Volts

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.volts.wtf/subscribeMost of the energy decisions that touch daily life in America get made in state legislatures, and the people making them are increasingly new to the job. In smaller states, a freshly elected lawmaker gets a pad of paper, no staff, and about 150 lobbyists at the door, then votes on billion-dollar energy budgets in a landscape where the technology changes faster than anyone can track. On this episode of Volts, David Roberts talks with Hawaii state Senator Chris Lee, co-founder of the Electric Innovation Initiative, a bipartisan network betting that education moves electrification faster than mandates: put lawmakers in front of working technology, connect them across state lines, and let affordability carry the argument where climate framing will not. As Lee puts it, "nine times out of ten, people just don't know what they don't know."Chapters:00:00 Introduction03:39 How electrification clicked: the 2008 iPhone moment06:10 The education gap: why the initiative exists11:35 Proxy staff and cross-state validation15:44 What lands on the tours: eVTOL to the data-center win-win20:51 Plain 'electrification': the bipartisan framing bet26:28 Climate hushing and Hawaii's two-track proof30:17 Policy that spreads: e-buses, heat pumps, RFPs37:37 Utility business-model reform: Hawaii's PBR law42:03 Affordability after the federal subsidies45:22 Hawaii under pressure: LNG and the Lahaina grid51:53 State power against federal hostility55:19 The ten-year vision and the closing advice

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.volts.wtf/subscribeMinnesota regulators Sydnie Lieb and Pete Wyckoff on why utility distribution spending — now a third of capital budgets and the biggest driver of rising bills — escapes the scrutiny the rest of the grid faces, and how to fix that.00:00 - Introduction04:23 - How distribution is regulated differently than generation and transmission09:25 - Why distribution matters now: an aging system and the build-more incentive14:00 - Contestable “mandatory” spending: undergrounding, DERMS software, capitalization22:19 - Reliability standards and the cost of chasing 100 percent28:42 - The MISO comparison: valuing a lost hour, and the scale of the numbers35:12 - Non-wires alternatives: batteries, the Xcel project, and modeling gaps40:31 - What regulators should require: AMI forecasts and beyond the prudence test47:22 - The speed objection: does more analysis slow things down?50:10 - Why spending caps and rate freezes are the wrong fix52:40 - Spending more anyway, and recent Minnesota PUC disappointments55:09 - Restructured markets: does the same logic apply?58:38 - The vision of a well-functioning process and scaling it nationally

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.volts.wtf/subscribeYou might have noticed that it’s kind of hot out there. And it’s only going to get worse: global demand for cooling is projected to triple by 2050. Finding a way to cool spaces and people without frying the planet is a crucial climate challenge. I’m joined by RMI’s Ankit Kalanki to unpack the hidden world of AC refrigerants and testing standards, the crucial distinction between lowering temperatures and dehumidifying, new AC technologies on the horizon, and the building and urban design changes that can take some of the pressure off.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.volts.wtf/subscribeThe UK has just released its seventh carbon budget, recommitting to the aggressive climate targets suggested by its nonpartisan Climate Change Committee. Can the Labour government actually hit those targets while keeping energy prices for the British people under control, even amidst a newly hostile political landscape? In this episode, I talk with the UK’s new climate minister, Katie White, about those challenges and more.