Energy Tradeoffs Podcast #10 – David Adelman

For this week’s EnergyTradeoffs.com podcast interview, we have Josh Rhodes interviewing David Adelman, his colleague at the University of Texas, about David’s research on “Modeling the Evolution of a Greener Grid.”

David’s research compares renewable portfolio standards, which are the most commonly used instrument for encouraging renewable power, with carbon pricing, which could be implemented through a cap-and-trade system or a tax. David concludes that carbon pricing is “dramatically more effective at reducing carbon emissions and increasing the percentage of renewables than a renewable portfolio standard.” And he explains why even a modest carbon tax could be better for the climate than a relatively aggressive renewable portfolio standard. At the same time, David acknowledges that renewable portfolio standards may, in some cases, help surmount non-market barriers to renewable power.

The interview principally draws from a 2018 article that David wrote with with David Spence titled “U.S. climate policy and the regional economics of electricity generation.”

The Energy Tradeoffs Podcast can be found at the following links: Apple | Google

Energy Tradeoffs Podcast #2 – Alexandra Klass

Our next EnergyTradeoffs.com podcast features David Spence interviewing the University of Minnesota’s Alexandra Klass about her research on “Network Infrastructure: Permitting & Eminent Domain.”

They discuss permits for interstate power-lines, liquefied natural gas (LNG), and oil pipelines, focusing on two recent articles from Professor Klass: “Future Proofing Energy Transport Law” and  “Reconstituting the Federalism Battle in Energy Transportation.” Near the end of the podcast, they discuss energy & eminent domain, the subject of my forthcoming Minnesota Law Review article with Professor Klass.

The Energy Tradeoffs Podcast can be found at the following links.

Energy Tradeoffs Podcast #1 – Pipelines & Power-Lines

Earlier this month, David Spence posted an introduction to our new project with Sharon Jacobs and Shelley WeltonEnergyTradeoffs.com. Our website will feature the work of researchers grappling with energy policy tradeoffs between reliability, affordability, and environmental performance as well as the other trade-offs associated with energy transitions.

The site includes interviews in which these researchers discuss their recent articles. We have already posted 27 of these conversations and will post more in the coming weeks. But if you prefer to digest interviews in podcast format, I will periodically post them.

To start, below is my discussion with David on my just published article: James W. Coleman, Pipelines & Power-lines: Building the Energy Transport Future, 80 Oh. St. L.J. 263 (2019). The interview is titled “The Difficulty of Siting Pipelines and Transmission Lines” and you can find it here. You can find the published article here: http://bit.ly/Pipelines-Power-Lines

David and I discuss why it’s become cheaper to produce oil, gas, & renewable power, and how that has shifted energy companies’ focus to energy transport: how to get these new energy sources to consumers at an affordable price. I explain that, at the same time, changing laws are making it harder to build pipelines & power-lines and offer my suggestions for legal reform.

The Energy Tradeoffs Podcast can be found at the following links: Apple | Google

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