About this episode

Beth Bafford discusses her experience with Climate United and the impact of government actions on climate finance.

Beth Bafford spent years designing Climate United, a revolving fund meant to push out $7 billion of Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund money to underserved communities. She had barely begun sending out grants when Trump shut the program down and rescinded all the money. In this episode, I talk with her about that experience, the ongoing legal fight to reclaim some of the money, and the central importance of finance in clean energy policy. 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/subscribe

People in this episode

Host: David Roberts

Guest: Beth Bafford

Topics covered

• climate finance
• clean energy policy
• community funding
• legal battles
• government programs

Keywords

• climate finance
• Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund
• Beth Bafford
• clean energy
• Trump
• grants
• underserved communities

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Climate United, Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund

More episodes of Volts

• Enabling ordinary people to invest in renewable energy projects · April 29, 2026 · 1h 5m
• Tom Steyer wants to be California's climate governor · April 27, 2026 · 55 min
• The big stories from the last year in electricity · April 22, 2026 · 1h 7m
• Life as a clean energy journalist in an age of madness · April 20, 2026 · 20 min
• Doing data centers the not-dumb way · April 15, 2026 · 1h 31m
• Ruggedized solar power for the hard places · April 10, 2026 · 52 min

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Volts podcast page.