Energy Tradeoffs Podcast #42 – David Konisky

This week’s EnergyTradeoffs.com podcast episode features Indiana University’s David Konisky talking with Shelley Welton about his research on “Public Attitudes on Energy & Climate.”

David and Shelley discuss David’s research on what Americans believe about different sources of power. David finds that people mostly judge power sources based on their local environmental harms and their cost. They tend to be very favorable toward renewable sources, less favorable toward fossil fuels, and conflicted about nuclear power. David explains that many are more comfortable with traditional regulation such as emissions standards rather than market-based approaches to limiting carbon emissions. The discussion relates to a 2016 book that David wrote with Stephen Ansolabe, Cheap and Clean: How Americans Think About Energy in the Age of Global Warming.

Shelley and David also discuss a newer article that David coauthored with Sanya Carley and Stephen Ansolabe, “Are all electrons the same? Evaluating support for local transmission lines through an experiment.” In the paper, they examine local opposition to new energy infrastructure projects and find that it may be possible to provide information to landowners that would make them more favorable to new transmission lines designed to enable more renewable power.

The Energy Tradeoffs Podcast can be found at the following links: 
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Energy Tradeoffs Podcast #18 – Ari Peskoe

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.”

The Energy Tradeoffs Podcast can be found at the following links: 
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Energy Tradeoffs Podcast #8 – Jesse Jenkins

Another week, another EnergyTradeoffs.com podcast episode. This week, Princeton’s Jesse Jenkins talks with David Spence about his research on “The Best Route to Net-Zero Emissions.”

Jesse describes why “firm low-carbon power resources,” such as nuclear and natural gas with carbon capture make it much cheaper to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the electric power sector. Unlike variable solar and wind resources, these firm sources are “not weather-dependent, can be used anytime of the year, and can generate power for any length of time.”

The interview builds on Jesse’s 2018 article “The Role of Firm Low-Carbon Electricity Resources in Deep Decarbonization of Power Generation.”

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