The Unexpected Idea to Get Coal off the Grid

One of the most effective ways to fight climate change is to quit using coal to generate electricity. And while coal-fired power plants are closing at record rates, many are scheduled to remain operational for years to come - even if remaining open doesn’t make economic sense. How To Save A Planet co-host Alex Blumberg teams up with A Matter Of Degrees co-host Leah Stokes for an episode about an unexpected idea to get all this coal off the grid - an idea even utilities can get behind. And we meet a man in Kansas who has devoted his entire career to making that transition happen.

Guests: Ashok Gupta, a Senior Energy economist for the Natural Resources Defense Council and Jason Klindt, the Senior Director of Government Affairs for Evergy. 

Calls to action:

• Pick up your phone and call4climate.com right now. It's a pretty straightforward (and potentially quite powerful) thing that all of our listeners can do. So, call your representative and say ‘hey, I want this clean electricity standard and I want this climate bill to pass!’ There’s a sample script online and it takes just a few minutes. As Alex has said, now is the time: “We have this potentially historic piece of legislation in front of us, it is this generation’s sort of clean water act or clean air act. It could be the thing that sets us on course for the next many decades.”

Check out our Calls to Action archive for all of the actions we've recommended on the show. Send us your ideas or feedback with our Listener Mail Form. Sign up for our newsletter here. And follow us on Twitter and Instagram.

How to Save a Planet is hosted by Alex Blumberg and Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson. Our reporting and producing team includes Kendra Pierre-Louis, Rachel Waldholz and Anna Ladd. Our supervising producer is Lauren Silverman. Our editor is Caitlin Kenney. Sound design and mixing by Peter Leonard with original music from Emma Munger and Peter Leonard.

A Matter of Degrees is hosted by Dr. Leah Stokes and Dr. Katharine Wilkinson. Stephen Lacey is our Executive Editor. Jaime Kaiser and Dalvin Aboagye are our producers. Sean Marquand is our composer and sound engineer. 

This episode was fact checked by Claudia Geib. Additional help fact-checking from Michael O’Boyle and Ben Serrurier.

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