There’s a New Playbook for Cutting Power Prices

About this episode

The episode discusses strategies for reducing power prices and accelerating clean energy deployment with insights from a new report by the Federation of American Scientists.

Since Democrats swept to statewide victories in Georgia and New Jersey last year by campaigning against high power prices, “electricity affordability” has been the watchword for climate-concerned politicians everywhere. But what can states and cities actually do to bring down power prices? The Federation of American Scientists, through its new Center for Regulatory Ingenuity, has  a new report  out on Tuesday about how to make it happen — and speed up clean energy deployment at the same time. On this episode of Shift Key, Rob is joined by Arjun Krishnaswami, a senior advisor at FAS and the new report’s lead author. He was previously a senior policy advisor for clean energy infrastructure in the Biden White House; before that, he was a special advisor to the chief of staff at the U.S. Department of Energy. Shift Key is hosted by Robinson Meyer, the founding executive editor of Heatmap News. You can find a full transcript of the episode here . Mentioned: CELS Playbook: Clean Electricity for Local and State Governments Previously in Heatmap:  How Electricity Got So Expensive Previously on Shift Key:  A New Theory About Why Biden’s Big Climate Law Failed -- This…

People in this episode

Host: Robinson Meyer

Guest: Arjun Krishnaswami

Topics covered

• electricity affordability
• clean energy deployment
• climate policy
• state and local government action
• energy prices

Keywords

• power prices
• clean energy
• climate policy
• electricity affordability
• state action

Sponsors

Yale

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Federation of American Scientists, Biden White House, U.S. Department of Energy

Books & works: CELS Playbook: Clean Electricity for Local and State Governments, How Electricity Got So Expensive, A New Theory About Why Biden’s Big Climate Law Failed

More episodes of Shift Key with Robinson Meyer

• The Other, Other Big Race in Georgia This Year · June 11, 2026 · 37 min
• Affordability Politics Took On New York’s Climate Law — and Won · June 2, 2026 · 31 min
• Nvidia’s Case for Why AI Will Cut Emissions · May 26, 2026 · 49 min
• How Los Angeles Cleaned Up the World’s Air Pollution · May 22, 2026 · 49 min
• This Year’s Beijing Auto Show Has a Lesson for Trump · May 15, 2026 · 47 min
• What’s Truly Baffling About the Strait of Hormuz Energy Crisis · May 13, 2026 · 49 min