Shift Key with Robinson Meyer

From Heatmap: Exclusive: Local Opposition to Data Centers Explodes in 2026 America’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...

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 th...

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 attendee  observed , there were more EV models in one  room  of the show than there are available for sale in the entire U.S. car market. So what was...

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 with  Jason Bord...

When Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022, researchers estimated it would cut U.S. carbon pollution by more than 40% by the mid-2030s. Then President Trump and a GOP majority partially repealed the law, and many of those emissions declines looked doubtful. What will U.S. carbon emissions look like after the One Big Beautiful Bill Act? We’re starting to get a sense. On this week’s ep...

If you work around climate or clean energy, you probably know about John Arnold . Although he began his career as a natural gas trader, Arnold has since become one of the country’s most important clean energy investors. He’s the chairman of Grid United, a transmission development firm undertaking some of the country’s most ambitious power line projects, and he is an investor in the advanced geothe...

Here’s some good news: Clean power met  all  electricity demand growth last year for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic. That’s according to  a new report on global electricity trends  from Ember, a U.K. think tank that tracks energy data from around the world. The new review suggests that solar and batteries are continuing to remake the global power system — and outcom...

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...

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 th...

The United States and Iran have agreed to a ceasefire in Iran, and energy markets responded with jubilation — at least initially. Every major Wall Street index surged on Wednesday, and U.S. oil prices fell. But the actual situation on the ground is far more ambiguous, huge questions remain about the truce, and the Strait of Hormuz is as closed today as it has been since the beginning of the war. O...

How do utilities decide what they want — and need — to build? It’s one of the most important problems driving the data center and clean energy conversations right now. But it’s hard to get a sense of what constraints and ideas actually drive utility decisionmaking from the inside. Alice Yake is the vice president of GRIDS at Breakthrough Energy, and the former senior vice president of system strat...

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 matte...

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, has  a new repor...

We are now nearly a month into the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran. The conflict has lasted much longer than some energy experts initially expected — and it has built up an unprecedented crisis that is set to cascade from Asia to the rest of the world. On this episode of Shift Key, Rob chats in Houston with  Karim Fawaz , an oil and refineries expert and a director in the energy and natural resource...

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 Sh...

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 o...

When President Joe Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law in 2022, Democrats imagined he was setting a new policy feedback loop in motion. Voters would see how the law was changing their communities — investing in new factories and solar farms — and then rally to protect it from Republicans. That didn’t happen. Last summer, Republicans in Congress repealed many of the law’s best climate...

We’re watching a new global energy crisis unfold in the wake of America and Israel’s campaign in Iran — and it could rapidly spiral into other industries and commodities. At the same time, there’s been legitimately promising news on iron-air batteries, suggesting the cheap and long-term energy storage technology might be ready for take-off. Rob is joined by Heatmap staff writers Matthew Zeitlin an...

The United States and Israel have launched a devastating new war on Iran. What has happened so far, when could it end, and what could it mean for oil, gas, and the global energy shift? Rob is joined by Gregory Brew, an analyst with the Eurasia Group’s energy, climate, and resources team focused on the geopolitics of oil and gas. He serves as the group’s country analyst for Iran. He’s also an histo...

As electricity affordability has risen in the public consciousness, so too has it gone up the priority list for climate groups — although many of their proposals are merely repackaged talking points from past political cycles. But are there risks of talking about affordability so much, and could it distract us from the real issues with the power system? Rob is joined by Jane Flegal, a senior fello...

Just a handful of tech companies plan to spend nearly $700 billion combined this year investing in artificial intelligence — and much of that money will go to data centers and the energy used to keep them on. How is this boom transforming the American energy system, and what does it mean for clean energy? On this episode of Shift Key, Rob is joined by Peter Freed, a founding partner at the Near Ho...

The Supreme Court just struck down President Trump’s most ambitious tariff plan. What does that ruling mean for clean energy? For the data center boom? For America’s industrial policy? On this emergency episode of Shift Key, Rob is joined by  Jonas Nahm , a professor of economic and industrial policy at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, D.C. They discus...

President Donald Trump has essentially killed all fuel economy rules on cars and trucks in the United States. By the end of the year, automakers will face virtually no limits on how many huge gas guzzlers they can sell to the public — or what those purchases will do to domestic oil prices. But is the thinking driving this change up to date? Rob is joined by  Kenneth Gillingham , a professor o...

Rob is joined by  Jody Freeman , the director of the Environmental and Energy Law Program at Harvard Law School, to discuss the Trump administration’s war on the endangerment finding. They chat about how the Trump administration has already changed its argument since last summer, whether the Supreme Court will buy what it’s selling, and what it all means for the future of climate law. They al...

On this week’s episode of Shift Key, Rob and Jesse announce some news about the show — and also debrief on how the Northeastern U.S. power grid performed during the past few weeks of unusually intense winter weather. They discuss why wintertime electricity demand is especially important to manage, whether it’s bad that New England got a whopping 40% of its electricity from oil, and how the region’...