Off The Charts Energy Podcast

In this two-part episode, host Jeff McMahon explores a pair of University of Chicago studies on consumer energy behavior. First, McMahon sits down with EPIC’s Koichiro Ito, an assistant professor at Harris Public Policy, for insight on what motivates consumers to conserve energy. Does simple encouragement work? Or do prices need to rise for them to act? Then, McMahon is joined by Bob Rosner, founding co-director of EPIC and a distinguished UChicago physicist and former director of Argonne National Laboratory, and Kathleen Cagney, a sociology professor and director of the Population Research Center at the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at UChicago. The pair discuss the results of their survey examining attitudes toward smart meters and smart grids in low-income neighborhoods in Chicago.

From lead pipes in Flint, Michigan, and toxic sites in East Chicago to severe hurricanes and flooding in Texas, Miami and Puerto Rico, environmental and climate disasters pack a hard punch on low-income communities and communities of color. Earlier this year, EPIC’s Mark Templeton, a professor at the University of Chicago Law School and director of the Abrams Environmental Law Clinic, discussed the intersection of environmental and social justice issues with Jacqui Patterson, the director of what is now the NAACP’s largest program – the environmental and climate justice program. The discussion was part of an event hosted by the UChicago Phoenix Sustainability Initiative.

Over the past 15 years, Jennifer Granholm has played an outsized role in U.S. energy policy and politics. From 2003 to 2011, she served as Governor of Michigan, a period during which she navigated her state through the worst U.S. economic crisis since the great depression, and one that she saw as an opportunity to diversify Michigan’s industrial base through energy policy. As a member of President Barack Obama’s transition team in 2009, she helped build the team that would ultimately design and implement many of the president’s key energy and environmental policies. In 2016, she was tapped by the Clinton campaign to replay this role in a prospective Clinton Administration. EPIC Executive Director Sam Ori recently got the chance to sit down with Governor Granholm. They talked about the state of the U.S. auto industry, the Trump administration’s environmental policies, the role of energy and climate issues in the 2016 presidential election, and the future of U.S. energy policy.

EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt has touted a “back-to-basics” agenda for the agency – giving states more control over their air quality compliance, and prioritizing cleanup of toxic Superfund sites, lead-tainted drinking water systems and abandoned mines. He’s done this while attempting to roll back efforts from the previous administration such as fuel economy standards, the Clean Power Plan, and the Waters of the U.S rule. However, in doing so, he faces two problems: regulations take time to reverse, and even if he is successful in reversing them he will likely continue to encounter legal challenges. How easy is it to undo a regulation? Has EPA proceeded effectively? Where does litigation on these rules stand, and what are the likely outcomes in the courts? Off the Charts host Jeff McMahon discussed these questions and more with EPIC's visiting policy fellow Jeff Holmstead, a former EPA Assistant Administrator for Air and Radiation and now a partner at Bracewell, LLP.

As China prepares to introduce a national emissions trading program this year, what can global leaders learn from other carbon markets? 'Off the Charts' host Jeff McMahon discusses the United States' first mandatory carbon market, the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), with Sue Tierney, who served as assistant secretary for policy at the U.S. Department of Energy during the Clinton administration and is currently a senior advisor at the Analysis Group. RGGI, now almost a decade old, is made up of a collection of Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states that may soon include New Jersey and Virginia. What impacts has RGGI had on emissions and on the local economies of participating states? How does its design compare to other emissions trading programs, such as the California-Quebec-Ontario market and European Union market? And, what lessons can be drawn from its successes and challenges as China and other states and countries launch or contemplate their own market?

Hydraulic fracturing is perhaps the most important innovation in the energy system in the last half century. As a result of this innovation, U.S. production of oil and natural gas has increased dramatically. This has led to abruptly lower energy prices, stronger energy security and even lower carbon dioxide and air pollution emissions by displacing coal. That is certainly good news for our climate, and our health—with large reductions in air pollution dispersed around the country.

But, while there are relatively few coal mines, conventional oil drilling sites and nuclear plants in the United States, tens of thousands of hydraulic fracturing wells have been drilled over the past few years from Pennsylvania to Colorado, Texas to North Dakota. With it being an everyday experience for many Americans, the practice has raised questions about the local impacts. Communities have reached very different conclusions about the benefits and costs, with some places banning it and others embracing it.

Two recent studies have shed light on the impacts. On the benefits side, one study by EPIC Director Michael Greenstone and his coauthors found that fracking increases economic activity, employment, income and housing prices, with the average household benefitting by about $2,000 a year. However, if people’s understanding of the health impacts were to change, it is likely that this would alter the net benefits of allowing fracking. Since health is such a critical factor, Greenstone decided to dig in further by looking at the health of those born near fracking sites. He and his coauthors found that infants born to mothers living up to about 2 miles from a hydraulic fracturing site suffer from poorer health. The largest impacts were to babies born within about a half mile of a site, with those babies being 25 percent more likely to be born at a low birth weight.

The United States’ continued access to the widely-dispersed benefits from hydraulic fracturing depends on local communities allowing it. How should we as a nation balance this challenge? What options do policymakers have at the federal, state and local levels? EPIC Director Michael Greenstone and EPIC’s inaugural policy fellows Jeff Holmstead and Sue Tierney explored these competing variables and the policy pathways to addressing them at the federal, state and local levels. The conversation was moderated by Axios reporter Amy Harder.

This event was part of EPIC’s Energy Inquiry & Impact Series, designed to explore the latest energy data coming out of the University of Chicago and their impacts on policy discussions. Cutting-edge findings will serve as the launching pad to frame these deep-dive conversations, as researchers and EPIC policy fellows navigate ways to translate research into solutions.

As we move towards a smarter electric grid that incorporates more renewable energy sources, the importance of an intelligent transmission network is becoming increasingly apparent. Why isn’t it happening faster? What role do storage and microgrids play? ‘Off the Charts’ host Jeff McMahon talks with Ed Krapels, the CEO of the transmission and microgrid company Anbaric.

America’s hydraulic fracturing boom created a need for more ways to transport oil and natural gas around the country. But as the need for more energy infrastructure has increased, so has local opposition. While most are familiar with the battles surrounding the Keystone and Dakota Access pipelines, there is opposition to new projects in many states. This winter, New England received natural gas from a Russian tanker as interests in the region continue to oppose a pipeline to bring abundant natural gas from Pennsylvania up north. What is driving opposition to pipelines? How has the business of transporting fuel changed as the U.S. oil and gas industry shifted from a handful of hubs to shale plays dotting the country? And, what factors could cause shippers to change their calculus as they decide whether to transport by pipeline or rail? ‘Off the Charts’ host Jeff McMahon talks with Allen Fore from the pipeline company Kinder Morgan, along with EPIC’s Ryan Kellogg and Thomas Covert.

The United States is producing more oil than ever before and starting to export it abroad, all thanks to the shale oil boom. This boost in production has led to greater economic payoffs for the United States than energy independence ever would, wrote Harris Public Policy's Ryan Kellogg recently in Forbes. Kellogg sat down with 'Off the Charts' host Jeff McMahon to dig deeper into the dynamics at work and what it all means for the United States and global oil markets.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has played an important role in the Trump administration, rejecting a proposal from the Department of Energy to subsidize coal and nuclear plants and largely staying true to its independent roots. Recently, EPIC’s Steve Cicala, an assistant professor at the Harris School of Public Policy, got the chance to sit down with one of the agency’s past chairmen Jon Wellinghoff. They talked about the NOPR decision, what makes FERC’s culture unique, and the changing dynamics underway for electric utilities as distributed generation becomes a more important part of the U.S. energy mix.