Shift Key with Robinson Meyer

Every week, Heatmap News Executive Editor Robinson Meyer and Princeton University Professor and energy systems expert Jesse Jenkins make sense of the biggest shift of our time -- navigating the energy transition away from fossil fuels. Drawing on their years of experience reporting on and researching climate change and decarbonization, Meyer and Jenkins unpack the most important issues of the week and how the impacts of climate change and efforts to address it are transforming our economy, politics, and society at large. Music by Adam Kromelow. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Shift Key with Robinson Meyer is a news podcast hosted by Heatmap News, with 145 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Heatmap News hosts Shift Key with Robinson Meyer, a news show with 145 episodes published.

Our AI reads these to draft pitches. Use them as grounding for a pitch that cites a real guest and a specific topic.

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  Episode #64

  Who Pays for Wildfire Prevention? If You’re in California, You Do — in Your Power Bill.

  Aug 20, 202642 minS3

  California now has the most expensive electricity in the continental United States. It also has expensive housing … and an increasingly broken home insurance market. Are the three phenomena linked? They might be. Due to a peculiarity in the state’s constitution, electricity utilities are incentivized to pay for a huge amount of wildfire prevention, above and beyond what would be seen as economically reasonable in another state. Fixing that constitutional peculiarity could help bring down energy costs and heal the home insurance market, but it will be complicated — and a number of policies will need to get passed at the same time. That’s what Lauren Teixeira argues in her new report, “ Rewiring Risk .” Teixeira, a senior climate and energy analyst at the Breakthrough Institute, joins Rob for today’s episode of Shift Key. They discuss how California found itself in this situation, how it might be fixed, and why the state treats utilities as a sin-eater for wildfire risk. 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: Lauren’s report: Rewiring Risk Rethinking Utility Wildfire Risk in California Previously on Shift Key: How California Broke Its Electricity Bills Previously on Shift Key: How Wildfires Destroyed California’s Insurance Market -- This episode of Shift Key is sponsored by ... Discover the Yale Clean and Equitable Energy Development online certificate program at the Yale Center for Business and the Environment. In this fully online, 5-month program, you’ll learn from leading experts, develop practical skills, and grow a powerful network. Visit cbey.yale.edu to learn more and apply. Music for Shift Key is by Adam Kromelow. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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  Episode #63

  Why This El Niño Looks Like a Monster

  Aug 12, 202647 minS3

  Every few years, the Pacific Ocean’s surface waters become especially warm near the equator, a climatic phenomenon known as El Niño. El Niño is a normal part of the climate system, but even in a normal year, it can trigger extreme weather around the world. Forecasters are worried that the current El Niño — which just began a few weeks ago — is going to be anything but normal. Models suggest that we could soon see the hottest El Niño ever measured, with unpredictable and catastrophic effects for ecosystems and societies around the world. What does that mean? And why does this El Niño look so bad? On this episode of Shift Key, Rob is joined by Zeke Hausfather, a climate research lead at Stripe and a research scientist at Berkeley Earth. They discuss what forecast models are saying about this El Niño, why it gives us a glance at the future, and whether climate change itself is accelerating. 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: NOAA’s El Niño page and the relative El Niño index An Assessment of Earth's Climate Sensitivity Using Multiple Lines of Evidence , the 2020 paper where Zeke was a coauthor Zeke’s blog post on AI emissions: The real energy use of agentic AI John Bistline’s post on AI emissions at Watershed Heatmap’s coverage of AI emissions: A New Guesstimate for Corporate AI Emissions -- This episode of Shift Key is sponsored by ... Discover the Yale Clean and Equitable Energy Development online certificate program at the Yale Center for Business and the Environment. In this fully online, 5-month program, you’ll learn from leading experts, develop practical skills, and grow a powerful network. Visit cbey.yale.edu to learn more and apply. Music for Shift Key is by Adam Kromelow. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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  Episode #62

  The Big — But Fixable! — Problems in America’s R&D Ecosystem

  Aug 6, 202658 minS3

  At this point, when you hear “venture capitalist,” you probably think of … software. Or artificial intelligence. Or cryptocurrency. The Engine Ventures , which spun out of MIT a few years ago, is different. It tries to fund what it calls “tough tech,” a somewhat nebulous category that includes companies working in energy, decarbonization, health, and infrastructure. As such, it’s backed some of the most interesting “climate tech” companies in business today, such as Form Energy, Commonwealth Fusion. On this episode of Shift Key, Rob chats with Katie Rae , the CEO and managing partner of Engine Ventures. They chat about what’s missing from America’s innovation ecosystem, how close fusion is to succeeding, and whether AI is a bubble (whatever that might mean).  One more note: Early in our conversation, Katie says that Commonwealth Fusion has built “more than 300” tokamak reactors. That was, unfortunately, an overestimate. It’s actually built closer to more than 150 reactors. Her team contacted us after her appearance to correct the record. 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: From Heatmap: Commonwealth Fusion Systems Wins Over New Class of Investors With $1 Billion Raise Previously on Shift Key: Why John Arnold Is ‘Very Optimistic’ Permitting Reform Will Pass This Year -- This episode of Shift Key is sponsored by ... Discover the Yale Clean and Equitable Energy Development online certificate program at the Yale Center for Business and the Environment. In this fully online, 5-month program, you’ll learn from leading experts, develop practical skills, and grow a powerful network. Visit cbey.yale.edu to learn more and apply. Music for Shift Key is by Adam Kromelow. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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  Episode #61

  Permitting Reform, Data Centers, and More With Senator Heinrich and Secretary Granholm

  Aug 3, 202633 minS3

  The Democratic Party’s climate and energy policy is at a difficult moment. Over the past year and a half, the Trump administration has attacked solar and wind energy, started an inflationary war, and repealed key parts of the Inflation Reduction Act. And about a year and a half from now, Democrats will pick a presidential candidate and pitch their energy and climate policies to voters again. How are key Democrats feeling at this moment? Rob recently had a chance to sit down with two of the party’s most important energy policy makers — Senator Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Energy and Natural Resource Committee, and former Energy Secretary and Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm — for an in-person conversation in Washington, D.C. On this episode of Shift Key, Rob chats with Senator Heinrich and Secretary Granholm, about fuel prices, the state of permitting discussions, AI data centers, and what each learned from writing — and implementing — the Inflation Reduction Act. Shift Key is hosted by Robinson Meyer, the founding executive editor of Heatmap News. Subscribe to “Shift Key” and find this episode on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Amazon , or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also add the show’s RSS feed to your podcast app to follow us directly. You can find a full transcript of the episode here . Mentioned: Previously on Shift Key: What Senator Martin Heinrich Needs to See in a Permitting Deal Previously on Shift Key: Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm on What Comes After Biden’s Climate Agenda Previously on Heatmap: 3 Takeaways From Our SunZia Investigation Music for Shift Key is by Adam Kromelow. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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  Episode #60

  What a Permitting Reform Deal Could Look Like

  Jul 29, 20261h 19mS3

  There’s really one one good thing that could happen this year in Congress for clean energy: permitting reform. If lawmakers reached a bipartisan deal on the country’s permitting system, they could make it easier to build solar, wind, and transmission lines — as well as every other kind of infrastructure. But will it happen? What are the obstacles to a deal? What would be in a deal? On this episode of Shift Key, Rob is joined by Daniel Palken, the director of infrastructure for energy and permitting at Arnold Ventures. They discuss the recent history of permitting reform, the policies that would probably make up a deal, and why it might be now or never for reforming the permitting system. Shift Key is hosted by Robinson Meyer, the founding executive editor of Heatmap News. Subscribe to “Shift Key” and find this episode on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Amazon , or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also add the show’s RSS feed to your podcast app to follow us directly. You can find a full transcript of the episode here . Mentioned: The FREEDOM Act , which would limit the president’s ability to yank permits Rob’s SunZia story: The Long, Strange Success Story of America’s Biggest Clean Energy Project Why the National Historic Preservation Act falls harder on transmission projects than pipelines Previously on Heatmap: What Is Permitting Reform? Here’s a Cheat Sheet. -- This episode of Shift Key is sponsored by ... Tandem PV is the leader in perovskite solar technology. We’re building the most efficient and durable perovskite solar panels on the market at our factory in Freemont, California. Learn how we're restoring U.S. leadership for the next era of solar manufacturing at tandempv.com . Music for Shift Key is by Adam Kromelow. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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