Evolution of Electricity Provision and Government Regulation in America

Wind and solar are now some of the cheapest ways to make electricity. So, what’s standing in the way of using more of these renewable energies? One of the biggest barriers is something all around us that we rarely notice – our electricity grid. Not just the wires and technology that make up the grid, but also the people and institutions that run it. In this episode we talk with anthropologist Gretchen Bakke, author of The Grid: The Fraying Wires Between Americans and our Energy Future, about how we got our grid, and how we get a better one.

Guests: Gretchen Bakke, anthropologist and author of The Grid: The Fraying Wires Between Americans and our Energy Future

Call to Action

• The infrastructure bill has $73 billion proposed to update our electricity grid so that it will be ready for more renewable energy. Let your legislators know that you think it’s important! Visit call4climate.com for more information and a script to help you with the call.

Learn More

• Check out Gretchen Bakke’s book The Grid: The Fraying Wires Between Americans and our Energy Future – here’s an excerpt
• Check out the Edison Tech Center’s tour through the history of light
• Read this article on the War of the Currents between Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla
• Read this report on grid resilience in the transition to renewables
• Read this post to learn more about microgrids

Greetings Earthlings, Ayana here. 

Big, melancholy news: Next week will be my last week co-hosting How to Save a Planet. [weeping emoji] Gosh will I miss this show and this crew of ace folks who make it.

Over the past few months, you might have noticed Alex hosting more episodes solo while I was away working on other projects. Turns out I’m a human not a robot, and that I can’t do everything all at once –speaking of not sustainable! Alas. So after one glorious year of co-hosting, it’s time for me to write the solo book I failed to write last year, and (while we have a window of opportunity for federal policy change) to spend more time nerding out on ocean climate policy work with Urban Ocean Lab. (Shoutout to our Blue New Deal episode, my second favorite!) So stay tuned while I go hibernate, emerging periodically to make it rain policy memos.

Most importantly, the show must and will go on! Alex, Kendra, Rachel, Anna, Caitlin, Lauren, Peter and the rest of the team will keep bringing you deep takes, spicy climate facts, and charmingly awkward moments.

Tune in next week for my grand finale as co-host – about why gender equality is critical to addressing the climate crisis. Hellooooo All We Can Save and guest co-host Dr. Katharine Wilkinson. Also, I hear there’s a montage of some of the most absurd things I’ve said on mic over the last year…

Shoutout to Alex for being like “Yeah, sure, person I just met, I’ll create a climate podcast with you, ya weirdo. Let’s take this convo to the whiteboard.”

Thank you, each of you, for listening. Y’all warm my weary heart. And definitely keep listening because I still have access to the spreadsheet with all the plans for future episodes, and let me tell you, there is some extremely good content coming your way. 

I miss you already! xo

Ayana

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