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--- MAILBAG QUESTIONS ---

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Given the current circumstances and polling, is it time to start seriously talking about what climate policy/landscape might look like under the Trump administration? What can be rolled back or defanged and what can't?

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Came here to leave the same comment. Are there certain provisions / funding sources from the IRA, BIL, GGRF and others, that are more at-risk than others?

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You interview a lot of startups who are leading the way on emerging and/or promising technologies that could be absolute game-changers in just a few short years. My question is: what tools do you use to discern which technologies have a realistic shot at fulfilling their promises, and which ones are unrealistic?

In other words, how do you ensure you're not talking to a 'Theranos'? I have to admit, even with my engineering background, I've fallen for technology promises when I have a cognitive bias towards wanting that technology to be the future.

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I live in a small suburban town in NY. What can locals do at a small municipal level to advance climate policy?

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Have you looked to see if there's a Strong Towns chapter near you? https://www.strongtowns.org/local

I wonder what people here think of ST, and if they recommend other approaches... In my experience, they're easy to join and start - and provide resources and angles that are palatable to some of my more conservative friends and family!

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I volunteer with a community organizing group in a midwestern city that focuses on getting our city government to make (and act on) good climate policy. A lot of it is building community - rustling up your friends, neighbors, faith group, etc. and continually asking your local elected officials for something specific on climate (we have been focusing on increasing funding for existing programs). We've found it's a numbers-and-time game - the more people officials are hearing from over a longer course of time, the more likely they are to do something.

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This sounds great! What's your group? I'd be interested to hear what you've learned and any takeaways to share.

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Hi Forrest, the broader coalition is called the Just Transition Fund coalition, but I specifically volunteer with Unidos. We don't have a big online presence but here's some more info: https://unidos-mn.org/minneapolis-climate-equity

As for takeaways - I'll reiterate that it's a numbers game. Utilities and businesses (i.e. the big emitters) have a lot of influence over city councils, so you need to fight their money with people numbers. Having your reps (elected and unelected) hearing from as many people as often as possible goes a long way. The other side of it is something out of my wheelhouse - staff members with the coalition organizations are the ones that develop specific asks for the city reps, usually around specific ordinance language and funding mechanisms. It's good to have someone involved who knows how that all works in your town.

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What does the demise of congestion pricing indicate about the limitations of blue state governance with regard to U.S. climate policy? If American cities are where we would expect the most aggressive U.S. climate policy, are there any examples of world class leadership here?

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I assume that the amount of emissions for this are small, but I've yet to hear any news about gas/propane outdoor grills. It had occurred to me that as I have electrified my home, yard tools, etc, this would be one of the remaining items at my home using fossil fuels. Has anyone calculated the emissions for this sector of gas/propane/charcoal grills? I assume they are smaller than most other areas of the economy, but they are not zero. Are there options/replacements available? I have an induction stove top, but that's a vastly different cooking experience than an outdoor bbq grill.

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Is there a currently a way in the United States for individual homeowners to responsibly recycle residential-scale lithium batteries in the size range of say 3kWh to 20kWh? All programs that I have found will only accept small lithium batteries, such as laptop size or smaller. As far as I can tell, companies like Redwood Materials also do not accept residential lithium batteries at this time.

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You've done various episodes on carbon free heat. Are there any interesting solutions on carbon free cooling? I just heard on Gastropod podcast that cooling accounts for 8% of GHG emissions

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If we add up all the claims that xyz sector contributes 5,10,20% of GHG emissions, they'd probably add up to 300%. Carbon-free heating is usually just electric heating using carbon-free electricity. Since most cooling is electrically driven, that part will clean up.

The other piece of "GHG emissions" from cooling (inc. food, etc. refrigeration), and from many heat pumps, is the leakage and venting of HFC refrigerants. HFOs are supposed to solve this for both, but have been linked to atmospheric degradation into some toxic or ozone-depleting or GHG precursors. So, mostly in the EU, there is a push to use "natural refrigerants," meaning propane, CO2, ammonia and even water or air. See https://naturalrefrigerants.com/news/

In the US, there has been foot-dragging on approvals for these. Depending on perspective, that's due to reasonable prudence or excessive safetyism at the by the regulators, or undue influence by the producers of expensive HFOs and manufacturers who have committed to using HFOs

There could be interesting podcasts around all or just parts of that.

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Climate Jobs: I am looking to join a climate tech firm. I am a manual and cnc machinist with 30+ years experience. I have designed and built fixtures, tooling, and close tolerance parts for the automotive and Aerospace industry. If there are any climate tech firms or startups that are in need of my skills and experience I would be interested in talking to you. I am currently living in Southeast Michigan and would prefer to stay here, but I would consider moving for the right opportunity. Basically, I would very much like to join a team that is making progress in the green transition. My name is David Trombley and you can reach me at trombley.david44@gmail.com.

Thank you

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David, how do you reconcile Musk's endorsement of Trump with Trump's ridicule of electric vehicles? Do you think that if Trump and Musk get chummy, it might give R's social permission to start accepting electric vehicles? If the last 8 years have shown anything, it's that the malleable R mind is capable of olympic-level mental gymnastics.

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Have you considered (or done but I missed it) an episode on the estimated impact of the EUs Methane Regulations on domestic oil and gas operations? One interesting angle is that (I believe) imports to EU (as in US LNG exports) will have more stringent monitoring and reporting requirements. Would both be interested in the tech space for monitoring reporting and verification (MRV) as well as just the gap between current requirements for O&G productions in US and these new regs.

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Can you recommend a good book that covers the history of solar energy for a non expert audience?

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Any thoughts about nuclear powered shipping vessels, like described in this article - https://spectrum.ieee.org/nuclear-powered-cargo-ship ? I enjoyed the podcast about decarbonizing shipping, but a but some of the solutions seemed pretty kludgy. Clearly, nuclear-powered civilian shipping would take a while to get going, but it seems promising.

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Is there an equivalent to Project 2025 on the left? What would the priorities be for the Biden administration in their second term, and is climate policy still as meaningful as it was in his first term?

What has the Biden administration not done yet that can be achieved by executive orders or through reconciliation bills?

Of all the possible names being floated as possible Biden replacements, do we have any sense at all on how they may differ from the Biden administration on climate?

And finally, what would you like to see the Democrats do in 2025 if they are somehow able to get their act together and hang onto power?

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Listening to recent programs (electrolysis, carbon-free steel) made me wonder about these and other possibilities for cleaning up landfills—getting good things out, neutralizing bad things. Pipe dream? Magical thinking?

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Volts has had many guests who are helping to drive electrification of homes and industry. As someone who recently joined the future with now a fully electrified home I'm curious about the experiences of others. Can David run a panel of end users to discuss their experiences?

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I've given up on the Twitter cesspool. One thing I will really miss David are your comments there. Would you please consider posting to BlueSky as well.

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author

-- CLIMATE JOBS & OPPORTUNITIES ---

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clean energy jobs in Minnesota (we update every week, sometimes more): https://www.cleanenergyresourceteams.org/job-board

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Also looking for job suggestions! I'd love recommendations for what *area* of jobs I should get into to have the most impact. I went back to school for Environmental Studies and my big epiphany is that people and leadership are the most important aspect.

I'm really great at communications: messaging, framing, (and positively re-framing), video and visual comms, distilling data into understandable bites, and more!

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your communication skills would make you ideal for solar, wind, air source heat pumps, geothermal -- technologies and companies that don't need bro salespeople but instead need someone to patiently and clearly communicate the opportunities (and challenges) for "regular" folks who need a lot of hand holding to make their clean energy decisions.

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I am looking for recommendations on the type of job I should be looking for. I'm a medical device engineer by education and experience, and I want to apply my skills to lowering carbon emissions and making communities more livable for everyone. Trouble is, the actual science and tech behind electrical and civil engineering don't interest me all that much. Do folks have any insight into how I could apply my engineering / investigational skills in another way?

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author

--- SHARE WORK, ASK FOR HELP, FIND COLLABORATORS ---

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It was 1.5°C in 2024, and everything was burning. What could we do?

I made a video "teaser" for this short story, about the interwoven crises we're facing — political, economic, food costs, housing, microplastics, climate, viruses — and how we could respond, from here. I'm trying to bring this more into the conversation. If you're up for taking a look and connecting (this is all about grounded organizing in real life), it would be wonderful!

Here is the link, for the video and the story:

https://x.com/sambutlerUS/status/1812861798212596150

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I have some experience in community organizing, and I would be open to connecting! I am best reachable on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeana-marquardt-08a991214/

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Hey Jeana, thank you so much! I will connect!

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-- CLIMATE EVENTS & MEETUPS ---

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clean energy events in Minnesota: https://www.cleanenergyresourceteams.org/events

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--- EVERYTHING ELSE ---

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Maybe you need to stop giving ~ all of Volts away for free so more people subscribe? I hate to suggest this because I think getting a wide reach for your type of reporting is very important, but if the alternative is canceling Volts, it seems like a reasonable trade off.

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Everything else. What do you think of this? I've heard a theory that Pres Biden should use his executive power (as expanded by SCOTUS) to declare a National Emergency and AG Garland to announce arrests of numerous congressional representatives, 2-3 Supreme Court Justices and the current Republican candidate for heir involvement in the J6 attempted coup and/or continuing efforts to overthrow the US government. Pres Biden will also make an announcement that he intends to resign and retire at the end of his presidential term. As a result of these actions, he should implore the national political parties to re-evaluate their choices for candidates. This presumably gives a new start in a presidential race that still has 4 months to go. It also provides an opportunity to elect responsible representatives. A platform by democrats consisting of making abortion legal, eliminating money in politics by instituting reforms to reject Citizens United, reducing campaign funding to what citizens commit to when filing taxes, re-establishing "equal time" for campaign races (that Reagan eliminated), and other legal revisions. This includes making it illegal for a presidential candidate to have a felony record involving, murders, financial scams, or attempts to illegally influence elections. In addition, the candidate shall have to answer a series of civil law questions in front of a live audience without the aid of notes or teleprompter. Presidential candidates shall not run for an office whereby they would attain the age of 80 during the term. Some of this may require amending the Constitution, which is a challenge but was created as a living document and has been successfully revised 27 times before.

Sounds crazy until one looks around that these are indeed CRAZY TIMES!

Cheers

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@randy B, those are some good ideas. To fine tune them: Biden should resign NOW, thereby appointing Harris as the next President. President Harris has better odds of beating Trump in the election. She is much more appealing to young voters who might skip voting otherwise.

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Jul 19·edited Jul 19

I just discovered the Volts podcast - nice! I enjoyed your recent ep "EV charging for those without a garage". I was surprised that one very good solution, available in California, was not even mentioned -- hydrogen fuel cell cars. You fill up the car weekly, drive all week clean and quiet, and in the HOV lane -- *and never look for a special parking spot* !

I had a Honda Clarity fuel cell for 3 years and it was the best car I ever drove. Our 2017 model had 360-mile range -- 8 years ago!

Besides wondering why a targeted solution to the episode's question was skipped, I have a question about the consumer hydrogen market in California. If hydrogen is $5 - $10/kg out of the factory, why are the stations charging $34? One answer may be that hydrogen is priced to consume the subsidy provided by the manufacturers -- $5,000/yr.

The math: The EPA range was 360 miles with a 5 kg tank -- 72 miles/kg. Our 2017 lease was for 20k miles/year, and the price of hydrogen at the fueling stations then was $17/kg. ($5000/ (20000 mi/72 mpk))=18 $/kg -- what a coincidence! We only drove about 10k miles/yr. and I think the market adjusted to that and has now doubled the price of hydrogen.

Q: So what are the actual agreements between stations, manufacturers and the State of California? When can we expect consumer hydrogen prices to drop? Perhaps it takes a bigger hydrogen market -- If we address steel, cement, and fertilizer the transportation use of hydrogen will be a small fraction.

Thank you for your thoughts.

+tom allen

Cupertino CA

P.S. I know some BEV fans complain about efficiency. If they really cared about efficiency they would ride a bike -- like you do! The efficiency of a BEV without a charger is zero percent. Apartment dwellers are well-served by FCEVs. There is more than one right answer.

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When I signed up for Volts, at the beginning, it was because I thought I was going to get the same long-form climate reporting you had been doing. I am not dissatisfied with getting a podcast, but perhaps the answer to the financial crunch is to combine podcasting and journalism.

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David struggles with health problems that keep him from typing. I think he wants to do the writing as much as anyone.

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