Energy Policy Now
Energy Policy Now offers clear talk on the policy issues that define our relationship to energy and its impact on society and the environment. The series is produced by the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania and hosted by energy journalist Andy Stone. Join Andy in conversation with leaders from industry, government, and academia as they shed light on today's pressing energy policy debates.
Episodes
Though today’s energy transition is often framed as new, it follows patterns we’ve seen before. Cutler Cleveland of Boston University’s Institute for Global Sustainability explores the historical context of today’s shift.
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Today’s shift to carbon-free power is commonly called “the energy transition,” yet the label can suggest that this is the first, or only, transformation of its k...
Thousands of clean energy projects are waiting to connect to the grid. How many will make it through, and will it be soon enough to keep the grid reliable?
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Electricity demand in the U.S. is rising fast, fueled by the rapid growth of AI data centers and other power-hungry technologies. At the same time, many fossil fuel power plants are retiring, putting added pressure on the grid to maintain reliability.
To meet this challenge,...
BloombergNEF’s Derrick Flakoll discusses the outlook for U.S. clean energy development under the House version of Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill.”
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On May 22, the House of Representatives passed its version of what President Trump has dubbed the “Big Beautiful Bill,” a sweeping budget package addressing taxation, federal spending, and the debt ceiling. Now headed to the Senate, a revised version ...
As renewable power grows, land use decisions will influence its environmental impact.
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Decarbonizing the electric grid will require a dramatic expansion of renewable energy by mid-century, and significantly more land dedicated to clean power. But where and how that buildout occurs will shape whether the environmental benefits of renewables are fully realized or come at a high cost to ecosystems, farmland, and communities.
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As electrical grid operators move to fast-track gas projects, consumer and environmental advocates raise red flags.
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The U.S. electricity grid is undergoing a dramatic transformation. As coal plants retire, wind, solar, and battery storage now dominate the pipeline of new power projects. Yet in recent months, some policymakers and grid operators have called for a new wave of natural gas plants to meet rising electricity demand f...
Dr. Lindiwe Majele Sibanda, chair of global food security research network CGIAR, on adapting agriculture for climate and food security.
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Global agriculture changed dramatically during the 20th century as small, traditional farms were replaced by large-scale, monoculture farming in many parts of the world. This shift led to a dramatic increase in food production, helping to feed a global population that today exceeds 8 billion.
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Ambitious climate policies may overlook practical constraints. Kleinman Center Visiting Scholar Niall Mac Dowell explores what deliverable paths to net zero might require.
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The Earth’s average temperature surpassed the 1.5°C threshold for the first time in 2024—a milestone driven in part by El Niño, but also a stark warning about our broader climate trajectory. While temperatures may moderate slightly in 2...
Danny Cullenward, vice chair of California’s Independent Emissions Market Advisory Committee, explores the legal and policy challenges that threaten the future of the state’s carbon cap-and-trade market.
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For more than a decade, California’s cap-and-trade program has been a key component of the state’s broader efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and achieve a net-zero carbon economy by 2045.
Yet th...
Former Republican U.S. congressman Bob Inglis offers a conservative perspective on climate solutions in discussion with Penn climatologist Michael Mann.
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Politically conservative and concerned about climate change?
In this special episode of the Energy Policy Now podcast, Penn climatologist Michael Mann talks with Bob Inglis, former Republican Congressman from South Carolina and current executive director of RepublicEN.org, abou...
The European Union’s carbon border tariff arrives in January. An architect of the plan discusses its impact on trade, competition, and climate.
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On January 1, 2026, the European Union will launch its Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM)—the world’s first carbon tariff on imported goods. Designed to support the EU’s ambitious decarbonization goals, CBAM will impose a carbon fee on imports such as stee...
Aubrey Johnson, head of transmission planning for Midwest electrical grid operator MISO, explains the $22 billion effort to expand and modernize the grid for clean energy and reliability.
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Last year, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, or FERC, issued its landmark Order number 1920, with the goal of spurring the development of long distance electricity transmission lines in the United States. The order came in response to ...
Grid Strategies’ Rob Gramlich discusses the dramatic increase in electricity demand from data center and manufacturing growth, and the challenges it presents for the grid.
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Electricity demand growth has returned with a vengeance in the United States due to an increase in manufacturing and, most dramatically, the growing use of AI. Across the country, technology giants are racing to build AI data centers, the largest ...
North America’s electricity grid faces a shortfall of power. A grid policy expert explores one region’s efforts to ensure reliability and the controversies its proposals have raised.
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In December, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, or NERC, released its annual assessment of grid reliability across North America. The results were concerning.
NERC, which is the organization responsible for setti...
Two experts discuss the challenge of keeping billions of people cool while minimizing electrical grid and climate impacts.
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Global air conditioner use could triple by the middle of this century, driving a dramatic increase in electricity demand. This growth will place additional strain on already overburdened electrical grids and lead to significant economic and environmental challenges.
Yet these negative impacts might be subst...
President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to cut support for clean power. Two guests from Bloomberg NEF weigh the likely impacts on clean energy development.
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President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to reduce federal support for clean power as soon as he takes office in January. Yet political realities may limit the extent to which incentives, such as those in the Inflation Reduction Act, may be rolled back, leaving open the possibi...
Byzantine governance structures and vested interests are slowing the greening of the U.S. electrical grid. Two grid policy experts discuss paths forward.
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The U.S. electrical grid faces declining reliability, often attributed to a rapidly evolving energy mix, surging demand, and more frequent severe weather. Yet a deeper issue lies in the fragmented governance of the grid, where conflicting visions from federal, state, and indus...
Carnot Prize recipient Jacqueline Patterson explores how the clean energy transition can drive meaningful progress toward energy and climate justice.
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In 2009 Jacqueline Patterson became the founding director of the NAACP’s Environmental and Climate Justice Program. It was a role that Patterson, who’s this year’s recipient of the Kleinman Center’s Carnot Prize, had expected to be short lived: she’d stay on just long enough to ge...
Kleinman Center visiting scholar Kirsten Jenkins explores the concept of a just energy transition, and why it must be expanded beyond its labor roots to address broad energy system injustices.
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The term “just transition” has its roots in organized labor movements, and has traditionally referred to the idea that workers in the fossil fuel economy must find security in the green energy economy of the future as well. Yet, increasin...
Virtual power plants can help electric grid operators address supply shortages and reliability concerns, but policy support is needed.
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The U.S. electrical grid is under growing stress, raising concern that recent widescale power outages may signal more grid challenges to come. In recent years, electricity demand has grown at an accelerating pace while, at the same time, power supply has tightened as existing power plants have r...
David Spence explores the rise of identity politics in the U.S. and how it has fueled bitter partisanship over the transition to clean energy.
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Throughout American history, opposing political parties have at times set aside their differences to create “republican moments”— periods of bold, bipartisan action to address critical challenges.
Today, such moments may seem unlikely, yet the need for collective action remains urgent. ...
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