The Trump administration’s nuclear ambitions raise new questions about safety, speed, and regulatory independence.

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The Trump administration has made nuclear power a centerpiece of its energy agenda, launching the most aggressive federal push for new reactors in decades. Through sweeping executive orders, new federal directives and financing support, and an $80 billion deal with Westinghouse, it aims to quadruple America’s nuclear capacity by mid-century and position the technology as a pillar of national security.

But the rapid expansion is testing the independence of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the agency charged with ensuring that nuclear power is developed safely and free from political pressure. As the administration prioritizes speed, competitiveness, and national security, the NRC is being pushed to do more with fewer staff and to prioritize faster reactor approvals, raising concern that safety and the public trust it underpins could be compromised in the rush to build.

Former NRC Chair Allison Macfarlane discusses what’s at stake for nuclear safety, regulation, and the future of U.S. nuclear power.

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Battling for Batteries: Li-ion Policy and Supply Chain Dynamics in the U.S. and China https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/research/publications/battling-for-batteries-li-ion-policy-and-supply-chain-dynamics-in-the-u-s-and-china/ 

Bringing Fusion Energy to the Grid: Challenges and Pathways https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/research/publications/bringing-fusion-energy-to-the-grid-challenges-and-pathways/

Energy Policy Now is produced by The Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. For all things energy policy, visit kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu.

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What the U.S. offshore wind power crisis says about energy megaprojects, risk, and political resilience.

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After a surge of optimism, the U.S. offshore wind industry faces its most serious challenges yet. Just a year ago, the sector seemed poised for rapid growth, with East Coast states making offshore wind a centerpiece of their clean-energy and reliability strategies. Today, that progress has been sharply interrupted.

The reversal has been swift. Since returning to office, the Trump administration has halted new federal leases and permits and ordered work stopped on projects already under construction, moves that put billions of dollars in investment at risk. By September, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum declared that, under current policy, there is no future for offshore wind in the United States. 

Yet the industry’s troubles, despite strong progress, began well before this political turn. Inflation, high interest rates, and supply-chain disruptions sharply increased project costs, forcing developers to cancel or renegotiate contracts. Earlier, states had made strategic missteps in their race to capture offshore wind jobs and supply-chain investment, leaving the industry more exposed to shifting economic and policy winds.

Elizabeth Wilson of Dartmouth College, founding director of the Irving Institute for Energy and Society, discusses how these experiences have shaped an emerging body of “institutional learning” across the states—lessons in risk sharing, coordination, and governance that may help buttress the industry for the long term. As the future of U.S. offshore wind hangs in the balance, Wilson offers perspective on how those lessons could form the foundation for progress in a political and economic environment that remains volatile and uncertain.

Elizabeth Wilson is a professor of Environmental Studies at Dartmouth College and founding director of the Irving Institute for Energy and Society.

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Bringing Fusion Energy to the Grid: Challenges and Pathways. https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/research/publications/bringing-fusion-energy-to-the-grid-challenges-and-pathways/

Energy Policy Now is produced by The Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. For all things energy policy, visit kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu.

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A live discussion with Sanya Carley and David Konisky, authors of the new book Power Lines, on the inequities that define America’s energy system—and how they could carry into the clean energy future if left unacknowledged.

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In this special live episode of Energy Policy Now, recorded before an audience during Climate Week at the University of Pennsylvania, guests Sanya Carley and David Konisky discuss their new book Power Lines: The Human Costs of American Energy in Transition. The book explores how America’s energy system both reflects and reinforces deep social and economic divides, and why a cleaner grid won’t automatically lead to a fairer one.

Drawing on a decade of research and stories from communities on the front lines of the energy transition, Carley and Konisky show that before the nation can make progress toward energy justice, it must first recognize the people and places most affected by the inequities built into the system. Power Lines explores how those inequities shape lives and communities across the United States.

Sanya Carley is the Mark Alan Hughes Faculty Director of the Kleinman Center and Presidential Distinguished Professor of Energy Policy and City Planning at the Stuart Weitzman School of Design. David Konisky is the Associate Dean for Research and a Lynton K. Caldwell Professor at the Paul H. O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University. Together, they co-direct the Energy Justice Lab.

Recorded live at the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy during Penn’s Climate Week.

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Communicating Climate Policy: Raising Public Awareness through Trusted Sources https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/research/publications/communicating-climate-policy-raising-public-awareness-through-trusted-sources/

Navigating Tensions in Just Energy Transitions https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/research/publications/navigating-tensions-in-just-energy-transitions/

Energy Policy Now is produced by The Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. For all things energy policy, visit kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu.

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With federal funding being pulled back, leaders of Pennsylvania’s top labor unions push state policy to deliver clean energy jobs.

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For generations, union members have mined Pennsylvania’s coal, run its power plants, and built its energy infrastructure, helping make the state a top fossil fuel producer and electricity exporter. Now, renewable energy offers the promise of growth, but questions remain about the long-term jobs it will provide.

In 2024, the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO and the Building and Construction Trades Council formed Union Energy, with support from the Climate Jobs National Resource Center. The coalition was launched to leverage the Inflation Reduction Act to ensure new clean energy investment creates good-paying union jobs and broad community benefits.

But with federal funding being pulled back, state policy is now central. In Pennsylvania, where clean energy targets haven’t been updated in two decades, Governor Josh Shapiro has proposed a “Lightning Plan” with new standards, a cap-and-invest program, and streamlined permitting. Union Energy wants to help shape what comes next.

On the podcast, Union Energy’s leaders — Angela Ferritto, president of the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO, and Robert Bair, president of the Pennsylvania Building Trades — discuss the impact of recent policy shifts on their members, policies to expand clean energy with strong labor standards, and their vision for Pennsylvania’s energy future.

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Bringing Fusion Energy to the Grid: Challenges and Pathways https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/research/publications/bringing-fusion-energy-to-the-grid-challenges-and-pathways/

Navigating Tensions in Just Energy Transitions https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/research/publications/navigating-tensions-in-just-energy-transitions/

U.S.-China Competition in the Age of Trump’s Energy Law https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/commentary/podcast/u-s-china-competition-in-the-age-of-trumps-energy-law/

Energy Policy Now is produced by The Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. For all things energy policy, visit kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Auditors are billed as carbon market watchdogs. But conflicts of interest may undermine their credibility.

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The voluntary carbon market is poised for rapid growth, with airlines soon required to use offsets for international flights and pressure building on other industries to follow suit. But recent studies show many offsets fail to deliver real climate benefits, raising doubts about their credibility.

Independent offset auditors are promoted as the guarantors of trust, yet their role is shaped by systemic conflicts of interest that make true accountability difficult. Former EPA enforcement chief Cynthia Giles and Penn Law’s Cary Coglianese explore the flaws at the heart of offset auditing—and what they could mean for the future of the offset industry.

Cynthia Giles was the senate-confirmed head of EPA’s enforcement office all eight years of the Obama administration. She wrote a book about making environmental rules more effective, titled Next Generation Compliance: Environmental Regulation for the Modern Era, published by Oxford University Press. During the Biden administration she worked on climate regulations as a senior advisor in the Air office.

Cary Coglianese is the Edward B. Shils Professor of Law and Professor of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, where he is also the founding director of the Penn Program on Regulation. He has taught and studied environmental and regulatory law and policy for more than thirty years, and is a member of the advisory committee for the university’s Penn Climate initiative as well as the Water Center at Penn.

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The Crisis of Confidence in Voluntary Carbon Offsets https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/commentary/podcast/the-crisis-of-confidence-in-voluntary-carbon-offsets/

Has Europe’s Emissions Trading Scheme Taken Away a Country’s Ability to Reduce Emissions? https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/research/publications/has-europes-emissions-trading-scheme-taken-away-a-countrys-ability-to-reduce-emissions/

Third-Party Auditing Cannot Guarantee Carbon Offset Credibility https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5345783 

Auditors Cannot Save Carbon Offsets https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ady4864 

Energy Policy Now is produced by The Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. For all things energy policy, visit kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu.

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Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act reorients U.S. energy policy, redefining its rivalry with China and the global transition.

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Once, climate and clean energy were common ground between the United States and China, most notably in the lead-up to the 2015 Paris Agreement. In the years since, cooperation has given way to competition. China has emerged as the global leader in clean energy manufacturing, while the U.S.—under the Biden administration—moved to catch up through the Inflation Reduction Act.

Now, President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act has set a very different course. The law rolls back many clean energy incentives, puts new emphasis on fossil fuels and emerging technologies like advanced nuclear and certain hydrogen sources, and sharpens trade and supply chain tensions with China through expanded tariffs and Foreign Entity of Concern restrictions.

What does this shift mean for U.S.–China relations, American competitiveness, and the global energy transition?

Scott Moore, director of China programs and strategic initiatives at the University of Pennsylvania and a faculty fellow with the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy, joins Energy Policy Now to explore the stakes. A leading expert on U.S.–China relations, Moore offers perspective on how Trump’s policies could reshape the balance of power between the world’s two largest economies.

Scott Moore is practice professor of political science and director of China Programs and Strategic Initiatives at the University of Pennsylvania. He is a faculty fellow with the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy.

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Climate Action in the Age of Great Power Rivalry: What Geopolitics Means for the Climate https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/research/publications/climate-action-in-the-age-of-great-power-rivalry-what-geopolitics-means-for-the-climate/

Mitigating Climate Change Through Green Investments https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/research/publications/mitigating-climate-change-through-green-investments/

Energy Policy Now is produced by The Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. For all things energy policy, visit kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For the month of August, we’re highlighting episodes from the 2024-2025 season of Energy Policy Now. We’ll be back with new content, and a new season, on September the 9th.

Virtual power plants can help electric grid operators address supply shortages and reliability concerns, but policy support is needed.

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(This episode was recorded on October 15, 2024.)

The U.S. electrical grid is under growing stress, raising concern that recent widescale power outages may signal more grid challenges to come. In recent years, electricity demand has grown at an accelerating pace while, at the same time, power supply has tightened as existing power plants have retired and grid operators have struggled to bring new sources of power online.

Yet one promising solution to the grid’s challenges may already be in place, if grid operators and regulators can figure out how to use it to full advantage. ‘Virtual power plants’ can combine small, distributed energy resources such as rooftop solar and demand response into a single, virtual whole that grid operators can deploy like a traditional powerplant. VPPs hold the promise of delivering large amounts of readily available and reliable energy services, if a number of regulatory and technological challenges can be overcome.

On the podcast Ryan Hledik, a principal with electricity market consultancy The Brattle Group, explores the potential of virtual power plants. He explains how VPPs work, discusses hurdles to their development, and considers policy solutions to speed their growth.

Ryan Hledik is a principal with electricity market consultancy The Brattle Group.

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Closing the Climate Finance Gap: A Proposal for a New Green Investment Protocol https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/research/publications/closing-the-climate-finance-gap-a-proposal-for-a-new-green-investment-protocol/

The Untapped Potential of “Repurposed Energy” https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/research/publications/the-untapped-potential-of-repurposed-energy/

Energy Policy Now is produced by The Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. For all things energy policy, visit kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For the month of August, we’re highlighting episodes from the 2024-2025 season of Energy Policy Now. We’ll be back with new content, and a new season, on September the 9th.

Former Republican U.S. congressman Bob Inglis offers a conservative perspective on climate solutions in discussion with Penn climatologist Michael Mann.

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(This episode was recorded on February 13, 2025, during Penn Energy Week)

Politically conservative and concerned about climate change?

In this special episode of the Energy Policy Now podcast, Penn climatologist Michael Mann talks with Bob Inglis, former Republican Congressman from South Carolina and current executive director of RepublicEN.org, about bridging the partisan climate divide.

In a wide-ranging conversation recorded live during Energy Week at Penn 2025 at the University of Pennsylvania, Mann and Inglis discuss a conservative view on climate change, how conservative messaging on climate has evolved over time, and how common solutions might be found in an era of partisan climate divide. Inglis also offers his view on carbon pricing and strategies to reign in carbon emissions in the U.S.

The conversation is moderated by Sanya Carley, faculty director of the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy.

Bob Inglis is a former U.S. representative for South Carolina’s 4th congressional district. He is the executive director of RepublicanEn.org at George Mason University.

Michael Mann is director of the Center for Science, Sustainability and the Media at the University of Pennsylvania.

Sanya Carley is the Mark Alan Hughes faculty director of the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy.

Important note on the conversation: Due to a technical problem, the first two minutes of Bob Inglis’ conversation are difficult to hear (from 5:40 to 7:40). We’ve transcribed those two minutes in the show notes, below, to make it easier to follow along. A full transcript of this and all Energy Policy Now podcasts is available on the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy website.

Bob Inglis (5:40): Yeah, so for my first six years in Congress I said that climate change is nonsense. All I knew was that Al Gore was for it. And as much as I represented Greenville-Spartanburg South Carolina, that was the end of the inquiry. Okay, pretty ignorant. But that’s the way it was my first six years.

Out of Congress six years, as you just heard, doing commercial real estate law again and then, had the opportunity to run for the same seat again before, our son had just turned 18, so he was voting for the first time, and he came to me and he said, dad, I’ll vote for you. But you’re going to clean up your act on the environment. His four sisters agreed, his mother agreed. New constituency, you know. So you got to respond to those people who can change the locks on the doors to your house, you know. So, very important to respond to these people.

And so that was step one of a three step metamorphosis. Step two was going to Antarctica with the [House of Representatives] Science Committee and seeing the evidence in the iceberg drillings. Step three was another Science Committee trip and, um, really a spiritual awakening which seems improbable, right, on a godless Science Committee trip, because we all know that all scientists are godless. Right? Well, apparently not. Because this Aussie climate scientist was showing me the glories of the Great Barrier Reef. I could see he was worshipping God in what he was showing me. You know, St. Francis of Assisi supposedly said “preach the gospel at all times. If necessary use words.” So Scott Heron, this Aussie climate scientist who’s now become a very dear friend was doing that. I could see it in his eyes, it was written all over his face. It was in his excitement about what he was showing me. He was clearly worshipping God. So I knew we shared a world view. Forty words were spoken. 

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Energy Policy Now is produced by The Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. For all things energy policy, visit kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Though today’s energy transition is often framed as new, it follows patterns we’ve seen before. Cutler Cleveland of Boston University’s Institute for Global Sustainability explores the historical context of today’s shift. 

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Today’s shift to carbon-free power is commonly called “the energy transition,” yet the label can suggest that this is the first, or only, transformation of its kind. Throughout history, societies have moved from one dominant energy source to another, with each transformation bringing profound economic, social, and environmental change. 

On the podcast, we explore how today’s energy transition compares to those of the past, while noting that—despite decades of investment and policy support—we’re still in the early stages of moving toward a net-zero carbon system. Why is this transition taking so long? Why does it feel more politically and socially charged than previous ones? And are our current anxieties about energy jobs, community impacts, and planetary livability really new?

Cutler Cleveland, associate director of Boston University’s Institute for Global Sustainability, brings a historical lens to energy systems and explores what makes this moment in energy history both familiar and unprecedented.

Cutler Cleveland is a professor in the Department of Earth & Environment at Boston University, and associate director of the university’s Institute for Global Sustainability.

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Impact of Solar Lighting Kits on the Lives of the Poor https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/research/publications/impact-of-solar-lighting-kits-on-the-lives-of-the-poor/ 

Energy Policy Now is produced by The Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. For all things energy policy, visit kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Thousands of clean energy projects are waiting to connect to the grid. How many will make it through, and will it be soon enough to keep the grid reliable?

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Electricity demand in the U.S. is rising fast, fueled by the rapid growth of AI data centers and other power-hungry technologies. At the same time, many fossil fuel power plants are retiring, putting added pressure on the grid to maintain reliability.

To meet this challenge, clean energy and battery storage projects are lining up to connect to the grid. The queue now holds more than twice the capacity of all power plants currently in operation.

But getting these projects online is proving difficult. The interconnection process, which evaluates and connects new power projects to the grid, has become a major bottleneck. It is overwhelmed by the sheer number of proposed projects and further slowed by permitting challenges, supply chain delays, and uncertainty around federal incentives. Reforms to the interconnection process are underway, but it is yet to be seen whether they will move quickly enough to make a difference.

RMI’s Sarah Toth Kotwis explores the technical and regulatory barriers to bringing new energy online, and what it will take connect new energy projects quickly and reliably.

Sarah Toth Kotwis is a senior associate on the Clean Competitive Grids team at RMI.

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Energy Policy Now is produced by The Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. For all things energy policy, visit kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.