcast; https://www.npr.org/series/423302056/hidden-brain
The Endangereds by Philippe Cousteau and Au…
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Jul 4, 2021
Handling Heat and Health as Climate Changes, with Noah Scovronick
In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Noah Scovronick, an assistant professor at Emory University who coauthored a recent journal article that estimates the effects of climate change on heat-related human mortality over the past three decades. The research covers dozens of countries and assesses how increased moderate and extreme heat has affected human health on every populated continent. Scovronick and Raimi discuss the ways people can adapt to these risks and how the potential health benefits of fewer cold days compare to increased risks from more hot days.
References and recommendations:
“The burden of heat-related mortality attributable to recent human-induced climate change” by A. M. Vicedo-Cabrera, N. Scovronick, F. Sera, D. Royé, R. Schneider, A. Tobias, C. Astrom, Y. Guo, Y. Honda, D. M. Hondula, R. Abrutzky, S. Tong, M. de Sousa Zanotti Stagliorio Coelho, P. H. Nascimento Saldiva, E. Lavigne, P. Matus Correa, N. Valdes Ortega, H. Kan, S. Osorio, J. Kys…
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Jun 27, 2021
Integrating the Real World into Climate Policy Models, with Wei Peng
In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Wei Peng, an assistant professor at Penn State University. Peng recently coauthored a paper in the journal “Nature” that offers recommendations for how to make integrated assessment models more useful in the design of climate policy. Peng discusses how these climate policy models can better represent the real world—especially political dynamics—to better inform policymakers at the local, national, and international scale.
References and recommendations:
“Climate policy models need to get real about people—here’s how” by Wei Peng, Gokul Iyer, Valentina Bosetti, Vaibhav Chaturvedi, James Edmonds, Allen A. Fawcett, Stéphane Hallegatte, David G. Victor, Detlef van Vuuren, and John Weyant; https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-01500-2
“Making Climate Policy Work” by Danny Cullenward and David G. Victor; https://politybooks.com/bookdetail/?isbn=9781509541799
“Global Energy Outlook 2021: Pathways from Paris…
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Jun 19, 2021
Do Carbon Taxes Hurt the Economy?, with Gilbert Metcalf
In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Gilbert Metcalf, who is a professor at Tufts University and a university fellow at Resources for the Future. Metcalf recently published a working paper with coauthor Alan Finkelstein Shapiro about the potential effects of a carbon tax on the US economy—specifically, a carbon tax that’s designed to meet the US climate target under the Paris Agreement. In the paper, Metcalf and Finkelstein Shapiro estimate the effects of a carbon tax not just on overall GDP, but also on employment, labor force participation, wages, and companies’ decisions about investing in clean energy technologies. Raimi and Metcalf discuss the modeling efforts that were involved, the surprising results, and the implications for policymakers.
References and recommendations:
“The Macroeconomic Effects of a Carbon Tax to Meet the US Paris Agreement Target: The Role of Firm Creation and Technology Adoption” by Alan Finkelstein Shapiro and Gilbert Metcalf;…
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Jun 13, 2021
The Dollar Value of Energy Innovation, with Daniel Shawhan
In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Resources for the Future (RFF) Fellow Daniel Shawhan about a new working paper that he and several RFF coauthors recently published, about the value of advanced energy funding. The study assesses how government funding for research, development, and demonstration of emerging clean energy technologies can reduce the costs of deploying those technologies in the future. The authors include in their analysis advanced nuclear energy, geothermal energy, carbon capture and storage, electricity storage, and direct air capture of carbon dioxide. Shawhan and his team also estimate how bringing down these costs can benefit society by reducing air pollution, electricity bills, and more.
References and recommendations:
“The Value of Advanced Energy Funding: Projected Effects of Proposed US Funding for Advanced Energy Technologies” working paper by Daniel Shawhan, Kathryne Cleary, Christoph Funke, and Steven Witkin; https://www.rff.org/pub…
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Jun 5, 2021
Experiments in Sustainable Development, with Kelsey Jack
In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Kelsey Jack, associate professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara; director of the Poverty Alleviation Group at UC Santa Barbara’s Environmental Market Solutions Lab; and codirector of the King Climate Action Initiative at the Poverty Action Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Jack works at the intersection of environmental economics and international development, studying how environmental issues shape economic development—and vice versa—in developing nations. She discusses some of the experiments she’s done on electricity payments and ecosystem service provision in different parts of the world, and she suggests how her research can inform policymaking on sustainable economic development.
References and recommendations:
“Good Economics for Hard Times” by Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo; https://www.goodeconomicsforhardtimes.com/
“Ministry for the Future” by Kim Stanley Robinson;…
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May 29, 2021
The Lowdown on High Power Prices, with Meredith Fowlie
In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Meredith Fowlie, an associate professor in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics at the University of California, Berkeley, and a faculty director of the Energy Institute at Haas. Fowlie and coauthors recently published a working paper on the causes and implications of high electricity prices in the state of California. These high prices burden low-income households and pose a hurdle to reducing emissions through the electrification of transportation, heating, and other sectors. In today’s episode, Fowlie describes proposals for reforming electricity pricing in California in ways that address this complex and evolving challenge.
References and recommendations:
“Designing Electricity Rates for an Equitable Energy Transition” by Severin Borenstein, Meredith Fowlie, and James Sallee; https://haas.berkeley.edu/wp-content/uploads/WP314.pdf
“Competitors to lithium-ion batteries in the grid storage market” epi…
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May 22, 2021
Who’s a Big Fan of Offshore Wind? US Challenges and Opportunities, with Jeremy Firestone
In this episode, host Kristin Hayes talks with Jeremy Firestone, a wind energy specialist, professor, and director of the Center for Research in Wind at the University of Delaware. For many years, Firestone has explored people’s attitudes and economic preferences related to wind power development. He and coauthors recently published new research about the intersection of offshore wind development and coastal recreation in the journal “Energy Research & Social Science,” a study that Firestone and Hayes discuss; they also talk more broadly about the opportunities and challenges associated with increasing offshore wind development in the United States.
References and recommendations:
“Uncharted waters: Exploring coastal recreation impacts, coping behaviors, and attitudes towards offshore wind energy development in the United States” by Michael D. Ferguson, Darrick Evensen, Lauren A. Ferguson, David Bidwell, Jeremy Firestone, Tasha L. Dooley, and Clayton R. Mitchell; https://ww…
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May 14, 2021
Intersections Between Energy and International Development, with Sheila Hollis
In this episode, host Kristin Hayes talks with Sheila Hollis, acting executive director of the United States Energy Association (USEA). USEA is an industry association that represents 150 members across the US energy sector, from the largest Fortune 500 companies to small energy consulting firms. The organization supports policy and technical discussions with the US Department of Energy to expand the use of clean energy technology globally; it also works with the US Agency for International Development to expand energy access in developing countries. Hollis describes the changes faced by the energy industry in both mature and developing markets.
References and recommendations:
“The New Map: Energy, Climate, and the Clash of Nations” by Daniel Yergin; https://www.danielyergin.com/books/thenewmap
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May 8, 2021
Big Dollars, Big Rewards? The Roles of Prizes in Driving Innovation, with Zorina Khan
In February this year, we noticed at Resources for the Future that our explainer about carbon capture and storage—which provides an overview of the technology, along with its uses, benefits, and drawbacks—had suddenly skyrocketed in terms of page use on the website. When we investigated what had prompted this sudden expanded interest, we found Elon Musk’s announcement from the day prior: Musk had offered $100 million in prize money, through the XPRIZE Foundation, to teams that can envision, prototype, and validate scalable carbon capture and removable technology. At the end of the four-year contest period, several prizes will be awarded: $50 million for first place, $20 million for second place, and $10 million for third. In addition, the program will offer 25 six-figure scholarships to competing academic teams. According to XPRIZE officials, the $100 million on offer represents one of the largest—if not the largest—incentive prizes in history.
So, this episode is about priz…
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May 1, 2021
Exploring the Energy Transition on Tribal Lands, with Pilar Thomas
In this episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Pilar Thomas, a partner at Quarles & Brady and a professor of the practice at the University of Arizona and Arizona State University. Thomas is an expert on energy development and environmental management on tribal lands and has served in the US Departments of Justice, Interior, and Energy. Raimi and Thomas discuss how different tribes are approaching fossil and renewable energy development, preparing for the energy transition, and addressing energy poverty on tribal lands.
References and recommendations:
Tribal Energy Atlas from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory; https://maps.nrel.gov/tribal-energy-atlas
Writing and analysis from Wood Mackenzie; https://www.woodmac.com/
Studies and analysis from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; https://www.lbl.gov/
Sandia National Laboratories; https://www.sandia.gov/
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Apr 22, 2021
Problems Cropping Up? The Historical Impact of Climate Change on Agriculture, with Ariel Ortiz-Bobea
In this episode, host Kristin Hayes talks with Ariel Ortiz-Bobea, an associate professor of applied economics and policy at Cornell University and a faculty fellow at the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability. Much of Ortiz-Bobea’s research focuses on the links between climate change and agricultural productivity—which is the topic of this conversation. In particular, Ortiz-Bobea discusses a paper that he and colleagues released recently in Nature Climate Change, which covers the historical impact of anthropogenic climate change on global agricultural productivity. The key word here is “historical.” Whereas a large body of research focuses on future impacts, this study looks back to see how much climate change already has affected agriculture globally. Spoiler alert: the impacts today have been fairly large.
References and recommendations:
“Anthropogenic climate change has slowed global agricultural productivity growth” by Ariel Ortiz-Bobea, Toby R. Ault, Carlos M. C…
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Apr 17, 2021
A Conversation about the Civilian Conservation Corps, with Neil Maher
In this week’s episode, host Kristin Hayes talks with Neil Maher, professor of history at the New Jersey Institute of Technology and Rutgers University-Newark. Maher’s research focuses on the intersection of environmental and political history, and his scholarship includes a 2008 book called “Nature’s New Deal.” Maher and Hayes discuss the Civilian Conservation Corps’s successes, challenges, and legacy in the American conservation and historical landscape. Maher also describes lessons from the Depression-era program that could apply to current policy and political deliberations.
References and recommendations:
“Nature’s New Deal: The Civilian Conservation Corps and the Roots of the American Environmental Movement” by Neil Maher; https://www.neilmaher.com/natures-new-deal/
“Stop Saving the Planet! An Environmentalist Manifesto” by Jenny Price; https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393540871
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Apr 11, 2021
Playing God with the Nature of the Future, with Elizabeth Kolbert
This week, host Daniel Raimi talks with New Yorker staff writer and Pulitzer Prize–Winning author Elizabeth Kolbert about her new book, “Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future.” The book is a fascinating and darkly funny exploration of how humanity is trying to manage the negative effects we’ve inflicted on the natural world. Using examples such as the Asian carp, endangered desert pupfish, the Great Barrier Reef, and solar geoengineering, Kolbert’s book includes interviews with leading experts around the world who are using new technologies to try and counteract the harms done by old technologies.
References and recommendations:
“Beloved Beasts” by Michelle Nijhuis; https://michellenijhuis.com/beloved-beasts
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Apr 3, 2021
Giving a Fair Shot to Energy Workers and Communities in Transition, with Wes Look and Daniel Raimi
In this episode, host Kristin Hayes talks with Wesley Look and Daniel Raimi, Resources for the Future (RFF) colleagues who have led RFF's research on enabling fairness for energy workers and communities in transition. Look is a senior research associate and Raimi is a fellow at RFF, and the work they describe in this episode has been carried out over the past year in partnership with Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), culminating in a synthesis report released on March 25, 2021.
Look and Raimi share some of the lessons that they and their EDF colleagues have learned about this complex topic, including the many facets of transition, how the federal government can improve outcomes for workers, and what researchers and policymakers alike can learn from various communities and countries that already face these changing ties to the energy industry.
References and recommendations:
“Enabling Fairness for Energy Workers and Communities in Transition” synthesis report by Wesley Look, Dani…
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Mar 27, 2021
Progress Amid the Pandemic: Carbon Markets in 2020, with William Acworth
In this episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with William Acworth, Head of Secretariat at the International Carbon Action Partnership (ICAP). ICAP recently released its 2021 status report on global emissions trading, and we're highlighting the group's status report for the second year in a row. This time, Acworth gets us up to speed on China's recently launched national emissions trading scheme, along with programs from elsewhere in Asia, Europe, and the Americas. Acworth and Raimi discuss how markets have responded to the pandemic, where prices might be headed, and how markets are expanding to cover new sectors such as buildings and transportation.
References and recommendations:
"Emissions Trading Worldwide: Status Report 2021" from the International Carbon Action Partnership; https://icapcarbonaction.com/en/icap-status-report-2021
“Prices in the world’s biggest carbon market are soaring” from the Economist magazine; https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2021/02/24/pri…
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Mar 20, 2021
Space, Satellites, and Society: New Tools for Policymakers, with Danielle Wood
In this week's episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Danielle Wood, assistant professor and director of the Space Enabled research group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab. Wood uses her expertise in aerospace engineering, aeronautics and astronautics, and technology policy to enhance societal development, bringing together tools not just from space and engineering, but also from economics and other social sciences. Wood discusses her recent research in Brazil and collaborations with policymakers around the world, who use space-based technologies to improve life here on Earth.
References and recommendations:
VALUABLES Consortium; https://www.rff.org/valuables/
"Combining Social, Environmental and Design Models to Support the Sustainable Development Goals" by Jack Reid, Cynthia Zeng, and Danielle Wood; https://www.media.mit.edu/publications/combining-social-environmental-and-design-models-to-support-the-sustainable-development-goals/
"Interactive Model for Assess…
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Mar 14, 2021
Assessing Pathways to a Net-Zero Energy System, with Erin Mayfield
In this week’s episode, Daniel Raimi talks with Erin Mayfield, a postdoctoral fellow at Princeton University. Mayfield is part of a team of researchers that recently released a report titled “Net-Zero America,” which lays out a variety of pathways for the United States to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. In the conversation, Mayfield discusses key findings from the report, including how much the transition might cost, how much new infrastructure we’ll need to build, what effects we might see on energy sector employment, and the models the team used to generate these results—including a discussion of the limitations of models in addressing complex social issues.
References and recommendations:
“Net-Zero America” by Eric Larson, Chris Greig, Jesse Jenkins, Erin Mayfield, Andrew Pascale, Chuan Zhang, Joshua Drossman, Robert Williams, Steve Pacala, Robert Socolow, Ejeong Baik, Rich Birdsey, Rick Duke, Ryan Jones, Ben Haley, Emily Leslie, Keith Paustian, and…
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Mar 6, 2021
Illuminating the Future of Electric Power in the United States, with Karen Palmer
In this week’s episode, host Kristin Hayes talks with Karen Palmer, a senior fellow at Resources for the Future (RFF) and director of RFF’s Future of Power Initiative. Palmer has deep expertise in the US power sector and has authored numerous publications on electricity policy drivers and options in power market design and electrification of various sectors of the economy. This episode features two very capable and kind women in celebration of International Women’s Day on March 8.
Hayes and Palmer discuss a new report released by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine entitled “The Future of Electric Power in the United States.” Karen and her coauthors on this study, including RFF Board of Directors Chair Susan Tierney, were tasked with framing a broad set of issues facing the US power sector over the next several decades and with providing recommendations to a range of decisionmakers on how to address those drivers.
References and recommendations:…
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Feb 28, 2021
Updates to the Social Cost of Carbon, with Kevin Rennert
In this week’s episode, host Kristin Hayes talks with Kevin Rennert, a fellow at Resources for the Future (RFF) and director of RFF’s Social Cost of Carbon Initiative. Rennert has prior experience as deputy associate administrator for the Office of Policy at the US Environmental Protection Agency, senior advisor on energy for the US Senate Committee on Finance, and senior professional staff for the US Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.
Rennert’s expertise and leadership in these areas make him the perfect candidate to discuss the recently released interim estimate for the social cost of carbon—what it is, why it matters, how it’s evolved, and what will happen next with this important number.
References and recommendations:
“Discounting 101” explainer by Brian Prest; https://www.rff.org/publications/explainers/discounting-101/
“Estimating the Value of Carbon: Two Approaches” by Resources for the Future and New York State Energy Research and Developme…
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Feb 21, 2021
Shedding Light on Electricity Blackouts, with Severin Borenstein
In this episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Severin Borenstein, a professor at the University of California at Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, faculty director of the Energy Institute at Haas, and member of the Board of Governors of the California Independent System Operator. As the state of Texas struggles to keep the lights on due to extreme cold, Raimi asks Borenstein about lessons learned from California’s blackouts during the summer of 2020: the cause of the outages, the role of renewables, and market reforms that could help reduce the risk of blackouts in the future. Raimi and Borenstein also discuss how California’s experience can help Texas and other regional electricity networks plan for a future with more renewable power.
References and recommendations:
“An empirical analysis of the potential for market power in California’s electricity industry” by Severin Borenstein and James Bushnell; http://faculty.haas.berkeley.edu/borenste/download/JIE99Cournot.pdf…
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Feb 12, 2021
Assessing the Promise and Peril of Wood Pellet Products, with Francisco X. Aguilar
In this episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Francisco X. Aguilar, a professor at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and leader of the Team of Specialists on Wood Energy of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe. Aguilar and coauthors recently published a study on the environmental effects of the rapid growth of the wood pellet industry. Because wood pellets are viewed as carbon neutral, the boom in wood pellets may help meet climate targets in Europe. This conversation focuses on how the wood pellet industry’s growth has affected the number of trees and carbon stocks in the southeastern United States, where most wood pellets are produced. The key questions are whether wood pellets are truly renewable and whether they truly produce net-zero emissions. Aguilar helps us make sense of it all.
References and recommendations:
“Expansion of US Wood Pellet Industry Points to Positive Trends but the Need for Continued Monitoring” by Francisco X. Aguilar, Ashkan…
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Feb 6, 2021
Hug a Bus: How Cities Are Tackling Climate Change, with David Miller
In this episode, host Kristin Hayes talks with David Miller, former mayor of the city of Toronto and author of the book, “Solved: How the World’s Great Cities are Fixing the Climate Crisis.” The book came out in late 2020 and argues that cities are, in many ways, uniquely central to climate change action—and are, in fact, some of the best-equipped jurisdictions to take on the climate challenge.
Miller draws from his own experience as a mayor in reflecting on these issues, but also draws on his experience in working with the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group. The book includes anecdotes and lessons learned from a number of municipalities across the globe—accounts of tangible actions that are tremendously refreshing, when so much of the climate conversation can feel intractable. The conversation touches on Miller’s motivation in putting the book together and what he’s discovered along the way.
References and recommendations:
“Solved: How the World’s Great Cities ar…
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Jan 31, 2021
Can the Oil and Gas Industry Lead on Climate?, with Tisha Schuller
In this episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Tisha Schuller, principal of Adamantine Energy and author of a new book, “The Gamechanger’s Playbook.” The book is a provocative and insightful look at how oil and gas companies can play a leading role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Schuller lays out the case for why these companies need to change, how companies can approach the climate challenge in a new way, and what practical steps the oil and gas industry can take today to lay the groundwork for future success.
References and recommendations:
“The Gamechanger’s Playbook: How Oil & Gas Leaders Thrive in an Era of Continuous Disruption” by Tisha Schuller; https://energythinks.com/gamechanger/
“After the Pandemic: Hope and Breakthroughs for 2021” by Ted Nordhaus and Alex Trembath at the Breakthrough Institute; https://thebreakthrough.org/issues/energy/after-the-pandemic
“CO2 Emissions from Fossil Fuels May Have Peaked in 2019” by Zeke Hausfather at the Breakt…
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Jan 24, 2021
Tracing the Historical Arc of US Climate Policy, with David Hawkins
In this episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with David Hawkins, director of climate policy in the Climate & Clean Energy Program at the Natural Resources Defense Council and a member of the board of directors at Resources for the Future. Hawkins has decades of experience working on energy and climate policy issues in NGOs and government. He walks us through the past 60 years of federal climate policy in the United States; helps us understand the scientific, political, and economic drivers that have shaped policy decisions from the 1960s all the way up through today, including a reflection on the Trump years; and takes a look ahead to the next four years under a new administration.
References and recommendations:
"Braiding Sweetgrass" by Robin Wall Kimmerer; https://milkweed.org/book/braiding-sweetgrass
"Coffeeland" by Augustine Sedgewick; https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/316748/coffeeland-by-augustine-sedgewick/
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Jan 16, 2021
Defining, Measuring, and Addressing Energy Poverty, with Tony Reames
This week, host Daniel Raimi talks with Tony Reames, an assistant professor at the University of Michigan’s School for Environment and Sustainability, and a leading scholar on the closely related topics of energy justice and energy poverty. In his conversation with Raimi, Reames describes what energy poverty is, how the federal government currently addresses energy poverty, and how quantifying the problem can lead to good policy solutions.
References and recommendations:
“An incandescent truth: Disparities in energy-efficient lighting availability and prices in an urban U.S. county” by Tony G. Reames, Michael A. Reiner, and M. Ben Stacey; https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0306261918302769
“Three Scenarios for the Future of Climate Change” by Elizabeth Kolbert; https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-a-warming-planet/three-scenarios-for-the-future-of-climate-change
“The Warmth of Other Suns” by Isabel Wilkerson; https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/…
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Jan 8, 2021
Gambling on the Growth of Global Emissions, with Ken Caldeira and Ted Nordhaus
In this episode, we get the details on a friendly wager between Ken Caldeira, a senior scientist at the Carnegie Institution, and Ted Nordhaus, founder and executive director of the Breakthrough Institute. Caldeira also is a senior advisor to Gates Ventures, but is not speaking on their behalf.
Nordhaus is betting that global CO₂ emissions peaked in 2019, but Caldeira disagrees. Host Daniel Raimi asks each of them to lay out the arguments for and against the assertion that emissions peaked in 2019, and they explore the underlying factors that will likely drive the outcome of the wager. Raimi, Caldeira, and Nordhaus discuss the role of Covid-19, energy technologies, human behavior, and even the extinction of the dinosaurs.
References and recommendations:
The origin of the bet on Twitter; https://twitter.com/KenCaldeira/status/1344783094553800705?s=20
"How to Avoid a Climate Disaster" by Bill Gates; https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/633968/how-to-avoid-a-climate-disaster-by-…
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Jan 1, 2021
What Counts as an “Environmental” Issue?, with Neil Lewis Jr.
This week, host Daniel Raimi talks with Neil Lewis Jr., an assistant professor of communication and social behavior at Cornell University, about how different socioeconomic groups define what is—and what is not—an “environmental” issue. Lewis’s research touches on a variety of policy issues, from industrial pollution and housing policy to climate change and unemployment. In this episode, Lewis describes how individuals define “environmental” issues differently and asserts that recognizing these differences can help inform policymaking.
References and recommendations:
“What counts as an ‘environmental’ issue? Differences in issue conceptualization by race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status” by Hwanseok Song, Neil A. Lewis Jr., Matthew T. Ballew, Mario Bravo, Julie Davydova, H. Oliver Gao, Robert J. Garcia, Sofia Hiltner, Sarah M. Naiman, Adam R. Pearson, Rainer Romero-Canyas, and Jonathan P. Schuldt; https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S027249…
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Dec 27, 2020
So Long, 2020! Reviewing Energy and Environmental Policy, with Sarah Ladislaw and Barry Rabe
In this episode, we say, "So Long, 2020!" and look ahead to 2021. To do so, host Daniel Raimi talks with two of the smartest energy and environmental thinkers around: Sarah Ladislaw, from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and Barry Rabe, from the Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan. Ladislaw and Rabe reflect on the crazy year that was 2020—in particular, by noting which developments in energy and environmental policy likely will stay with us; some of the legacies of the Trump presidency; and what climate policy might look like under a Biden administration, which has laid out ambitious climate goals but likely faces a challenging political landscape.
References and recommendations:
"Trust" by Pete Buttigieg; https://wwnorton.com/books/9781631498770
"Theories of Change" podcast; https://www.csis.org/podcasts/theories-change
"Power Grab" by Paasha Mahdavi; https://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/politics-international-relations/politic…
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Dec 19, 2020
Rare Earths 101: Digging Up the Facts, with Jordy Lee
This week, host Daniel Raimi talks with Jordy Lee, a senior research associate at the Payne Institute for Public Policy at the Colorado School of Mines. Lee discusses rare earth minerals, which are used widely in clean energy technologies, including wind, solar, and energy storage. Raimi and Lee talk about what rare earth minerals are, whether they're literally “rare,” how they’re mined and processed around the world, and their geopolitical implications.
References and recommendations:
"Sustain What?" podcast from the Earth Institute at Columbia University; https://www.earth.columbia.edu/videos/channel/sustain-what
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Dec 12, 2020
Navigating Challenges to the Clean Water Rule, with Sheila Olmstead
This week, host Kristin Hayes talks with Sheila Olmstead, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin, a university fellow at Resources for the Future (RFF) and a senior fellow at the Property and Environment Research Center in Bozeman, Montana. She spent time at the Council of Economic Advisers during the transition from the Obama to Trump administrations, and she has coauthored a recent report, commissioned by the External Environmental Economics Advisory Committee (E-EEAC), which is the subject of this episode.
The E-EEAC is an independent organization dedicated to providing up-to-date, nonpartisan advice on the state of economic science as it relates to programs at the US Environmental Protection Agency. Regular listeners may recall that Hayes discussed a previous E-EEAC report on Resources Radio, with coauthors Mary Evans and Matt Kotchen, about the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) rule. This week, Hayes and Holmstead talk about the newly released report commissioned…
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Dec 5, 2020
Learning Lessons for Lion Conservation in West Africa, with Nyeema Harris
This week, host Daniel Raimi talks with Nyeema Harris, an assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Michigan. Harris has coauthored a recent study that shows how communities of lions are distributed across national parks and hunting concessions in West Africa. Harris and Raimi discuss how these different environments affects patterns in lion movement and distribution, how those findings can inform conservation policy, and the controversial and fascinating topic of trophy hunting.
References and recommendations:
“Where lions roam: West African big cats show no preference between national parks, hunting zones” by Jim Erickson; https://news.umich.edu/where-lions-roam-west-african-big-cats-show-no-preference-between-national-parks-hunting-zones/
"Comparable space use by lions between hunting concessions and national parks in West Africa" by Kirby L. Mills, Yahou Harissou, Isaac T. Gnoumou, Yaye I. Abdel-Nasser, Benoit Doamba, and Nyeema C. Harris;…
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Nov 28, 2020
Can the Magic Glue of Cement Turn Green?, with Mahmoud Taha
This week, host Daniel Raimi talks with Mahmoud Taha, a professor and chair of the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of New Mexico. Taha is an expert on many things related to materials science; in this episode, he talks about cement, which he calls the “magic glue” of construction. Taha and Raimi discuss the greenhouse gas footprint of cement, options for reducing that footprint, how the use of new materials might affect the cost and performance of cement, and government policies that can help spur innovation and speed deployment.
References and recommendations:
“Good Economics for Hard Times” by Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo; https://www.goodeconomicsforhardtimes.com/
“Sweden’s HYBRIT starts operations at pilot plant for fossil-free steel” in Reuters; https://www.reuters.com/article/us-sweden-steel-hydrogen/swedens-hybrit-starts-operations-at-pilot-plant-for-fossil-free-steel-idUSKBN25R1PI
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Nov 22, 2020
Getting Goods through the Circular Economy, with Apala Mukherjee
In this episode, host Kristin Hayes talks with Apala Mukherjee, circular economy leader and sustainability director at BASF Corporation. BASF is one of the largest chemical companies in the world and has been considering how best to reduce waste—for both sustainability and cost-reduction reasons. As noted on the BASF website, the concept of a circular economy isn't just about waste reduction; Mukherjee helps define the term, explains what "circular economy" means in practice at a large multinational firm like BASF, and describes some implementation challenges that businesses must confront, if they're committed to circular economy principles.
References and recommendations:
"The Circular Economy Handbook" by Peter Lacey, Jessica Long, and Wesley Spindler; https://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9781349959679
“Breaking the Plastic Wave: Top Findings for Preventing Plastic Pollution” by Simon Reddy and Winnie Lau; https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/articles/2020/07/23/br…
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Nov 14, 2020
The Future of Cost-Benefit Analysis, with Michael Livermore and Richard Revesz
In this week's episode, host Kristin Hayes talks with the coauthors of the new book “Reviving Rationality: Saving Cost-Benefit Analysis for the Sake of the Environment and Our Health," Michael A. Livermore and Richard Revesz.
Livermore was the founding executive director of the Institute for Policy Integrity at New York University (NYU) and now serves as one of its senior advisors. He is a professor at the University of Virginia’s School of Law. Revesz is the Lawrence King Professor of Law at NYU and the current director of the Institute for Policy Integrity. Oxford University Press released the new book last week; in this episode, Livermore and Revesz talk about why they chose to invest their time in this project, what messages they intend the book to convey, and how they see the issues described in the book playing out over the next few years.
References and recommendations:
“Reviving Rationality: Saving Cost-Benefit Analysis for the Sake of the Environment and Our Health" b…
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Nov 7, 2020
Evaluating and Enhancing Corporate Climate Action, with Mark Tercek
This week, host Daniel Raimi talks with Mark Tercek, longtime investment banker at Goldman Sachs, a former CEO of The Nature Conservancy, and a current member of the President's Council at Resources for the Future (RFF). Tercek talks about his current work advising private companies on how to take more ambitious steps to address environmental problems—particularly climate change. He and Raimi discuss some examples of what companies are doing, why they’re doing it, and how a skeptical public can evaluate the veracity of corporate climate commitments.
References and recommendations:
"The Instigator" newsletter by Mark Tercek; https://marktercek.substack.com/
"Reimagining Capitalism in a World on Fire" by Rebecca M. Henderson; https://reimaginingcapitalism.org/
"Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game that Made a Nation" by John Carlin; https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/530626/playing-the-enemy-by-john-carlin/
Amy Harder's interview with Bernard Looney via Axios on…
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Oct 29, 2020
Big Decisions in Data-Driven Policymaking, with Richard G. Newell and Susan Tierney
In this week's episode, guest hosts Richard Newell and Sue Tierney talk with each other about the difference it makes for policymakers to have access to sound economic and policy analysis, economic and climate policy in the near and longer term, the best ways to deploy resources to achieve ambitious policy outcomes, and highlights from prior episodes in the "Big Decisions" series they've spearheaded on the Resources Radio podcast. Newell is president and CEO of Resources for the Future (RFF). Tierney serves as the chair of RFF's Board of Directors and is a senior advisor at Analysis Group.
This is the final episode of our month-long spin-off series, “Big Decisions: The Future of US Environmental and Energy Policy.” For this series, which has aired in our same Resources Radio time slot every Tuesday in October, RFF Board of Directors Chair Sue Tierney and RFF President Richard G. Newell have shared guest-hosting duties and talked with leading decisionmakers, analysts, researchers,…
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Oct 24, 2020
Big Decisions in Equitable Energy Policy, with Paula Glover
In this week's episode, guest host Sue Tierney talks with Paula Glover, president and CEO of the American Association of Blacks in Energy and incoming president of the Alliance to Save Energy. Glover and Tierney discuss policy priorities for Black professionals in the energy industry; creating coalitions to make progress with good policy; support systems and professional pipelines that help diversify the energy field; and energy justice as the intersection between energy, the environment, social justice, and community collaboration.
This episode is the penultimate in our month-long spin-off series, “Big Decisions: The Future of US Environmental and Energy Policy.” For this series, which airs in our same Resources Radio time slot every Tuesday in October, RFF Board of Directors Chair Sue Tierney and RFF President Richard G. Newell share guest-hosting duties and talk with leading decisionmakers, analysts, researchers, and reporters about the big decisions that will impact US environ…
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Oct 18, 2020
Big Decisions in Air Quality Regulations, with Mary Nichols
In this week's episode, guest host Richard G. Newell talks with Mary Nichols, chair of the California Air Resources Board and an environmental lawyer with prior experience at the US Environmental Protection Agency and in the California state government. Nichols and Newell discuss what comes next when a new law is "ready to be interpreted" and what it's like for a lawyer to bring some of the first cases under a new statute, regulating environmental health in a cost-effective way, the viability of carbon pricing and market-based policies, and how recognizing that global systemic injustice contributes to pollution is critical to identifying environmental solutions.
This episode continues our month-long spin-off series, “Big Decisions: The Future of US Environmental and Energy Policy.” For this series, which will air in our same Resources Radio time slot every Tuesday in October, RFF President Richard G. Newell and RFF Board of Directors Chair Sue Tierney will share guest-hosting duti…
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Oct 10, 2020
Big Decisions in Administrative Law, with Jody Freeman and Jeff Holmstead
In this week's episode, guest host Sue Tierney talks with Jody Freeman and Jeffrey Holmstead. Freeman is a professor who specializes in administrative law and environmental law at Harvard, founded their Environmental and Energy Law Program, and established the Harvard Law School’s first environmental law clinic. Holmstead is an attorney at the Houston-based law firm Bracewell LLP and a former assistant administrator of the US Environmental Protection Agency; he is also a member of the president's council at Resources for the Future.
Tierney, Freeman, and Holmstead discuss past "shenanigans" in presidential transitions; how a new or sitting president will prioritize goals in office, particularly during a troubling pandemic and highly unstable economy; the need for congressional action to make headway on climate change; and more.
This episode continues our month-long spin-off series, “Big Decisions: The Future of US Environmental and Energy Policy.” For this series—which will a…
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Oct 2, 2020
Big Decisions in Federal Legislation, with Amy Harder
In this week's episode, guest host Richard G. Newell talks with Amy Harder, a reporter at Axios who covers energy, the environment, and climate change issues. Previously, Amy covered similar topics for the Wall Street Journal and the National Journal; she also was the inaugural journalism fellow for the University of Chicago's Energy Policy Institute in 2018. Harder and Newell discuss the likelihood of bipartisan policies moving forward, given various election result scenarios; how to effectively use political capital; "climate hawks" and the viability of climate policy; implications of changes in the Supreme Court for environmental cases; and more.
This episode is the first in our month-long spin-off series, “Big Decisions: The Future of US Environmental and Energy Policy.” For this series, which will air in our same Resources Radio time slot every Tuesday in October, RFF President Richard G. Newell and RFF Board of Directors Chair Sue Tierney will share guest-hosting duties; the…
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Sep 27, 2020
Accessing Nature through Canada’s Parks, with Dawn Carr
This week, host Daniel Raimi talks with Dawn Carr, executive director of the Canadian Parks Council, a network of national, provincial, and territorial parks across Canada. Raimi and Carr discuss why connecting with nature is important, how the Canadian Parks Council works to enhance access to the natural world, how climate change is affecting the ways that governments need to manage their parks into the future, and strategies of making access to parks more equitable.
Editor’s Note: Next week, we’ll release the first episode of our month-long spin-off series, “Big Decisions: The Future of US Environmental and Energy Policy.” For this series, which will air in our same Resources Radio time slot every Tuesday in October, RFF President Richard G. Newell and RFF Board of Directors Chair Sue Tierney will share guest-hosting duties; they will talk with leading decisionmakers, analysts, researchers, and reporters about the big decisions that will impact US environmental and energy po…
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Sep 19, 2020
Space Resources: Exploring the Final Frontier, with Alex Gilbert
This week, host Daniel Raimi learns more about space mining with Alex Gilbert, a fellow at the Payne Institute for Public Policy at the Colorado School of Mines. In their discussion of the fundamentals of space mining, Gilbert and Raimi address key questions like the following: What resources are people interested in mining? What technologies are necessary to extract resources? How is the ownership of space resources governed? What environmental risks might we encounter—or create—in outer space?
References and recommendations:
“Life on Venus? Astronomers See a Signal in Its Clouds” by Shannon Stirone, Kenneth Chang, and Dennis Overbye; https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/14/science/venus-life-clouds.html
“Phosphine gas in the cloud decks of Venus” by Jane S. Greaves , Anita M. S. Richards , William Bains, Paul B. Rimmer, Hideo Sagawa , David L. Clements, Sara Seager, Janusz J. Petkowski, Clara Sousa-Silva, Sukrit Ranjan, Emily Drabek-Maunder, Helen J. Fraser, Annabel C…
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Sep 13, 2020
The Environmental Impacts of Digital Technologies, with George Kamiya
This week, host Kristin Hayes talks with George Kamiya, an analyst at the International Energy Agency (IEA) and an expert on the emissions of information and communications technology. Kamiya leads the IEA's analysis on the energy impact of digital technologies and coordinates cross-agency efforts on tracking clean energy progress, digitalization, and automated and shared mobility. Kamiya and Hayes discuss the environmental footprint of the many digital technologies that have now become fixtures of many of our lives. The discussion focuses on energy consumption—Kamiya's primary area of expertise—but also touches on other broader issues and impacts, along with some technologies that most people probably don't use on a daily basis, such as Bitcoin mining. While some recent sensational media coverage has suggested otherwise, Kamiya emphasizes that the environmental impacts of digital technologies still pale in comparison to those of bigger sectors, such as transportation and industry.…
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Sep 6, 2020
Hot Rocks: Drilling into Geothermal Energy, with Tim Latimer
This week, Daniel Raimi talks with Tim Latimer, cofounder and CEO of Fervo Energy, a geothermal energy developer. Geothermal is a relatively small source of energy in the United States, but it has the potential to grow substantially. Latimer and Raimi discuss how the technology works, where it’s deployed in the United States and around the world, how it might grow in the years ahead, and its environmental risks. And, along the way, they make very bad puns about hot rocks.
References and recommendations:
"GeoVision" report by the US Department of Energy; https://www.energy.gov/eere/geothermal/downloads/geovision-harnessing-heat-beneath-our-feet
The Broken Earth trilogy by N.K. Jemison; https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/articles/n-k-jemisin-broken-earth-trilogy-books-in-order/
“How the World’s Largest Garbage Dump Evolved Into a Green Oasis” by Robert Sullivan; https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/14/nyregion/freshkills-garbage-dump-nyc.html
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Aug 30, 2020
California’s Wildfires: Climate Change, COVID, and Consequences, with Matthew Wibbenmeyer
This week, host Daniel Raimi talks with Resources for the Future Fellow Matthew Wibbenmeyer. Wibbenmeyer provides an update on the recent spread of wildfires in California. He and Raimi discuss the severity of the fires; the impacts of the fires on people and places; and the causes of these fires, including the role of climate change. They also talk about how public policies can help reduce the risks of wildfires, including the roles of prescribed burning and housing policy.
References and recommendations:
“The Ongoing Trauma of California’s Wildfires, in ‘Last Days at Paradise High’” by Rachel Riederer; https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-new-yorker-documentary/the-ongoing-trauma-of-californias-wildfires-in-last-days-at-paradise-high
“How Prosperity Transformed the Falklands” by Larissa MacFarquhar; https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/07/06/how-prosperity-transformed-the-falklands
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Aug 20, 2020
Surveying American Public Opinion on Climate Change and the Environment, with Jon Krosnick
This week, host Kristin Hayes talks with Jon Krosnick, a university fellow at Resources for the Future (RFF) and professor in humanities and social sciences, communication, and political science at Stanford University, where he directs the Political Psychology Research Group. In his spare time, Krosnick is a professional jazz drummer who tours a third of the year with his band, the Charged Particles—but during the day, Krosnick is a social psychologist who researches survey methods and the psychology of political behavior. Krosnick has collaborated with RFF for a number of years on his work related to surveying American public opinion on global warming, and the partnership continues with additional key collaborators this year. Today's discussion focuses on the overall trend results from the "Climate Insights 2020" survey. For more information on the survey, visit rff.org/climateinsights for an interactive web tool that shows the comprehensive findings in robust detail.
References an…
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Aug 16, 2020
Equity and Electricity: Race Gap in Household Energy Use, with Eva Lyubich
This week, host Daniel Raimi talks with Eva Lyubich, a PhD student in the Economics Department at the University of California, Berkeley, and at the Energy Institute at Haas. Lyubich recently released a fascinating working paper on the gap in household energy spending between white and black households. Lyubich and Raimi discuss this new working paper: how big that race gap is, whether it’s changed over time, and what might account for its origin. The long-ranging conversation includes not just energy, but also the history of discriminatory housing policies in the United States.
References and recommendations:
"The Race Gap in Residential Energy Expenditures" by Eva Lyubich; https://haas.berkeley.edu/wp-content/uploads/WP306.pdf
"Drilled" podcast; https://www.criticalfrequency.org/drilled
"Merchants of Doubt" by Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway; https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/merchants-of-doubt-9781596916104/
"There’s Something in the Water" by Ingrid Waldron; https://fernwoodp…
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Aug 8, 2020
Taming the Sun in India’s Power Sector, with Varun Sivaram
This week, host Daniel Raimi talks with Varun Sivaram, a visiting senior fellow at Columbia’s Center on Global Energy Policy. Sivaram is an expert on all things energy and recently spent two years working in India on solar energy. Sivaram and Raimi discuss the evolution of India’s power grid, including its rapid expansion of energy access and its historical dependence on coal; the rise of solar, wind, and storage; and the challenges that lie ahead.
References and recommendations:
"Taming the Sun: Innovations to Harness Solar Energy and Power the Planet" by Varun Sivaram; https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/taming-sun
"The Next Phase of India's Renewable Energy Transition" by Varun Sivaram; https://www.aspeninstitute.org/blog-posts/the-next-phase-of-indias-renewable-energy-transition/
"Short-Circuiting Policy" by Leah C. Stokes; https://www.leahstokes.com/book
"Columbia Energy Exchange" podcast; https://energypolicy.columbia.edu/podcast/columbia-energy-exchange
"Our Daily Planet" n…
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Aug 2, 2020
The Environmental Appeal of Green Steel, with Chris Bataille
This week, host Daniel Raimi talks with Chris Bataille, associate researcher at the Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations in Paris. Steel accounts for almost 10 percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, and Bataille considers the potential for reducing and perhaps eliminating carbon dioxide emissions from the steelmaking process. Bataille also discusses how the industry currently works, which approaches and technologies can reduce emissions, and how policy can help drive innovation.
References and recommendations:
"The Entrepreneurial State" by Mariana Mazzucato; https://marianamazzucato.com/entrepreneurial-state/
"Doughnut Economics" by Kate Raworth; https://www.chelseagreen.com/product/doughnut-economics-paperback/
"U.S. renewable energy consumption surpasses coal for the first time in over 130 years" from the US Energy Information Administration’s "Today in Energy;" https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=43895
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Jul 26, 2020
Driving Behavior: How COVID-19 Pumped the Brakes on Transportation, with Abel Brodeur
This is the third episode in an ongoing webinar series, which is providing Resources Radio listeners the chance to listen to a podcast recording live and ask guests their own questions about pressing energy, environment, and economics issues.
In this episode, host Kristin Hayes talks with Abel Brodeur about how the coronavirus lockdown orders have affected the transportation sector. Brodeur, an associate professor at the University of Ottawa's Department of Economics, talks about his recent research on the decrease in car collision incidents during the lockdowns, along with his recently coauthored literature review about the economic impacts of the pandemic across a range of other dimensions.
References and recommendations:
"On the Effects of COVID-19 Safer-At-Home Policies on Social Distancing, Car Crashes and Pollution" by Abel Brodeur, Nikolai Cook, and Taylor Wright; http://ftp.iza.org/dp13255.pdf
"A Literature Review of the Economics of COVID-19" by Abel Brodeur, David M. Gray…
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Jul 18, 2020
Getting Filled In on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, with Annalise Blum
In this episode, Annalise Blum fills us in on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. Blum, a policy fellow with the American Association for the Advancement Science, has worked for years on the technical and geopolitical aspects of hydropower. Host Daniel Raimi talks with Blum about the controversial dam project on the Blue Nile River in Ethiopia, whose reservoir could begin filling as soon as this week. The Renaissance Dam has been the subject of international negotiations for years, and has even prompted some threats of armed conflict. The issues surrounding the dam are complex, important, and discussed infrequently here in the United States—but Blum and Raimi jump right into the topic.
References and recommendations:
"Timbuktu" film; https://www.reuters.com/article/us-awards-oscars-timbuktu/oscar-nominee-timbuktu-tackles-everyday-view-of-radical-islam-idUSKBN0LI0HV20150214
Aaron Wolf’s research about international agreements; https://www.texastribune.org/2017/07/11/q-aaron-wolf…
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Jul 11, 2020
Air Quality Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A View from Two Epicenters, with Valentina Bosetti
This is the second episode in an ongoing webinar series, which is providing Resources Radio listeners the chance to listen to a podcast recording live and ask guests their own questions about pressing energy issues.
In this episode, host Kristin Hayes talks with Valentina Bosetti, a Bocconi University professor and a senior scientist at the RFF-CMCC European Institute on Economics and the Environment, who has closely studied air quality in Northern Italy. Bosetti finds that, while air pollution decreased in the region during the pandemic lockdowns, pollution did not fall nearly as much as expected, largely because lockdown measures hardly impacted agricultural emissions. In addition, Bosetti warns that the public health benefits of improved air quality pale in comparison to the lives lost from COVID-19, and unless governments take action, pollution will surge again once economic activity returns to pre-pandemic levels.
References and recommendations:
"Spillover: Animal Infections an…
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Jul 5, 2020
AC/DC: Unequal Access to Air Conditioning, with Kelly T. Sanders
This week, host Daniel Raimi talks with Kelly T. Sanders, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Southern California. With her coauthors, Sanders has recently published a series of studies on air conditioning use in southern California, with a focus on who does—and does not—have access to cooling on hot days. This work, which touches on issues of energy and environmental justice, has big implications for managing the COVID-19 pandemic this summer—and managing climate change in the decades to come.
References and recommendations:
"Utilizing smart-meter data to project impacts of urban warming on residential electricity use for vulnerable populations in Southern California" by Mo Chen, George A. Ban-Weiss, and Kelly T. Sanders; https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ab6fbe/meta
"Growth: From Microorganisms to Megacities" by Vaclav Smil; https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/growth
"These Truths: A History of the United States" by Jill Lep…
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Jun 27, 2020
Resources Radio Live: How COVID-19 Has Powered Down the US Economy, with Steve Cicala
This is the first episode in an ongoing webinar series, which is providing Resources Radio listeners the chance to listen to a podcast recording live and ask guests their own questions about pressing energy issues.
In this episode, host Kristin Hayes talks with Professor Steve Cicala of the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy (soon to be moving to Tufts University’s Department of Economics). Expounding on research recently highlighted in the New York Times, in which he undertook one of the earliest looks at electricity demand during the peak of the pandemic lockdowns in the United States, Cicala details how electricity demand can serve as a valuable—if incomplete—tool to assess the health of the economy and the outlook for recovering from a recession. Cicala notes that the current crisis has shifted renewable penetration and affected energy consumption, but researchers remain uncertain about the duration of the pandemic and its long-term impacts on the elect…
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Jun 21, 2020
The Challenge of Diversity in the Environmental Movement, with Dorceta Taylor (Rebroadcast)
These past few weeks, people across the United States have been horrified by the continuing violence against people of color. Resources for the Future has been working toward contributing energy and thoughtful work—not just words and statements—to support and incorporate diversity in our environmental mission. Toward that end, we are rebroadcasting this Resources Radio episode from last July with Dorceta Taylor.
In this episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Professor Dorceta E. Taylor of the University of Michigan’s School for Environment and Sustainability (soon to be moving to the faculty at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies). Raimi asks Taylor about her research on the history of the environmental movement, focusing on issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion within environmental groups—both historically and today. While some progress has happened over the years, major challenges remain, and the field has plenty of room for improvement.
References and r…
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Jun 12, 2020
Space: The Next Great Market Opportunity, with Michael Toman
This week, host Kristin Hayes talks with Michael Toman, lead economist on climate change for the World Bank’s Development Research Group. Toman worked at Resources for the Future (RFF) for many years, during which he collaborated with former RFF Vice President for Research Molly Macauley in her pioneering effort to develop the economics of outer space as a topic for research and policy analysis. Hayes and Toman discuss the commercialization and privatization of space, both in light of the recent successful SpaceX launch to the International Space Station, and given that the day of recording (June 10) would have been Molly’s 63rd birthday.
References and recommendations:
"Racism and Injustice: A Letter from RFF President Richard G. Newell" from RFF; https://www.rff.org/racism-and-injustice-letter-rff-president-richard-g-newell/
"In Loving Memory of Molly K. Macauley" from Resources magazine; https://www.resourcesmag.org/archives/in-loving-memory-of-molly-k-macauley/
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Jun 6, 2020
Growing the Power Grid in Africa, with Todd Moss
This week, host Daniel Raimi talks with Todd Moss, executive director of the Energy for Growth Hub and a nonresident fellow at Rice University's Baker Institute. Moss has years of experience expanding access to energy around the world, particularly in Africa. Here, Raimi and Moss discuss the current strategies that countries, companies, and international organizations are implementing to expand access in Africa; how COVID-19 is affecting these efforts; and the intersection between expanding energy access and mitigating climate change.
References and recommendations:
"Power Trip: The Story of Energy" show on PBS; https://powertripshow.com/
"Power Trip: The Story of Energy" book by Michael E. Webber; https://www.basicbooks.com/titles/michael-e-webber/power-trip/9781541644380/
"Between the World and Me" by Ta-Nehisi Coates; https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/220290/between-the-world-and-me-by-ta-nehisi-coates/
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May 31, 2020
Adding Subtraction to the Climate Toolkit: Discussing Carbon Dioxide Removal with Wil Burns
In this episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Wil Burns, co-director of the Institute for Carbon Removal Law and Policy at American University. Raimi and Burns discuss the approaches and technologies that might be helpful in removing large amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, what governments and companies are doing to encourage the deployment of these options, and some of the risks and challenges that each approach brings.
References and recommendations:
"Dam Breaches in Michigan Raise Questions for Dam Maintenance Across the Nation," a Q&A with RFF's Margaret Walls; https://www.resourcesmag.org/common-resources/dam-breaches-michigan-raise-questions-dam-maintenance-across-nation/
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May 24, 2020
Decarbonizing Global Industry, with Jeffrey Rissman
This week, host Kristin Hayes talks with Jeffrey Rissman, the industry program director and head of modeling at Energy Innovation, a research firm focused on accelerating clean energy. He leads modeling efforts for the firm’s energy policy solutions focus area, to determine the policies that most effectively help meet climate and energy goals. Rissman is the lead author on a new paper released recently in the journal "Applied Energy," which dives deep into the technologies and policies that might drive decarbonization across global industry. This sector is notoriously difficult to decarbonize, but it's critical to meeting long-term emissions reduction goals.
References and recommendations:
"Technologies and policies to decarbonize global industry: Review and assessment of mitigation drivers through 2070" by Jeffrey Rissman, Chris Bataille, Eric Masanet, Nate Aden, William R. Morrow III, Nan Zhou, Neal Elliott, Rebecca Dell, Niko Heeren, Brigitta Huckestein, Joe Cresko, Sabbie Mille…
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May 19, 2020
China's Emerging Policies for Emissions Reductions, with Dick Morgenstern
Along with several co-authors, Resources for the Future (RFF) Senior Fellow Dick Morgenstern has recently released an RFF working paper on China’s new emissions trading program: a “tradable performance standard,” which sets a ratio of emissions to output that individual firms have to meet. Host Daniel Raimi talks with Morgenstern in this episode about the goals of the trading program, how it's designed, some of its strengths and weaknesses, and how the policy fits into the framework of international negotiations on climate change. While the standard is not as efficient as more typical models, it stands to significantly reduce emissions once it expands beyond the power sector—without necessarily curbing China’s economic growth.
References and recommendations:
"China's Unconventional Nationwide CO2 Emissions Trading System: The Wide-Ranging Impacts of an Implicit Output Subsidy" by Lawrence H. Goulder, Xianling Long, Jieyi Lu, and Richard D. Morgenstern; https://www.rff.org/p…
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May 12, 2020
Reflecting on Solar Geoengineering, with David Keith
This week, host Daniel Raimi talks with Harvard University Professor David Keith about solar geoengineering. Keith describes the variety of ways that solar geoengineering could work; some of its risks at local, regional, and global scales; recent small-scale experiments; and what might be needed to deploy a larger-scale research program. Raimi and Keith also discuss public policies related to potential deployment technologies, including the substantial issues surrounding governance and geopolitics.
References and recommendations:
"Inner Ranges" by Geoff Powter; https://rmbooks.com/book/inner-ranges/
"Pilgrims of the Vertical" by Joseph E. Taylor III; https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674052871
"Environmental Insights" podcast with Robert Stavins; https://scholar.harvard.edu/stavins/environmental-insights-podcast
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May 5, 2020
Going Deep on Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage (CCUS), with Julio Friedmann
This week, host Daniel Raimi talks about carbon capture, use, and storage (CCUS) with Julio Friedmann, a senior research scholar at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy. Friedmann gives an overview of the status of CCUS deployment worldwide, describes the costs of CCUS relative to other approaches for reducing emissions, and notes some emerging federal policies that aim to increase deployment of CCUS in the United States.
References and recommendations:
"Capturing Investment: Policy Design to Finance CCUS Projects in the US Power Sector" by Julio Friedmann, Emeka Ochu, and Jeffrey D. Brown; https://energypolicy.columbia.edu/research/report/capturing-investment-policy-design-finance-ccus-projects-us-power-sector
"To Tackle Climate Change, the (Industrial) Heat Is On" by Julio Friedmann; https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-10-21/amid-climate-change-the-heat-is-on-heavy-industry-to-decarbonize
"Low-Carbon Heat Solutions for Heavy Industry: Sources, Option…
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Apr 24, 2020
Is the Trump Administration Ditching WOTUS?, with Ellen Gilinsky
This week, host Daniel Raimi talks with Ellen Gilinsky about Waters of the United States, or WOTUS, which refers to the 2015 Clean Water Rule that defined the scope of federal water protection, particularly for streams and wetlands that share a hydrologic system with "navigable waters." Gilinsky was the associate deputy assistant administrator for water at the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA); she is an expert on all things WOTUS.
Raimi and Gilinsky discuss why WOTUS is so important for federal regulation of surface waters; why the waters that fall under regulation are so tricky to define; and how the Trump administration has sought to change the definitions, with implications that reduce regulation.
Just last week, EPA and the US Army Corps of Engineers published their Navigable Waters Protection Rule to change the definition of WOTUS and "navigable waters," demarcating four categories for waters under jurisdiction. The new rule becomes effective on June 22 this year, althou…
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Apr 18, 2020
Lessons from 50 Years of the Clean Air Act, with Maureen Cropper
This week, host Daniel Raimi talks with Maureen Cropper, an economics professor at the University of Maryland and senior fellow at Resources for the Future (RFF). Raimi asks Maureen about a paper she recently coauthored, which takes a retrospective look at the Clean Air Act, as this year we mark the 50th anniversary of its 1970 amendments. With more than 50 years of data since the original Clean Air Act came into existence in 1963, Cropper et al.'s new paper reviews how the law has been implemented, drawing out key lessons and research questions that we may be able to apply to good effect in the next 50 years.
References and recommendations:
"Looking Back at Fifty Years of the Clean Air Act" by Joseph E. Aldy, Maximilian Auffhammer, Maureen L. Cropper, Arthur G. Fraas, and Richard D. Morgenstern; https://www.rff.org/publications/working-papers/looking-back-at-fifty-years-of-the-clean-air-act/
Fall 2019 issue of the Journal of Economic Perspectives (vol. 33, no. 4), which focuses in…
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Apr 12, 2020
Has Good Benefit-Cost Analysis Been Swept under the MATS?, with Mary Evans And Matthew Kotchen
In this week's episode, Kristin Hayes talks with Mary Evans and Matthew Kotchen, two of the authors on a new study published in the journal "Science" last week, which takes a critical look at how the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently updated the benefit-cost analysis of its Mercury and Air Toxics Standards, or MATS. At the risk of skipping to the punchline, the paper's authors suggest that EPA’s analysis is seriously flawed.
Evans and Kotchen discuss why they and their colleagues reached this conclusion, what the perceived flaws in the analysis could mean for human health and the environment, and how EPA and the Trump administration should proceed from here.
References and recommendations:
"Deep flaws in a mercury regulatory analysis" by Joseph Aldy, Matthew Kotchen, Mary Evans, Meredith Fowlie, Arik Levinson, and Karen Palmer; https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2020/04/08/science.aba7932
"Lead pollution tracks the rise and fall of medieval kings" by Ann…
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Apr 4, 2020
The Value of a Statistical Life and Coronavirus, with Alan Krupnick
This week, host Daniel Raimi talks with RFF Senior Fellow Alan Krupnick about the value of a statistical life, or VSL. As we all try to stay safe during the coronavirus pandemic, some analysts have started to ask the question, How much economic pain is appropriate to withstand to protect public health? The question is studded with ethical and moral land mines that, to some extent, VSL helps to address. In today’s episode, Krupnick takes us through the history of the VSL concept, different methods for calculating VSL, and how VSL might (or might not) be applied in today’s rapidly changing world.
References and recommendations:
"Mengele: Unmasking the 'Angel of Death'" by David G. Marwell; https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393609530
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Mar 26, 2020
A Status Report on Global Emissions Trading, with Stephanie La Hoz Theuer
This week, Daniel Raimi talks with Stephanie La Hoz Theuer, a senior project manager at adelphi, an environmental think tank, as well as a member of the International Carbon Action Partnership (ICAP) Secretariat. Each year, ICAP releases a valuable report on the status of emissions trading around the world, and the 2020 report was released just last week. In this episode, La Hoz Theuer provides updates on emissions trading policies around the world, including Europe, North America, Asia, and elsewhere. She and Raimi also discuss other policies that countries are deploying to reduce emissions, including in non-energy sectors such as agriculture.
References and recommendations:
"Emissions Trading Worldwide: Status Report 2020" by the International Carbon Action Partnership (ICAP); https://icapcarbonaction.com/en/icap-status-report-2020
"An amateur Chinese marathon runner under coronavirus lockdown ran 31 miles in his living room to pass the time"; https://www.businessinsider.com/chine…
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Mar 22, 2020
Do National Monuments Help or Hinder Local Economies?, with Margaret Walls
This week, host Daniel Raimi talks with RFF senior fellow Margaret Walls. Along with coauthors Patrick Lee and Matthew Ashenfarb, Walls published a study last week on the economic impacts that result from the establishment of national monuments. The study looks at how the designation of a national monument affects businesses and employment in the surrounding area. While some have argued that monuments stifle economic activity by making land off-limits to extractive activities like oil and gas drilling, others argue that national monuments generate growth in other industries, such as tourism. In their new study, Walls and colleagues provide answers.
References and recommendations:
"National monuments and economic growth in the American West" by Margaret Walls, Patrick Lee, and Matthew Ashenfarb; https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/12/eaay8523
"Cadillac Desert" by Marc Reisner; https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/323685/cadillac-desert-by-marc-reisner/
"The Source" by Mart…
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Mar 14, 2020
Oil Markets in the Time of COVID-19, with Amy Myers Jaffe
This week, host Kristin Hayes talks with Amy Myers Jaffe about what has been unfolding in world oil markets over the past week, as the coronavirus, or COVID-19, continues to spread and radically impact human lives and the global economy. Jaffe is the David M. Rubenstein senior fellow for energy and the environment and director of the Energy Security and Climate Change Program at the Council on Foreign Relations. She is a leading expert on global energy policy, geopolitical risk, energy, and sustainability.
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Mar 6, 2020
Managing Flood Risk under Climate Change, with Carolyn Kousky
This week, host Kristin Hayes talks with Carolyn Kousky, the executive director of the Wharton Risk Management and Decision Processes Center at the University of Pennsylvania. Kousky is a university fellow at Resources for a future and was a fellow at RFF for a number of years. Kousky's research has examined multiple aspects of disaster insurance markets, the National Flood Insurance Program, federal disaster aid and response, and policy responses to potential changes in extreme events with climate change. In this episode, Hayes and Kousky discuss resilience to natural disasters such as flooding and wildfire, whether the current US system of funding for that resilience is working (and for whom), and what other options for responding to natural disasters the United States might want to consider.
References and recommendations:
"Insuring Nature" by Carolyn Kousky and Sarah E. Light; https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3481896
"The Cure for Catastrophe" by Robert Muir-W…
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Feb 29, 2020
The Economics of Environmental Justice, with Samuel Stolper and Catherine Hausman
This week, host Daniel Raimi talks with Catherine Hausman and Samuel Stolper of the University of Michigan about a new working paper they’ve coauthored, called "Inequality, Information Failures, and Air Pollution." Catie and Sam take an economics lens to the problem of environmental justice and identify a new and important channel through which these problems can arise: the role of information.
References and recommendations:
"Inequality, Information Failures, and Air Pollution: by Catherine Hausman and Samuel Stolper; https://www.nber.org/papers/w26682
"Hop on Pop" by Dr. Seuss; https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/43028/hop-on-pop-by-hop-on-pop/
"The Dispossessed" by Ursula K. Le Guin; https://www.ursulakleguin.com/dispossessed
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Feb 23, 2020
Which Climate Path Are We On?, with Zeke Hausfather
This week, host Daniel Raimi talks with Zeke Hausfather, director of climate and energy at the Breakthrough Institute. Hausfather discusses the past, present, and future of global greenhouse gas emissions, the emissions trajectory that the world is currently on, how that pathway looks different from some of the worst-case scenarios that researchers have used in the past, and the crucial uncertainties that remain when it comes to estimating future global warming under any given emissions pathway.
References and recommendations:
"The End of Nature" by Bill McKibben; http://billmckibben.com/end-of-nature.html
"Explainer: Nine 'tipping points' that could be triggered by climate change" by Robert McSweeney; https://www.carbonbrief.org/explainer-nine-tipping-points-that-could-be-triggered-by-climate-change
The "Broken Earth" trilogy by NK Jemisin; https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/articles/n-k-jemisin-broken-earth-trilogy-books-in-order/
"Endless Night at -50 Degrees: A Look at Life on…
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Feb 15, 2020
On the Job with Florida’s First Chief Resilience Officer, Julia Nesheiwat
This week, host Kristin Hayes talks with Julia Nesheiwat, the first chief resilience officer for the state of Florida. Nesheiwat elaborates on how she’s helping support Florida’s climate resiliency efforts by coordinating across communities and organizations across the state and cutting the red tape that tends to stall environmental efforts related to climate change response.
Nesheiwat has served in combat with the US Army; she earned her PhD from Tokyo Institute of Technology, MA from Georgetown University, and BA from Stetson University in Florida. She has lectured on the geopolitics of energy, climate, and technology at the US Naval Postgraduate School, Stanford University, and the University of California, San Diego. Fittingly for the Florida resident, Nesheiwat likes to go stand-up paddleboarding and surfing.
References and recommendations:
"Master the Disaster" from FM Global; https://www.fmglobal.com/insights-and-impacts/2019/master-the-disaster
"The Geography of Risk" b…
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Feb 8, 2020
Going Deeper on NEPA, with J.B. Ruhl
In this episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with J.B. Ruhl, a professor at Vanderbilt University Law School who specializes in environmental, natural resources, and property law. Ruhl provides an overview of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the landmark law that permits lawsuits against federal agencies for any actions that are perceived to affect the quality of the environment. Drawing from his years practicing environmental law, Ruhl explains how NEPA lawsuits are especially complex—involving statutes, court opinions, and recent regulatory changes that are often at odds. He also discusses the implications of a proposed rule change by the Trump administration that could limit the types of litigation that can be pursued under NEPA.
References and recommendations:
"Guns, Germs, and Steel" by Jared Diamond; https://wwnorton.com/books/Guns-Germs-and-Steel/
"Boomtown" podcast; https://www.texasmonthly.com/boomtown/
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Feb 2, 2020
Extra! Extra! Listen All About It: A Conversation with Energy and Climate Journalist Amy Harder
In this week's episode, host Kristin Hayes talks with Amy Harder, national energy and climate change reporter at Axios. Harder's reporting includes exclusive scoops and analyses of national and global trends. Previously, she covered similar issues for the Wall Street Journal and National Journal. Harder also was the inaugural journalism fellow for the University of Chicago’s Energy Policy Institute in 2018.
Harder has been a longtime friend of RFF and has participated as a moderator in several RFF events. You may have followed her work on shale gas development, carbon pricing, and so many of the other topics of interest in today’s energy and climate policy conversations. Here, Harder discusses how she thinks about environmental journalism—and journalism in general—in this day and age.
References and recommendations:
RFF's Global Energy Outlook tool; https://www.rff.org/geo/
Wall Street Journal reporter Russell Gold's climate reporting; https://twitter.com/russellgold
"See…
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Jan 23, 2020
Green Growth That Works: Discussing Ecosystem Services, with Lisa Mandle
This week, host Daniel Raimi talks with Lisa Mandle, lead scientist at the Natural Capital Project, based at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment. Lisa is the co-editor of a new book called "Green Growth That Works: Natural Capital Policy and Finance Mechanisms from around the World." The book presents a range of fascinating case studies from around the world, all centered around the tools that governments and others can use to protect and enhance ecosystem services. Raimi and Mandle discuss some of those cases, including New York’s famously unfiltered water, preservation of wetlands, and stormwater management in Washington, DC.
References and recommendations:
"Green Growth That Works: Natural Capital Policy and Finance Mechanisms Around the World" by Lisa Ann Mandle, Zhiyun Ouyang, James Edwin Salzman, and Gretchen Cara Daily; https://islandpress.org/books/green-growth-works (offer code "GROWTH" provides a discount)
"Everyone wants to Instagram the world's most beauti…
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Jan 18, 2020
40 Big Ideas for a Sustainable Future, with Daniel Esty
This week, host Daniel Raimi talks with Daniel Esty, a professor at Yale University and a member of the board of directors at Resources for the Future (RFF). Dan talks about a new book he edited, "A Better Planet: 40 Big Ideas for a Sustainable Future." As its title suggests, the book covers a wide range of topics. Raimi and Esty's conversation focuses on an essay that Esty wrote, which outlines how to design environmental policy in a way that fosters innovation and new technologies. They also touch on the role of finance and politics in shaping environmental outcomes.
References and recommendations:
"A Better Planet: 40 Big Ideas for a Sustainable Future" edited by Daniel C. Esty; https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300246247/better-planet
Hearing on "Building a 100 Percent Clean Economy: Solutions for Economy-Wide Deep Decarbonization" with Daniel C. Esty, Noah Kaufman, David K. Gattie, and Tim Profeta; https://energycommerce.house.gov/committee-activity/hearings/hearing-on-build…
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Jan 11, 2020
Shifting Sands: Using Taxes to Build the Best Beaches, with Megan Mullin
This week, host Daniel Raimi talks with Megan Mullin, an associate professor of environmental politics at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment. Mullin talks about her research, which analyzes how communities pay to rehabilitate beaches affected by erosion and how differential tax rates can affect levels of support for these beach nourishment projects. Mullin also makes clear why coastal management is relevant: as climate change accelerates the erosion of beaches, and as federal funding dries up, local communities will increasingly have to grapple with how to pay to replenish their shorelines.
References and recommendations:
"Paying to save the beach: effects of local finance decisions on coastal management" by Megan Mullin, Martin D. Smith, and Dylan E. McNamara; https://rd.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10584-018-2191-5
The Conversation, "Where does beach sand come from?" https://theconversation.com/where-does-beach-sand-come-from-126323
"The Dark Crystal: Age of…
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Jan 3, 2020
Pricing Climate Risk in the Markets, with Robert Litterman
This week, host Daniel Raimi talks with Robert Litterman, a founding partner at Kepos Capital and a board member at Resources for the Future (RFF). Litterman recently was named the chair of a new committee that will be advising US financial regulators on the economic risks of climate change, a new position that leverages Litterman's extensive experience working on risk management in the financial sector and his deep interest in climate change. Raimi and Litterman talk about the scale of the risks to the US financial system from climate change; whether and how markets are currently pricing the risks of climate change for assets like coastal property or energy companies; and the recent paper Litterman coauthored, which takes an unconventional and novel approach to carbon pricing.
References and recommendations:
"Global Warming of 1.5 degrees," an IPCC special report; https://www.ipcc.ch/sr15/
"Declining CO2 price paths" by Kent D. Daniel, Robert B. Litterman, and Gernot Wagner; https:…
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Dec 28, 2019
2019 Year in Review: Energy and Environmental Policy, with Susan Tierney and Sarah Ladislaw
This week's episode features a review of the year 2019 in environmental and energy policy, with two amazing guests: Susan Tierney, senior advisor at the Analysis Group and chair of the board at Resources for the Future (RFF); and Sarah Ladislaw, senior vice president, director, and senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, with their Energy and National Security Program. Host Daniel Raimi facilitates a conversation with Tierney and Ladislaw, asking what they consider to be the most interesting environmental and energy policy developments during the past year, at the federal and state level. The discussion touches on everything from vehicles to electricity, to interstate natural gas pipelines, and more.
References and recommendations:
"Time to move away from old precedents in FERC pipeline reviews" by Susan Tierney; https://www.utilitydive.com/news/time-to-move-away-from-old-precedents-in-ferc-pipeline-reviews/567512/
"FERC’s Certification of New Intersta…
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Dec 20, 2019
Was Madrid a COP-Out? Assessing COP25, with Nathaniel Keohane
This week, host Daniel Raimi talks with Nathaniel Keohane, senior vice president for climate at Environmental Defense Fund. In this episode, Keohane gives a readout on the outcomes of this year’s annual international climate negotiations, called COP25. He and Raimi talk about the goals of the conference; whether those goals were achieved; and several other issues, including conference protests, the role of the US delegation, and what to look forward to at next year’s COP26.
There was so much to talk about that the episode extends about ten minutes beyond the usual length of the podcast. Given the importance and timeliness of this topic, we think you’ll appreciate the extra time.
References and recommendations:
"What to Expect at COP25 in Madrid" by Robert Stavins; https://www.resourcesmag.org/common-resources/what-expect-cop-25-madrid/
"Elliot Diringer on the conclusion of COP25" from the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions; https://www.c2es.org/press-release/elliot-dirin…
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Dec 13, 2019
Understanding Water Use in the US Energy System, with Emily Grubert
This week, host Daniel Raimi talks with Emily Grubert, an assistant professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Raimi and Grubert discuss how water is used in the energy system, a subset of the topic known as the “Energy-Water Nexus.” They also talk about a 2018 paper that Grubert coauthored with Kelly Sanders—research that provides intricate detail on the life cycle of water consumption for every major fuel source in the United States. Raimi and Grubert compare and contrast the different water profiles of coal, oil, gas, biofuels, and other sources of energy. They also talk in detail about water use in hydraulic fracturing.
References and recommendations:
“Water use in the United States energy system: A national assessment and unit process inventory of water consumption and withdrawals” by Emily Grubert and Kelly T. Sanders;
http://emilygrubert.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/PREPRINT-Grubert-Sanders-Water-for-US-Energy.pdf
“Who speaks for Crazy Horse” by Brooke…
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Dec 6, 2019
Preparing for the Coming Climate Disruption, with Alice Hill and Leonardo Martinez-Diaz
This week, host Kristin Hayes talks with Alice Hill and Leonardo Martinez-Diaz, authors of a new book released this fall by Oxford University Press, called "Building a Resilient Tomorrow: How to Prepare for the Coming Climate Disruption." Hayes, Hill, and Martinez-Diaz delve into the topics covered in the book, including ten lessons for decisionmakers in building a resilient future.
To introduce Hill and Martinez-Diaz, using their own words from the book (with some light editing for length):
Alice Hill spent the bulk of her career in courtrooms, first as a US federal prosecutor chasing white-collar crooks and, later, as a judge presiding over cases ranging from homicide to medical malpractice. She became immersed in climate change after she joined the US Department of Homeland Security in 2009 as senior counselor to the secretary. She was tasked with helping the department understand how climate could affect its operations. Hill went on to the White House to lead resilience efforts a…
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Nov 29, 2019
Public Attitudes toward Climate Activists, with Nathaniel Geiger
This week, host Daniel Raimi talks with Nathaniel Geiger, assistant professor of communication science at Indiana University. Geiger studies, among other things, how the public responds to communication around climate change. Geiger and Raimi discuss the recent history of advocacy on climate change; how recent movements like the youth-led climate strike might shape public attitudes toward climate policy and toward the activists themselves; communicating with a wide range of audiences about climate issues; and much more.
References and recommendations:
"Is Climate Change like Diabetes or an Asteroid?" by Ted Nordhaus and Alex Trembath; https://thebreakthrough.org/articles/is-climate-change-like-diabetes
"On Fire" by Naomi Klein; https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/On-Fire/Naomi-Klein/9781982129910
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Nov 21, 2019
Waive Goodbye? The History and Future of the California Waiver, with Emily Wimberger
On this week's podcast, Emily Wimberger talks with host Kristin Hayes about the so-called "California waiver." The waiver has flown under the public radar for decades, but it’s now getting a closer look from the Trump administration, and it’s been turning up in the headlines. In this episode, Wimberger and Hayes discuss what the waiver is; how it came to be; and why it matters for California, the rest of the United States, and perhaps even the rest of the world.
Emily Wimberger is a climate economist at the Rhodium Group, working on the energy and climate team. Prior to Rhodium, she served as the chief economist for the California Air Resources Board, where she analyzed the economic impact of California’s portfolio of climate change and air quality policies, focusing on programs related to carbon markets and transportation.
References and recommendations:
"Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore" by Elizabeth Rush; https://milkweed.org/book/rising
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Nov 14, 2019
Balancing the Ledgers: Pollution and GDP, with Nicholas Z. Muller
Nicholas Z. Muller, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, recently published a paper with coauthors that measures the health damages from air pollution in the United States. The paper looks at how those health damages compare with traditional economic metrics such as gross domestic product (GDP) and describes the harm that some economic activities impose, relative to their contribution to the economy. Raimi talks with Muller about how these trends have changed over time, which parts of the economy account for the most pollution, and what this all means for environmental policy.
References and recommendations:
"Fine Particulate Matter Damages and Value Added in the US Economy" by Peter Tschofen, Ines L. Azevedo, and Nicholas Z. Muller; https://www.pnas.org/content/116/40/19857
"The Sixth Extinction" by Elizabeth Kolbert; https://www.pulitzer.org/winners/elizabeth-kolbert
Impossible Whopper at Burger King; https://impossiblefoods.com/burgerking/
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Nov 10, 2019
Carbon Pricing Proposals in Today's Congress, with Marc Hafstead
In this special episode of Resources Radio, host Daniel Raimi partners with the Energy 360° podcast from the Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) Energy Program. Raimi and CSIS's Sarah Ladislaw interview RFF Fellow Marc Hafstead, director of RFF's Carbon Pricing Initiative.
Raimi and Ladislaw talk with Hafstead about a raft of recent legislative proposals in the US Congress to price greenhouse gas emissions: the major design elements of these bills, such as how revenues are used; how border adjustments can help protect US manufacturers; the political viability of these different proposals, including which policy elements might help build support for a carbon price; and whether other policy approaches, such as a Clean Energy Standard, stand more of a chance in today's political environment.
References and recommendations:
"The Wizard and the Prophet" by Charles C. Mann; https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/220698/the-wizard-and-the-prophet-by-charles-c-mann/
"Pay…
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Nov 2, 2019
Candidate Tracker: The Future of Fracking, with Daniel Raimi
In this special episode of the podcast mini-series related to RFF's Candidate Tracker, host Kristin Hayes talks with Resources Radio regular Daniel Raimi, a senior research associate at RFF. Hayes and Raimi share thoughts about how the presidential candidates in this election cycle are talking about fracking.
Raimi's research has primarily focused on the shale revolution in the United States, but he brings a wealth of experience on topics related to climate impacts, global energy outlooks, and a number of other important energy- and climate-related subjects. If his voice sounds familiar, it's because Raimi is the other regular host of Resources Radio.
References and Recommendations:
RFF Candidate Tracker: https://www.rff.org/candidatetracker/
"The Ezra Klein Show" with podcast guest Kate Marvel; https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/vox/the-ezra-klein-show/e/64883521
"Acknowledging uncertainty impacts public acceptance of climate scientists’ predictions" published in the journal "Nat…
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Oct 24, 2019
Saving the Snow: A Conversation with Minnesota Senator Tina Smith on Climate Policy
Host Kristin Hayes talks with Senator Tina Smith, the junior senator from the great state of Minnesota. Senator Smith served as the 48th lieutenant governor of Minnesota from 2015 to 2018, after a career in both the private and public sectors in the state, where she has lived since 1984. Senator Smith is a member of several committees in the Senate relevant to natural resource, energy, and climate issues, including the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry and the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.
Senator Smith talks about her own interests in these issues, her perspective on why they matter to Minnesota and the nation, and recent energy legislation that she has introduced. There is also some talk about loons—a first for Resources Radio.
References and recommendations:
"One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy" by Carol Anderson; https://www.professorcarolanderson.org/one-person-no-vote
"The Secret Commonwealth" by Philip Pullman;…
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Oct 21, 2019
The Economics of California’s Power Shutoffs, with Judson Boomhower
This week, host Daniel Raimi talks with Judson Boomhower, an assistant professor of economics at the University of California San Diego and a faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research. Boomhower and Raimi discuss the recent public safety power shutoffs that affected over one million people in northern California, what led to the shutoffs, the effects of the shutoffs, and how planned shutoffs might become more common in the future. The shutoffs have gotten a lot of attention, but Boomhower brings unique expertise to the issue, including a deep understanding of the electricity system, wildfire, and—crucially—the economics of liability.
References and recommendations:
"Earth as Art" from the US Geological Survey; https://eros.usgs.gov/image-gallery/earth-art
"Between Two Fires" by Stephen J. Pyne; https://uapress.arizona.edu/book/between-two-fires
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Oct 10, 2019
Candidate Tracker: The Big Picture on Candidates’ Climate Policy Plans, with Joseph Aldy
This week, Kristin Hayes and Joseph Aldy discuss the presidential candidates’ stances on climate change. Aldy is professor of the practice of public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School and a university fellow at Resources for the Future (RFF). Aldy worked as an RFF fellow in 2005–2008, leaving in 2009 to serve as the special assistant to the president for energy and environment, reporting through both the National Economic Council and the Office of Energy and Climate change at the White House.
Given this experience as both a researcher and a policymaker, Aldy is the perfect person to kick off the Resources Radio podcast series that accompanies RFF’s new online interactive tool, the Candidate Tracker. The Candidate Tracker has been developed to compare and contrast the positions of the 2020 presidential candidates from both major political parties on a range of climate- and energy-related topics. It’s available online at www.rff.org/candidatetracker. We hope Resources Radio ca…
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Oct 6, 2019
Catalyzing Markets toward Sustainability, with Kyung-Ah Park
This week, host Kristin Hayes talks with Kyung-Ah Park, who leads environmental markets and innovation in the newly formed sustainable finance group at Goldman Sachs; she also serves on the board of RFF. Previously, Park headed the Environmental Markets Group at Goldman Sachs. As the episode title suggests, their conversation focuses on the potential to catalyze markets toward further investments in environmentally beneficial products and services. Hayes and Park talk about the definition of environmental markets and why markets matter in driving change at the scales needed.
An edited transcript of this episode also is available as an article in issue 202 of "Resources" magazine: https://www.resourcesmag.org/print-issues/issue-202-satellites-help-keep-communities-safe-toxic-algal-blooms/
References and recommendations:
"The Uninhabitable Earth" by David Wallace-Wells; https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/586541/the-uninhabitable-earth-by-david-wallace-wells/
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Sep 27, 2019
A New York State of Carbon Pricing, with Karen Palmer and Daniel Shawhan
This week, host Daniel Raimi talks with Resources for the Future (RFF) Senior Fellow Karen Palmer and RFF Fellow Daniel Shawhan. Along with RFF Senior Research Assistant Paul Picciano, Palmer and Shawhan recently released a report called “Benefits and Costs of Power Plant Carbon Emissions Pricing in New York.” Raimi, Palmer, and Shawhan talk about this new work, which examines how a carbon price applied specifically to New York State would affect emissions inside and outside of the state, electricity prices for consumers, what role carbon pricing could play in achieving New York’s ambitious climate targets over the next few decades, and more.
References and recommendations:
"Benefits and Costs of Power Plant Carbon Emissions Pricing in New York" by Daniel Shawhan, Paul Picciano, and Karen Palmer https://www.rff.org/publications/reports/benefits-and-costs-of-the-new-york-independent-system-operators-carbon-pricing-initiative/
"The Biggest Little Farm"; https://www.biggestlittle…
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Sep 18, 2019
What’s Driving the Future of Automobiles?, with Ellen Hughes-Cromwick
This week, host Daniel Raimi talks with Ellen Hughes-Cromwick of the University of Michigan Energy Institute. Hughes-Cromwick previously served as chief economist in the US Department of Commerce. Before that, she was the chief economist at Ford Motor Company for over 18 years. Raimi asks Hughes-Cromwick about the state of play in the automotive industry, how electric and autonomous vehicles are changing the economic and competitive landscape, which companies are best positioned to take advantage of these new technologies, and what role climate policy can play in planning for the vehicles of the future.
References and recommendations:
"Energy Transitions and Local Action: The Case of Colorado's Coal Transition"; https://www.forbes.com/sites/thebakersinstitute/2019/08/21/energy-transitions-and-local-action-the-case-of-colorados-coal-transition/#87957a33f23a
"The Pioneers" by David McCullough; https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Pioneers/David-McCullough/9781501168680
"The Fif…
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Sep 12, 2019
Market Solutions for Water Pollution, with Cathy Kling
This week, host Daniel Raimi talks with Catherine Kling, who, among her many titles, is a Tisch University professor at Cornell University and a member of RFF's Board of Directors. They talk about a recent op-ed that Kling published in the New York Times, called “Polluting Farmers Should Pay,” which focuses on nutrient runoff from agricultural land and how the runoff contributes to harmful algae blooms across the United States. They also talk about potential options for federal and state policies to address this problem, as well as Kling's early work on developing a social cost of water pollution.
References and recommendations:
“Polluting Farmers Should Pay” by Catherine Kling; https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/25/opinion/water-quality-agriculture.html
"Lake Michigan has become much clearer in 20 years, but at great cost"; https://phys.org/news/2018-01-lake-michigan-clearer-years-great.html
"Wild Geese" by Mary Oliver; https://onbeing.org/blog/mary-oliver-reads-wild-geese/…
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Sep 7, 2019
A Tribute to Marty Weitzman, with Gernot Wagner
This week's episode pays tribute to the life and work of Harvard Economics Professor Marty Weitzman, who died two weeks ago. Host Daniel Raimi talks with Gernot Wagner, a close collaborator and friend of Weitzman’s and a professor at New York University. Raimi and Wagner talk about two of Weitzman’s seminal contributions to the field of environmental economics, how this work has shaped public policies around the world, and who Marty was as a person.
References and recommendations:
"Prices vs. Quantities" by Weitzman (1974); https://scholar.harvard.edu/weitzman/publications/prices-vs-quantities
"Chutes and Ladders" board game; https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/5432/chutes-and-ladders
"The Uninhabitable Earth" by David Wallace-Wells; https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/586541/the-uninhabitable-earth-by-david-wallace-wells/9780525576709/
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Sep 3, 2019
100 Percent Clean: Understanding Climate Policy in Washington State, with Sharon Shewmake
Host Daniel Raimi talks with Sharon Shewmake, a professor of environmental economics at Western Washington University. Shewmake also represents Washington's 42nd legislative district in the state's House of Representatives. Shewmake discusses Washington's plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the power sector to zero by 2045, other state policies that affect energy and the environment, and how researchers can more effectively engage with policymakers.
References and recommendations:
"A Trailblazing Plan to Fight California Wildfires” by Nicola Twilley, The New Yorker; https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/08/26/a-trailblazing-plan-to-fight-california-wildfires
"So, Should We Recycle?" by Planet Money; https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=741283641
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Aug 22, 2019
Finding a Future for Forests in Energy and Climate Solutions, with Robert Bonnie
Host Daniel Raimi talks with Robert Bonnie, Rubinstein fellow at Duke University. Bonnie is an expert on many things, but in this episode, he talks about the role that forests play in energy, climate change, and more. Raimi asks Bonnie about the past, present, and future of wood energy in the United States and globally, and what role forests might play in helping to achieve deep decarbonization goals. They also talk about the challenges that this issue raises, including developing markets to incentivize reforestation, land use competition, and much more.
References and recommendations:
"Boom Town" by Sam Anderson; https://buff.ly/2NCsCQb
"Between Two Fires" by Stephen Pine; https://uapress.arizona.edu/book/between-two-fires
"Sapiens" by Yuval Noah Harari; https://www.ynharari.com/book/sapiens/
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Aug 13, 2019
Is the Endangered Species Act Under Threat?, with Ya-Wei Li
This week, we talk with Ya-Wei Li, Director of Biodiversity at the Environmental Policy Innovation Center (EPIC). Ya-Wei is an expert on the Endangered Species Act, a law that's been in the news recently because the Trump administration has proposed a number of changes to the way the Act is administered and enforced. We'll get Ya-Wei's take on which changes are most important, what effect they'll have on species and their habitat, and whether media coverage of the proposed changes has been overwrought.
References and recommendations:
"A Guide to the Revised Endangered Species Regulations" by Environmental Policy Innovation Center; http://policyinnovation.org/esaregs19/
"Last week's endangered species regulations: what really happened?" by Ya-Wei Li; https://buff.ly/2HgP6lR
Sage Grouse Mating Dances; https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=sage+grouse
"Noah's Choice: The Future of the Endangered Species Act" by Mann and Plummer; https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/329264.Noah_…
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Aug 11, 2019
Paying for Pollution, with Gilbert Metcalf (Rebroadcast)
This week, we are rebroadcasting host Daniel Raimi's 2018 interview with Gilbert Metcalf, the John DiBiaggio Professor of Citizenship and Public Service; Professor of Economics; and Graduate Program Director at Tufts University’s Department of Economics. Daniel talks to Gib about his new book, "Paying for Pollution: Why a Carbon Tax is Good for America." We are re-airing this interview because several federal carbon pricing bills have recently been proposed in the US Congress, raising renewed interest in carbon pricing.
References and recommendations:
"The Year of the Carbon Pricing Proposal" by Marc Hafstead; https://www.resourcesmag.org/common-resources/the-year-of-the-carbon-pricing-proposal/
"The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History" by Elizabeth Kolbert; www.goodreads.com/book/show/179100…sixth-extinction
"Amity and Prosperity: One Family and the Fracturing of America" by Eliza Griswold; www.goodreads.com/book/show/367229…y-and-prosperity
"Confronting the Climate Challeng…
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Aug 4, 2019
Community Vulnerability in a "Just" Energy Transition, with Sanya Carley
Host Daniel Raimi talks with Professor Sanya Carley of Indiana University's O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs. Daniel and Sanya discuss her work on the "just" transition, which addresses questions like, how do climate policies affect energy affordability for low-income households, how do they affect the well-being of energy producing communities, and what approaches might help reduce the unwanted side effects of reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the energy sector?
References and recommendations:
"The Overstory" by Richard Powers; http://www.richardpowers.net/the-overstory/
“Why Setting a Climate Deadline is Dangerous” by
Shinichiro Asayama; https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-019-0543-4
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Jul 28, 2019
Are Climate Communicators Credible?, with Shahzeen Attari
Host Daniel Raimi talks with Professor Shahzeen Attari of the Indiana University's O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs. Daniel and Shahzeen discuss her work on how the personal behavior of climate change communicators can affect the reception of their message. If a climate scientist uses a lot of energy at home or is a frequent flyer, do they lose credibility? It's a really challenging question—one that Shahzeen's work illuminates. The results, and this conversation, can help all of us think critically about our own energy use.
References and recommendations:
"Climate Change Communicators’ Carbon Footprints Affect Their Audience’s Policy Support" by Shahzeen Z. Attari, David H. Krantz, and Elke U. Weber; https://rd.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10584-019-02463-0
"Statements about Climate Researchers’ Carbon Footprints Affect Their Credibility and the Impact of Their Advice" by Shahzeen Z. Attari, David H. Krantz, and Elke U. Weber; https://rd.springer.com/articl…
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Jul 22, 2019
The Challenge of Diversity in the Environmental Movement, with Dorceta Taylor
Host Daniel Raimi talks with Professor Dorceta Taylor of the University of Michigan’s School for Environment and Sustainability. Daniel asks Professor Taylor about her research on the history of the environmental movement, focusing on issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion within environmental groups, both historically and today. There’s been quite a bit of progress over the years, but there are still big challenges and plenty of room for improvement.
References and recommendations:
"The Rise of the American Conservation Movement" by Dorceta E. Taylor; https://www.dukeupress.edu/the-rise-of-the-american-conservation-movement
"The State of Diversity in Environmental Organizations" by Dorceta E. Taylor, PhD; https://www.diversegreen.org/the-challenge/
Listen to the full interview (40 min) with Dr. Taylor: https://www.resourcesmag.org/resources-radio/challenge-diversity-environmental-movement-dorceta-taylor/
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Jul 12, 2019
What Happened at Chernobyl?, with Todd Allen
Host Daniel Raimi talks with Professor Todd Allen, chair of the Department of Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences at the University of Michigan. Todd and Daniel discuss Chernobyl—what caused the explosion, what is known about its health effects, and what lessons policymakers and nuclear engineers learned from the disaster. Todd and Daniel also comment on the recent HBO miniseries called "Chernobyl"—what did it get right, and where did it miss the mark?
References and recommendations:
"Lessons of Darkness"; https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104706/
"Full Body Burden" by Kristen Iversen; https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/216565/full-body-burden-by-kristen-iversen/9780307955654/
"The Grid" by Gretchen Bakke; https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/the-grid-9781608196104/
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Jul 7, 2019
Economics in the Age of Environmental Policy, with Robert Stavins
Host Daniel Raimi talks with Robert Stavins, the A.J. Meyer Professor of Energy and Economic Development at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. Daniel and Rob discuss the role that economics has played in shaping environmental policy, both in the past and today. As major proposals like the Green New Deal seem to be turning away from market-based approaches, long-advocated by most economists, Rob shares how he sees the role of environmental economics in today’s environmental policy landscape.
References and recommendations:
"Harlan County USA"; http://www.cabincreekfilms.com/films_harlancounty.html
"Columbia Energy Exchange"; https://energypolicy.columbia.edu/podcast/columbia-energy-exchange
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Jul 1, 2019
Nature and Nurture: Understanding the Psychology of Pro-Environmental Behavior, with Susan Clayton
Host Kristin Hayes talks with Susan Clayton, the Whitmore-Williams Professor of Psychology and Chair of Environmental Studies at the College of Wooster. They discuss questions such as: why do some people care about environmental conservation more than others? How can policymakers and other decisionmakers encourage pro-environmental behavior? And how do we wrestle with our own human limitations in processing and trying to address climate change?
References and Recommendations:
"Rising" by Elizabeth Rush; https://milkweed.org/book/rising
"The Psychology of Climate Change Communication" by the Center for Research on Environmental Decisions at Columbia University; http://guide.cred.columbia.edu/
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Jun 23, 2019
An Anthropologist's Take on Climate Change, with Susie Crate
Host Daniel Raimi talks with Susie Crate, a professor of anthropology at George Mason University. Susie discusses how she studies environmental issues through an anthropological lens and describes the community in northern Siberia that she's been studying since 1991. Daniel and Susie talk about how that community is being affected by climate change and how they are planning for the future.
References and recommendations:
"The Day the Dinosaurs Died" by Douglas Preston; https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/04/08/the-day-the-dinosaurs-died
"The Anthropologist"; https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2462276/
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Jun 15, 2019
Shedding Light on Rural Energy Access, with Subhrendu Pattanayak
Host Daniel Raimi talks with Professor Subhrendu Pattanayak of Duke University. Over the last several years, Subhrendu has literally trekked the Himalayas to do research on how to provide access to electricity for communities in hard-to-reach places. Daniel and Subhrendu talk about what policy and market factors might make it easier to expand energy access, and Subhrendu explains how dynamics within these communities can affect the likelihood of small-scale electricity projects to succeed or fail.
References and recommendations:
"Earth" by Lil Dicky; (explicit) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvuN_WvF1to
"Power to the Poor" by Morgan D. Bazilian; https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/africa/2015-02-16/power-poor
"Reducing Risk for Private Investment in Off-Grid Energy" by Oliver Waissbein; https://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/blog/2018/Reducing_risk_for_private_investment_in_off_grid_energy.html
"Energizing Finance 2017" Sustainable Energy for All; https://www.seforall.org/inte…
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Jun 6, 2019
Refined Coal: The Billion-Dollar Subsidy You've Never Heard Of, with Brian Prest
Host Daniel Raimi talks with RFF postdoctoral fellow Brian Prest about a little-known topic: refined coal. Brian and coauthor Alan Krupnick have published a new RFF working paper that takes a close look at a $1-billion-a-year federal subsidy for refined coal. So, what is refined coal? What's the purpose of the subsidy? And does the subsidy deliver?
References and recommendations:
"How Clean is Refined Coal?" by Brian C. Prest and Alan Krupnick; https://www.rff.org/publications/reports/how-clean-is-refined-coal/
"The Last Lobster: Boom or Bust for Maine's Greatest Fishery" by Christopher White; https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250080851
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Jun 3, 2019
The Money Behind Wind Power, with Jay Bartlett
Host Daniel Raimi talks with Jay Bartlett—a research associate at RFF—about his recent work on wind energy development. Jay explains how wind projects actually get built, i.e., how developers raise money for their projects and who they sell their electricity to. Daniel and Jay also discuss how state and federal policies shape these markets, and how the coming changes in the policy landscape are likely to affect future wind development.
References and recommendations:
"Reducing Risk in Merchant Wind and Solar Projects through Financial Hedges" by Jay Bartlett; https://www.rff.org/publications/working-papers/reducing-risk-merchant-wind-and-solar-projects-through-financial-hedges/
"News of the World" by Paulette Jiles; https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25817493-news-of-the-world
"The Son" by Philipp Meyer; https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16240761-the-son
"Our Planet;" www.netflix.com/title/80049832
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May 26, 2019
Biodiversity, Food Security, and Sustainability, with Sue Lieberman
Host Daniel Raimi talks with Dr. Sue Lieberman, vice president for International Policy at the Wildlife Conservation Society. They discuss a major new report that synthesizes the literature on the global state of biodiversity. The report warns about a variety of risks, including species extinction, habitat degradation, food insecurity, and much more. Sue describes the scale of some of these risks, and shares her views on how policymakers can respond to prevent them.
References and recommendations:
IPBES Summary; https://www.ipbes.net/news/ipbes-global-assessment-preview
"The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming" by David Wallace-Wells; https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41552709-the-uninhabitable-earth
"Our Planet;" https://www.netflix.com/title/80049832
"Why the Guardian is Changing the Language it Uses about the Environment;" https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/may/17/why-the-guardian-is-changing-the-language-it-uses-about-the-environment
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May 20, 2019
How the Trump Administration's ACE Rule Affects Emissions, with Amelia Keyes
Host Daniel Raimi talks with RFF Research Associate Amelia Keyes about her recent research on the Trump administration's Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) rule. Amelia and several colleagues have estimated the effect of the rule on emissions of carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and nitrous oxide, finding that ACE could actually increase these emissions rather than reduce them.
References and recommendations:
"Mapping America’s Wicked Weather and Deadly Disasters"; https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/national/mapping-disasters/?utm_term=.db65dd6f46e3
"Mothers of Invention"; https://www.mothersofinvention.online/
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May 11, 2019
New Mexico's Path to a Low-Carbon Future, with NM Cabinet Secretary Sarah Propst
Host Daniel Raimi talks with Sarah Propst, the Cabinet Secretary of the Energy, Minerals, and Natural Resources Department for the state of New Mexico. New Mexico recently enacted legislation to transition to 100 percent zero carbon electricity by the year 2050, and to provide transition assistance to workers and communities affected by the changing energy landscape. Daniel and Sarah discuss how the bill was developed, how much it's going to cost, and what other steps New Mexico is taking to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
References and recommendations:
"The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs" by Steve Brusatte; https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/steve-brusatte/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-dinosaurs/9781509830091
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May 6, 2019
Sen. Whitehouse Dives in on a Carbon Fee and Ocean Pollution
Host Kristin Hayes talks with Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) about the reintroduction of the American Opportunity Carbon Fee Act. Sponsored by the senator and several colleagues, the legislation would impose a carbon fee on fossil fuels, starting at $52 per metric ton of CO2 emitted. They also discuss the challenges facing our planet’s oceans—a topic of great importance to the senator from the Ocean State.
Top of the Stack:
"Our Planet"; https://www.netflix.com/title/80049832
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Apr 29, 2019
A Master Plan for Protecting Louisiana's Coast, with Denise Reed
Host Kristin Hayes talks with Dr. Denise Reed, an internationally recognized expert in coastal marsh sustainability and the role of human activities in modifying coastal systems. They discuss Louisiana's coastal master plan, on which Denise has be an adviser to state officials leading the plan development. This ambitious, long-term planning process has grown even more important in the face of rising sea levels.
References and recommendations:
Richard Campanella books on New Orleans; http://www.richcampanella.com/index.php
"Do Renewable Portfolio Standards Deliver?" by Michael Greenstone and Ishan Nath; https://bfi.uchicago.edu/working-paper/do-renewable-portfolio-standards-deliver/
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Apr 20, 2019
Exploring the Resource Curse and Enhancing Energy Access, with Todd Moss
Host Daniel Raimi talks with Dr. Todd Moss, Executive Director of the Energy for Growth Hub. Todd has worked for years at the intersection of energy and economic development, with a focus on developing economies in Africa and elsewhere. They cover two major topics: avoiding the so-called "oil curse" in the nation of Guyana, and supporting economic growth in the developing world by improving energy access for businesses and industries.
References and recommendations:
"Amity and Prosperity" by Eliza Griswold; https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374103118
"Rising" by Elizabeth Rush; https://milkweed.org/book/rising
IEA Report on Air Conditioners; https://www.iea.org/newsroom/news/2018/may/air-conditioning-use-emerges-as-one-of-the-key-drivers-of-global-electricity-dema.html
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Apr 14, 2019
Can We Price Carbon?, with Barry Rabe of the University Of Michigan
Host Daniel Raimi talks with Professor Barry Rabe of the University of Michigan about his new book, "Can We Price Carbon?" Barry shares his insights on some of the real-world challenges for implementing policies that price carbon, and describes some of the key features that might help make them stick. They talk about how experience from previous efforts to price carbon can inform discussions on the Green New Deal, and much more.
References and recommendations:
"Can We Price Carbon?" by Barry G. Rabe; https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/can-we-price-carbon
Senate Bill 181: Protect Public Welfare Oil And Gas Operations; https://leg.colorado.gov/bills/sb19-181
Elections in Canada; https://twitter.com/ElectionsCan_E?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
"Blood Oil" by Leif Wenar; http://www.wenar.info/books#new-page
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Apr 7, 2019
Exploring the Farm Bill, with RFF's Ann M. Bartuska
Host Daniel Raimi talks with RFF Vice President for Land, Water, and Nature Ann M. Bartuska about the Farm Bill. The Farm Bill is a massive piece of legislation, so Daniel and Ann discuss some key topics related to land conservation and agricultural research. Ann shares her expertise on those topics, along with the connection between the Farm Bill and forest management, climate change, meatless hamburgers, and more.
References and recommendations:
Burger King Impossible Burger: https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/01/business/burger-king-impossible-whoppers/index.html
USGS Water Data: https://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/rt
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Mar 31, 2019
Carbon Dioxide Removal, with Greg Nemet of the University of Wisconsin-Madison
Host Kristin Hayes talks with Greg Nemet, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the La Follette School of Public Affairs and the Nelson Institute's Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment. They discuss the future of carbon dioxide removal from the atmosphere, with a particular focus on negative emissions technologies.
References and recommendations:
"How Solar Energy Became Cheap: A Model for Low-Carbon Innovation" by Greg Nemet; https://www.routledge.com/How-Solar-Energy-Became-Cheap-A-Model-for-Low-Carbon-Innovation-1st-Edition/Nemet/p/book/9780367136598
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Mar 24, 2019
Measuring Methane, with Arvind Ravikumar of Harrisburg University of Science and Technology
Host Daniel Raimi talks with Arvind Ravikumar, assistant professor of Energy Engineering at Harrisburg University of Science and Technology in Pennsylvania. They discuss methane emissions from oil and natural gas systems, their effect on climate change, new technologies, which can detect and reduce those emissions, and what governments are doing to encourage the deployment of those new technologies. Plus, Arvind will give an update on how climate change is affecting the annual Iditarod race in Alaska.
References and recommendations:
Cows actually burp methane; https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/08/150803-cows-burp-methane-climate-science/
Melting snow and the Iditarod; https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/01/sports/iditarod-climate-change-warming.html
"Three Considerations for Modeling Natural Gas System Methane Emissions in Life Cycle Assessment" by Emily A. Grubert and Adam R. Brandt; https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959652619307875?dgcid=author
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Mar 17, 2019
Carbon Pricing in Germany, with Christian Flachsland of the Mercator Research Institute
Host Kristin Hayes talks with Dr. Christian Flachsland, head of the Governance Working Group at Germany's Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change, and an assistant professor for Climate and Energy Governance at the Hertie School of Governance. They discuss the ongoing carbon pricing debate in Germany, the EU Emissions Trading System (EUETS), and ways to make these policies more efficient while still achieving climate goals.
References and recommendations made by Christian:
"Carbon Budget 2018" by Global Carbon Project; https://www.globalcarbonproject.org/carbonbudget/index.htm
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Mar 11, 2019
Coffee in a Changing Climate, with Kim Elena Ionescu of the Specialty Coffee Association
Host Daniel Raimi talks with Kim Elena Ionescu, Chief Sustainability Officer at the Specialty Coffee Association. They discuss how coffee producers are likely to be affected by climate change, how they might adapt, and what resources are available to help them make decisions. They also talk about the role that consumers play in this discussion.
References and recommendations made by Kim Elena Ionescu:
"Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things" by William McDonough and Michael Braungart; https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5571.Cradle_to_Cradle
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Mar 3, 2019
Community Perceptions of Wind Energy, with Sarah Mills of the University of Michigan
Host Daniel Raimi talks with Dr. Sarah Mills, senior project manager at the Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy at the University of Michigan's Ford School of Public Policy. Sarah and colleagues recently published a study looking at how people perceive the positive and negative impacts of wind energy development. We'll talk about what the study found, what the implications are for state and local planning, and what this might mean for the fast-growing industry of wind energy in the United States.
References and recommendations made by Sarah Mills:
"Exploring Landowners’ Post-Construction Changes in Perceptions of Wind Energy in Michigan" by Sarah Banas Mills, Douglas Bessette, and Hannah Smith; https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0264837718307579?via%3Dihub
"The Politics of Resentment" by Katherine J. Cramer; https://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/P/bo22879533.html
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Feb 22, 2019
A Lawmaker's Take on the Green New Deal, with Former Congressman Phil Sharp
Hosts Kristin Hayes and Daniel Raimi team up to interview Phil Sharp, former Indiana congressman, former president of RFF, and current non-resident fellow at the Columbia Center on Global Energy Policy. They ask Phil to share his thoughts on the Green New Deal—the ambitious set of proposals aimed at tackling climate change, inequality, and more. Phil gives his take on the pros and cons of the approach from a political perspective, as well as shares his broader thoughts about the ability of our political system to deal with big, complex challenges like climate change.
References and recommendations made by Phil Sharp:
"Designing Climate Solutions" by Hal Harvey, Robbie Orvis, and Jeffrey Rissman; https://islandpress.org/books/designing-climate-solutions
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Feb 17, 2019
Does the Shale Boom Equal Climate Doom?, with RFF's Daniel Raimi
Host Kristin Hayes talks with Daniel Raimi, host of Resources Radio and a senior research associate at RFF. They discuss Daniel's latest research on the oil and gas industry and his new paper, "The Greenhouse Gas Impacts of Increased US Oil and Gas Production."
References and recommendations made by Daniel Raimi:
"The Greenhouse Gas Impacts of Increased US Oil and Gas Production" by Daniel Raimi; https://www.rff.org/publications/working-papers/greenhouse-gas-impacts-increased-us-oil-and-gas-production/
"The Golden Age of Industrial Musicals;" https://www.industrialmusicals.com/
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Feb 9, 2019
Understanding Climate Models, with Massimo Tavoni of EIEE
Host Kristin Hayes talks with Massimo Tavoni, the director of the RFF-CMCC European Institute on Economics and the Environment and an associate professor at the School of Management of Politecnico di Milano in Milan, Italy. They discuss integrated assessment models, what they are, how they're used in studying climate change, and why they matter for decisionmaking.
References and recommendations made by Max Tavoni:
Carbon Brief; https://www.carbonbrief.org/
"Mountain"; https://www.madmanfilms.com.au/mountain/
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Feb 2, 2019
Fracking in Colorado, with Matt Lepore of Adamantine Energy
Host Daniel Raimi talks with Matt Lepore of Adamantine Energy about oil and gas development in Colorado. They'll discuss the controversies surrounding development, how the state has responded, and whether it's done a good enough job. They'll also talk about the results of the statewide election, in which Colorado voters rejected a proposal that would have dramatically restricted new oil and gas development.
References and recommendations made by Matt Lepore:
"Sapiens" by Yuval Noah Harari; https://www.ynharari.com/book/sapiens/
"Blood Meridian" by Cormac McCarthy; https://www.cormacmccarthy.com/works/blood-meridian/
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Jan 23, 2019
Demystifying Sea Level Rise, with Robert Kopp of Rutgers University
Host Daniel Raimi talks with Dr. Robert Kopp—Director of the Rutgers Institute of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences, a professor at Rutgers University, and co-director at the Climate Impact Lab—about sea level rise. They discuss the latest update on how a changing climate will affect sea levels, and where the major uncertainties lie. Daniel will also ask Robert how he responds when people ask a common question posed of climate scientists: “are we doomed?”
References and recommendations made by Robert Kopp:
"We Need Courage, Not Hope, To Face Climate Change" by Kate Marvel; https://onbeing.org/blog/kate-marvel-we-need-courage-not-hope-to-face-climate-change/
"The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History" by Elizabeth Kolbert; https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17910054-the-sixth-extinction
"New York 2140" by Kim Stanley Robinson; https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29570143-new-york-2140
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Jan 18, 2019
Paying For Pollution, with Gilbert Metcalf of Tufts University
Host Daniel Raimi talks with Gilbert Metcalf, the John DiBiaggio Professor of Citizenship and Public Service, a Professor of Economics, and Graduate Program Director at Tufts University's Department of Economics. They discuss his new book, "Paying for Pollution: Why a Carbon Tax is Good for America," why he thinks that a carbon tax is the smartest way to deal with the problem of climate change, and his views on why it's preferable to other policy approaches.
References and recommendations made by Gilbert Metcalf:
"The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History" by Elizabeth Kolbert; https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17910054-the-sixth-extinction
"Amity and Prosperity: One Family and the Fracturing of America" by Eliza Griswold; https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36722972-amity-and-prosperity
"Confronting the Climate Challenge: US Policy Options" by Lawrence Goulder and Marc Hafstead; https://cup.columbia.edu/book/confronting-the-climate-challenge/9780231179027
"Paying for Pollution: Wh…
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Jan 12, 2019
People, Parks, and Policy, with RFF's Margaret Walls
Host Kristin Hayes talks with Margaret Walls, a senior fellow at Resources for the Future about her work on the economics of national parks and other public lands, including ways to address ongoing funding needs and overcrowding. They also discuss some of the recent concerns related to national parks and the government shutdown.
References and recommendations made by Margaret Walls:
"The Hour of Land: A Personal Topography of America's National Parks" by Terry Tempest Williams; https://www.amazon.com/Hour-Land-Personal-Topography-Americas/dp/0374280096
"All The Wild That Remains: Edward Abbey, Wallace Stegner, and the American West" by David Gessner; https://www.amazon.com/All-Wild-That-Remains-American/dp/0393352374
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Jan 5, 2019
The New Energy Geopolitics, with Meghan O'Sullivan of Harvard University
Host Daniel Raimi talks with Meghan O’Sullivan, the Jeane Kirkpatrick Professor of the Practice of International Affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School, about her recent book "Windfall: How the New Energy Abundance Upends Global Politics and Strengthens America's Power." They discuss energy independence, the US-China relationship, energy ties between Europe and Russia, and much more.
References and recommendations made by Meghan O'Sullivan:
"Windfall: How the New Energy Abundance Upends Global Politics and Strengthens America's Power" by Meghan O'Sullivan; https://amzn.to/2H1g9nI
"Rethinking Saudi Arabia" by Karen Elliott House; https://www.wsj.com/articles/rethinking-saudi-arabia-1543595189
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Dec 29, 2018
Energy Inefficiency, with RFF's Joshua Blonz
Host Daniel Raimi and Joshua Blonz, a postdoctoral fellow at RFF, talk about his recent research on an energy efficiency program in California, the “principal-agent problem,” and what that means for policymaking on energy efficiency and much more.
References and recommendations made by Joshua Blonz:
"The Welfare Costs of Misaligned Incentives: Energy Inefficiency and the Principal-Agent Problem" by Joshua Blonz; http://www.rff.org/research/publications/welfare-costs-misaligned-incentives-energy-inefficiency-and-principal-agent
"Lyft Doesn’t Cause Congestion, All Vehicles Do" by Severin Borenstein; https://energyathaas.wordpress.com/2018/12/17/lyft-doesnt-cause-congestion-all-vehicles-do/
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Dec 22, 2018
Sensing Pollution with Satellites, with RFF's Alan Krupnick and Daniel Sullivan
Host Daniel Raimi and RFF's Alan Krupnick and Daniel Sullivan discuss their recent study using satellite data to better measure air pollution in the United States, what the implications are for public health, and how policymakers might respond.
References and recommendations made by Alan and Daniel:
"Using Satellite Data to Fill the Gaps in the US Air Pollution Monitoring Network" by Daniel Sullivan and Alan Krupnick; http://www.rff.org/valuables/research/publications/using-satellite-data-fill-gaps-us-air-pollution-monitoring-network
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Dec 15, 2018
Communicating Complex Social Problems, with Matthew Nisbet of Northeastern University
Host Kristin Hayes and Matthew Nisbet, a professor of communication, public policy, and urban affairs at Northeastern University, discuss effective communications related to complex social problems such as climate change and political polarization.
References and recommendations made by Matthew Nisbet:
Antisocial Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy by Siva Vaidhyanathan; https://www.amazon.com/Antisocial-Media-Disconnects-Undermines-Democracy/dp/0190841168
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Dec 6, 2018
Agriculture and Climate Change, with Fran Moore of UC Davis
Host Daniel Raimi and Dr. Fran Moore of UC Davis talk about the economic impacts of climate change on agriculture, what a recent study authored by Moore and colleagues found, and what these findings mean for estimating the social cost of carbon.
References and recommendations made by Fran Moore:
"New Science of Climate Change Impacts on Agriculture Implies Higher Social Cost of Carbon" by Frances C. Moore, Uris Baldos, Thomas Hertel, and Delavane Diaz; https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-017-01792-x?utm
American War: A Novel by Omar El Akkad; https://www.amazon.com/American-War-Omar-El-Akkad/dp/0451493583
The End We Start From by Megan Hunter;https://www.amazon.com/End-We-Start-Megan-Hunter/dp/0802126898/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1546633729&sr=8-1&keywords=the+end+we+start+from
Odds Against Tomorrow: A Novel by Nathaniel Rich; https://www.amazon.com/Odds-Against-Tomorrow-Nathaniel-Rich/dp/1250043646/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1546633805&sr=8-2&keywords=odds+against+tomorrow
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Nov 30, 2018
Wildfires, with RFF's Matthew Wibbenmeyer
Host Daniel Raimi and RFF Fellow Matthew Wibbenmeyer discuss the recent fires in California, looking not only their causes but also how to mitigate their risk.
References and recommendations made by Matthew Wibbenmeyer:
The Relationship between Trees and Human Health: Evidence from the Spread of the Emerald Ash Borer, a US Forest Service Study by Geoffrey Donovan et al.
https://www.fs.usda.gov/treesearch/pubs/45049
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