In this episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Hannah Druckenmiller, a new fellow at Resources for the Future (RFF). This is the second part of a two-part series that introduces new RFF fellows, and Druckenmiller is another welcome addition to RFF and to Resources Radio. Druckenmiller discusses her fascinating paper that estimates the value of forests—not just in the marketplace, but for society. She and Raimi also talk about a project she’s involved in that’s using millions of photographs from the 1950s through the 1990s to construct what are essentially satellite images of the developing world, but from before satellite images even existed.

References and recommendations:

“Estimating an Economic and Social Value for Healthy Forests: Evidence from Tree Mortality in the American West” by Hannah Druckenmiller; https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5f60e3b9a38e910134a8aeab/t/5fb6df90721aae50818579d2/1605820322700/JMP_11.19.2020.pdf

“Migrations” by Charlotte McConaghy; https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250204028

“The Lost Canyon Under Lake Powell” by Elizabeth Kolbert; https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/08/16/the-lost-canyon-under-lake-powell

How Much is a Tree Worth?, with Hannah Druckenmiller

In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with two fellows at Resources for the Future: Brian C. Prest and Kevin Rennert. Prest and Rennert, alongside a large team of collaborators, recently released a paper in the journal “Nature” that provides a new estimate of the social cost of carbon—the quantification, in dollars, of the economic damages associated with emitting an incremental ton of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. For the podcast, they describe what’s new about this estimate, how it differs from previous numbers, and its implications for policymaking. They also discuss the important uncertainties associated with the estimate, along with assertions made by some critics that we should put less focus on using the social cost of carbon.

References and recommendations:

“Comprehensive Evidence Implies a Higher Social Cost of CO2” by Kevin Rennert, Frank Errickson, Brian C. Prest, Lisa Rennels, Richard G. Newell, William Pizer, Cora Kingdon, Jordan Wingenroth, Roger Cooke, Bryan Parthum, David Smith, Kevin Cromar, Delavane Diaz, Frances C. Moore, Ulrich K. Müller, Richard J. Plevin, Adrian E. Raftery, Hana Ševčíková, Hannah Sheets, James H. Stock, Tammy Tan, Mark Watson, Tony E. Wong, and David Anthoff; https://www.rff.org/publications/journal-articles/comprehensive-evidence-implies-a-higher-social-cost-of-co2/

An Updated Social Cost of Carbon: Calculating the Cost of Climate Change” RFF Live event; https://www.rff.org/events/rff-live/an-updated-scc/

“The Social Cost of Carbon: Reaching a New Estimate” by Brian C. Prest, Jordan Wingenroth, and Kevin Rennert; https://www.resources.org/archives/the-social-cost-of-carbon-reaching-a-new-estimate

Social Cost of Carbon Initiative at Resources for the Future; https://www.rff.org/scc/

Mimi Integrated Assessment Modeling Framework; https://www.mimiframework.org/

“The Rule of Five: Making Climate History at the Supreme Court” by Richard J. Lazarus; https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674238121

A New Social Cost of Carbon, with Brian Prest and Kevin Rennert

In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Danae Hernández-Cortés, an assistant professor at Arizona State University, about a recent study that investigates how California’s cap-and-trade program affects levels of harmful pollutants in environmental justice communities. Hernández-Cortés discusses how carbon markets can shift concentrations of local air pollutants, environmental justice outcomes of the cap-and-trade program in California, and the need for policies that target issues of environmental justice.

References and recommendations:

“Do environmental markets cause environmental injustice? Evidence from California’s carbon market” by Danae Hernández-Cortés and Kyle C. Meng; https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047272722001888

“Cracking the Case of the Vanishing Air Pollution Data, with Eric Zou” on Resources Radio; https://www.resources.org/resources-radio/cracking-the-case-of-the-vanishing-air-pollution-data-with-eric-zou/

“The Bat Man” episode of the “Radio Ambulante” podcast; https://radioambulante.org/en/audio-en/the-bat-man (English translation of the transcript: https://radioambulante.org/en/translation/the-bat-man-translation)

Does Cap and Trade Exacerbate Environmental Injustice in California?, with Danae Hernández-Cortés

In this week’s episode, host Kristin Hayes talks with Priya Donti, cofounder and executive director of Climate Change AI, a nonprofit that works at the intersection of climate change and machine learning. Donti discusses various types of artificial intelligence, the applications of artificial intelligence in the energy transition and climate policymaking, and the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration in the ethical development and implementation of artificial intelligence.

References and recommendations:

“Putting the ‘smarts’ into the smart grid: a grand challenge for artificial intelligence” by Sarvapali D. Ramchurn, Perukrishnen Vytelingum, Alex Rogers, and Nicholas R. Jennings; https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2133806.2133825

“Tackling Climate Change with Machine Learning” by David Rolnick, Priya L. Donti, Lynn H. Kaack, Kelly Kochanski, Alexandre Lacoste, Kris Sankaran, Andrew Slavin Ross, Nikola Milojevic-Dupont, Natasha Jaques, Anna Waldman-Brown, Alexandra Sasha Luccioni, Tegan Maharaj, Evan D. Sherwin, S. Karthik Mukkavilli, Konrad P. Kording, Carla P. Gomes, Andrew Y. Ng, Demis Hassabis, John C. Platt, Felix Creutzig, Jennifer Chayes, Yoshua Bengio; https://dl.acm.org/doi/full/10.1145/3485128

“Climate Change and AI: Recommendations for Government Action” by Peter Clutton-Brock, David Rolnick, Priya L. Donti, Lynn H. Kaack, Tegan Maharaj, Alexandra (Sasha) Luccioni, Hari Prasanna Das; https://www.gpai.ai/projects/climate-change-and-ai.pdf

“Environmental justice in the age of big data: challenging toxic blind spots of voice, speed, and expertise” by Alice Mah; https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23251042.2016.1220849

Using Artificial Intelligence to Tackle Climate Change, with Priya Donti

In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Angela Parker, an assistant professor at the  University of Denver, about oil and gas production on Native American reservations. Parker discusses the history of oil production on Native American lands, the environmental and economic effects of this production, Native American perceptions of the oil and gas industry, and the current state of the industry on Native American lands. Parker and Raimi also talk about the historical exploitation of oil and gas–producing Native nations and the history behind the new film “Killers of the Flower Moon.”

“The Prize” documentary series; https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0278873/

“Reservation Dogs” television series; https://www.fxnetworks.com/shows/reservation-dogs

“Sex Education” television show; https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7767422/

Oil Development in Native America, with Angela Parker

In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Jimena González Ramírez, an associate professor at Manhattan College, and Sarah Jacobson, a professor at Williams College. González Ramírez and Jacobson discuss some ways that systemic racism can unintentionally permeate research in the field of environmental and natural resource economics. They consider how historically racist policies and practices can affect research data and analysis and, in turn, produce findings which may render outcomes that discriminate. Specifically, the scholars identify several contributing issues: the prioritization of cost-effectiveness; inattention to procedural justice; abstraction from social and historical context; and a focus on problems that are easier, rather than more important, to solve. A recent Common Resources article by González Ramírez, Jacobson, and other coauthors delves into even more of the details that their conversation here doesn’t cover.

References and recommendations:

“Looking at Environmental and Natural Resource Economics through the Lens of Racial Equity” by Amy Ando, Titus Awokuse, Jimena González Ramírez, Sumeet Gulati, Sarah Jacobson, Dale Manning, Samuel Stolper, and Matt Fleck; https://www.resources.org/common-resources/looking-at-environmental-and-natural-resource-economics-through-the-lens-of-racial-equity/

“Achieving environmental justice: A cross-national analysis” by Karen Bell; https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt9qgzvd

“Sensing Air Pollution Exposure in New York City Schools, with Beia Spiller” podcast episode; https://www.resources.org/resources-radio/sensing-air-pollution-exposure-in-new-york-city-schools-with-beia-spiller/
 
Work on waste sanitation infrastructure from Catherine Coleman Flowers; https://www.macfound.org/fellows/class-of-2020/catherine-coleman-flowers

“An Immense World” by Ed Yong; https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/616914/an-immense-world-by-ed-yong/

“Solito: A Memoir” by Javier Zamora; https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/705626/solito-by-javier-zamora/

“Can we talk to whales?” by Elizabeth Kolbert; https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/09/11/can-we-talk-to-whales

Systemic Racism in Environmental Economics, with Jimena González Ramírez and Sarah Jacobson

In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with David Wear, a nonresident senior fellow and director of the Land Use, Forestry, and Agriculture Program at Resources for the Future, about the ability of US forests to remove and store carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Wear discusses how US forests fit into emissions-reduction efforts, different approaches for estimating the amount of carbon dioxide that US forests can sequester, the implications of using different modeling approaches in designing policy, and the potential of afforestation and forest protection as carbon offsets.

References and recommendations:

“Land Use Change, No-Net-Loss Policies, and Effects on Carbon Dioxide Removals” by David N. Wear and Matthew Wibbenmeyer; https://www.rff.org/publications/working-papers/land-use-change-no-net-loss-policies-and-effects-on-carbon-dioxide-removals/

“Managing Wildfires to Combat Climate Change” episode of Resources Radio with David Wear; https://www.resources.org/resources-radio/managing-wildfires-to-combat-climate-change-with-david-wear/

“A Sand County Almanac” by Aldo Leopold; https://www.aldoleopold.org/about/aldo-leopold/sand-county-almanac/

“The American West as Living Space” by Wallace Stegner; https://press.umich.edu/Books/T/The-American-West-as-Living-Space

“The Great Cash-for-Carbon Hustle” by Heidi Blake; https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/10/23/the-great-cash-for-carbon-hustle

Counting Carbon in US Forests, David Wear

In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Isaac Opper, an economist at the Rand Corporation and professor at the Pardee Rand Graduate School, about how natural disasters can affect education outcomes for students and the resulting stock of skills in the US labor force. Opper discusses the relationship between education and skills in the US labor force, which is known as human capital; how natural disasters can disrupt education for students; and how school administrators and policymakers could mitigate learning losses that result from natural disasters.

References and recommendations:

“The effect of natural disasters on human capital in the United States” by Isaac M. Opper, R. Jisung Park, and Lucas Husted; https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-023-01610-z

“The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt’s New World” by Andrea Wulf; https://penguinrandomhousehighereducation.com/book/?isbn=9780345806291

How Do Natural Disasters Affect Students?, with Isaac Opper

In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Ann Wolverton, a senior research economist at the US Environmental Protection Agency, about how the agency incorporates environmental justice in its rulemaking and its analysis of agency regulations. Wolverton discusses the history of accounting for environmental justice at federal agencies, how the availability and granularity of data affect this ability to evaluate environmental justice outcomes, and how formally considering environmental justice can inform federal regulations.

References and recommendations:

“Environmental Justice Analysis for EPA Rulemakings: Opportunities and Challenges” by Ann Wolverton; https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/724721

“EPA Draft Revision of Technical Guidance for Assessing Environmental Justice in Regulatory Analysis” public comment period; https://www.epa.gov/environmental-economics/epa-draft-revision-technical-guidance-assessing-environmental-justice

“Toms River” by Dan Fagin; https://www.pulitzer.org/winners/dan-fagin

Bringing Environmental Justice into Government Rulemaking, with Ann Wolverton

Earlier this month, the Biden administration announced $8.2 billion in funding for selected high-speed rail projects across the country. One major rail project that is receiving support will connect Las Vegas and Los Angeles; another will connect several cities in California, including Los Angeles and San Francisco. “America disinvested over the last many decades in our rail systems,” said Pete Buttigieg, secretary of the US Department of Transportation. “We’re reversing that trend.”

One result of this disinvestment and additional challenges in the rail industry is a large number of abandoned railroad lines. But, although many of these railroad lines no longer carry trains, the lines have been put to new transportational use. In this rebroadcasted episode, host Margaret Walls talks with Peter Harnik, cofounder of the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, about grassroots and legislative efforts to repurpose abandoned railroad lines as recreational trails. Harnik discusses why the United States has so many abandoned railroad lines, the process of converting a railroad line into a trail, and the legislation that provides funding for trail projects.

References and recommendations:

“From Rails to Trails: The Making of America’s Active Transportation Network” by Peter Harnik; https://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/nebraska/9781496222060/

Rails-to-Trails Conservancy; https://www.railstotrails.org/

“Stolen Focus” by Johann Hari; https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/634289/stolen-focus-by-johann-hari/

From Rails to Trails, with Peter Harnik (Rebroadcast)

In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Bernie Bastien-Olvera, a postdoctoral scholar at the University of California, San Diego, about the benefits of ecosystems for humans and the global economy. Bastien-Olvera discusses the types of benefits that ecosystems provide, methods that economists use to estimate these benefits, how climate change is shifting ecosystems and biomes geographically, and why these shifts may have a relatively larger impact on nations in the Global South.

References and recommendations:

“Unequal climate impacts on global values of natural capital” by B. A. Bastien-Olvera, M. N. Conte, X. Dong, T. Briceno, D. Batker, J. Emmerling, M. Tavoni, F. Granella, and F. C. Moore; https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06769-z

“The Biggest Little Farm” movie; https://www.biggestlittlefarmmovie.com/

“Planeteando de Pelicula” podcast; https://planeteando.org/series/planeteando-de-pelicula/

The Benefits of Biomes in a Changing Climate, with Bernie Bastien-Olvera

In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Julia Haggerty, an associate professor at Montana State University and university fellow at Resources for the Future, about engaging the public in the US energy transition. Haggerty discusses public engagement in the context of US efforts to decarbonize, the opportunity presented by a transition to clean energy in terms of reducing inequities in the United States, the importance of public trust in government action, and ongoing efforts to ensure that communities take action toward decarbonization.

References and recommendations:

“Accelerating Decarbonization in the United States: Technology, Policy, and Societal Dimensions” by Stephen W. Pacala, Danielle Deane-Ryan, Alexandra Fazeli, Julia H. Haggerty, Chris T. Hendrickson, Roxanne Johnson, Timothy C. Lieuwen, Vivian E. Loftness, Carlos E. Martín, Michael A. Méndez, Clark A. Miller, Jonathan A. Patz, Keith Paustian, William Pizer, Ed Rightor, Patricia Romero-Lankao, Devashree Saha, Kelly Sims Gallagher, Susan F. Tierney, and William Walker; https://nap.nationalacademies.org/resource/25931/interactive/

“City Hall” film by Frederick Wiseman; https://www.pbs.org/show/city-hall/

Community Engagement for an Equitable Energy Transition, with Julia Haggerty

In this week’s episode, host Kristin Hayes talks with Spencer Banzhaf, a professor at North Carolina State University, about the history of the field of environmental economics. Banzhaf discusses the development of the economic definition of value, the early influence of agricultural economists in government, the origins of Resources for the Future and its contributions to the field, and how the field of environmental economics may evolve moving forward.

References and recommendations:

“Pricing the Priceless: A History of Environmental Economics” by H. Spencer Banzhaf; https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/pricing-the-priceless/417AAD8A445E8B64BAD6BC201D2F2163

“Scarcity” by Fredrik Albritton Jonsson and Carl Wennerlind; https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674987081

Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphony_No._7_(Beethoven)

The History of Environmental Economics, with Spencer Banzhaf

In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Fran Moore, an associate professor at the University of California, Davis, about what it’s like to serve as a senior economist at the White House Council of Economic Advisers (CEA). Moore discusses the function of the CEA within the executive branch of the federal government, the range of economic expertise within the CEA, and how economists can improve the utility and relevance of their research for policymaking.

References and recommendations:

Frontiers of Benefit-Cost Analysis from the US Office of Management and Budget; https://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/information-regulatory-affairs/frontiers-of-benefit-cost-analysis/

“A Progress Report on Climate-Energy-Macro Modeling,” containing a memo on tools to support the management of near-term macroeconomic and financial climate risks, from the Council of Economic Advisors; https://www.whitehouse.gov/cea/written-materials/2023/12/22/a-progress-report-on-climate-energy-macro-modeling/

“Losing Earth: A Recent History” by Nathaniel Rich; https://www.mcdbooks.com/losing-earth/

“If Women Counted: A New Feminist Economics” by Marilyn Waring; https://www.marilynwaring.com/publications/if-women-counted.asp

“The Economist’s View of the World and the Quest for Well-Being” by Steven E. Rhoads; https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/economists-view-of-the-world/ABF1A4B73AA084CB909A3FF498153F16#fndtn-information

Doing Environmental Economics at the White House, with Fran Moore

In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Ben Cahill, a senior fellow in the Energy Security and Climate Change Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, about the Biden administration’s recent decision to pause approvals on the construction of new facilities that export liquefied natural gas. Cahill discusses the history of natural gas production in the United States and arguments for and against increasing US exports of natural gas, including considerations of energy security in nations that are allies of the United States, national and global climate goals, and environmental justice.

References and recommendations:

“Escaping the Resource Curse” edited by Macartan Humphreys, Jeffrey D. Sachs, and Joseph E. Stiglitz; https://cup.columbia.edu/book/escaping-the-resource-curse/9780231141963

“The Nutmeg’s Curse” by Amitav Ghosh; https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/N/bo125517349.html

Are Increased Exports of US Liquefied Natural Gas in the Public Interest?, with Ben Cahill

In this week’s episode, host Margaret Walls talks with Carlos Martín, a project director at the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University and a university fellow at Resources for the Future, about housing adaptation and resilience amid climate change, using as a primary example New Orleans housing infrastructure after Hurricane Katrina. Martín argues that the resilience of housing infrastructure is key to climate adaptation, particularly for economically disadvantaged communities. He also discusses how residential buildings produce emissions and contribute to climate change; achieving US decarbonization goals will require related upgrades and improvements, which not all households can tackle with ease.

References and recommendations:

“Housing Resilience in Greater New Orleans: Perceptions of and Home Adaptations to Climate Hazards in Post-Katrina Louisiana” by Carlos Martín, Claudia D. Solari, Anne N. Junod, and Rebecca Marx; https://www.urban.org/research/publication/housing-resilience-greater-new-orleans

“Exploring Climate Change in US Housing Policy” by Carlos Martín; https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10511482.2022.2012030

“Accelerating Decarbonization in the United States: Technology, Policy, and Societal Dimensions” by Stephen W. Pacala, Danielle Deane-Ryan, Alexandra Fazeli, Julia H. Haggerty, Chris T. Hendrickson, Roxanne Johnson, Timothy C. Lieuwen, Vivian E. Loftness, Carlos E. Martín, Michael A. Méndez, Clark A. Miller, Jonathan A. Patz, Keith Paustian, William Pizer, Ed Rightor, Patricia Romero-Lankao, Devashree Saha, Kelly Sims Gallagher, Susan F. Tierney, and William Walker; https://nap.nationalacademies.org/resource/25931/interactive/

“Pathways to Prosperity: Building Climate Resilience” by Allison Plyer, Alysha Rashid, Elaine Ortiz, Taylor Savell, and John Kilcoyne; https://www.p2pclimate.org/

“The Rise of the American Conservation Movement: Power, Privilege, and Environmental Protection” by Dorceta E. Taylor; https://www.dukeupress.edu/the-rise-of-the-american-conservation-movement

Our Homes and Our Climate, with Carlos Martín

In this week’s episode, host Daniel Rami talks with Heather Randell, an assistant professor at the University of Minnesota, about dams and reservoirs that have been built on Native American reservations in the United States. Reservoirs are built by damming a river and flooding an area of land; in the United States, Native American reservations have been disrupted by the construction of reservoirs, dispossessed of their land despite longstanding treaties with the US government. Randell discusses the history of the development of dams on reservation lands, the social and economic effects of dams on Native nations, and how the repair or removal of dams can benefit Native nations today.

References and recommendations:

“Dams and Tribal Land Loss in the United States” by Heather Randell and Andrew Curley; https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/acd268

“Dammed Indians” by Michael L. Lawson; https://books.google.com/books/about/Dammed_Indians.html?id=uuPAasyix8EC

“Yellow Bird: Oil, Murder, and a Woman’s Search for Justice in Indian Country” by Sierra Crane Murdoch; https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/545014/yellow-bird-by-sierra-crane-murdoch/

The Effects of Dams on Tribal Lands, Heather Randell

In this week’s episode, host Daniel Rami talks with Jeffrey Rissman, a senior director at Energy Innovation and the author of “Zero-Carbon Industry,” a new book about decarbonizing the global industrial sector. Rissman discusses the sources of greenhouse gas emissions in major subsectors—iron and steel, chemicals, and cement—and some technologies and policies that could help reduce or eliminate emissions from these subsectors.

References and recommendations:

“Zero-Carbon Industry: Transformative Technologies and Policies to Achieve Sustainable Prosperity” by Jeffrey Rissman; https://zerocarbonindustry.com/

“Daybreak” board game; https://www.daybreakgame.org/

Decarbonizing the Industrial Sector, with Jeffrey Rissman

In this week’s episode, host Margaret Walls talks with Lala Ma, an associate professor of economics at the University of Kentucky and a new university fellow at Resources for the Future, about the effect on housing prices in California of informing homebuyers about the risk of wildfire. Ma discusses how California classifies and discloses the risk of wildfire throughout the state, the difference in housing prices between areas in which wildfire risk is disclosed and areas where that disclosure isn’t mandated, and factors that may influence the willingness of an individual to pay more to avoid wildfire risk.

References and recommendations:

“Risk Disclosure and Home Prices: Evidence from California Wildfire Hazard Zones” by Lala Ma, Margaret A. Walls, Matthew Wibbenmeyer, and Connor Lennon; https://www.rff.org/publications/working-papers/risk-disclosure-and-home-prices-evidence-from-california-wildfire-hazard-zones

Books by Emily Oster, including “Expecting Better” and “Cribsheet”; https://emilyoster.net/writing/

“The Two-Parent Privilege: How Americans Stopped Getting Married and Started Falling Behind” by Melissa S. Kearney; https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/T/bo205550079.html

Wildfire Risks and Home Prices, with Lala Ma

In this week’s episode, host Kristin Hayes talks with James Cox, a professor at Duke University, about a rule issued by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that mandates publicly traded firms to disclose certain greenhouse gas emissions associated with business operations. Cox discusses how the rule standardizes the disclosures of certain climate-related risks that firms face, the differences between the final rule and the initial rule proposed by the commission in 2022, the potential challenges of verifying emissions from a company’s suppliers and customers, and the value of transparency and information for investors.

References and recommendations:

“Special Series: The SEC Climate Disclosure Rule” from the “Common Resources” blog; https://www.resources.org/special-series-sec/

What’s in the Final SEC Climate Disclosure Rule?, with James Cox

In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Simon Greenhill (PhD candidate at the University of California, Berkeley) and Hannah Druckenmiller (university fellow at Resources for the Future and assistant professor at the California Institute of Technology). Along with other coauthors, Greenhill and Druckenmiller recently published an article in the journal Science that uses a new machine learning model to predict which waterways are regulated under the Clean Water Act according to different definitions of what the Clean Water Act calls “waters of the United States.” Greenhill and Druckenmiller discuss the differences in regulation when considering a broader or narrower interpretation of waters of the United States, along with the implications for wetland protection, clean water, and flood mitigation.

References and recommendations:

“Machine learning predicts which rivers, streams, and wetlands the Clean Water Act regulates” by Simon Greenhill, Hannah Druckenmiller, Sherrie Wang, David A. Keiser, Manuela Girotto, Jason K. Moore, Nobuhiro Yamaguchi, Alberto Todeschini, and Joseph S. Shapiro; https://www.rff.org/publications/journal-articles/machine-learning-predicts-which-rivers-streams-and-wetlands-the-clean-water-act-regulates/

Clean Water Act regulation map; https://simondgreenhill.github.io/wotus-map/

Clean Water Act regulation map explainer video by Simon Greenhill; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jkhz5gVUo2w&ab

“Wetlands, Flooding, and the Clean Water Act” by Charles A. Taylor and Hannah Druckenmiller; https://www.rff.org/publications/working-papers/wetlands-flooding-and-the-clean-water-act/

“The Hungry Tide” by Amitav Ghosh; https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-hungry-tide-amitav-ghosh

“The High Sierra: A Love Story” by Kim Stanley Robinson; https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/kim-stanley-robinson/the-high-sierra/9780316306812/

Mapping Waters of the United States Using New Tools, with Simon Greenhill and Hannah Druckenmiller

In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Susan F. Tierney, a senior advisor at Analysis Group and chair of the board of directors at Resources for the Future, about the future of fossil fuels in the United States. Tierney discusses the challenges of meeting climate goals while maintaining energy security, the importance of making energy accessible to citizens, and how to support communities and states that historically have depended on the coal and oil and gas industries for jobs and public revenue.

References and recommendations:

“Accelerating Decarbonization in the United States: Technology, Policy, and Societal Dimensions” by Stephen W. Pacala, Danielle Deane-Ryan, Alexandra Fazeli, Julia H. Haggerty, Chris T. Hendrickson, Roxanne Johnson, Timothy C. Lieuwen, Vivian E. Loftness, Carlos E. Martín, Michael A. Méndez, Clark A. Miller, Jonathan A. Patz, Keith Paustian, William Pizer, Ed Rightor, Patricia Romero-Lankao, Devashree Saha, Kelly Sims Gallagher, Susan F. Tierney, and William Walker; https://nap.nationalacademies.org/resource/25931/interactive/

“Community Engagement for an Equitable Energy Transition, with Julia Haggerty” from “Resources Radio”; https://www.resources.org/resources-radio/community-engagement-for-an-equitable-energy-transition-with-julia-haggerty/

“Our Homes and Our Climate, with Carlos Martín” from “Resources Radio”; https://www.resources.org/resources-radio/our-homes-and-our-climate-with-carlos-martin/

“The Covenant of Water” by Abraham Verghese; https://www.abrahamverghese.org/the-covenant-of-water/

The Future of Fossil Fuels in a Decarbonized United States, with Susan Tierney

In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Lisa Rennels, a PhD candidate at the University of California, Berkeley, about a class of synthetic industrial chemicals used in air-conditioners, refrigerators, and other technologies: hydrofluorocarbons. Rennels discusses the proliferation of these chemicals in recent decades, the cost of hydrofluorocarbon emissions to society, the feedback loop between global warming and increased use of these chemicals for air-conditioning, and global efforts to reduce the emissions of hydrofluorocarbons.

References and recommendations:

“The social costs of hydrofluorocarbons and the benefits from their expedited phase-down” by Tammy Tan, Lisa Rennels, and Bryan Parthum; https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-023-01898-9

“Comprehensive Evidence Implies a Higher Social Cost of CO₂” by Kevin Rennert, Frank Errickson, Brian C. Prest, Lisa Rennels, Richard G. Newell, William Pizer, Cora Kingdon, Jordan Wingenroth, Roger Cooke, Bryan Parthum, David Smith, Kevin Cromar, Delavane Diaz, Frances C. Moore, Ulrich K. Müller, Richard J. Plevin, Adrian E. Raftery, Hana Ševčíková, Hannah Sheets, James Stock, Tammy Tan, Mark Watson, Tony E. Wong, and David Anthoff; https://www.rff.org/publications/journal-articles/comprehensive-evidence-implies-a-higher-social-cost-of-co2/

“The Impossible Will Take a Little While: A Citizen’s Guide to Hope in a Time of Fear” by Paul Rogat Loeb; https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/paul-rogat-loeb/the-impossible-will-take-a-little-while/9780465038589

“Not the End of the World: How We Can Be the First Generation to Build a Sustainable Planet” by Hannah Ritchie; https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/hannah-ritchie/not-the-end-of-the-world/9780316536752/

“Are we the last generation—or the first sustainable one?” TED Talk by Hannah Ritchie; https://www.ted.com/talks/hannah_ritchie_are_we_the_last_generation_or_the_first_sustainable_one

“The High Sierra: A Love Story” by Kim Stanley Robinson; https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/kim-stanley-robinson/the-high-sierra/9780316306812

Estimating the social costs of hydrofluorocarbons, with Lisa Rennels

In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Brad Harris, the director of government affairs at Resources for the Future, about the increasing demand for electricity in the United States. Harris discusses the main sources of this surge in electricity demand, also known as load growth; the challenges that load growth poses to goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions that have been set by utilities and the United States; and tools available to utilities and policymakers that can help meet growing demand and mitigate the effects of load growth on ratepayers and emissions.

References and recommendations:

“Harlan County, USA” documentary; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlan_County,_USA

“Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room” documentary; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enron:_The_Smartest_Guys_in_the_Room

How Surging Demand Is Shaping the US Power Sector, with Brad Harris

In this week’s episode, host Kristin Hayes talks with Fernando Vidal, a postdoctoral researcher at the Polymat research institute in Spain, about technological and policy options to create a more sustainable plastics economy. Vidal discusses the greenhouse gas emissions associated with the life cycle of plastics, changes to the chemical makeup and recycling of plastics that could reduce the impact of plastics on communities and the environment, and international efforts to reduce the negative impacts of the plastics economy. Vidal shares recommendations for a more sustainable plastics economy from an article that he coauthored, which recently was published in the journal “Nature.”

References and recommendations:

“Designing a circular carbon and plastics economy for a sustainable future” by Fernando Vidal, Eva R. van der Marel, Ryan W. F. Kerr, Caitlin McElroy, Nadia Schroeder, Celia Mitchell, Gloria Rosetto, Thomas T. D. Chen, Richard M. Bailey, Cameron Hepburn, Catherine Redgwell, and Charlotte K. Williams; https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06939-z

“Nudes in Nature” photography exhibit by Laura Aguilar at the Phoenix Art Museum; https://phxart.org/exhibition/laura-aguilar/

Photographer Laura Aguilar; https://www.lauraaguilarphotography.com/

Toward a More Sustainable Plastics Economy, with Fernando Vidal

In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Travis Roach, an associate professor and director of the Central Policy Institute at the University of Central Oklahoma, about how the prevalence of air pollution may increase the incidence of fatal traffic accidents in the United States. Roach discusses the characteristics of airborne particulate matter that is 2.5 microns in diameter or less, which is air pollution known as PM2.5; the sources of PM2.5, including coal- and natural gas–fired power plants, vehicle tailpipe emissions, and wildfire smoke; the negative effects of PM2.5 exposure on physical health and cognitive functioning; and policies and technologies that can help reduce public exposure to PM2.5.

References and recommendations:

“Negative Externalities of Temporary Reductions in Cognition: Evidence from Particulate Matter Pollution and Fatal Car Crashes” by Anne M. Burton and Travis Roach; https://annemburton.com/pages/working_papers/Burton_Roach_Pollution.pdf

PurpleAir sensors and maps that measure air-quality data

“Prairie Up: An Introduction to Natural Garden Design” by Benjamin Vogt; https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/?id=p086779

Pollution Causes Crashes: Particulate Matter and Traffic Accidents, with Travis Roach

In this week’s episode, host Kristin Hayes talks with Sebastian Blanco, editor-in-chief at SAE Media Group and a journalist on the automotive and vehicle-technology beat. This episode jump-starts a multipart series on electric vehicles (EVs), including the most practical matters that EV users need to know. In this first episode of the series, Blanco discusses the foundations of EV ownership. He covers different EV makes and models, the logistics of charging EVs at home and on the road, pro tips for locating charging stations through smartphone apps and other resources, and insights on EV maintenance based on his experience. 

Future episodes dive deeper on battery technology, charging stations, and driver experience. Listen in and stay tuned for those additional episodes in this series! Please let us know if we’ve missed any questions that you’re curious about; we may address those in a future podcast episode or blog post. And if you’re not interested in EV-ery detail, then tune back in after a few weeks, when we’ll return to our normally scheduled programming, which covers all kinds of topics in environmental economics.

References and recommendations:

PlugShare app for electric vehicle charging infrastructure; https://www.plugshare.com/

Flo app for electric vehicle charging infrastructure; https://www.flo.com/products/software/flo-mobile-app/

Alternative Fuels Data Center from the US Department of Energy; https://afdc.energy.gov/

“Transport Evolved” YouTube series; https://www.youtube.com/transportevolved

“State of Charge” YouTube series; https://www.youtube.com/StateOfChargeWithTomMoloughney

Demystifying Electric Vehicle Ownership, with Sebastian Blanco

In this week’s episode, host Kristin Hayes talks with Micah Ziegler, an assistant professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology, about the science, policy, and economics behind electric vehicle (EV) batteries. This episode continues a multipart series on EVs, which covers some of the most practical matters that EV users need to know. In this second episode of the series, Ziegler discusses the history of the development of EV batteries (which might be longer than you think), the materials that are used in batteries, and technological advancements that have improved battery efficiency over the past century. Ziegler also highlights policy tools that may be especially effective at reducing the costs of clean energy technologies such as EV batteries. 

Future episodes will dive deeper on charging stations and road trips—stay tuned for those. And as you listen, please let us know if we’ve missed any questions that you’re curious about; we may address those in a future podcast episode or blog post. And if you’d rather not spin your wheels on this topic, then tune back in after a few weeks, when we’ll return to our normally scheduled programming, which covers all kinds of matters related to environmental economics.

References and recommendations:

“Re-examining rates of lithium-ion battery technology improvement and cost decline” by Micah S. Ziegler and Jessika E. Trancik; https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2021/ee/d0ee02681f

“Determinants of lithium-ion battery technology cost decline” by Micah S. Ziegler, Juhyun Song, and Jessika E. Trancik; https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2021/ee/d1ee01313k

“Evaluating the causes of cost reduction in photovoltaic modules” by Goksin Kavlak, James McNerney, and Jessika E. Trancik; https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0301421518305196?via%3Dihub

“The Very Hungry Caterpillar” by Eric Carle; https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/301943/the-very-hungry-caterpillar-by-eric-carle/

“All the World” by Liz Garton Scanlon and Marla Frazee; https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/All-the-World/Liz-Garton-Scanlon/9781481431217

“Energy Firms, Green Groups and Others Reach Deal on Solar Farms” by Ivan Penn; https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/12/business/energy-environment/solar-farm-agreement.html

“Americans don’t hate living near solar and wind farms as much as you might think” by Allyson Chiu, Emily Guskin, and Scott Clement; https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2023/10/03/solar-panels-wind-turbines-nimby/

“Demand for minerals sparks fear of mining abuses on Indigenous peoples’ lands” by Julia Simon; https://www.npr.org/2024/01/29/1226125617/demand-for-minerals-sparks-fear-of-mining-abuses-on-indigenous-peoples-lands

“The U.S. is expanding CO2 pipelines. One poisoned town wants you to know its story” by Julia Simon; https://www.npr.org/2023/05/21/1172679786/carbon-capture-carbon-dioxide-pipeline

Innovations in Electric Vehicle Batteries, with Micah Ziegler

These past few weeks, people across the United States have been horrified by the continuing violence against people of color. Resources for the Future has been working toward contributing energy and thoughtful work—not just words and statements—to support and incorporate diversity in our environmental mission. Toward that end, we are rebroadcasting this Resources Radio episode from last July with Dorceta Taylor.

In this episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Professor Dorceta E. Taylor of the University of Michigan’s School for Environment and Sustainability (soon to be moving to the faculty at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies). Raimi asks Taylor about her research on the history of the environmental movement, focusing on issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion within environmental groups—both historically and today. While some progress has happened over the years, major challenges remain, and the field has plenty of room for improvement.

References and recommendations:

"The Rise of the American Conservation Movement" by Dorceta E. Taylor; https://www.dukeupress.edu/the-rise-of-the-american-conservation-movement

"The State of Diversity in Environmental Organizations" by Dorceta E. Taylor; https://www.diversegreen.org/the-challenge/

The Challenge of Diversity in the Environmental Movement, with Dorceta Taylor (Rebroadcast)

In this episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Severin Borenstein, a professor at the University of California at Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, faculty director of the Energy Institute at Haas, and member of the Board of Governors of the California Independent System Operator. As the state of Texas struggles to keep the lights on due to extreme cold, Raimi asks Borenstein about lessons learned from California’s blackouts during the summer of 2020: the cause of the outages, the role of renewables, and market reforms that could help reduce the risk of blackouts in the future. Raimi and Borenstein also discuss how California’s experience can help Texas and other regional electricity networks plan for a future with more renewable power.

References and recommendations:

“An empirical analysis of the potential for market power in California’s electricity industry” by Severin Borenstein and James Bushnell; http://faculty.haas.berkeley.edu/borenste/download/JIE99Cournot.pdf

“Measuring Market Inefficiencies in California’s Restructured Wholesale Electricity Market” by Severin Borenstein, James B. Bushnell, and Frank A. Wolak; http://faculty.haas.berkeley.edu/borenste/download/AER02BBW.pdf

“Capacity Markets at a Crossroads” by James Bushnell, Michaela Flagg, and Erin Mansur; https://haas.berkeley.edu/wp-content/uploads/WP278.pdf

“The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger” by Marc Levinson; https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691170817/the-box

“The Bet: Paul Ehrlich, Julian Simon, and Our Gamble over Earth’s Future” by Paul Sabin; https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300198973/bet

“Under a White Sky” by Elizabeth Kolbert; https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/617060/under-a-white-sky-by-elizabeth-kolbert/

Shedding Light on Electricity Blackouts, with Severin Borenstein

Resources Radio is a weekly podcast by Resources for the Future. Each week we talk to leading experts about climate change, electricity, ecosystems, and more, making the latest research accessible to everyone.

Resources Radio

Popular tracks