Resources Radio

This week, Kristin Hayes and Joseph Aldy discuss the presidential candidates’ stances on climate change. Aldy is professor of the practice of public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School and a university fellow at Resources for the Future (RFF). Aldy worked as an RFF fellow in 2005–2008, leaving in 2009 to serve as the special assistant to the president for energy and environment, reporting through both the National Economic Council and the Office of Energy and Climate change at the White House. Given this experience as both a researcher and a policymaker, Aldy is the perfect person to kick off the Resources Radio podcast series that accompanies RFF’s new online interactive tool, the Candidate Tracker. The Candidate Tracker has been developed to compare and contrast the positions of the 2020 presidential candidates from both major political parties on a range of climate- and energy-related topics. It’s available online at www.rff.org/candidatetracker. We hope Resources Radio can serve as a great venue for some deeper-dive analysis on several issues under discussion by the candidates; listeners will see episodes posted over the next few months in this mini-series. This first episode in the Candidate Tracker series with Aldy is designed to offer some big-picture commentary on how the candidates are talking about energy and climate, how their plans compare, and how the conversation is evolving. References and recommendations: "Declining CO2 price paths" by Kent D. Daniel, Robert B. Litterman, and Gernot Wagner; https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2019/09/30/1817444116

This week, host Kristin Hayes talks with Kyung-Ah Park, who leads environmental markets and innovation in the newly formed sustainable finance group at Goldman Sachs; she also serves on the board of RFF. Previously, Park headed the Environmental Markets Group at Goldman Sachs. As the episode title suggests, their conversation focuses on the potential to catalyze markets toward further investments in environmentally beneficial products and services. Hayes and Park talk about the definition of environmental markets and why markets matter in driving change at the scales needed. An edited transcript of this episode also is available as an article in issue 202 of "Resources" magazine: https://www.resourcesmag.org/print-issues/issue-202-satellites-help-keep-communities-safe-toxic-algal-blooms/ References and recommendations: "The Uninhabitable Earth" by David Wallace-Wells; https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/586541/the-uninhabitable-earth-by-david-wallace-wells/

This week, host Daniel Raimi talks with Resources for the Future (RFF) Senior Fellow Karen Palmer and RFF Fellow Daniel Shawhan. Along with RFF Senior Research Assistant Paul Picciano, Palmer and Shawhan recently released a report called “Benefits and Costs of Power Plant Carbon Emissions Pricing in New York.” Raimi, Palmer, and Shawhan talk about this new work, which examines how a carbon price applied specifically to New York State would affect emissions inside and outside of the state, electricity prices for consumers, what role carbon pricing could play in achieving New York’s ambitious climate targets over the next few decades, and more. References and recommendations: "Benefits and Costs of Power Plant Carbon Emissions Pricing in New York" by Daniel Shawhan, Paul Picciano, and Karen Palmer https://www.rff.org/publications/reports/benefits-and-costs-of-the-new-york-independent-system-operators-carbon-pricing-initiative/ "The Biggest Little Farm"; https://www.biggestlittlefarmmovie.com/ "Free Solo"; https://www.nationalgeographic.com/films/free-solo/ "Electricity Market Design" by Peter Crampton; https://academic.oup.com/oxrep/article/33/4/589/4587939

This week, host Daniel Raimi talks with Ellen Hughes-Cromwick of the University of Michigan Energy Institute. Hughes-Cromwick previously served as chief economist in the US Department of Commerce. Before that, she was the chief economist at Ford Motor Company for over 18 years. Raimi asks Hughes-Cromwick about the state of play in the automotive industry, how electric and autonomous vehicles are changing the economic and competitive landscape, which companies are best positioned to take advantage of these new technologies, and what role climate policy can play in planning for the vehicles of the future. References and recommendations: "Energy Transitions and Local Action: The Case of Colorado's Coal Transition"; https://www.forbes.com/sites/thebakersinstitute/2019/08/21/energy-transitions-and-local-action-the-case-of-colorados-coal-transition/#87957a33f23a "The Pioneers" by David McCullough; https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Pioneers/David-McCullough/9781501168680 "The Fifth Risk" by Michael Lewis; https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/311/311900/the-fifth-risk/9780141991429.html "The Undoing Project" by Michael Lewis; https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393354775 Paradigm shifts and the philosophy of science: Thomas Kuhn (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Structure_of_Scientific_Revolutions) and Karl Popper (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Popper)

This week, host Daniel Raimi talks with Catherine Kling, who, among her many titles, is a Tisch University professor at Cornell University and a member of RFF's Board of Directors. They talk about a recent op-ed that Kling published in the New York Times, called “Polluting Farmers Should Pay,” which focuses on nutrient runoff from agricultural land and how the runoff contributes to harmful algae blooms across the United States. They also talk about potential options for federal and state policies to address this problem, as well as Kling's early work on developing a social cost of water pollution. References and recommendations: “Polluting Farmers Should Pay” by Catherine Kling; https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/25/opinion/water-quality-agriculture.html "Lake Michigan has become much clearer in 20 years, but at great cost"; https://phys.org/news/2018-01-lake-michigan-clearer-years-great.html "Wild Geese" by Mary Oliver; https://onbeing.org/blog/mary-oliver-reads-wild-geese/ "Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter" by Ben Goldfarb; https://www.chelseagreen.com/product/eager-paperback/

This week's episode pays tribute to the life and work of Harvard Economics Professor Marty Weitzman, who died two weeks ago. Host Daniel Raimi talks with Gernot Wagner, a close collaborator and friend of Weitzman’s and a professor at New York University. Raimi and Wagner talk about two of Weitzman’s seminal contributions to the field of environmental economics, how this work has shaped public policies around the world, and who Marty was as a person. References and recommendations: "Prices vs. Quantities" by Weitzman (1974); https://scholar.harvard.edu/weitzman/publications/prices-vs-quantities "Chutes and Ladders" board game; https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/5432/chutes-and-ladders "The Uninhabitable Earth" by David Wallace-Wells; https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/586541/the-uninhabitable-earth-by-david-wallace-wells/9780525576709/

Host Daniel Raimi talks with Sharon Shewmake, a professor of environmental economics at Western Washington University. Shewmake also represents Washington's 42nd legislative district in the state's House of Representatives. Shewmake discusses Washington's plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the power sector to zero by 2045, other state policies that affect energy and the environment, and how researchers can more effectively engage with policymakers. References and recommendations: "A Trailblazing Plan to Fight California Wildfires” by Nicola Twilley, The New Yorker; https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/08/26/a-trailblazing-plan-to-fight-california-wildfires "So, Should We Recycle?" by Planet Money; https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=741283641

Host Daniel Raimi talks with Robert Bonnie, Rubinstein fellow at Duke University. Bonnie is an expert on many things, but in this episode, he talks about the role that forests play in energy, climate change, and more. Raimi asks Bonnie about the past, present, and future of wood energy in the United States and globally, and what role forests might play in helping to achieve deep decarbonization goals. They also talk about the challenges that this issue raises, including developing markets to incentivize reforestation, land use competition, and much more. References and recommendations: "Boom Town" by Sam Anderson; https://buff.ly/2NCsCQb "Between Two Fires" by Stephen Pine; https://uapress.arizona.edu/book/between-two-fires "Sapiens" by Yuval Noah Harari; https://www.ynharari.com/book/sapiens/

This week, we talk with Ya-Wei Li, Director of Biodiversity at the Environmental Policy Innovation Center (EPIC). Ya-Wei is an expert on the Endangered Species Act, a law that's been in the news recently because the Trump administration has proposed a number of changes to the way the Act is administered and enforced. We'll get Ya-Wei's take on which changes are most important, what effect they'll have on species and their habitat, and whether media coverage of the proposed changes has been overwrought. References and recommendations: "A Guide to the Revised Endangered Species Regulations" by Environmental Policy Innovation Center; http://policyinnovation.org/esaregs19/ "Last week's endangered species regulations: what really happened?" by Ya-Wei Li; https://buff.ly/2HgP6lR Sage Grouse Mating Dances; https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=sage+grouse "Noah's Choice: The Future of the Endangered Species Act" by Mann and Plummer; https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/329264.Noah_s_Choice

This week, we are rebroadcasting host Daniel Raimi's 2018 interview with Gilbert Metcalf, the John DiBiaggio Professor of Citizenship and Public Service; Professor of Economics; and Graduate Program Director at Tufts University’s Department of Economics. Daniel talks to Gib about his new book, "Paying for Pollution: Why a Carbon Tax is Good for America." We are re-airing this interview because several federal carbon pricing bills have recently been proposed in the US Congress, raising renewed interest in carbon pricing. References and recommendations: "The Year of the Carbon Pricing Proposal" by Marc Hafstead; https://www.resourcesmag.org/common-resources/the-year-of-the-carbon-pricing-proposal/ "The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History" by Elizabeth Kolbert; www.goodreads.com/book/show/179100…sixth-extinction "Amity and Prosperity: One Family and the Fracturing of America" by Eliza Griswold; www.goodreads.com/book/show/367229…y-and-prosperity "Confronting the Climate Challenge: US Policy Options" by Lawrence Goulder and Marc Hafstead; cup.columbia.edu/book/confronting…ge/9780231179027 "Paying for Pollution: Why a Carbon Tax is Good for America" by Gilbert Metcalf; global.oup.com/academic/product/…97?cc=us&lang=en