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PODCAST

Shift Key with Robinson Meyer

Every week, Heatmap News Executive Editor Robinson Meyer and a guest make sense of the biggest shift of our time -- navigating the energy transition away from fossil fuels. Drawing on their years of experience reporting on and researching climate change and decarbonization, Meyer and his partners unpack the most important issues of the week and how the impacts of climate change and efforts to address it are transforming our economy, politics, and society at large. Music by Adam Kromelow. Hosted on

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All Episodes

30:43

Energy Secretary Chris Wright on Trump’s Pro-Nuclear,...

Shift Key with Robinson Meyer ·

2026/09/25

Since taking office last year, the Trump administration has blocked renewable energy development and attacked climate change policy, prioritized fossil fuels and encouraged nuclear energy, and started a war that led to a global oil and gas supply shock.U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright has been the face of much of that policy agenda. For this episode of Shift Key, he joined Rob for a live conversation at our Heatmap House event, part of New York Climate Week. He answered questions about the

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35:09

Starting a Giant Online Data Platform Is the Easy Part

Shift Key with Robinson Meyer ·

2026/09/16

America has some of the world’s best data about its own internal energy, industrial economy, and carbon emissions. That’s thanks to a federal agency called the U.S. Energy Information Administration, which painstakingly collects and updates the data every week.But EIA data can be hard to access — and even harder to share and understand. A new project aims to change that. U.S. Energy Data takes federal energy data and repackages it, helping amateurs and experts understand the power grid, liquid

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47:45

Shift Key Classic: What Is a Watt?

Shift Key with Robinson Meyer ·

2026/09/09

As we catch up from summer vacation, we’re bringing you a favorite from the Shift Key archive. We’ll be back in your feed with more fresh episodes starting next week.What is the difference between energy and power? How does the power grid work? And what’s the difference between a megawatt and a megawatt-hour?On this week’s episode, we answer those questions and many, many more. This was the start of Shift Key Summer School, a series of introductory “lecture conversations” meant to cover the basics

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1:03:45

Trump’s Clean Energy Repeal Was Even More Costly Than...

Shift Key with Robinson Meyer ·

2026/08/27

Two years ago, Donald Trump made an outlandish campaign promise: He would cut Americans’ power bills in half.It was a ridiculous, impossible pledge — but even so, the affordability problem didn’t need to get this bad. A new report, out this week from the Natural Resources Defense Council, looks at the economic, environmental, and public health costs of Trump’s regulatory and legislative clean energy policies, including his rollback of the wind and solar tax credits.The report’s author, Amanda Levin,

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57:39

The Big — But Fixable! — Problems in America’s R&D...

Shift Key with Robinson Meyer ·

2026/08/06

At this point, when you hear “venture capitalist,” you probably think of … software. Or artificial intelligence. Or cryptocurrency.The Engine Ventures, which spun out of MIT a few years ago, is different. It tries to fund what it calls “tough tech,” a somewhat nebulous category that includes companies working in energy, decarbonization, health, and infrastructure. As such, it’s backed some of the most interesting “climate tech” companies in business today, such as Form Energy, Commonwealth Fusion.On

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33:07

Permitting Reform, Data Centers, and More With...

Shift Key with Robinson Meyer ·

2026/08/03

The Democratic Party’s climate and energy policy is at a difficult moment. Over the past year and a half, the Trump administration has attacked solar and wind energy, started an inflationary war, and repealed key parts of the Inflation Reduction Act. And about a year and a half from now, Democrats will pick a presidential candidate and pitch their energy and climate policies to voters again.How are key Democrats feeling at this moment? Rob recently had a chance to sit down with two of the party’s

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1:18:57

What a Permitting Reform Deal Could Look Like

Shift Key with Robinson Meyer ·

2026/07/29

There’s really one one good thing that could happen this year in Congress for clean energy: permitting reform. If lawmakers reached a bipartisan deal on the country’s permitting system, they could make it easier to build solar, wind, and transmission lines — as well as every other kind of infrastructure.But will it happen? What are the obstacles to a deal? What would be in a deal? On this episode of Shift Key, Rob is joined by Daniel Palken, the director of infrastructure for energy and permitting

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32:03

Anthropic and the Future of the Buzzy Carbon Removal...

Shift Key with Robinson Meyer ·

2026/06/17

One of the most interesting projects in carbon removal is doubling down on the industry. Frontier — a coalition of tech, finance, and fashion firms that buy carbon removal credits to support the crucial technology — has secured another $915 million to power its next round of buying. The artificial intelligence giant Anthropic has also joined the coalition alongside its existing members, including Stripe, Google, JPMorganChase, and others.On this episode of Shift Key, Rob is joined by Hannah

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36:30

The Other, Other Big Race in Georgia This Year

Shift Key with Robinson Meyer ·

2026/06/11

Last year, progressives pulled off their biggest state-level win in Georgia in 20 years when voters elected two Democrats to the state’s Public Service Commission, which oversees electricity utilities. It was the first time Democrats had won a state-level office in Georgia since 2006. This year, Democrats have a chance to take an outright majority on the board.What would that mean — and what has life been like for the state’s newest power regulators? On this episode of Shift Key, Rob is joined by

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31:20

Affordability Politics Took On New York’s Climate Law...

Shift Key with Robinson Meyer ·

2026/06/02

When New York passed its first major climate law in 2019, climate advocates hailed the work as a milestone: The Empire State vowed to cut its carbon emissions by 40% by 2030, as compared to their 1990 levels, giving it some of the world’s most ambitious subnational climate policy. But last week, Governor Kathy Hochul and the state legislature moved to rewrite key provisions in that law, weakening deadlines and redefining its emissions math.What happened? And would New York have ever been able to hit

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48:42

Nvidia’s Case for Why AI Will Cut Emissions

Shift Key with Robinson Meyer ·

2026/05/26

From Heatmap: Exclusive: Local Opposition to Data Centers Explodes in 2026America’s tech companies are transforming the electricity system — building entirely new fleets of new solar panels, batteries, and gas turbines — in order to power what are essentially warehouses filled with cutting-edge chips.Almost all of those chips are made by Nvidia. On this week’s episode of Shift Key, Rob is joined by Josh Parker, Nvidia’s head of sustainability. They discuss the climate and electricity impacts of

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49:11

How Los Angeles Cleaned Up the World’s Air Pollution

Shift Key with Robinson Meyer ·

2026/05/22

We live in a time of unheralded environmental victories. Dolphins and whales swim in New York and San Francisco harbors. Lead has been eliminated globally in gasoline for cars and trucks. And Southern California has cleaned up its air.That last one is more important than you might think. On today’s episode of Shift Key, Rob is joined by Ann Carlson, a professor of environmental law at UCLA and the former acting head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. She's also the author of a

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47:11

This Year’s Beijing Auto Show Has a Lesson for Trump

Shift Key with Robinson Meyer ·

2026/05/15

The Beijing Auto Show is now the world’s largest auto show — and its most important. It’s where China’s automakers show off their new innovations and newest models to a huge audience of domestic consumers and global influencers. As one attendeeobserved, there were more EV models in oneroomof the show than there are available for sale in the entire U.S. car market.So what was it like to be there in person? On today’s episode of Shift Key, Rob talks withKate Logan, the director of the China Climate

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48:49

What’s Truly Baffling About the Strait of Hormuz...

Shift Key with Robinson Meyer ·

2026/05/13

he Strait of Hormuz has been closed for months. Yet oil is trading — at least as of late Tuesday — at under $110 a barrel. Why haven’t the markets responded more to the biggest supply disruption of all time? Is it a credit to President Trump, and does it give us any clues to how future presidents should handle other energy crises?On the latest episode of Shift Key, Rob talks withJason Bordoff, the founding director of the Center for Global Energy Policy at Columbia University’s School of

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44:04

Everything We Didn't Know About the World’s Buzziest...

Shift Key with Robinson Meyer ·

2026/04/23

Fervo Energy has become a darling of the clean energy industry by using workers and technology from the oil and gas sector to unlock zero-carbon, all-day geothermal electricity. Last week, Fervo filed to go public, giving us the first deep look at its finances and long-term expansion plans. What’s the bull case, the bear case, and the fine print?On this week’s episode of Shift Key, Rob is joined by Jesse Jenkins, a professor of energy systems engineering at Princeton University, as well as Heatmap’s

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33:19

Why Microsoft’s Carbon Removal Pullback Is Such a Big...

Shift Key with Robinson Meyer ·

2026/04/15

For the past few years, Microsoft has basically carried the carbon removal industry on its shoulders. The software company has purchased 72 million tons of carbon removal, more than 40 times what any other organization has financed, according to third-party sources.Now it’s pulling back. As we reported last week, Microsoft has told suppliers and partners that it’s pausing new purchases. Though the company says that its program “has not ended,” even a temporary pullback will have significant

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46:42

A New Look at Why Electricity Prices Have Gone Up in...

Shift Key with Robinson Meyer ·

2026/04/01

Electricity prices rose faster than overall inflation last year. Yet at the local level, it’s been difficult to know why. Is it data centers? Renewables? Aging infrastructure? Or something else more mysterious? Everyone in the political system — including senior Trump officials — wants to blame their favorite energy bugbear. But if we actually want to fix the problem, getting the real answer matters.Now, Heatmap and MIT’s Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research are teaming up to answer

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43:27

There’s a New Playbook for Cutting Power Prices

Shift Key with Robinson Meyer ·

2026/03/31

Since Democrats swept to statewide victories in Georgia and New Jersey last year by campaigning against high power prices, “electricity affordability” has been the watchword for climate-concerned politicians everywhere. But what can states and cities actually do to bring down power prices?The Federation of American Scientists, through its new Center for Regulatory Ingenuity, hasa new reportout on Tuesday about how to make it happen — and speed up clean energy deployment at the same time. On this

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48:01

The Big Reveal in China’s New Five-Year Plan

Shift Key with Robinson Meyer ·

2026/03/20

The new draft of China’s five year plan is here, and the news isn’t all good for climate advocates. Although China vows to expand its gigantic “clean energy bases” in the plan, it has actually walked back some of its biggest climate goals since 2021. The new plan also contains a mysterious — and politically convenient — change to one of its most important emissions estimates.On this episode of Shift Key, Rob is joined byLauri Myllyvirta, the lead analyst and co-founder of the Centre for Research on

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34:56

The Rivian R2 Couldn’t Have Come at a Better Time

Shift Key with Robinson Meyer ·

2026/03/18

Last week saw what is likely the biggest U.S. electric vehicle launch of the year: the Rivian R2, which will go on sale this spring. It’s absurdly well-timed, given surging gasoline prices. But can it carve out enough of a niche to compete?On this episode of Shift Key, Rob is joined by Jesse Jenkins in his new role as occasional guest cohost. Rob and Jesse discuss the Rivian R2, what the Strait of Hormuz closure could mean for global energy markets, and why the power grid is failing the data center

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