Resources Radio

This week, host Daniel Raimi talks with Emily Grubert, an assistant professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Raimi and Grubert discuss how water is used in the energy system, a subset of the topic known as the “Energy-Water Nexus.” They also talk about a 2018 paper that Grubert coauthored with Kelly Sanders—research that provides intricate detail on the life cycle of water consumption for every major fuel source in the United States. Raimi and Grubert compare and contrast the different water profiles of coal, oil, gas, biofuels, and other sources of energy. They also talk in detail about water use in hydraulic fracturing. References and recommendations: “Water use in the United States energy system: A national assessment and unit process inventory of water consumption and withdrawals” by Emily Grubert and Kelly T. Sanders; http://emilygrubert.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/PREPRINT-Grubert-Sanders-Water-for-US-Energy.pdf “Who speaks for Crazy Horse” by Brooke Jarvis; https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/09/23/who-speaks-for-crazy-horse “Gold Fame Citrus” by Claire Vaye Watkins; https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/318277/gold-fame-citrus-by-claire-vaye-watkins/9781594634246/ “The Water Knife” by Paolo Bacigalupi; https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/237233/the-water-knife-by-paolo-bacigalupi/

This week, host Kristin Hayes talks with Alice Hill and Leonardo Martinez-Diaz, authors of a new book released this fall by Oxford University Press, called "Building a Resilient Tomorrow: How to Prepare for the Coming Climate Disruption." Hayes, Hill, and Martinez-Diaz delve into the topics covered in the book, including ten lessons for decisionmakers in building a resilient future. To introduce Hill and Martinez-Diaz, using their own words from the book (with some light editing for length): Alice Hill spent the bulk of her career in courtrooms, first as a US federal prosecutor chasing white-collar crooks and, later, as a judge presiding over cases ranging from homicide to medical malpractice. She became immersed in climate change after she joined the US Department of Homeland Security in 2009 as senior counselor to the secretary. She was tasked with helping the department understand how climate could affect its operations. Hill went on to the White House to lead resilience efforts as special assistant to President Obama and member of his climate team. She is now a senior fellow for climate change policy at the Council of Foreign Relations. Leonardo Martinez-Diaz spent several years as an academic before joining the Obama administration, where one of his first tasks as head of the policy office at the US Agency for International Development (USAID) was overseeing the development of a climate change strategy for the agency. Later, as deputy assistant secretary for energy and environment at the Treasury Department, he negotiated finance elements of the Paris Agreement and represented the United States on the governing bodies of major providers of climate finance, including the Green Climate Fund and the Global Environment Facility. He now works at the World Resources Institute as the Global Director for WRI’s Sustainable Finance Center. References and recommendations: "Building a Resilient Tomorrow: How to Prepare for the Coming Climate Disruption" by Alice Hill and Leonardo Martinez-Diaz; https://global.oup.com/academic/product/building-a-resilient-tomorrow-9780190909345 “New elevation data triple estimates of global vulnerability to sea-level rise and coastal flooding” by Scott A. Kulp and Benjamin H. Strauss; https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-12808-z "Ultimatum" by Matthew Glass; https://groveatlantic.com/book/ultimatum/

This week, host Daniel Raimi talks with Nathaniel Geiger, assistant professor of communication science at Indiana University. Geiger studies, among other things, how the public responds to communication around climate change. Geiger and Raimi discuss the recent history of advocacy on climate change; how recent movements like the youth-led climate strike might shape public attitudes toward climate policy and toward the activists themselves; communicating with a wide range of audiences about climate issues; and much more. References and recommendations: "Is Climate Change like Diabetes or an Asteroid?" by Ted Nordhaus and Alex Trembath; https://thebreakthrough.org/articles/is-climate-change-like-diabetes "On Fire" by Naomi Klein; https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/On-Fire/Naomi-Klein/9781982129910

On this week's podcast, Emily Wimberger talks with host Kristin Hayes about the so-called "California waiver." The waiver has flown under the public radar for decades, but it’s now getting a closer look from the Trump administration, and it’s been turning up in the headlines. In this episode, Wimberger and Hayes discuss what the waiver is; how it came to be; and why it matters for California, the rest of the United States, and perhaps even the rest of the world. Emily Wimberger is a climate economist at the Rhodium Group, working on the energy and climate team. Prior to Rhodium, she served as the chief economist for the California Air Resources Board, where she analyzed the economic impact of California’s portfolio of climate change and air quality policies, focusing on programs related to carbon markets and transportation. References and recommendations: "Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore" by Elizabeth Rush; https://milkweed.org/book/rising

Nicholas Z. Muller, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, recently published a paper with coauthors that measures the health damages from air pollution in the United States. The paper looks at how those health damages compare with traditional economic metrics such as gross domestic product (GDP) and describes the harm that some economic activities impose, relative to their contribution to the economy. Raimi talks with Muller about how these trends have changed over time, which parts of the economy account for the most pollution, and what this all means for environmental policy. References and recommendations: "Fine Particulate Matter Damages and Value Added in the US Economy" by Peter Tschofen, Ines L. Azevedo, and Nicholas Z. Muller; https://www.pnas.org/content/116/40/19857 "The Sixth Extinction" by Elizabeth Kolbert; https://www.pulitzer.org/winners/elizabeth-kolbert Impossible Whopper at Burger King; https://impossiblefoods.com/burgerking/

In this special episode of Resources Radio, host Daniel Raimi partners with the Energy 360° podcast from the Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) Energy Program. Raimi and CSIS's Sarah Ladislaw interview RFF Fellow Marc Hafstead, director of RFF's Carbon Pricing Initiative. Raimi and Ladislaw talk with Hafstead about a raft of recent legislative proposals in the US Congress to price greenhouse gas emissions: the major design elements of these bills, such as how revenues are used; how border adjustments can help protect US manufacturers; the political viability of these different proposals, including which policy elements might help build support for a carbon price; and whether other policy approaches, such as a Clean Energy Standard, stand more of a chance in today's political environment. References and recommendations: "The Wizard and the Prophet" by Charles C. Mann; https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/220698/the-wizard-and-the-prophet-by-charles-c-mann/ "Paying for Pollution: Why a Carbon Tax is Good for America" by Gilbert E. Metcalf; https://global.oup.com/academic/product/paying-for-pollution-9780190694197 "Paying for Pollution, with Gilbert Metcalf" Resources Radio podcast episode; https://www.resourcesmag.org/resources-radio/resources-radio-paying-for-pollution-with-gilbert-metcalf-of-tufts-university/

In this special episode of the podcast mini-series related to RFF's Candidate Tracker, host Kristin Hayes talks with Resources Radio regular Daniel Raimi, a senior research associate at RFF. Hayes and Raimi share thoughts about how the presidential candidates in this election cycle are talking about fracking. Raimi's research has primarily focused on the shale revolution in the United States, but he brings a wealth of experience on topics related to climate impacts, global energy outlooks, and a number of other important energy- and climate-related subjects. If his voice sounds familiar, it's because Raimi is the other regular host of Resources Radio. References and Recommendations: RFF Candidate Tracker: https://www.rff.org/candidatetracker/ "The Ezra Klein Show" with podcast guest Kate Marvel; https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/vox/the-ezra-klein-show/e/64883521 "Acknowledging uncertainty impacts public acceptance of climate scientists’ predictions" published in the journal "Nature Climate Change"; https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-019-0587-5 "Getting Real on the Economic and Environmental Impacts of the Shale Revolution" by Daniel Raimi; https://www.resourcesmag.org/common-resources/getting-real-economic-and-environmental-impacts-shale-revolution/ "Yesterday"; https://www.uphe.com/movies/yesterday

Host Kristin Hayes talks with Senator Tina Smith, the junior senator from the great state of Minnesota. Senator Smith served as the 48th lieutenant governor of Minnesota from 2015 to 2018, after a career in both the private and public sectors in the state, where she has lived since 1984. Senator Smith is a member of several committees in the Senate relevant to natural resource, energy, and climate issues, including the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry and the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. Senator Smith talks about her own interests in these issues, her perspective on why they matter to Minnesota and the nation, and recent energy legislation that she has introduced. There is also some talk about loons—a first for Resources Radio. References and recommendations: "One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy" by Carol Anderson; https://www.professorcarolanderson.org/one-person-no-vote "The Secret Commonwealth" by Philip Pullman; https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/246698/the-book-of-dust-the-secret-commonwealth-book-of-dust-volume-2-by-philip-pullman/

This week, host Daniel Raimi talks with Judson Boomhower, an assistant professor of economics at the University of California San Diego and a faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research. Boomhower and Raimi discuss the recent public safety power shutoffs that affected over one million people in northern California, what led to the shutoffs, the effects of the shutoffs, and how planned shutoffs might become more common in the future. The shutoffs have gotten a lot of attention, but Boomhower brings unique expertise to the issue, including a deep understanding of the electricity system, wildfire, and—crucially—the economics of liability. References and recommendations: "Earth as Art" from the US Geological Survey; https://eros.usgs.gov/image-gallery/earth-art "Between Two Fires" by Stephen J. Pyne; https://uapress.arizona.edu/book/between-two-fires

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/