The fight over the Inflation Reduction Act has arrived. After months of discussion, the Republican majority in the House is now beginning to write, review, and argue about its plans to transform the climate law’s energy tax provisions.

We wanted to record a show about how to follow that battle. But then — halfway through recording that episode — the Republican-controlled House Ways and Means Committee dropped the first draft of their proposal to gut the IRA, and we had to review it on-air.

We were joined by Luke Bassett, a former senior advisor for domestic climate policy at the U.S. Treasury Department, and a former senior staff member at the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. We chatted about the major steps in the reconciliation process, what to watch next, and what to look for in the new GOP draft. Shift Key is hosted by Jesse Jenkins, a professor of energy systems engineering at Princeton University, and Robinson Meyer, Heatmap’s executive editor.

Mentioned:

The House GOP Tax Proposal Would Effectively Kill The IRA

Permitting Reform Is Back — and Buried in Trump’s Tax Bill

The House Ways and Means Committee’s first attempt at rewriting the IRA and its energy tax provisions

(Note: At one point, Luke refers to a permitting reform proposal as coming from the Energy and Commerce Committee. It’s a product of the House Natural Resources Committee.)

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​Music for Shift Key is by Adam Kromelow.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Last week, more than 50 million people across mainland Spain and Portugal suffered a blackout that lasted more than 10 hours and shuttered stores, halted trains, and dealt more than $1 billion in economic damage. At least eight deaths have been attributed to the power outage.

Almost immediately, some commentators blamed the blackout on the large share of renewables on the Iberian peninsula’s power grid. Are they right? How does the number of big, heavy, spinning objects on the grid affect grid operators’ ability to keep the lights on?

On this week’s episode of Shift Key, Jesse and Rob dive into what may have caused the Iberian blackout — as well as how grid operators manage supply and demand, voltage and frequency, and renewables and thermal resources, and operate the continent-spanning machine that is the power grid. Shift Key is hosted by Robinson Meyer, the founding executive editor of Heatmap, and Jesse Jenkins, a professor of energy systems engineering at Princeton University.

Mentioned:

Spain’s Blackout Has Put in Motion a Debate Over Inertia

Spain Discloses New Power Grid Failure on Day of the Blackout

Shift Key: A Beginner’s Guide to the Interconnection Queue

Jesse’s upshift; Rob’s upshift.

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Music for Shift Key is by Adam Kromelow.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Texas is one of the country’s biggest producers of zero-emissions energy. Last year, the Lone Star State surpassed California to become the country’s No. 1 market for utility-scale solar. More solar and batteries were added to the Texas grid in 2024 than any other energy source, and the state has long dominated in onshore wind.

But that buildout is now threatened. A new tranche of bills in the Texas House and Senate could impose punitive engineering requirements on wind, solar, and storage plants — even those already in operation — and they could send the state’s power bills soaring.

Doug Lewin is the founder and CEO of Stoic Energy Partners in Austin, Texas. He writes the Texas Energy and Power Newsletter, and he is the host of the Energy Capital podcast. On this week’s episode of Shift Key, Jesse and Rob talk with Doug about how Texas became a clean energy powerhouse, how it has dealt with eye-watering demand power growth, and why a handful of bills in the Texas statehouse could break its electricity market. Shift Key is hosted by Robinson Meyer, the founding executive editor of Heatmap, and Jesse Jenkins, a professor of energy systems engineering at Princeton University.

Mentioned:

A round-up of the anti-renewables bills now in Texas

A map of renewables across Texas

Electrifying the Permian

The economic impact of renewables & storage in Texas

Rural Texans speak out against SB 819

How Texas consumers benefit from the renewables expansion

Rob’s upshift; Jesse’s upshift.

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Music for Shift Key is by Adam Kromelow.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.