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Happy Monday! Welcome back to Transmission Fortnight here at Volts. Today’s a fun one. In my previous post , I described the many difficulties facing new high-voltage, long-distance transmission projects, from planning to financing to permitting and siting. It’s a bureaucratic slog. Today we’re going to look at a clever idea for bypassing many of those problems, namely, stitching together a nation...

Welcome back to Transmission Week here at Volts! In my previous post , I explained why the US needs lots of new high-voltage power lines. They will help stitch together America’s balkanized grids, connect remote renewable energy to urban load centers, prepare the country for the coming wave of electrification, and relieve grid congestion. And oh yeah — we won’t be able to decarbonize the country w...

[ If you would rather listen to the post than read it, click play above. ] Hello, Volties, and welcome to Transmission Week here at Volts! It’s been delayed almost as many times as Infrastructure Week, but it’s finally here. All week, we’re going to be digging into the US energy transmission system. For those of you new to the subject, “transmission system” refers to the big, high-voltage power li...

[ If you don’t feel like reading this post, just click Play above and I’ll read it to you. ] Happy Inauguration Day, Voltsians! I know it’s getting somewhat tedious to keep saying this, but yes, I’m still working on that transmission post . I swore when I started my own publication that I was not going to rush anymore — that I would research and work on stuff until I was happy with it. But I never...

Greetings, peoples of the Volts! I’ve got a special treat for you today. It’s not my first podcast , exactly, but it’s my first Official Podcast, with music and fancy-pants guests and everything. My guests are: * Dr. Leah Stokes , an assistant professor of political science at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and author of the excellent recent book Short Circuiting Policy: Interest Gro...

[ If you do not feel like reading today’s post, you can listen to it. Just hit play above. ] Y’all, before we get started today I have to share the funniest thing that’s ever happened. You know how I went on MSNBC a few weeks ago to talk about how Joe Biden should do everything at once ? And you know how former Saturday Night Live comedienne and all-around awesome person Leslie Jones frequently ta...

Hey, Volts readers, guess what? Now you can be Volts listeners! If you would prefer to hear the post below read aloud, by me, just click play above. And if you like having the posts read like this, let me know. If enough people are into it, I might see about getting some better equipment and actually learning how to edit a sound file. Before we jump in, some housekeeping: * Remember, as of Jan. 1,...

Happy Christmas Eve, everyone. I hope you are somewhere safe and warm. Here’s a little holiday treat for you: I recorded my first Voltscast. Matt Yglesias runs a newsletter called Slow Boring . He is interested in the energy bill that Congress passed this week. I just wrote a long post about that energy bill . We wanted to chat about it. Starting a whole official podcast with professional editing...