Podcasts about Inflation Reduction Act

Phil Kerpen joins Dawn to breakdown his latest piece criticizing the Biden administration and their irrational focus on E.V.s as issues around the plan begin to emerge when you peel back the layers...  Phil Kerpen is an American free-market policy analyst and political organizer. He is the president of American Commitment, a conservative 501 organization which he founded in 2012. He previously served for over five years as the vice president of Americans for Prosperity. Phil Kerpen: “The Biden administration's infatuation with electric vehicles is no secret, with billions in subsidies lavished on them in the so-called Inflation Reduction Act and now direct bribes to vehicle manufacturers to shift their production.  But the president's so-called “transition” is not being driven only by massive subsidies, but by draconian mandates that will make gasoline-powered vehicles difficult to find and exorbitantly priced far sooner than most Americans expect….Biden's goal is laid out plainly on the Green New Deal page of JoeBiden.com, which commits to “developing rigorous new fuel economy standards aimed at ensuring 100% of new sales for light- and medium-duty vehicles will be electrified” and was formalized in Biden Executive Order 14037, which sets “a goal that 50 percent of all new passenger cars and light trucks sold in 2030 be zero-emission vehicles, including battery electric, plug-in hybrid electric, or fuel cell electric vehicles.”….This policy is contrary to law.  Specifically, 49 U.S.C. § 32902(h)(1), which states NHTSA “may not consider the fuel economy of dedicated automobiles,” defined as “an automobile that operates only on alternative fuel.”  This is precisely what the Biden rules do.” Tune in 10 AM - 12 PM EST weekdays on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT; or on the Audacy app!

Where did the term "manufacturing supercycle": come from? Why has there been underinvestment in manufacturing in America for 30 years? The three big spending bills are injecting bilions of dollars into the economy - Inflation Reduction Act, Chips and Sciences Act, Infrastructure Act This injection of money will have an enormous affect on manufacturing, transportation, employment, and the overall economy - what can we expect? What industries are likely to benefit the most? What are the Biden Administration's top priorities for supply chains? How does the auto worker's strike fit into this coming manufacturing supercycle? Follow the Rethink Reshoring Podcast Other FreightWaves Shows Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mitchell Hora with Continuum Ag talks about how to take advantage of funds coming to agriculture in the Inflation Reduction Act and the implications to Renewable Fuels. Learn how your farm can take advantage and get paid, and what you need to be doing RIGHT NOW for 2024 and 2025. Actionables: 1. Get your Carbon Intensity score (CI) 2. Talk to your processors, ask the 5 P's - What is your CI program? - What will your premium be? - How will I get paid? - What pilots programs are in place now? - Who are you partnering with on software or data collection? 3. Start implementing, documenting, and testing your practices NOW topsoil.ag continuum.ag

In this episode, Greg and Rob are joined by healthcare attorney Jeff Davis, to discuss how the Medicare drug pricing provisions in the IRA will impact 340B providers.  They'll go over CMS billing modifier requirements (15:27), share opinions on the financial impact covered entities might experience (38:02), and how various legal challenges to the IRA by the pharma industry may play out (56:29).  They also add some insights around CMS's proposed Part B payment remedy (1:01:03). In the intro, Rob catches Greg up on new manufacturer restrictions, and some recent HRSA audit experience related to interpreting data request list (DRL) revisions, and shares some commentary on the current House E&C subcommittee hearing on proposed drug shortage legislation. Email us questions, thoughts, and ideas for podcast topics at 340BUnscripted@spendmend.com!

40,000? 50,000? More? Whatever the number, there were a lot of people at this year's RE+ in Las Vegas.While the event's exhibits are a focal point of the event — especially for pros sourcing solar modules, inverters, and batteries — the real action takes place in the side rooms, restaurants, and bars.Episode 61 of the Factor This! podcast features Standard Solar president and CEO Scott Wiater, who takes us inside those critical conversations. Watch the full episode on YouTubeWiater offers a look into the headaches linked to Inflation Reduction Act implementation and financial market turmoil, as well as the unmissable sense of optimism that the industry will continue its meteoric growth. That's all next on Factor This!You've heard me talk a lot about the GridTECH Connect Forum - Northeast event being held in Newport, Rhode Island Oct. 23-25. Well, registration is now LIVE. We're excited to partner with the DOE to bring together DER developers, utilities, and regulators around the critical issue of interconnection in the Northeast. Click here to register today.

The day we have all been waiting for. Tonight we launch ASOTU CON, but this morning we still have the UAW to check in on, dealers seeing the EV tax incentives in a new but old light, and Spotify testing some voice replication features!The UAW strike has expanded to include 38 GM and Stellantis parts distribution centers across 20 states, affecting the dealerships' service business, however, talks with Ford have seemingly made good progressThis action highlights the issue of wage disparities. Parts depot employees typically earn between $16-$24 an hour, compared to up to $32 at assembly plants.Eric Ray, a worker at GM's Ypsilanti Processing Center, stated: "We do just as much work as they do in the automotive plants. We do the same thing, we should be treated the same way."UAW President Shawn Fain is committed to eliminating varying wage rates, emphasizing that "The PDCs in particular, they've been stepped on a lot in the past."Notably, UAW made "real progress" in negotiations with Ford Motor Co., choosing not to add any Ford plants to the targeted strike, highlighting Ford's willingness to address key union prioritiesHarkening back to the time of Cash for Clunkers, some dealers fear that EV tax incentives may take a long time to come through.Beginning in 2024, eligible EV buyers can transfer federal tax credits to dealers, using these funds as a down payment. The move is part of the Inflation Reduction Act's provisions to support new and used EV purchases.Tyler Slade, operating partner at Tim Dahle Nissan Southtowne, expressed nervousness, citing history and concerns about waiting for government reimbursement: "You're going to have plenty of dealers that aren't going to be comfortable with that risk … waiting for the government to pay, much like Cash for Clunkers."Organizations like AIADA and NADA are actively working to streamline the point-of-sale transaction and ensure swift and accurate reimbursement from the government to avoid the issues faced during the Cash for Clunkers program.Spotify is launching a new beta test that will take the voice of a few select podcasters and translate them to other languages using AI.The innovative tool is initially translating podcasts into Spanish and French, with German translations in the pipeline.It not only translates the podcast into different languages but also synthesizes it in the podcaster's own voice, providing a genuine and immersive listening experience for global audiences.Concerns about safety and privacy have led to a measured release of this technology. Spotify and OpenAI are currently limiting the availability of this tool, testing it with a select group of podcasters, ensuring it meets standards and expectations while safeguarding users' privacy and information.Hosts: Paul J Daly and Kyle MountsierGet the Daily Push Back email at https://www.asotu.com/ JOIN the conversation on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/company/asotu/ Read our most recent email at: https://www.asotu.com/media/push-back-email ASOTU Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/automotivestateoftheunion

The ladies on "The View" compared DeSantis' voice to "The Penguin" character and instead of just letting it go, DeSantis fires back.. It's a case of Ron wasting time playing petty politics instead of actually doing something useful for Americans like supporting the Inflation Reduction Act which would help Americans buying Electric vehicles with an instant credit of $7500.. https://www.whitehouse.gov/cleanenergy/ #inflationreductionact

The government shutdown threat looms as Congress scrambles to pass funding bills. The IRS previously said it could stay open during a shutdown by relying on Inflation Reduction Act funds. But now the agency says those funds can't sustain operations. According to its union, the IRS is preparing for furloughs and partial closures if a shutdown hits. This reversal surprised IRS employees and could spell delays for taxpayers and CPAs.Show NotesIRS plans possible furloughs in case of shutdownhttps://www.accountingtoday.com/news/irs-plans-possible-furloughs-in-case-of-a-government-shutdownIRS to ‘partially close' if government shutdown happens, reversing earlier plans, union sayshttps://federalnewsnetwork.com/government-shutdown/2023/09/irs-to-partially-close-if-government-shutdown-happens-reversing-earlier-plans-union-says/Need CPE? Subscribe to the Earmark Accounting Podcast: https://podcast.earmarkcpe.comGet CPE for listening to podcasts with Earmark CPE: https://earmarkcpe.comGet in TouchThanks for listening and the great reviews! We appreciate you! Follow and tweet @BlakeTOliver and @DavidLeary. Find us on Facebook, and if you like what you hear, please do us a favor and write a review on iTunes or Podchaser. Interested in sponsoring the Cloud Accounting Podcast? For details, read the prospectus, and NOW, you can see our smiling faces on Instagram! You can now call us and leave a voicemail, maybe we'll play it on the show. DIAL (202) 695-1040Need Accounting Conference Info? Check out our new website: accountingconferences.comLimited edition shirts, stickers, and other necessitiesTeePublic Store: http://cloudacctpod.link/merchSubscribe Apple Podcasts: http://cloudacctpod.link/ApplePodcasts Podchaser: http://cloudacctpod.link/podchaser Spotify: http://cloudacctpod.link/Spotify Stitcher: http://cloudacctpod.link/Stitcher Overcast: http://cloudacctpod.link/Overcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CloudAccountingPodcast Want to get the word out about your newsletter, webinar, party, Facebook group, podcast, e-book, job posting, or that fancy Excel macro you just created? Why not let The Cloud Accounting Podcast listeners know by running a classified ad? Hit the link below to get more info.Go here to create your classified ad: https://cloudacctpod.link/RunClassifiedAd The full transcript for this episode is available by clicking on the Transcript tab at the top of this page

In this episode, Maine State Senator Nicole Grohoski discusses an upcoming ballot measure that gives Maine voters the opportunity to replace the state's unpopular for-profit utilities with a nonprofit public utility.(PDF transcript)(Active transcript)Text transcript:David RobertsMaine's two big investor-owned power utilities — Central Maine Power and Versant Power — are not very popular. In fact, they boast among the lowest customer satisfaction scores of any utilities in the country, perhaps because their customers face some of the nation's highest rates, suffer more and longer outages than average Americans, and pay more to connect rooftop solar than ratepayers in almost any other state. This November, Mainers will vote on a radical alternative: a ballot measure to replace the two for-profit utilities with a single nonprofit utility that would be called Pine Tree Power. Maine and many other states already have lots of small nonprofit municipal utilities, but this would mark the first time a whole state with existing private utilities decided to make them public en masse.Naturally the utilities are opposed and have dumped $27 million and counting into a campaign to crush the measure; supporters have mustered just under $1 million. To discuss this David vs. Goliath fight, I contacted one of its champions, Democratic state Senator Nicole Grohoski. We discussed why she thinks a public utility would perform better, what it would do for clean energy, how it would be governed, and what other states can learn from the effort. With no further ado, Maine State Senator Nicole Grohoski. Welcome to Volts. Thank you so much for coming.Nicole GrohoskiThank you so much for having me. I'm thrilled to be with you today.David RobertsI am super excited to talk about this issue. There's a lot of ins and outs I want to cover, but maybe let's just start with a brief history of this thing. So the idea here is, as I said in the intro, to replace Maine's two big investor-owned utilities, Central Maine Power and Versant Power, with a single publicly owned main utility called Pine Tree Power. Tell me who first had that idea? Where did it first pop up? I know it was legislation and then it got vetoed. Just tell us a little bit about how we got to where we are now.Nicole GrohoskiThe history is really interesting, and I'll try to not spend too much time on it, but I think it's really important to start with the reality here in Maine as a backdrop. So a couple of things that are important to know for listeners is that we, as Mainers, find that our electricity isn't really affordable or reliable and our utilities aren't trustworthy. So we have, for many years running now, the worst customer satisfaction in the country, some of the highest rates in the country for electricity, and those just keep going up. We have experienced a 20% increase this summer, with another increase coming in January.And we also have the most frequent outages in the country. And there are a couple of other reliability metrics that we're not doing so well on, including the length of outages and how long it takes to restore power. So basically what we see here in Maine is that the status quo of these for-profit multinational corporations is just not working for us. About a tenth of our residents in Maine received disconnection notices earlier this year because they just couldn't afford to pay their bills. And it's not working for companies or big corporations that really rely on low cost and reliable electricity to compete.So that's kind of the background. So a number of us were wondering, does it have to be this way? Is there an alternative to worst of the worst? We are Maine, we are very proud and independent, and we like to be leading, but this is not the way that we wanted to be leading. So there was a lot of grassroots pressure. In 2017 we had a big storm, and the power was out for days. But at the same time, there was a billing fiasco, which resulted in billing errors for over 100,000 customers, which is in a state of 1.3 million people, that's a very big percent.So there was a lot of pressure, a lot of phone calls to legislators, to the Public Utilities Commission, to the public advocate about these utilities. And so I think that really planted a seed for a number of folks. Specifically, Maine's first public advocate pointed out to some members of the legislature, including Representative Seth Barry at the time, myself, and a few others, that there were other options and that the financial and local control aspects of those options might be really helpful for Maine. So we started meeting in 2019 with the previous public advocate, economists, labor, legislators, people that were part of a group called CMP Ratepayers Unite.And that's when we formed this idea of creating a consumer-owned utility for Maine that would be non-profit and similar to the ten other consumer-owned utilities we have in Maine. I don't know that we had a name for it at that time, but we do now call it the Pine Tree Power Company. So those were the early days. And then to sort of fast forward, the Legislature commissioned a study which was done by London Economics International in 2019 to learn more about the economics and also legal pathway here. Then, of course, 2020, everybody knows what happened then, things kind of went on pause. And then in 2021, we wrote a bill. And that bill passed in both chambers in Maine with bipartisan support. As you mentioned, the governor did veto that bill.David RobertsAnd that bill was to create the utility or to put the question to voters.Nicole GrohoskiThat bill put the question to voters, and it's very similar to the language that we'll be voting on this November. So we did revise the language based on some feedback from the governor, and that is the language that is now in front of us to vote on this November, November 7. And in order to get the question on the ballot we had hundreds of volunteers working together to collect around 80,000 signatures in total, which is a little bit above the requirement needed to get a question on the ballot in Maine.David RobertsI'm a little curious why — this is a Democratic Governor Mills. What was her rationale? I mean, I guess I can imagine her rationale for opposing the public utility, but what was her rationale for opposing asking voters what they thought? Did she have a good rationale?Nicole GrohoskiNot in my opinion. I'm sure in her opinion it was great. But we read the veto letter for the most part. There was very little in there that was substantive. Some of those minor changes that we made are all things that we would have happily made in advance had we had outreach from her office about them. You know, the unfortunate thing with governors in Maine is that we have yet to elect one that has campaigned using our clean elections, publicly funding campaign option, which is something that most legislators use. So you can draw your own conclusions there about the — money in politics may have been at play.I can't say for certain.David RobertsYeah, we should just make a note here because a couple of podcasts we've done here on Volts are about state laws prohibiting utilities from using ratepayer money to lobby and pay off politicians. Maine does not have one of those laws.Nicole GrohoskiWell, we actually did just pass a law. We were one of four states earlier this year to be sure that ratepayer dollars are not going for lobbying. You know, industry membership, group memberships.David RobertsOh, interesting.Nicole GrohoskiYou know, Edison Electric, for instance, Chambers of Commerce, et cetera. So that is a new law. It will be in effect in about a month. So we'll see if that improves things.David RobertsJust in time or actually just a smidge too late. So the bill of particulars here then, against these two utilities, as you say, they have really low ratepayer satisfaction scores, lots of power outages, more than usual, higher rates, some of the highest rates in the country. Like every state, Maine has a Public Utility Commission that is meant to regulate its utilities. That has members appointed by the governor or elected? I'm not sure how it goes in Maine.Nicole GrohoskiIn Maine, the commissioners are appointed and then subject to Senate approval.David RobertsSo why not just use the PUC to sort of get these utilities in line? That seems like it would be the sort of first order of business.Nicole GrohoskiIt's a great question. I mean, I think everyone kind of wants to default to using the systems we have in place, but I have a couple of thoughts about that. Our Public Utilities Commission I do think is full of folks who are hardworking and really trying to get under the hood with utilities. But there's a lot of information there that the utilities really understand best. And so when you have questions, you're going to ask the utilities and there is sort of a long term back and forth relationship there. Some people might call how that turns into regulatory capture sometimes.Additionally, we do have the ability to fine the utilities if they're not performing up to snuff and that has happened. It doesn't happen that often, and the most recent fine, I think was around $10 million. At the same time they had a significant rate increase and are pulling out over $100 million in profit every year. So it's not really proportional and we could theoretically increase those fines a bit. But there is hesitance. I think the legislature has interest in doing some of that but the utilities are of course not interested and I think we would see another veto pen action is my guess.But all that being said, this effort to create a consumer utility has led to a lot of us just digging down into what is the history of utilities in this country and regulation. And what we found is that utilities are natural monopolies so it makes sense for there to be regulation because there isn't competition. But the folks who sort of started the effort to create public utilities commissions were those who were going to be regulated. And so there has been this hand in glove relationship since the start around the regulators and the regulated.David RobertsIt's not ideal.Nicole GrohoskiThat's probably a subject of a whole other podcast but —David RobertsIt doesn't work quite like you would want it to.Nicole GrohoskiExactly. And additionally, I would say I have recently been talking to folks in other states and other people have served as public advocates. And what I find remarkable is the backflips and cartwheels that we go through with regulation to try to outfox the utilities when, by no fault of their own, the investor owned utilities are created with their number one mission to be maximizing repair profit. So it's like we could keep trying to think of creative and clever ways to balance this out. But at the end of all of it, I keep coming back to the fact that we don't have our roads, which are critical to our economy and our safety and our way of life in the private sector; and nor are our schools, nor is our military.Why does it make sense for something as important as our electricity grid to be subject to for-profit motivations?David RobertsListeners will be rolling their eyes right about now because this is something I say I find a way to say it almost every episode no matter what we're talking about. But utilities, they are structured such that they make money insofar as they spend money. So all they really want to do is deploy more big infrastructure. And so as you say, like PUCs find these elaborate Rube Goldberg mechanisms to sort of beg and plead with them to do things like efficiency or distributed energy, know on and on, inter, regional transmission, name it, all of which are sort of just counter to the basic incentive.So as you say, you can spend the rest of your life coming up with more and more elaborate ways to try to trick them into doing something against their interests. But at a certain point you just got to grapple with the central issue which is that they're set up wrong, they're set up badly, they're set up to not want things that are in the public interest and at a certain point you got to just deal with the root cause. Anyway, sorry to go off on my standard canned rant there. So then a skeptic will say these two utilities, just so people are clear about this, these are not vertically integrated utilities.These are just distribution utilities. They just have wires, they just distribute power. They do not own generation. They're dealing with a certain set of supply issues, a certain set of power plants, a certain geography. Maine is very heavily forested which is a nightmare for transmission lines for all the obvious reasons. So it just has a sort of set of things that it's dealing with. And so I guess the skeptic is going to ask what reason do we have to believe that given the sort of same resources that Pine Tree, a public utility, would perform any better?Nicole GrohoskiWell I think we have a lot of evidence that it would because we already have ten consumer owned utilities in Maine. Just for an example, there is one that's called Eastern Maine Electric Co-op. That's a traditional co-op. It is more rural than most of Maine. You might find it interesting that it is serving about 1.2% of the state's load in kilowatt hours but it is in an area that's twice the size of Rhode Island. Now EMAC, which is in rural downeast Maine is directly adjacent to the territory of Versant that I live in and the cost for delivery in EMAC is nine cents and the cost for delivery in Versant is 13.1 cents per kilowatt hour.So I don't think that's just some kind of magical happenstance that when you take profit out of the equation you're just paying less. We know that together CMP and Versant are sending out about — was last year was $187 million a year in profit. So I think if Mainers are in charge of our utility we can decide do we want to use that money to lower rates? Do we want to use it to reinvest in the grid to increase reliability? And I think it would probably be a mix of both of those things.David RobertsAnd that amount of money you think is material enough that it would show up as improved performance, show up as measurably improved performance?Nicole GrohoskiI do think so. I mean I think for your listeners, while Maine is large and rural we do have 1.3 million people. So, when you sort of divide those numbers out it does make a difference. And we've had some independent economic analysis that shows us that Mainers would be saving on average $367 a month, excuse me, a year, because of the fact that we're basically going from expensive rent for the grid to a lower cost mortgage. So I think it's easy to explain it to folks in terms of, like, "What's better when you're looking for housing, dropping your money down a rent hole, black hole for the rest of your life, or swapping out to a mortgage where you've got a lower interest rate than what we see now with the guaranteed return on equity that happens for our for-profit utilities."David RobertsYeah, this was another piece I wanted to ask about. So part of why you think this will be cheaper for ratepayers is just you take that huge slice of profits that are going, as you say, out of state to the owners of these utilities and keep that in state and that alone will buy you some better service. There's also the issue of investor-owned utilities expect and want and are guaranteed relatively high rates of return on their investments and often resist making investments if the rate of return is lower than that. But as you say, a public power utility can be more patient with its capital, right?Can make investments with lower returns as long as they pay off eventually, right?Nicole GrohoskiYeah. So we see here in Maine that the utilities are getting a ROE of 8% to 12%. And we know that firstly that's kind of astounding because it's not all that risky. Most people are paying their bills.David RobertsCrazy. It's guaranteed. It's huge and it's guaranteed. It's wild what it is. This is like the safest business on the planet as being a regulated utility.Nicole GrohoskiCouldn't agree more. And on the flip side, the Pine Tree Power Company can access low-cost capital through revenue bonding at 3-5%. So when we think about paying off that debt over many years with compounding interest, when we think about the fact that our grid really isn't ready to electrify our economy and experts expect it's going to need to be, increased two to three times. Now is the right moment in time, I think, to move away from high cost, low-risk investment to low cost, low-risk investment before we literally triple our grid.David RobertsTell us a little bit about how the utility would be governed or structured and what implications you think that might have.Nicole GrohoskiI love this question. I am a public servant and so I believe in local governance and people getting to vote and go to public meetings and have a say and all that is built into the ballot question. So the Pine Tree Power Company would have elected board members and there are seven of them, one for each grouping of five Senate seats, state Senate seats. And those members then turn around and appoint six members who have specific expertise in things like utility law and management, concerns of workers, concerns of economic, environmental and social justice, things like that, that we really want to make sure those folks are at the table.And this group of 13 people, they serve six-year terms each of them. And of course, there's like a little bit of a lead-in time because they'd all be elected at once, where some of them served shorter terms at the start. But point is, they are people in our communities. They have to be living in Maine. They have open meetings that are subject to freedom of access laws. And in order to best serve the public, I think they would be doing a lot of public outreach. And that's something that in talking to managers and board members from other consumer utilities in the country, I've been really impressed with how much local engagement they have. I think Sacramento Municipal Utility District, they said they're hosting 1300 community meetings a year.David RobertsGood grief.Nicole GrohoskiA couple a day on average. But they have, I think they said 95% customer satisfaction. So people feel like they're valued, their experience matters and they also have a plan to get to 100% clean energy by 2030. So our Pine Tree power governance is very much in the spirit of "It's a public good. It should be publicly governed."David RobertsThere's a little bit of a controversy in Maine a few years ago. I don't remember all the details, but it was about a big transmission line that would have brought hydro from Canada down through the woods of Maine. It was fought and I believe killed by popular resistance. And there was a lot of, at least nationally there was a lot of talk of like here again we have environmentally minded locals blocking things for environmental reasons, but in a short-sighted way that's going to be worse for the environment overall. In the long term, they're NIMBY's. We've got to figure out a way of dealing with this problem, et cetera, et cetera.So this leads to my question, which is: if you have a governing board that is elected by local people, and it is the local people who are often the source of the NIMBYism, do you not have some fears? That this would lead to a more NIMBY rather than less NIMBY operation of the utility, which is going to be difficult when, as you say, this is the time when every state everybody needs to be increasing and bolstering their transmission systems. Do you worry that local control is going to translate into more rather than less NIMBY opposition to new lines?Nicole GrohoskiI'll put it in a way that I think makes sense to me as a person in Maine who's intimately familiar with what you laid out, which is at the root of that decision, was a fundamental lack of trust in Central Maine Power. A trust that it would be doing anything in our best interest, that it would be giving us appropriate benefits, that it was really after anything more than profits. And so I think it wouldn't be true that as soon as Pine Tree Power was created that everyone would immediately trust the company. But I do think it would be a fresh start.And on top of that, with elected and appointed leaders spending time in communities and just energy literacy, I think in general would increase because it's something we would be talking about more if we had to elect the board. I'll say I think that people's interest in energy policy has gone through the roof this year compared to where it was in the past. And people are asking just really great questions, a new curiosity around electricity that I hadn't seen before growing up here. So I think that the outcome would actually be that folks would feel like they had a say in how the transmission was cited, who was benefiting if we remove the profit motive.Imagine if that money that would have gone to profit was actually going to community benefits. That might really change how people feel. And I think that here in Maine we are sort of skeptical of what's being pushed on us by people from away, quote unquote, is a saying we have. I don't always love it, but it is accurate in this case. You've got Central Main Power, owned by Avangrid, then owned by Iberdrola, based in Spain, telling us, "Oh, we've got this great deal for you." And people are skeptical of that. So I think we have a greater chance actually of doing transmission right and in a way that people can accept if there was this broader community process and a lack of for-profit skepticism that comes naturally to us here.David RobertsOne of the criticisms of the two existing utilities is that they're kind of slow-walking clean energy in particular. So I wonder if you could just say a word about what that means and why and how we think Pine Tree would be better on that score. Because it's not obvious. These are just wires utilities, right? So they're not dealing directly with clean energy generation. So what are the issues around clean energy and how will Pine Tree be an improvement?Nicole GrohoskiSo, historically, we have seen that the utilities do spend a lot of time and money in the State House, not just behind the scenes, but also right out publicly testifying against clean energy bills. Now, that has slowed in recent years, but certainly in the previous gubernatorial administration, that was a very common practice.David RobertsIf I could just pause there, I guess I just don't fully understand why, like, if you're a company that's just running wires, what's it to you?Nicole GrohoskiRight back to the return on equity question. So, these utilities make more money when they build transmission lines than when they upgrade the distribution system. They get a higher rate of return, right? So it is in their best interest to continue with the model of large far-off generation facilities compared to local rooftop solar type solutions or microgrids or battery storage. So that's the first part of the problem, I think. And secondly, I think some of these utilities just really are not very nimble. They're sort of in the business that they've been in for a long time and thinking about how to create a dynamic grid that has time of use rates that actually work, for instance, or bidirectional power.We have had smart meters in this state for over a decade and I can't see how they're being used in any kind of smart way. I mean, people are still calling the utilities to let them know the power is out.David RobertsIt's just baffling to me. Like, if I'm in the utility business, this is like my time to be a hero, you know what I mean? After 100 years of sleepy operation in the background, all of a sudden the world is calling upon me to be cutting edge and be the hero and save the world and instead, I'm just going to "I just want to keep doing things the way I've been doing." I don't know, people are disappointing.Nicole GrohoskiNo comment.David RobertsYeah. So I read in one of the stories about this. One of the opponents of this measure said, quote, "The people behind this proposal have no actual plan to lower rates, improve reliability and enable a swifter energy transition." The implication being that the fans of this measure just think that making the utility public is going to be sort of automagically, make everything easier and cleaner and cheaper, but there's no actual plan to do so. Is there a specific plan for how Pine Tree would operate and how it would do these things? Has anyone modeled out sort of you know what I mean?Is there more than just hope that the structure will do the work for you?Nicole GrohoskiWell, I think that the person who said that spent some time cherry-picking certain things in the ballot language but missed the bigger picture here, which is we have to start by saying yes on November 7 and then at that time then we have an election for the board of directors and it goes on from there. But until that time the Maine Public Utilities Commission cannot compel the utilities to give over their very private data to do that kind of in-depth modeling that is going to be the very next task for the Pine Tree Power Board once it exists and that is spelled out in the ballot question. You know, these utilities, I'm just going to be level about it: They don't have a plan either.And I can tell you that because the legislature last year had to pass a law requiring them to do integrated grid planning and think about how is it going to work to increase renewables on the grid, to increase demand as people install more heat pumps and use electric vehicles. They're not doing that or if they are doing it they're not doing it in any kind of way that is transparent or subject to review. So I think it's like a great bait and switch tactic.David RobertsAren't they supposed to create integrated resource plans? I thought that was something that all utilities had to do.Nicole GrohoskiI think they have some planning, but it is clear from the way that the interconnection queues are looking, the very high cost they're pushing onto developers for even just what turns out to be basic grid maintenance, there isn't really — maybe they have something that says "plan" at the top, but I'm not sure that all the nuts and bolts are actually there.David RobertsYeah, I meant to hit on interconnection before because that's one of the critiques also is that they are slow-walking interconnection of distributed resources, etc. Presumably they're doing that, or at least they say they're doing that to protect the grid. Do we have reason to believe they're slow-walking that on purpose such that Pine Tree could substantially speed up the interconnection queue?Nicole GrohoskiWe do have reason to believe that specifically because of all the complaints that we've received as legislators. We did ask the Public Utilities Commission to look into this and they hired the Interstate Renewable Energy Council, or IREC, to do a study. And the IREC findings were basically especially around Versant, which is in eastern and northern Maine. These guys are some of the worst actors we've ever seen in the United States. They are requiring things that they can't justify why they're requiring them, and we can find no reason from an engineering perspective to require them. And your listeners might find it fascinating to know that for Versant customers, the average cost of interconnecting your rooftop solar to the grid is $10,000.David RobertsJesus.Nicole GrohoskiThat is not normal is what I'm told. Another great story that I've heard from a couple of constituents is that they need a transformer upgrade to interconnect their rooftop solar. Okay, that might be true, and that upgrade is going to cost you $1,000 - $1,500. But we can't get the parts for two years.David RobertsOh my goodness.Nicole GrohoskiNow the same solar installers that are working in my area are also working in CMP's area Central Maine Power. Because I live my district includes both, and the installers are saying "CMP says they can get it in two months." So then I asked my constituents "Can you file a formal complaint at the PUC using this process we had to create because this is such a rampant issue?" And when they do that and go through the whole process, then that transformer has arrived and been installed within two to three months time. So I don't know what to say about it.I can only say what I see from the outside and the experience that I have heard about from people that pick up the phone and call me. But it seems shady to go from two years to two months.David RobertsLet's grapple here with what is probably the biggest and most difficult issue around all this, which is say Maine voters say yes to this, and it goes forward. Basically, it would involve the state of Maine buying these two utilities assets from the utilities, and depending on who you believe those assets are worth anywhere from $5 to I think CMP is now saying it could get up to $13 billion. So that's a big public expense. So how's that going to get financed? Who's going to pay it? How long is it going to take to pay it? Have we thought through in any detail how that process works?Nicole GrohoskiYes, definitely. And that was a big part of what the London Economics analysis included was that legal analysis of what that purchase price process would look like. We also have been able to look at this transition as has happened in other communities in the country, and we created an expedited and refereed process to determine the purchase price. And all told, from this fall to switch over to Pine Tree Power, we expect it to take three to four years. What we know from the LEI study is that this is a completely legal and constitutional effort. It's helpful to remind folks that because these are actual monopolies, they only have the right to be doing business because we give it to them.And in the Maine statutes, it literally says the PUC can take it away.David RobertsYeah, I mean, of course, again, this drives me crazy. I'm reading articles about this and of course, just once I'd like there to be a good argument had in public instead of idiots. But all the Republicans are now saying "This is a communist takeover of private business by the state. It's Communists. Why don't we call it Chinese electricity?" I've read, some of the dumbest quotes.Nicole GrohoskiAre you in the comments section?David RobertsNo, these are legislators. This is not even I mean, there's barely a distinction anymore. But like, the Republican legislators are saying this now. So it's worth just emphasizing the point that you just made, sort of drawing a line under it, which is these businesses have been granted a monopoly by the state and granted guaranteed returns by the state. So of course the state can take that back. Of course this is legal. Like if the state grants, the state can take away if the state is granting it on the grounds that it will be of service to the state's residents and it's not anymore, then of course the state can take that monopoly back.It's just crazy viewing. It's not like Maine is going to go take over the potato chip industry.Nicole GrohoskiWe have no interest in that.David RobertsThis is not a normal business. Utilities are not normal private businesses. They are state basically state created entities. And so of course, the state can uncreate them if it wants to. Sorry, I know that will not have any effect at all on the dumb things Republicans say about this.Nicole GrohoskiWell, I do want to clarify. We do have some really strong Republican support, from certain legislators as well as just regular folks. I mean, that was the greatest thing about collecting signatures for this initiative, which I did and my family did and many other people I know was that when you remove it from a debate in a state house, regular people just get it. They get that this is really important to our economy to have an electricity grid that works for us and for our health and safety. And they also understand that maybe this is not a place for profits.And I've had folks wearing Birkenstocks and folks wearing MAGA hats sign the petition because I think Maine people are really resilient. We are proud of our ability to solve problems and I think the majority of us believe this is something that we can do and that we probably could do it better than some far-off foreign monopoly.David RobertsAnyway, I interrupted you. You were talking about how these giant bills are going to get paid. Basically you say it's going to take about four years to do all the work, to transfer everything over. Would the $5 billion or however much it turns out to be, be paid off over those four years or how will it be financed?Nicole GrohoskiNo. So we did meet with some municipal bond banks. This sort of acquisition, like in the case of Long Island, has been paid off over a long period of time. And that's how we're able to see the rate reduction. You know again, similar to renting versus owning. I was able to buy a home. My mortgage is less than my rent would be, but I am still paying it off. And even with the interest, it's still less. So we have the ability through revenue bonding to borrow that money backed by the ratepayers, not actually by the state government and the general fund, but by the ratepayers.We have the ability to borrow that money, and then pay it off over time, and borrow more as we need to build out the grid.David RobertsWould it being a public utility enable it to draw on state money? Because one of the points a few pods ago we were talking about a new offshore wind bill that would draw money from state coffers rather than from ratepayers. And one of the sort of arguments and defense of that is taking tax money from state taxpayers is much more progressive than taking it from ratepayers. Basically you're getting a much more progressive source of funding. Is there any talk of Pine Tree being able to draw on state money or would it still just operate as a utility and get all its money and revenue and stuff from ratepayers the same way a private utility would?Nicole GrohoskiThe enabling statute has it separate. I think that that is really important, especially to our union workers because they had concerns about becoming public sector workers and what that would mean for their right to strike, for instance. So we have ensured that they are private sector workers.David RobertsOh, interesting.Nicole GrohoskiWhether or not a future legislature might say we're able to maintain that and have the utility doing efficiency programs that are paid through the taxpayer dollars versus ratepayer dollars, I can't predict. To your point about regressivity, one of the things that is required in the bill language for the Pine Tree Power Company is to establish lower rates for low income residential customers in the first five year plan. So we are trying to address that challenge that you're absolutely correct. It's the regressive funding structure, unlike taxation.David RobertsAlso, one of the criticisms of these utilities is that they're sending all these cutoff notices, they're cutting off people from power, which is bad for all obvious reasons. But is Pine Tree going to pledge not to do that? And if it doesn't do that, where does that money to cover those people's rates come from? Because that would seem like an additional expense because whatever you might say about cutting people off, it does save the utilities money.Nicole GrohoskiRight. Well, we do have what's called the Arrearage Management Program here in Maine and that does help folks get out of arrears and that is ratepayer funded program. So that is a somewhat fiscally progressive approach to that. You know the details of that program are probably more than you'd want to know. But the long and short is if you get back on track then some of your debt will be just forgiven. But it's not forgiven by the utilities, it's forgiven by your neighbors.David RobertsRight. Well, would Pine Tree pledge not to cut people off? Like, is that part of the campaign here or how would it treat cutoffs ?Nicole GrohoskiYou know, it's a good question that surprisingly I don't know if anyone has posed to me it is not in the legislation one way or the other. I'm of the belief that if rates go down and we could have rates that were income stratified to some extent, that the amount of disconnection notices that we saw earlier this year would go way down just economically. But I think it would be really a decision of the board. And then I'm also not sure if the Public Utilities Commission if there are any rules on the books because this utility, unlike a lot of consumer utilities in the country, is regulated by the Public Utilities Commission as if it were an investor owned utility.So, there may be specific rules about that already.David RobertsYeah, I would just think though, if you're trying to sell this, making this public rather than private, one of the things you could sell is like we think this is a public right to have electricity on some level.Nicole GrohoskiThe one other thing about it that just comes to mind is that a couple of years ago during COVID, people were especially concerned about the disconnection notices, not knowing if they were going to be receiving a next paycheck but we were told that the disconnection notices were necessary in order to provide certain assistance. So the utilities said, "Oh don't worry, we're not actually going to disconnect anyone but we have to do this to get them into this next program." So, I don't know if that would come into play here but I'm not convinced that the utilities wouldn't have ultimately shut the people off but that was a way that they spun it at least.David RobertsOne more kind of semi-technical question that's a little bit of a side thing but is of interest, I think, to Volts listeners. One of the provisions in the IRA, the Inflation Reduction Act, is that it makes some of the tax credits direct pay, which means you don't have to pay taxes to get it back. You can get it back directly as a check and one of the categories of entities that would qualify for this is tax-exempt entities. So I wonder, has anyone done any thinking, and maybe this is too in the weeds but done any thinking about what advantage it might pose for Maine to have its utility be tax-exempt, whether it will benefit from the IRA through that.Nicole GrohoskiIt is something we're thinking about because we were excited to see that direct pay provision sort of leveling the playing field for publicly owned generation which is another topic I'm very interested in, but I think it remains to be seen. In the case of Pine Tree Power, it is not allowed to own generation and it may be permitted to own some storage as is necessary to maintain the grid functioning. So I'm not entirely sure that that direct IRA provision would help in this case but what I think it does is sort of change the paradigm a bit there that may then also shift to other things. If the federal government says let's have an ITC or PTC for transmission lines, the next step might be —David RobertsPraise be.Nicole GrohoskiWell, let's make sure we set it up the same way we've just done with generation. Yes, I think it's a really important conversation even if it doesn't have a direct immediate effect on the Pine Tree Power Company.David RobertsInteresting. As I think anyone could predict just from what we've said so far, even knowing nothing else about it but what we've said so far, I'm sure people could predict that the private utilities in question are not excited about this happening and have mobilized to prevent it from happening. So tell us a little bit about the campaign against this. Is it as hysterical as one would predict?Nicole GrohoskiYeah, I mean hysterical is one word for it. Deeply troubling is another phrase that comes to mind. But these are utilities, like I mentioned, about the amount of profit that they make and that's just off of their Central Maine Power and Versant holdings. But Central Maine Power is just a small, small fraction of the entire Iberdrola conglomerate. So, yeah, we have seen them spending a lot of money against the campaign. They've put $27 million toward the campaign, both utilities, as of the end of June. So we expect to see more of course.David RobertsNot a small amount in a small state.Nicole GrohoskiNo. And honestly, talking to my neighbors, people are very upset by it. They're kind of irate that they're the people whose power goes out and doesn't come back on for a couple of days. They're the folks who had to spend $10,000 for a generator which isn't part of a clean energy solution last I checked. And there go the utilities putting $27 million toward just running ads.David RobertsYeah, I mean, are they experiencing it as a flood of ads? I mean, $27 million must allow you to kind of dominate the airwaves.Nicole GrohoskiYes, the airwaves are definitely bought up, as far as we can tell. And they have just their two donors, which are the utility parent companies, which are Avangrid and Enmax.David RobertsAre they funding 100% of this?Nicole Grohoski100%, yes. And these utilities, lest they tell you how amazing and green and climate-friendly they are, they are gas utilities, Avangrid and Enmax anyhow. And then on the flip side, we are a smaller organization. We don't have Mainers' pockets to pickpocket on a regular basis.David RobertsI'm guessing you guys haven't hit $27 million yet. How much money have you have?Nicole GrohoskiYou're closer to around a million, I think. And that's over 1000 donors, most of whom are just regular donors giving what they can because they understand these differences. And also I think the big difference is the utilities are putting out a lot of fear, doubt, scare tactic type ads. And on the flip side, what we're offering people is something different and something positive, something that we can all lean into and make sure that it succeeds because it would actually be ours. So I think that's resonating with folks.David RobertsWhat are the scare tactics specifically? Are they saying this will be expensive or what?Nicole GrohoskiYeah, expensive. I mean, you quoted some of their numbers and it's laughable. They're like, "Oh, we're going to get $13.5 billion." Well, they're worth $5.4 billion. That's what they pay taxes on. That's what they filed their official paperwork saying. So I think especially as we learn more and more about how decrepit certain portions of this grid are, they'd be lucky to get a little bit over that. So that's one of them. "Is there a plan? We don't have a plan, but do they have a plan?" is another one. You know what, a lot of it is just to my sensibility is a little insulting to Maine people.You don't know what you're doing, that kind of thing. Meanwhile, we're going to keep the line workers who are doing the work and we're giving them a retention bonus because we value their expertise, because they're the ones that actually know how the grids work, not the CEOs and the CFOs.David RobertsYeah, it is historically pretty easy though just to I mean, when you're fighting against change, you barely even need arguments. You know what I mean? You can just say "Booga booga booga change" and you're halfway there, it seems like.Nicole GrohoskiWell, I think that's why we're in such a unique position in Maine because while that can be kind of an initial gut reaction, I think people here are curious. We've certainly seen plenty of campaigns where one side was outspent a lot by the other and it didn't make a difference. We have led in other policy areas. Ranked choice voting could be one recent example. Clean elections one of the only states that splits our electoral college votes. So I think Maine people, I think we're interested in things that are different if they make sense to us.David RobertsWhere is the public on this? Do we know do we have enough polling or survey data or what have you to know kind of what the level of support is or where the public is on this? Do we have a barometer? Do we have a measure here?Nicole GrohoskiYeah, I think the most recent public polling was probably a couple of months ago. But what it showed was there were people that were solidly in each camp but a lot of undecided voters and it really put us in a dead heat in terms of the people that were decided. And what I think is interesting is folks are not being swayed by Central Maine Power and Versant ads mainly because we don't trust them. They have not been good faith actors.David RobertsAre they creating fake groups like "Mainers for puppy dogs and grandma"?Nicole GrohoskiYes, Maine Affordable Energy is one of them. Yeah, so they sound pretty good, but all you have to do is google that and you find out pretty quickly, because of our disclosure rules, that's 100% utility funded.David RobertsTo the extent that the public supports this, are they viewing it as primarily a green thing, a thing about clean energy? Or is it primarily " Screw these out of state —," you know what I mean? Like a Maine pride kind of thing. Is it a reliability? Do you know what it is about this that the public has taken from it? What it is the public is supporting when the public supports it?Nicole GrohoskiThat's a great question and it does vary depending on the person and their interest and maybe even where they live in the state because the utility rates are the worst where I live compared to all the other districts in the state. So it depends. I think if you're a person who tried to interconnect and you got told you have to wait two years and $10,000, then it might be about greening the grid. But I think for a lot of folks underlying whatever their specific reason might be, it is that question of trust. I think about this all the time we have aggressive clean electricity goals, but 50% of our carbon emissions in this state are coming from vehicles and we are the most heating oil dependent state in the country.So we've got to get people onto the electricity grid in order to have any hope of cleaning it up. But it's really hard for me to knock on someone's door and say, "I really hope you'll consider changing your whole house over to heat pumps, even though we have below zero temperatures sometimes. Or I know that the power went out for a week last year, but would you consider an EV?" So I think that in order to make this transition work, we have to have utilities that people trust and that are providing just basic service. People should not have to think as hard as they're thinking about if their electricity is going to be there for them.David RobertsYes, that's such an important point. And so generalizable too, like if electrification is the thing, then people have got to trust the institutions in charge of electrification and they do not have much public trust these days. So that's an interesting argument in favor, I think, of making utilities more accountable, more public. What about the other big argument against one of the big scare things is you have to buy all these assets, which is like a big bill, a big one-time bill. The other scare story is that utilities are going to immediately sue, that this is going to get mired in the courts, and that it's going to take 4, 5, 6, 7 years to even get it all settled, and until then it will be chaos and no one will know what's going on and blah, blah, blah.So realistically, what's your view of, say, voters approve this in November? What is your view of sort of how that plays out and when and how the inevitable legal wrangling gets resolved?Nicole GrohoskiBasically, the Pine Tree Power Board will offer a certain amount for the utility infrastructure. I don't expect that the utilities will accept that on first pass you're buying a used car, you don't just take the first price. Right. So we would expect some negotiation, but if that doesn't work, then it will go to the courts. And there is a refereed process that's spelled out in the legislation in the Superior Court that then can be appealed to the Supreme Court in the state of Maine. But there are timelines set up. So it cannot go on for years and years and years, because at some point, if you lose or win a case, that's it.You have one appeal. I think it's funny that this argument is coming from the utilities because if there are any lawsuits and if it got dragged out, as they say, even though we've protected against that to the best of our ability, that's coming from them. That is a choice that they are making.David Roberts"Don't make us do this."Nicole GrohoskiYeah, so it's kind of ironic but additionally, one of the things that comes up is how do we know the utilities will continue to invest in the meantime? And it's like the best parallel I could say to that is if I'm going to sell my house, I don't just stop fixing things before I sell it. I keep it up in really good shape. And in fact, utilities would have an incentive to invest more because usually they don't just sell it for exactly what it's worth. There's usually a multiplier. We expect it to be like 1.5 times.So we actually have increased the oversight capacity of the Public Utilities Commission to ensure that there isn't any of that sort of last-minute gold plating going on, because that is actually what we'd expect, not the further disrepair scenario.David RobertsOh, so you think if this goes through, they'll plow a bunch of money into high dollar upgrades just to boost their price that you have to pay for them?Nicole GrohoskiThat's what I would do if I were them. Fortunately, we're going to keep an eye on that on behalf of Maine people. But if you are able to invest a million dollars here and in two to three years time make $1.5 million because that's the multiplier that the courts assign, that's pretty good.David RobertsYeah. So what's your timeline in your head then? What do you envision? At what point is there just the one public utility operating and all this is behind us? Were you willing to predict?Nicole GrohoskiYeah, we're looking at fall 2027, so four years from now, and that includes having the elections for the board members next year. So that's the first major hurdle, which I think is exciting, especially because living in one of the more rural parts of Maine, we don't always feel here that our interests are represented at the Public Utilities Commission, which is folks from southern Maine. And I think this geographic component is really compelling to, you know, so that's our first step. And then basically we have to get a lot of information. I mean, the board would have to get a lot of information from the utilities in order to know what purchase price they should put forward, what's the business plan, what does the revenue bonding look like, and make sure they can secure that financing through a large municipal bond market.So that takes time and we want to make sure we do it right. On the other hand, doing nothing is also a risk that I think sets people in my generation and folks younger than me behind economically and environmentally for decades. So a couple of years to do it right is definitely worth it.David RobertsOkay, final question then. I can see lots of Maine-specific reasons why one might argue that this is a good deal; these utilities are particularly bad, Maine has a particular set of problems, it has a particular sort of public culture, a culture of participation and a culture of civic engagement, et cetera, et cetera. Lots of Maine-specific reasons why you could make the case for this. I wonder, to what extent do y'all have your eyes on other states and trying to make this the beginning of something bigger? Like, do you believe that taking private utilities public is a good idea across the board?Is that something you'd like to see become a national trend or are you just purely focused on Maine? How do you think about the influence this may or may not have on other states?Nicole GrohoskiI think that all the issues we've had in Maine are what led us to looking around for solutions, but it is a structural imbalance that we have with the regulated monopolies when they're for profit. So, I do think it is something that is exportable to other states. We people in our coalition have been working with and talking to people elsewhere in the country who are looking to make a similar transition also elsewhere in the world. It's kind of interesting. The Scottish power is also owned by Avengrid, which owns Central Maine Power, and they are looking to become a public, truly public utility over there.So, in doing this work, we've found a lot of interest for that business model change. And I think as we become another case study, we are standing on the shoulders of other case studies that have happened in this country. And as we become another one for folks, I think that we'll see some opportunities arise. And I would like to see that because I want every American to be able to afford their electricity and to be able to have clean energy and not a lot of hurdles to getting there, because we are literally all in this together as a country and as a world with our climate crisis.David RobertsThat seems like a wonderful note to wrap up on. Nicole Grohoski, thanks so much for coming on and walking through this with us. It's super fascinating and I think it will be an example to the rest of the country one way or the other. However it plays out.Nicole GrohoskiWe're hoping that we're a positive "yes" example. We're working every day toward that. And I want to thank you, David, for having me on and talking about this topic, which is, I think, endlessly important and fascinating.David RobertsAgreed, agreed. OK. Thanks, Nicole. Thank you for listening to the Volts podcast. It is ad-free, powered entirely by listeners like you. If you value conversations like this, please consider becoming a paid Volts subscriber at volts. WTF. Yes, that's volts.WTF so that I can continue doing this work. Thank you so much and I'll see you next time. Get full access to Volts at www.volts.wtf/subscribe

The top brass of the Democrat party in the US have all rallied behind Joe Biden with their eyes on the 2024 presidential election. But they have a problem. Repeated polls suggest support for the incumbent president is stagnant at best. Dangerously low at worst. A repeated concern among doubting voters is his age and health. If Biden wins a second term next year, and completes four years in power, he will be 86 when he steps down. Much of the electorate simply don't think he has it in him. Republican front runner Donald Trump has long dubbed the president as Sleepy Joe. It's a taunt that increasingly rattles the nerves of the Democratic Party faithful. As the president's voice noticeably weakens and his gait stiffens there is a fear he just sounds and looks too old for the job. But is his physical and mental capacity being distorted by his adversaries to undermine his achievements? His team point to major policies he's passed including his infrastructure bill, the Inflation Reduction Act, and his chips and science act. He's also recently returned from the G20 summit in India and before that he travelled by planes, trains and car into war-torn Ukraine. And Joe Biden is not alone in the very upper echelons of American politics. Donald Trump is 77 years old, the oldest senator is 90 years old and the Republican senate minority leader is 81 years old and ailing. Does America have a problem with the gerontocracy not making way for new blood and what does it mean for the coming 2024 election? Shaun Ley is joined by: Christy Setzer - a Democrat strategist who was spokesperson for vice president Al Gore's presidential campaign. Scott Jennings - a Republican strategist who was special assistant to President George W. Bush from 2005 to 2008 James Politi - Washington bureau chief for the Financial Times Also in the programme: Jay Olshansky - Professor of Public Health at the University of Illinois, Chicago. Amanda Litman - co-founder and co-executive director of the organisation 'Run For Something', which recruits and supports young progressives trying to win office. Produced by Ellen Otzen and Zak Brophy Image: US President Joe Biden addresses the United Nations General Assembly Leader's Reception at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City on September 19, 2023.Credit: Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)

What are the key new rules related to payment and transferability associated with energy projects? Find out in the latest Tax News & Views podcast.

Sign up for Economist Podcasts+ now and get 50% off your subscription with our limited time offer*One of the many aims of President Joe Biden's signature legislation, the Inflation Reduction Act, is to cut the cost of drugs prescribed by Medicare, a government health insurance programme for Americans 65 and over. But the policy could have some side-effects for patients far beyond the US.Hosts: Tom Lee-Devlin and Mike Bird. Contributors: Shailesh Chitnis, The Economist's global business correspondent; Tricia Neuman, a senior advisor to Mr Biden; and David Fredrickson of AstraZeneca.*You will not be charged until Economist Podcasts+ launches. If you're already a subscriber to The Economist, you'll have full access to all our shows as part of your subscription. For more information about Economist Podcasts+, including how to get access, please visit our FAQs page. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sign up for Economist Podcasts+ now and get 50% off your subscription with our limited time offer*One of the many aims of President Joe Biden's signature legislation, the Inflation Reduction Act, is to cut the cost of drugs prescribed by Medicare, a government health insurance programme for Americans 65 and over. But the policy could have some side-effects for patients far beyond the US.Hosts: Tom Lee-Devlin and Mike Bird. Contributors: Shailesh Chitnis, The Economist's global business correspondent; Tricia Neuman, a senior advisor to Mr Biden; and David Fredrickson of AstraZeneca.*You will not be charged until Economist Podcasts+ launches. If you're already a subscriber to The Economist, you'll have full access to all our shows as part of your subscription. For more information about Economist Podcasts+, including how to get access, please visit our FAQs page. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Steve Forbes slams a provision in the Inflation Reduction Act pertaining to price controls, and warns that they will throttle pharmaceutical development that could end up costing lives. Steve Forbes shares his What's Ahead Spotlights each Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The CSIS Energy Security and Climate Change team is launching a new podcast miniseries, New Shores, that will dive into the world of clean energy supply chains in the wake of the Inflation Reduction Act. Join us to learn about onshoring and friendshoring the energy transition.

In the latest episode of Tax Sound Bytes, a podcast series from the Tax Practice Group covering issues affecting federal and international tax, Eversheds Sutherland Partners David Blair and Xenia Garofalo explore the Inflation Reduction Act's direct pay and transferability provisions as moderated by Associate Anna Hargett.   David and Xenia discuss at-length who is impacted by these provisions, key issues to note and the path forward, in their view.

The Inflation Reduction Act includes a number of incentives to build and buy electric vehicles. For auto manufacturers, that includes incentives for sourcing their parts and raw materials domestically. That presents challenges for some communities -- notably in northern Minnesota, where there has been a rise in permit applications for new mines. Special correspondent Fred de Sam Lazaro reports. PBS NewsHour is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders

At this point, the science is very clear. If we want to limit global warming to 2 degrees above pre-industrial levels, we must not only reduce existing emissions, we must also at some point become net negative – meaning that we are removing more carbon from the atmosphere than we are putting into it. In this episode, Chad Reed sits down with Climeworks CFO Andreas Aepli to discuss the promise of Direct Air Capture (DAC) to provide a scalable, measurable and permanent solution for carbon removal. In addition to discussing how DAC works and both the DAC facilities Climeworks already has in operation and the DAC hubs in United States they are now developing, they delve into the viability of the business model for carbon removal, the need for supportive policy incentives and the imperative to establish transparency and trust for a truly scalable and tradable carbon removal credit market. Links: ClimeworksIntegrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon MarketU.S. Department of Energy selects three out of three DAC Hub applications that Climeworks participates inEpisode recorded August 22, 2023 Email your feedback to Chad, Gil, and Hilary at climatepositive@hasi.com or tweet them to @ClimatePosiPod.

Proving the solar skeptics wrong, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) now expects that utilities will add 54.5 Gigawatts of solar generation capacity in 2023. And this capacity does not include 6.4 Gw of residential installations and 1.7 Gw of commercial installations expected in 2023. SIDEBAR: a Gigawatt is a billion watts of power. In 1955 the eminent Dr. Emmett Brown stated that the only power source capable of generating 1.21 Gigawatts is a bolt of lightning. Obviously things have changed in the future. For over 20 years the EIA predicted that fossil fueled power generation would continue as our leading source of new power generation. They've been among the biggest solar skeptics, predicting that solar would never catch up. But now, solar-generated electricity is the cheapest source for new power. By far. Utility solar plants generate electricity for less than $0.02/kwh, and residential rooftop systems generate electricity for less than $0.08/kwh. Compare that to the $0.16/kwh average costs for power in the U.S., and $0.35/kwh for the average home in California. You may have heard about some of the solar industry "ups" (increased solar tax credits in the Inflation Reduction Act and more affordable battery storage systems) and "downs" (less favorable utility solar rates and tariffs on certain solar equipment). These ups and downs define what we in the industry call the Solar Coaster. Although challenging to predict, the one thing we can count on is that the economics for solar will continue to improve. Equipment costs are trending down, utility rates are increasing, and the reliability of the grid keeps getting worse and worse — all at the same time we are electrifying our buildings and transportation systems. To really understand the ups and downs in the solar industry it's necessary to look at the economic drivers in each of the main industry segments: Utility, Commercial and Residential. System costs, government policy and incumbent electric rates affect each of these market segments quite differently. In spite of this variability, the health of the overall solar industry is quite good. For a detailed dive into each of these market segments, please tune into this week's Energy Show.

Sir Angus Deaton, a Nobel Prize winning economist and Princeton University professor, says that economic policy for the last few decades has paid little to no attention to "the negative consequences of trade, of disruption, of people losing their jobs to automation to globalization and what-not" and he thinks the Inflation Reduction Act has started to reverse that, though the progress maybe short-lived given current politics. Deaton weighs in on the UAW strike and the importance of unions and what he sees as the best possible outcome not only of the current situation but in the ways Corporate America and workers will deal with technological improvements from here. Also on the show, Miles Tullo discusses the latest research from J.D. Power on consumer preferences at the point of sale; debit cards are the not-surprising winner, but alternative methods -- including buy-now-pay-later choices -- are increasingly popular. Plus, portfolio manager Andrey Kutusov of Seven Canyons Advisors, talks international growth investing in the Market Call.

Last month marked the 1-year anniversary of the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act. The somewhat simple name belies the breadth and scope of this enormous piece of legislation. Among other changes like tax code and Medicare reform, the IRA is also the most comprehensive piece of US climate policy in history, and it contains a dizzying number of new programs and incentives that seek to reorient the US industrial base and economy towards green infrastructure. Despite the bill's potential impact, a Washington Post-University of Maryland poll revealed in August that 71% of Americans surveyed know "little to nothing" about the IRA. This week on The Buzz, we're trying to change that.  Our guest is Grace Smith, an attorney with the Environmental Defense Fund who, along with colleagues at Columbia Law School, maintains the Inflation Reduction Act Tracker. She'll help get us up to speed on what's in the IRA, how implementation is proceeding, and what's coming next. Also check out Rewiring America's IRA Savings Calculator!For more from ACT-IAC, follow us on LinkedIn or visit http://www.actiac.org.

This 800th episode of the Novogradac Tax Credit Tuesday podcast launches “Renewable Energy Tax Credit Finance Series,” which will focus on renewable energy tax credit (RETC) financing updates and trends. In this episode, Michael Novogradac, CPA, and Tony Grappone, CPA, discuss various factors affecting RETC structuring trends, including the Inflation Reduction Act, transferability, refundability and bonus credits.

That a broad swath of new money flowed into last week's IPOs by RayzeBio and Neumora is a good sign for biotech and a departure from deals done last year, BioCentury's Stephen Hansen said on the latest BioCentury This Week podcast. Hansen and colleagues assess the offerings and the companies' aftermarket performance alongside NASDAQ's six other top biotech IPOs of the year for signs of what's next for companies looking to go public.BioCentury's editors also discuss what new regulatory requirements in China mean for Chinese biotechs hoping to debut on a stock exchange in the near future, as well as the latest developments in lawsuits related to the Inflation Reduction Act and an upcoming hearing on the IRA in the House.

Trump says DeSantis heart beat bill in Florida is “terrible.” 
How is it possible that the US military lost an F-35 for 2 days? With democrats eliminating the dress code in the US Senate, the fellas are offering a new casual uniform for all Senators to wear. Grover Norquist stops by to discuss the failures of Biden's ‘Inflation Reduction Act.'

One year after the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, which Big Green groups hailed as a 'climate justice bill,' the truth is surfacing that this legislation is lining the pockets of the fossil fuel industry to the detriment of frontline, especially Black and Indigenous, communities. Clearing the FOG speaks to Anthony Rogers-Wright, a national racial and climate justice advocate, about the ways Joe Biden and the Democrats are failing to address the climate crisis and Big Green groups are turning away from climate justice to embrace Green Capitalism. Rogers-Wright also describes better alternatives to the Big Greens and where people can focus their efforts effectively to struggle for a just and livable future. For more information, visit PopularResistance.org.

In this podcast, Hasan Muslemani talks to Andrew Goddard about his latest paper entitled ‘Deal or No Deal: Will the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) push Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) and Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) technologies over the line?'. The author evaluates the unprecedented support for climate and the clean energy transition under the […] The post OIES Podcast – US Inflation Reduction Act appeared first on Oxford Institute for Energy Studies.

Economist, commentator and podcaster Chris Johns talks to Eamon about the impact on America of Joe Biden's CHIPS and Science Act and Inflation Reduction Act.Recorded on Wednesday 13th September 2023. Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/the-stand-with-eamon-dunphy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

One year on since US President Biden signed the landmark IRA into law, there's been no shortage of figures attesting to the cosmic transformation of the “Made in America” clean energy renaissance. Ehsan Khoman, Head of Research – Commodities, ESG and Emerging Markets (EMEA) at MUFG, discusses MUFG's latest ESG thought leadership report that provides a comprehensive assessment of what the IRA has achieved in its first year and what comes next. According to Ehsan, the energy trilemma pillars of affordability, security and sustainability, naturally dovetail with this goldilocks piece of clean energy regulation, with the data to date substantiating that we are in the early innings of a renewables capex supercycle – see here for the full report.

Tony is back! Joe Biden continues to struggle to speak. The auto workers strike. There's a giant pay gap and health benefits Every House Republican voted against the Inflation Reduction Act. Hunter Biden has been indicted on gun charges. It shouldn't be, but it's surprising.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A growing number of red states are trying to limit the sales of electric vehicles through new taxes, fees, and laws. Those moves have infuriated EV advocates and created barriers to President Joe Biden's efforts to decarbonize the transportation sector through widespread EV adoption. POLITICO's E&E News reporter Adam Aton breaks down why red states are resisting EV adoption and the potential impact of their efforts.   For more news on energy and the environment, subscribe to Power Switch, our free evening newsletter: https://www.politico.com/power-switch And for even deeper coverage and analysis, read our Morning Energy newsletter by subscribing to POLITICO Pro: https://subscriber.politicopro.com/newsletter-archive/morning-energy   Catherine Morehouse is an energy reporter for POLITICO.  Adam Aton covers the politics of climate change for POLITICO's E&E News. Nirmal Mulaikal is a POLITICO audio host-producer.  Annie Rees is a senior audio producer-host at POLITICO.  Gloria Gonzalez is the deputy energy editor for POLITICO.  Matt Daily is the energy editor for POLITICO.

In a proposed rule issued earlier this summer, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) suggested expanding the scope of combining, or stacking, discounts when determining best price. Meanwhile, the Inflation Reduction Act amended the statutory best price definition to include maximum fair prices negotiated under CMS's new Medicare price negotiation authority. In this episode of Connected with Latham, partner Chris Schott and associate Danny Machado explain how CMS's proposed rule on best price stacking differs from past interpretations, and discuss possible ways CMS could implement the Inflation Reduction Act's statutory change to the best price definition.   This podcast is provided as a service of Latham & Watkins LLP. Listening to this podcast does not create an attorney client relationship between you and Latham & Watkins LLP, and you should not send confidential information to Latham & Watkins LLP. While we make every effort to assure that the content of this podcast is accurate, comprehensive, and current, we do not warrant or guarantee any of those things and you may not rely on this podcast as a substitute for legal research and/or consulting a qualified attorney. Listening to this podcast is not a substitute for engaging a lawyer to advise on your individual needs. Should you require legal advice on the issues covered in this podcast, please consult a qualified attorney. Under New York's Code of Professional Responsibility, portions of this communication contain attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Results depend upon a variety of factors unique to each representation. Please direct all inquiries regarding the conduct of Latham and Watkins attorneys under New York's Disciplinary Rules to Latham & Watkins LLP, 1271 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020, Phone: 1.212.906.1200

The Health Advocates are joined by Corey Greenblatt, Associate Director of Policy and Advocacy at GHLF. Together, they take a close look at the provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), how these impacts health care costs, and what it means for people living with chronic illness. “We have to really look at it through all sides, and really have to make sure that patients are staying involved in understanding the impact of this provision [drug pricing negotiation], because this provision will have an impact on patients,” says Corey. Among the highlights in this episode: 01:09: Corey provides background on the IRA detailing its main provisions and how it aims to impact patient access and affordability, especially for Medicare beneficiaries 02:21: Corey sheds light on the benefits patients have already started seeing, especially regarding insulin pricing and the ripple effect this has had in the commercial market 04:38: Corey explains the novel situation of the U.S. government having the ability to negotiate drug prices and the potential impacts of such a change on the health care industry 05:18: Steven Newmark, Director of Policy at GHLF, asks for clarity on why Medicare, being a significant payer, was historically unable to negotiate drug prices 07:48: Corey delves deeper into the intricate process of implementing the drug pricing negotiation provisions of the IRA, highlighting the current lack of transparency in the upcoming steps and emphasizing the need for stakeholder involvement in the process 09:03: Steven summarizes the ripple effect of Medicare decisions on the private health insurance space, pondering how a change in Medicare drug prices might affect the broader market 11:26: Corey explains that while the immediate impacts of the IRA might be beneficial, the long-term implications could affect drug development timelines and patient accessibility to new treatments 13:48: Join GHLF's advocacy efforts and sign up for the 50-State Network to get involved More information via this link: https://www.50statenetwork.org/become-a-50-state-network-advocate/ 15:40: Zoe Rothblatt, Associate Director, Community Outreach at GHLF, underscores the tension between accessibility and cost-saving measures, particularly when it comes to patients with chronic diseases versus the general public 16:21: Steven offers a perspective on the IRA from the lens of patient advocacy, drawing a parallel between societal contributions and the health care world, explaining how everyone benefits from a society where patients can access vital medications 19:13: Corey encourages listeners, especially patients, to share their experiences and concerns regarding the IRA, as this feedback is vital for accurate representation and advocacy 20:41: What our hosts learned from this episode Contact Our Hosts Steven Newmark, Director of Policy at GHLF: snewmark@ghlf.org Zoe Rothblatt, Associate Director, Community Outreach at GHLF: zrothblatt@ghlf.org We want to hear what you think. Send your comments in the form of an email, video, or audio clip of yourself to thehealthadvocates@ghlf.org Catch up on all our episodes on our website or on your favorite podcast channel.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sponsored by: ExxonMobilClimate Week is about to kick off in New York, so Lauren Collins and Michael Joyce, who are both partners at the law firm of Vinson and Elkins, join the show to talk about what to expect from Climate Week, what kinds of news and announcements they will be keeping an eye on and how the overall conversation about Climate Week -- and climate coverage in general -- has evolved over the years. We also mark the one year anniversary of the Inflation Reduction Act with a deep dive on the impact that legislation, particularly the tax credits it contains, has had on the energy sector. Lauren and Michael discuss  how the IRA will continue to reshape the energy mix and what to watch for as US government agencies continue to release related tax and regulatory guidance. They also share insights about Basel III and other headwinds that might slow the momentum of the IRA. Finally, Lauren and Michael offer their bold predictions about what lies ahead for the IRA in the next few years.Check out the Sustainability SmartPodHighlightsHow the conversation around Climate Week has evolved - (3:14)News to watch for coming out of Climate Week - (6:09)How and where firms are investing in renewables - (10:21)The IRA's impact on specific energy sectors - (16:24)Headwinds the IRA is facing - (20:23)The threat Basel III poses to tax equity and renewables investing - (21:38)US Treasury's much-anticipated guidance on hydrogen - (25:53)Questions developers are asking before closing deals - (29:09)The need for more talent throughout the industry - (30:46)Tax issues that continue to fly under the radar - (33:05)'Stacking' tax credits takes off - (37:09)Biggest takeaways from the first year of the IRA - (38:11)Lauren and Michael's bold predictions - (41:44)Sign up for the Renewable Energy SmartBriefFollow the show on Twitter @RenewablesPod

Howie and Harlan are joined by Ted Long, senior vice president of ambulatory care and population health at New York City Health + Hospitals, to discuss New York City's remarkable success in providing care to its most vulnerable citizens. Harlan discusses the state of research into long COVID, including his own studies; Howie reports on the first round of drug-price negotiation under the Inflation Reduction Act.  Links: “Scientists look at the progress made toward understanding—and treating—long COVID” National Institutes of Health “NIH launches new initiative to study ‘Long COVID'” The Yale Paxlovid for Long COVID (PAX LC) Trial Internal tremors and vibrations in long COVID: a cross-sectional study “Burnout threatens primary care workforce and doctors' mental health” NYC Health and Hospitals: Housing for Health “NYC Health + Hospitals Wins Superbowl Of Reducing Blood Pressure Awards” “Over 5,000 Patients Have Worked With NYC Health + Hospital Community Health Workers, Who Address Patients' Pressing Social Needs To Improve Their Health” The White House: Biden-⁠Harris Administration Announces First Ten Drugs Selected for Medicare Price Negotiation “Drugmakers Are ‘Throwing the Kitchen Sink' to Halt Medicare Price Negotiations” “The 4 Arguments You Will Hear Against Drug Price Negotiation” Learn more about the MBA for Executives program at Yale SOM. Email Howie and Harlan comments or questions.

Independent investigative journalism, broadcasting, trouble-making and muckraking with Brad Friedman of BradBlog.com

Presidential aides were in a state of nervous anticipation in the weeks leading up to the publication of Franklin Foer's new book, The Last Politician: Inside Joe Biden's White House and the Struggle for America's Future. The book is the first insider account of President Joe Biden's first two years in office, based on nearly 300 deep background interviews. Politico Playbook reported that "In Washington, the book will be a test for how a generally leak-proof White House grapples with the first detailed excavation of its successes and failures from the Inaugural through the midterms," and added that "In recent days Biden aides have been scrambling to secure a password-protected PDF of the book." Franklin Foer is a longtime Washington, D.C. journalist and staff writer at The Atlantic magazine. He was for many years a staff writer at The New Republic, along with briefer stints at Slate and New York magazine, and twice served as editor of The New Republic. He is the author of several books, including How Soccer Explains the World and World Without Mind: The Existential Threat of Big Tech. In this podcast episode, Foer discusses why he thinks Biden "is inherently more interesting than the public or pundits assume he is," how he came to write the book, and why he chose to focus on episodes from the early Biden presidency including the administration's response to the ongoing COVID pandemic, the disastrous military withdrawal from Afghanistan, and the struggle to pass critical legislation, particularly the Build Back Better bill that eventually became the Inflation Reduction Act. Foer also talks about why Biden is a difficult boss who nonetheless inspires fierce loyalty from his closest circle of aides, the tradeoffs involved with Biden's age, the question of whether Biden can accurately be described as a moderate or centrist, and why Biden has struggled with public perceptions of his presidency.

As part of our continued coverage of National Suicide Awareness Week, Director of Health Promotion for the Laborers Health and Safety Fund of North America, Jamie Becker, joined the America's Work Force Union Podcast to discuss the mental health initiatives and resources LIUNA provides for members. Becker also discussed the Health and Safety Fund and how adaptability is key for their mental health program. Executive Director of Good Jobs First, Greg LeRoy, joined the America's Work Force Union Podcast to talk about loopholes in the Inflation Reduction Act and the impact on the economy. LeRoy also talked about similarities to the loopholes found in the Clean Energy Savings For All Initiative and why the UAW's negotiations are being impacted by them.

As one of the architects of the Green New Deal, Rhiana Gunn-Wright has been a part of a fundamental shift in how climate policy is shaped and the discourse around it. But as she writes in her latest piece, "Our Green Transition May Leave Black People Behind," there are a number of ways that current climate policy is falling short on racial justice. She joins the show this week to share her critiques on the Inflation Reduction Act and discuss the power structures inhibiting more just policy. We also talk about the legacy of the Green New Deal more than four years after it debuted, how it changed the conversation on climate change, and what can be learned from its success.  You can read "Our Green Transition May Leave Black People Behind" in the Summer 2023 issue of the new magazine, Hammer & Hope. As always, follow us @climatepod on Twitter and email us at theclimatepod@gmail.com. Our music is "Gotta Get Up" by The Passion Hifi, check out his music at thepassionhifi.com. Rate, review and subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and more! Subscribe to our YouTube channel! Join our Facebook group. 

Siemens Foundation CEO David Etzwiler talks with CleanTechnica CEO Zach Shahan about the foundation's new $30 million initiative in the US "to drive inclusive workforce development in the electric vehicle charging sector," the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and more.

There is racism embedded in the most recent climate legislation in this country. Listen as Aaron and Damien discuss the piece “Our Green Transition May Leave Black People Behind” by Rhiana Gunn-Wright in Hammer & Hope, which outlines the implementation of the Inflation Reduction Act and other recent climate legislation, and how these laws exist at and amplify the intersections of racism, white supremacy, and environmental justice, and what we learn and can do in our continued work for social justice and collective liberation. Follow us on social media and visit our website! Instagram, Threads, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Website, Leave us a voice message, Merch store

One of the primary threats to the clean energy buildout spurred by the Inflation Reduction Act is a lack of transmission. Models show that hitting our Paris climate targets would involve building two to three times our current transmission capacity, yet new lines are desperately slow to come online. Meanwhile, existing lines are congested and hundreds of gigawatts of new clean energy sits waiting in interconnection queues.Wouldn't it be cool if there were some relatively cheap and speedy ways to get more capacity out of the transmission infrastructure we've already built? To ease some of that congestion and get more clean energy online while we wait for new lines to be completed?As it happens, there are. They are called grid-enhancing technologies, or GETs, and they can improve the performance of existing transmission lines by as much as 40 percent. It's just that, in the US at least, utilities aren't deploying them. They've been tested and deployed all over the world, but the US system has resisted using them at scale. I contacted Julia Selker, head of the Working for Advanced Transmission Technologies (WATT) Coalition, a GETs trade group, to discuss exactly what these technologies are, their enormous potential to ease grid congestion, why utilities still resist them, and what kinds of policies can help move them along. Get full access to Volts at www.volts.wtf/subscribe

This week, we brought TechCrunch+ senior climate reporter Tim De Chant on to talk climate tech, hardware breakthroughs, and why we have a whole stage this year at Disrupt focused on sustainability.On that last point, perhaps you have gone outside recently. Extreme weather around the world, warming oceans, fires — it's a mess out there. That's the bad news. The good news is that a number of startups are working hard to build new technologies that could shoothe our struggling planet. And perhaps make a lot of money in the process.Here's what we got into on the show:Climate tech venture capital activity. Why aren't we seeing more capital despite some interesting activity.The question of fusion. Is it really around the corner (this time)?Why we're both excited about potential hardware breakthroughs, even if LK-99 was not the real deal.Dread about our changing world.Tim is not only a great journalist, he's also very good at the whole science thing, so he was a treat to talk to!We're back on Friday for our last recording before we're on stage at Disrupt! Talk soon.For episode transcripts and more, head to Equity's Simplecast website.Equity drops at 7 a.m. PT every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. TechCrunch also has a great show on crypto, a show that interviews founders and more!

The Treasury Department is hoping to define how new electric vehicles can qualify for a lucrative tax credit under the Inflation Reduction Act by the end of this year. But Ford's agreement to license Chinese battery technology is putting the Biden administration in a difficult spot between looking tough on Beijing while also reaching the president's ambitious EV adoption goals. POLITICO's James Bikales breaks down the dilemma the Treasury Department faces as it works to define the IRA's “foreign entities of concern” provision and the political stakes. Plus, new data from the Department of Energy shows attacks on the U.S. power grid rose in the first six months of the year.   For more news on energy and the environment, subscribe to Power Switch, our free evening newsletter: https://www.politico.com/power-switch And for even deeper coverage and analysis, read our Morning Energy newsletter by subscribing to POLITICO Pro: https://subscriber.politicopro.com/newsletter-archive/morning-energy   Catherine Morehouse is an energy reporter for POLITICO.  James Bikales is the host of Morning Energy and a reporter for POLITICO.  Nirmal Mulaikal is a POLITICO audio host-producer.  Alex Keeney is a senior audio producer at POLITICO.  Gloria Gonzalez is the deputy energy editor for POLITICO.  Matt Daily is the energy editor for POLITICO.

“Much of our infrastructure isn't built to withstand certain kinds of flooding or certain levels of heat. And yet, as the climate changes, so many of the things… that we did know in a world with a stable climate, those are now being upended. And all of that affects costs fundamentally… So, we need to transition to net zero…The three pieces of (federal) legislation are all about investing in America and making sure that from the innovation to commercialization pipeline, we are helping those goods get to market at scale, at prices consumers can afford.” Heather Boushey on Electric Ladies Podcast Climate change affects the entire economy, especially our infrastructure, like transportation, energy and electric power systems, buildings, manufacturing, etc. and every one of us, from consumers to businesses to investors, to education etc. Every sector, every community, every income bracket. NOAA calculated it's already caused almost $3 trillion in damages. The Biden administration signed three massive bills into law with Congress's help that address this pivot to a net zero economy and upgrading our infrastructure. Listen to Heather Boushey, Member of the White House Council of Economic Advisors and Chief Economist of the Invest in America Cabinet, in this exclusive and rare interview by Joan Michelson on Electric Ladies Podcast explain how we can economically do this transition and how this federal funding reduces our risks and costs to do, while also expediting this transition to help avert even far worse effects of climate change.  You'll hear: How climate change affects the economy, and key sectors specifically. Resources in the Inflation Reduction  Act, Infrastructure Investment Act & CHIPS & Science Act to help homeowners, businesses and investors make these changes at reduced risks and lower costs. Where the opportunities – and jobs – are in this transition, including for women. The impact on women specifically and resources available Plus, insightful career advice, such as… “For me, the key to my career was being clear on what my mission is….I feel so enormously fortunate that I found a president to be able to work for who shares that goal….So I think the lesson in that is either be the leader that you want to believe in, or find that leader and attach yourself to them and see what amazing things you can do together. But, for me, it's been about being clear on what it is that I wanted to achieve.” Heather Boushey on Electric Ladies Podcast Read Joan's Forbes articles here too. You'll also like (some may have been recorded under our previous name, Green Connections Radio): Kristina Wyatt, Chief Sustainability Officer & Deputy General Counsel, Persefoni and former leader of the SEC task force developing the Climate Risk Disclosure rules. Aimee Christensen, Christensen Global, Former Clinton Administration Official, Founder/CEO Sun Valley Forum & Sun Valley institute For Resilience Sandrine Dixson-Decléve, Co-President of Club of Rome, on transitioning to a people-planet first economy. Melissa Lott, Ph.D., Director of Research, Global Energy Policy, Columbia University, on how exactly to get to carbon zero Jean Case, CEO, the Case Foundation and Chair, National Geographic Society, on ESG and impact investing. Anne Kelly, VP of Government Relations, Ceres, on business supporting the Inflation Reduction Act Subscribe to our newsletter to receive our podcasts, blog, events and special coaching offers.. Thanks for subscribing on Apple Podcasts or iHeartRadio and leaving us a review! Follow us on Twitter @joanmichelson

In this week's episode, host Kristin Hayes talks with Milan Elkerbout about how the European Union has responded to the Inflation Reduction Act. Elkerbout will join Resources for the Future as a fellow in October, transitioning from his role as head of the climate policy programme at the Centre for European Policy Studies. Elkerbout discusses the ongoing conversation about the Inflation Reduction Act among EU policymakers, climate policies that the European Union has proposed since the passage of the US law, and global trends in industrial and trade policy. This conversation with Hayes and Elkerbout comes on the heels of the one-year anniversary of the Inflation Reduction Act, which became law in August 2022. References and recommendations: “The New Economics of Industrial Policy” by Réka Juhász, Nathan Lane, and Dani Rodrik; https://drodrik.scholar.harvard.edu/publications/new-economics-industrial-policy

What makes President Joe Biden? We're all pretty familiar with Vice President Biden and Senator Biden. But in his latest iteration as commander-in-chief, it hasn't been as easy to see inside his mind.  Cracking into Biden's brain and inside the White House has been a challenge for the media. He's surrounded by a tight “clan” of family and advisors who have achieved Biden lifer status — and they don't often leak. It consists of his sister Valerie, and the five advisers known as the Quint: Steve Ricchetti, Mike Donilon, Anita Dunn, Bruce Reed, and now former chief of staff Ron Klain.  It's been a notoriously tough circle to penetrate.  But now one person has done it: Franklin Foer, who spent the last few years inside the heads of Biden and his team and has written the definitive account of President Biden's first two years in office called “The Last Politician: Inside Joe Biden's White House and the Struggle for America's Future.” The book was originally supposed to be about the first one hundred days. But the story was too interesting to stop. Next, he planned to wrap up after the passage of Build Back Better. The book ended up growing into a two-year project that ends tidily with the midterms. But where the book really shines when it grapples with the core of who Biden is —  both psychologically and ideologically. Whether you love Biden or hate him,  Frank's book just might change your mind about how you understand him. On this episode of Playbook Deep Dive, host and Playbook co-author Ryan Lizza sits down with Frank Foer to dig into the revelations that fill the pages of his new book, like how pivotal Biden's inner circle is to his decision making; his relationship with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy; the low point of the presidency so far; and what's in store for Biden as he prepares for another run as the oldest sitting president in history. Ryan Lizza is a Playbook co-author for POLITICO. Franklin Foer is a staff writer at The Atlantic.  Kara Tabor is a producer for POLITICO audio.  Alex Keeney is a senior producer for POLITICO audio.

If only the U.S. went after Big Pharma the way we went after narco traffickers. But not with weapons and violence, but something way sexier: REGULATION. Professor Carlos Martinez joins to discuss why we need to link public health with ending the drug war and the war on migrants. And maybe Dark Brandon is starting to crack down on pharma as he announces 10 drugs that will be subject to price negotiations under the Inflation Reduction Act. Then Burning Man gets washed out and Marjorie Greene has thoughts. Finally, a newsy round of "would you?" with radioactive sashimi and 400-year-old vampire children. Also Mitch. Same thing tbh.*Catch Francesca and Matt Lieb LIVE at the Punchline in San Francisco on Tuesday October 17th! Tickets: bit.ly/3OCzLiBFeaturing: Mateen Stewart, https://twitter.com/MateenStewart Carlos Martinez, https://twitter.com/compa_cmartinezThe Bitchuation Room Streams LIVE every TUESDAY and FRIDAY at 1/4pmEST on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/franifio and Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/franifioSupport The Bitchuation Room by becoming a Patron: www.patreon.com/bitchuationroom to get special perks and listen/watchback privileges of the Friday *BONUS BISH*Tip the show via Venmo:@TBR-LIVE Cash-App:@TBRLIVEMusic by Nick StarguFollow The Bitchuation Room on Twitter @BitchuationPodGet your TBR merch: www.bitchuationroom.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On Tuesday's Mark Levin Show, the spending, borrowing, and taxing from Democrats is so overwhelming to our national debt that we may never climb out of it. During a government shutdown, the Federal government never shuts down despite the Democrat propaganda, and the parts that do shut down impose the most panic, fear, and pressure on the American people so that Washington D.C. bureaucrats can get all the money they want. Democrats did not mind destroying small businesses and the private sector when everything was shut down for months due to COVID. The deficit is growing so fast that it will double by next year, risking a federal debt crisis thanks to inflation and other Democrat Marxist programs like Bidenomics and the Inflation Reduction Act. The D.C. media wants massive spending because the ruling class in Washington wants more and more, massively increasing the size and power of the wealthy elite while regular Americans get poorer and poorer. That is textbook Marxism, redistribution of wealth, and class warfare which is only getting worse until Conservatives put their foot down. Later, the Democrat Party's fetish for the 14th Amendment is a vile attack on our elections directed at one man: Donald Trump. If the Democrat Party, their media, and their academicians cannot rewrite the Constitution by interpretation, then they argue for abolishing it altogether and replacing it with a document that ensures their monopoly power and destroys our founding principles. The same kind of fraudulent approach is now before us with respect to Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which Democrats are desperately and cravenly insisting prevents former President Donald Trump from effectively running for a second presidential term. This is the party and these are the people who are organizing around a twisted fiction for banning Trump from the ballot and disenfranchising his would-be voters in advance of an election. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week on the Mark Levin Show, it is the job of a Grand Jury to indict on the basis of probable cause, not the Federal government. The use of these grand juries, where there is obvious evidence of chicanery by these prosecutors, must be scrutinized at the front end of these various cases. The Democrat party wants a one-party state like all autocracies, particularly Marxist regimes. Tanya Chutkan, the District Judge in Donald Trump's election interference case in Washington D.C., has been commiserating with the Obama judges in D.C. on how to make this the first case to take down Trump. She purposely set a March trial date to interfere with the Florida documents case in May. Judge Chutkan does not want a fair trial or a trial based on evidence, and there will not be due process in her courtroom which would make Stalin proud. The Democrat party doesn't care about people, they care about power. We have inexpensive drugs that save lives, particularly seniors, that are going to go into a tremendous shortage because of the Biden Administration's price negotiations authorized under the Inflation Reduction Act. It's time to break up the cabal of radical Democrat lawyers who make up the D.C. judiciary. These lifetime Democrat judges are destroying our judiciary, justice system, and republic. They disrespect you, they disrespect the rule of law, and they are interfering in a presidential election. They are simply too powerful and too political. They've demonstrated that they've abused their lifetime appointments and have become abusive and even tyrannical. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On Tuesday's Mark Levin Show, a judge is supposed to be a referee and ensure that the rights of the defendant are protected, which includes setting a date for trial. Tanya Chutkan, the District Judge in Donald Trump's election interference case in Washington D.C., has set a date for March 4, 2024, which falls right in the middle of the 2024 Presidential campaign and does not give much time for Trump lawyers to review the evidence and form a defense. Chutkan has been commiserating with the Obama judges in D.C. on how to make this the first case to take down Trump. She purposely set a March trial date to interfere with the Florida documents case in May. Judge Chutkan does not want a fair trial or a trial based on evidence, and there will not be due process in her courtroom which would make Stalin proud. Judge Cannon needs to file an anti-suit injunction to cease litigation being brought in D.C. so the defendants, particularly Trump, can do one trial at a time and have an actual shot of staying out of prison and having his due process rights recognized. Also, any Republican who votes against an impeachment inquiry of Joe Biden should be removed from office, because the country comes first – not their political futures. The Constitution provides a remedy for corruption in the Executive branch, and there is a mountain of evidence against Biden for his removal from office. Later, the Democrat party doesn't care about people, they care about power. We have inexpensive drugs that save lives, particularly seniors, that are going to go into a tremendous shortage because of the Biden Administration's price negotiations authorized under the Inflation Reduction Act. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices