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Volts

Volts

By: David Roberts
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About this listen

 Volts is a podcast about leaving fossil fuels behind. I've been reporting on and explaining clean-energy topics for almost 20 years, and I love talking to politicians, analysts, innovators, and activists about the latest progress in the world's most important fight. (Volts is entirely subscriber-supported. Sign up!)

www.volts.wtfDavid Roberts Political Science Politics & Government
Episodes
  • Reducing the climate impacts of food and farming

    Reducing the climate impacts of food and farming
    Jun 27 2025

    In this episode, I chat with fellow energy nerd-turned-ag-reporter Michael Grunwald about agriculture’s climate impact. We explore the folly of biofuels, the promise of meat alternatives, and the central importance of increasing yields. While we can imagine a future of energy abundance, land is a zero-sum game — no one’s making more — so the choices here are uniquely difficult and important.



    This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.volts.wtf/subscribe
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    1 hr and 20 mins
  • The fight to build faster in California

    The fight to build faster in California
    Jun 25 2025

    In this episode, I'm joined by two of California's leading housing champions, Assemblymember Buffy Wicks and Senator Scott Wiener, to discuss their bills to reform the state's notorious environmental review law, CEQA. We explore how a well-intentioned 1970s environmental protection has become a tool for NIMBYs, unions, and even oil companies to delay or kill housing projects — and why the politics have finally shifted enough to make progress possible.



    This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.volts.wtf/subscribe
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    1 hr
  • Rep. Mike Levin reflects on the Republican budget bill

    Rep. Mike Levin reflects on the Republican budget bill
    Jun 20 2025

    In this episode, Rep. Mike Levin and I discuss the “Big Beautiful Bill” that raises energy bills, kills 830,000 jobs, and gifts China the next industrial revolution. We unpack the fossil-fuel cash behind the carnage, the paradox of red districts cutting their own subsidies, and the optimistic playbook — centered on transmission and real climate economics — for the next Democratic majority.



    This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.volts.wtf/subscribe
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    1 hr and 3 mins
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This is the energy podcast I can't do without. I listen to half a dozen, and others are good, but VOLTS is excellent.

Highly recommended

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