Can we count on A.I. to solve the energy problems it is exacerbating?

Oct 18, 2025 | Blog, Energy Transition Policy & Policymaking, Framing and the Energy Transition Debate

Amid the chaos and constant alarm that is MAGA GOP governance, the news from the World Meteorological Association (WMO) about the large increase in atmospheric carbon didn’t get a lot of press attention. But it is worrying to anyone who understands climate...

Private vs Public Provision of Energy Services

Oct 6, 2025 | Blog, Energy Transition Policy & Policymaking

U.S. electric customers are facing sharp rate increases, and they are not happy about it. Climate change is part of the problem, but most of it boils down to market forces: too much projected demand for the projected supply. Those supply and demand projections, in...

Where have you gone David Broder? A nation turns its lonely eyes to you.

Sep 30, 2025 | Blog, Energy Transition Policy & Policymaking, Framing and the Energy Transition Debate, Journalism, Bias & Censored News

Charlie Cook, founder of the Cook Political Report (CPR), wrote a column last month for CPR (behind a pay wall) about gerrymandering that began this way: After 47 years at The Washington Post, Dan Balz recently announced he is stepping back from his role as the...

Keeping the lights on: central planning or markets? An explainer for agnostics.

Sep 24, 2025 | Blog, Energy Transition Policy & Policymaking, Framing and the Energy Transition Debate

Recently, two items came across my energy news feed within a few days of one another, each underscoring a different aspect of the ongoing challenge of maintaining a reliable electricity supply on a rapidly changing electric grid. The first item was an a report from...

How water quality protection became partisan climate policy

Aug 30, 2025 | Blog, Energy Transition Policy & Policymaking, Framing and the Energy Transition Debate

Among energy and environmental policy wonks in the northeast, an obscure provision of a 1972 environmental law is at the heart of a dispute over a natural gas pipeline. The provision in question is Section 401 of the Clean Water Act, and it gives states a veto over...

Abundance: good policy, dubious politics

Aug 19, 2025 | Blog, Energy Transition Policy & Policymaking, Partisanship, Elections and the Energy Transition

As policy, the abundance agenda was inevitable. It is a reaction to a pollyanna-ish view  that assumed away the complexity and hard choices of the energy transition. Its popularity is a learning story. One of the joys of teaching is helping students develop a deep...