Category: Podcast

Energy Tradeoffs Podcast #24 – Arne Olson (Part II)

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This week’s EnergyTradeoffs.com podcast episode is Part II of Arne Olson‘s discussion with David Spence on “Modeling Decarbonization in the West.” This two-part series covers Arne’s research on achieving a reliable transition to low-carbon energy on the West Coast. Today’s 15-minute podcast episode starts where the last one left off, focusing on California.

Arne describes why California may need to maintain some natural gas power to address wintertime shortages, unless it is able to develop significant nuclear power or long-term energy storage.

The interview builds on another of Arne’s recent papers, “Long-Run Resource Adequacy under Deep Decarbonization Pathways for California.”

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Energy Tradeoffs Podcast #23 – Arne Olson

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This Thursday’s EnergyTradeoffs.com podcast episode features Arne Olson talking with David Spence about his research on achieving a reliable transition to low-carbon energy on the West Coast. This week’s 18-minute podcast is the first part of a two-part series on “Modeling Decarbonization in the West,” and it focuses on the Pacific Northwest.

Arne and David’s discussion focuses on the reasons that natural gas may play a continuing useful role in the grid as it moves to lower and lower carbon emissions. Arne explains why the grid can decarbonize while maintaining natural gas power to ensure reliability during emergencies.

The interview builds on Arne’s recent paper, “Resource Adequacy in the Pacific Northwest.”

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Energy Tradeoffs Podcast #22 – Leah Stokes

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Happy new year! For this week’s EnergyTradeoffs.com podcast interview, we have David Spence interviewing Leah Stokes, from the University of California – Santa Barbara about her research on “The Politics of Technology Transitions.”

Leah and David discuss politically sustainable methods of accomplishing an energy transition, focusing on Leah’s research on the history of policies supporting renewable and zero-carbon technologies. She traces a trajectory for transition that begins with subsidies to nurture new technologies until they are politically potent enough to take on incumbent industries. Leah and David also discuss Texas’s support for solar and wind power.

The discussion builds on three papers that Leah has recently published with co-authors: “The political logics of clean energy transitions,” “Politics in the U.S. energy transition: Case studies of solar, wind biofuels and electric vehicles policy,” and “Renewable Energy Policy Design and Framing Influence Public Support in the United States.”

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

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Energy Tradeoffs Podcast #21 – Joshua Macey

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This week’s EnergyTradeoffs.com podcast episode features Cornell’s Joshua Macey talking with David Spence about his research on “Renewables and Reliability in Competitive Wholesale Electricity Markets.”

In the interview, Joshua explains why electric power providers in competitive markets are relying more and more on capacity markets, which pay them just for being available to provide power, and less on energy markets, which pay them only when they are actually providing power. He critiques the way that interstate grid operators and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission have implemented these capacity markets, arguing that current rules discriminate against renewable resources such as wind and solar power.

The discussion builds on Joshua’s forthcoming University of Pennsylvania Law Review article with Jackson Salovaara, “Rate Regulation Redux.”

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Energy Tradeoffs Podcast #20 – Carey King

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Today’s EnergyTradeoffs.com podcast episode features David Spence interviewing Carey King, his colleague at the University of Texas, about Carey’s research on “Economic Growth, Inequality & Decarbonization.”

Carey and David discuss several ways that transitioning to cleaner energy sources will change the economy. In particular, Carey notes that “lower carbon infrastructure tends to be higher capital cost relative to operating cost, implying less labor and lower employment” and explains how this could affect economic growth and inequality.

NB: This increased emphasis on capital investment means that the cost of cleaner energy will increasingly depend on reducing the cost of capital, a challenging task in a time of legal uncertainty. I have recently published two pieces on this topic: “Energy Market and Policy Revolutions: Regulatory Process and the Cost of Capital” and “Pipelines & Power-Lines: Building the Energy Transport Future.”

The discussion builds on two of Carey’s recent articles: “Modeling the point of use EROI and its implications for economic growth in China” & “Delusions of grandeur in building a low-carbon future.”

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Energy Tradeoffs Podcast #19 – Daniel Raimi

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Our new EnergyTradeoffs.com podcast episode features Resources for the Future’s Daniel Raimi talking with David Spence about his research on “Fossil Fuels and the Risk Profile of Fracking.”

Daniel talks about his recent book, which evaluates common concerns about fracking, including polluted water supplies, diesel emissions, increased risks of earthquakes, and greenhouse gas emissions. Daniel explains how recent studies support or do not support these concerns. Daniel also explains how these risks can be addressed, noting how shale gas can be used to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in some circumstance but can raise emissions in other circumstances.

Daniel’s 2018 book is titled “The Fracking Debate: The Risks, Benefits, and Uncertainties of the Shale Revolution.” The interview also builds on Daniel’s 2019 paper on “The Greenhouse Gas Impacts of Increased US Oil and Gas Production.”

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Energy Tradeoffs Podcast #18 – Ari Peskoe

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This Thursday’s EnergyTradeoffs.com podcast episode features Harvard Law School’s Ari Peskoe talking with David Spence about his research on “Reliability, Decarbonization & Federal-State Conflict Over Electricity Markets.”

Ari and David talk about restructured power markets and struggles over the extent of federal and state authority to ensure that there are enough power plants and that electricity remains reliable. And Ari explains his work on a brief of electricity law scholars that defended states’ authority to adopt “zero emissions credits” that support nuclear power.

This discussion also builds on Ari’s recent paper, which is titled, “Easing Jurisdictional Tensions by Integrating Public Policy in Wholesale Electricity Markets.”

As an aside, my favorite part of the podcast comes near the start, when David offers the funny-because-it’s-true observation that “Ari is a Twitter public servant” because he “provides a lot of public goods on Twitter.”

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Energy Tradeoffs Podcast #17 – Melinda Taylor

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Another week, another EnergyTradeoffs.com podcast episode. This week, the University of Texas’s Melinda Taylor talks with David Spence about her research on “Studying Intensive Energy Development (Oil & Gas, Wind and Solar) in West Texas.”

Melinda talks about her work with the Cynthia & George Mitchell Foundation on “a community-based landscape conservation plan” for three West Texas counties that are part of Texas’s staggering oil, gas, & renewable power boom — the biggest energy boom the world has ever seen. These “relatively yet-untouched counties in west Texas … host beautiful, iconic landscape features.”

You can learn more about this area of West Texas, and the energy boom — and hear more from Melinda — in this trailer for “The Long Game” a documentary series by the Mitchell Foundation.

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Energy Tradeoffs Podcast #16 – Todd Davidson

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For this week’s EnergyTradeoffs.com podcast interview, we have David Spence interviewing Todd Davidson, his colleague at the University of Texas, about Todd’s research on “Long-term storage needs, ‘green gases,’ & the energy transition.”

Todd and David’s discussion focuses on one of the most pressing problems with increasing reliance on solar and wind power: how to store the energy from these sources for use during periods where they are unavailable. He notes some of the reasons that lithium-ion batteries are, at best, only able to address a small part of this problem. And he explores the potential of storing renewable energy as hydrogen gas.

The interview principally draws on two of Todd’s recent articles: one is titled, “A Review of Four Case Studies Assessing the Potential for Penetration of Hydrogen Energy in a Future Energy System“, the other is, “Impacts of renewable hydrogen production from wind energy in electricity markets on potential hydrogen demand for light-duty vehicles.” 

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Energy Tradeoffs Podcast #15 – William Boyd

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Today’s EnergyTradeoffs.com podcast episode features UCLA’s William Boyd talking with David Spence about his research on “‘Public’ Utility: Steering Markets Toward Public Ends“.

In the interview, William explains his critique of FERC’s approach to price formation in natural gas markets and electricity auctions. William argues that markets cannot be insulated from politics and that the policy choices that often dominate cost-of-service ratemaking can emerge in restructured energy markets as well.

The discussion builds on two of William’s recent articles: “Public Utility and the Low Carbon Future,” and “Just Price, Public Utility and the Long History of Economic Regulation in America.”

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