Resources Radio

In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Paul Joskow, an economics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a member of the President’s Council at Resources for the Future. Joskow has had a long and distinguished career that spans a wide range of energy and environmental topics. In his conversation with Raimi, Joskow discusses his new working paper about the challenges related to expanding the electricity grid. Growing the grid will be a critical component for achieving long-term decarbonization goals, but growth comes with a lot of hurdles. Joskow describes those hurdles, alongside what solutions might help knock them down. References and recommendations: “Facilitating Transmission Expansion to Support Efficient Decarbonization of the Electricity Sector” by Paul L. Joskow; http://ceepr.mit.edu/publications/working-papers/758 “Churchill: Walking with Destiny” by Andrew Roberts; https://www.andrew-roberts.net/books/churchill-walking-destiny/ “Franklin and Winston: An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship” by Jon Meacham; https://www.jonmeacham.com/book/franklin-and-winston-an-intimate-portrait-of-an-epic-friendship/ Books by John le Carré; https://johnlecarre.com/ “Networks of Power: Electrification in Western Society, 1880–1930” by Thomas Parker Hughes; https://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/title/networks-power “A French Village” television series; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Un_village_fran%C3%A7ais “Come From Away” play; https://comefromaway.com/ “The Polio Crusade” documentary; https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/polio/

In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Casey Wichman, an assistant professor in the School of Economics at Georgia Tech and an RFF university fellow. Wichman and several coauthors recently published a working paper that uses a field experiment to estimate how smart thermostats and time-varying electricity pricing can help reduce household utility bills and demands on the power sector. As more and more of us install smart thermostats, Wichman discusses how much money these devices can help us save, how the devices affect the temperatures in our homes, and what smart thermostats might mean for the grid’s reliability and environmental impact. References and recommendations: “Smart Thermostats, Automation, and Time-Varying Prices” by Joshua Blonz, Karen Palmer, Casey Wichman, and Derek C. Wietelman; https://www.rff.org/publications/working-papers/smart-thermostats-automation-and-time-varying-prices/ “Savings Versus Comfort: How Smarter Thermostats Can Respond to Time-Varying Prices” by Karen Palmer; https://www.resources.org/common-resources/savings-versus-comfort-how-smarter-thermostats-can-respond-to-time-varying-prices/ “The New Climate War” by Michael E. Mann; https://www.publicaffairsbooks.com/titles/michael-e-mann/the-new-climate-war/9781541758223/ “Why Fish Don’t Exist” by Lulu Miller; https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Why-Fish-Dont-Exist/Lulu-Miller/9781501160349

In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Colin Jerolmack, a professor of sociology and environmental studies at New York University. Jerolmack recently published “Up to Heaven and Down to Hell: Fracking, Freedom, and Community in an American Town”—a book that Raimi insists is one of the best on the shale revolution that’s been written to date. Jerolmack lived for several months in a rural Pennsylvania county that had been experiencing the shale revolution; he documented what residents experienced over a span of eight years. The result is a thoughtful, nuanced, and human portrait of how shale development has affected one community—for better and for worse. References and recommendations: “Up to Heaven and Down to Hell: Fracking, Freedom, and Community in an American Town” by Colin Jerolmack; https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691179032/up-to-heaven-and-down-to-hell “Not in Your Backyard! Organizational Structure, Partisanship, and the Mobilization of Nonbeneficiary Constituents against “Fracking” in Illinois, 2013–2014” by Fedor A. Dokshin and Amanda Buday; https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2378023118783476 “They Couldn’t Drink Their Water. And Still, They Stayed Quiet.” by Colin Jerolmack; https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/17/opinion/sunday/fracking-pennsylvania-water-contamination.html “This Is Chance! The Great Alaska Earthquake, Genie Chance, and the Shattered City She Held Together” by Jon Mooallem; https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/565952/this-is-chance-by-jon-mooallem/ “Scene on Radio” Season 5, “The Repair,” with hosts John Biewen and Amy Westervelt; https://www.sceneonradio.org/the-repair/

In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Kim Stanley Robinson, acclaimed author of many books, most recently “The Ministry for the Future.” Robinson’s books vividly illustrate some of the most devastating potential consequences of climate change, but that’s not all they do—the books also offer innovation and optimism, imagining the ways in which we can prevent some of the worst impacts of climate change and adapt to the impacts that are unavoidable. Robinson discusses his recent visit to COP 26 and his views on climate economics, modern monetary theory, space opera, and more. References and recommendations: “The Ministry for the Future” by Kim Stanley Robinson; https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/kim-stanley-robinson/the-ministry-for-the-future/9780316300162/ “The Price of Peace: Money, Democracy, and the Life of John Maynard Keynes” by Zachary D. Carter; https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/563378/the-price-of-peace-by-zachary-d-carter/ “Improving Discounting in the Social Cost of Carbon” by Brian Prest, William Pizer, and Richard Newell; https://www.resources.org/archives/improving-discounting-in-the-social-cost-of-carbon/ “Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist” by Kate Raworth; https://www.chelseagreen.com/product/doughnut-economics-paperback/ The concept of “carbon currency” by Delton Chen; https://globalcarbonreward.org/carbon-currency/ “Hypothesis for a Risk Cost of Carbon: Revising the Externalities and Ethics of Climate Change” by Delton B. Chen, Joel van der Beek, and Jonathan Cloud; https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-03152-7_8 “Breaking Boundaries: The Science of Our Planet” by David Attenborough and Johan Rockström; https://www.netflix.com/title/81336476

In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Shelie Miller, a professor at the University of Michigan’s School for Environment and Sustainability. Miller describes her recent research, which investigates whether reusable products like straws and coffee cups are really more sustainable than their single-use counterparts. In part because manufacturing these products and then keeping them clean over their lifetimes can be water intensive, Miller says that consumers need to reuse alternatives to plastics many times if they want to minimize their environmental impacts. Today’s episode is very much news-you-can-use when you’re trying to decide whether you should buy that reusable sandwich wrapper or straw, or take home that canvas bag from the latest conference you’ve attended. References and recommendations: “Environmental payback periods of reusable alternatives to single-use plastic kitchenware products” by Hannah Fetner and Shelie A. Miller; https://www.springerprofessional.de/en/environmental-payback-periods-of-reusable-alternatives-to-single/19334396 “Five Misperceptions Surrounding the Environmental Impacts of Single-Use Plastic” by Shelie A. Miller; https://css.umich.edu/sites/default/files/publication/CSS20-33.pdf “Green Porno” with Isabella Rossellini; https://www.sundancetv.com/shows/green-porno--1001041

In this week’s episode, host Kristin Hayes talks with Billy Pizer, the Vice President for Research and Policy Engagement at Resources for the Future. The episode was recorded on the second-to-last day of COP26, closing out our three-part COP-focused podcast series. Pizer joins Resources Radio live from Glasgow, where he has been RFF’s eyes and ears, to discuss how this critical negotiating session has unfolded. He shares his reflections on the conference proceedings and outcomes, along with what needs to happen next. References and recommendations: “Fixing the Climate: Strategies for an Uncertain World” by Charles F. Sabel and David G. Victor; https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691224558/fixing-the-climate

In this week’s episode, host Kristin Hayes talks with Suzi Kerr, chief economist at Environmental Defense Fund. Kerr’s areas of expertise include emissions pricing, climate change policy, land use, and—most relevant for this podcast episode—international climate cooperation. Kerr originally hails from New Zealand, where she helped found Motu, an economics and public policy research institution that serves the needs of Kiwi decisionmakers. Kerr is the second podcast guest in our three-part series on COP26. She shares her reflections on the action at COP26 to date—major agreements that already have been forged, deals that have been scuttled, and key issues still on the negotiating table—with a particular lens on developing-country interests. References and recommendations: “Tears of Rangi: Experiments Across Worlds” by Anne Salmond; https://aucklanduniversitypress.co.nz/tears-of-rangi/

In this episode, host Kristin Hayes talks with Rachel Cleetus, policy director of the Climate and Energy program at the Union of Concerned Scientists. Cleetus is an expert on the process used by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, or UNFCCC, and has been attending international climate negotiations since 2009. As this podcast episode airs, we are two days into this year’s negotiations in Glasgow, at the meeting known as COP26. Cleetus joins Resources Radio as the first guest in a three-part COP-focused podcast series; she’ll help set the stage for what we can expect out of COP26 over the next two weeks, including the issues under discussion, where progress this year is particularly critical, and how US action—or lack thereof—will affect the dialogue in this pivotal year for international climate negotiations. References and recommendations: “On Being” podcast episode, “Our future is still in our hands,” with guest Katharine Hayhoe; https://onbeing.org/programs/katharine-hayhoe-our-future-is-still-in-our-hands/ “All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis” edited by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Katharine K. Wilkinson; https://www.allwecansave.earth/anthology

In this episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Boma Brown-West, director of consumer health at Environmental Defense Fund. Brown-West works on a wide range of issues related to the safety of consumer products, and she discusses some of the risks associated with packaging. Along with the well-known environmental damages from plastic pollution, Brown-West and Raimi dig into the lesser-known risks to human health from the chemicals that are part of the packaging people consume every day. Whether it’s single-use plastics, food containers, or even pizza boxes, there’s reason to be concerned, and there’s a lot we don’t know about how these products affect our long-term health. References and recommendations: “The world has a packaging problem—a new tool gives companies the ability to fix it” by Boma Brown-West; https://www.greenbiz.com/article/world-has-packaging-problem-new-tool-gives-companies-ability-fix-it The “Understanding Packaging Scorecard” from Environmental Defense Fund; https://upscorecard.org/ “American War” by Omar El Akkad; https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/543957/american-war-by-omar-el-akkad/9780771009419 “Degrees” podcast from Environmental Defense Fund; https://business.edf.org/degrees/ “Up to Heaven and Down to Hell: Fracking, Freedom, and Community in an American Town” by Colin Jerolmack; https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691179032/up-to-heaven-and-down-to-hell

In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Char Miller, a professor at Pomona College and a senior fellow at the Pinchot Institute for Conservation. Miller recently published a book called “West Side Rising: How San Antonio’s 1921 Flood Devastated a City and Sparked a Latino Environmental Justice Movement.” It’s a fascinating look back at how decades of environmental discrimination led to a new type of organizing and activism among the city’s residents, even before the term “environmental justice” was widely used. Miller explores the history of this movement and how it has blossomed over time to shape the politics and policies of today and tomorrow. References and recommendations: “West Side Rising: How San Antonio’s 1921 Flood Devastated a City and Sparked a Latino Environmental Justice Movement” by Char Miller; https://tupress.org/9781595349385/west-side-rising/