Play the episode 

In this selected episode, host and CNN climate change analyst John Sutter interviews Daniel Schrag, the director of Harvard University’s Center for the Environment, about the role of technology in combatting climate change. 

Solar and wind are now cheaper than natural gas for electricity in many parts of the world, but not as flexible, Dr. Schrag says. 30% renewables is attainable and should be done fast. 

The Climate Investment Fund backs projects that others won’t, and one of those is a concentrating solar power project in Morocco. CSP is a technology I covered back in 2004 when it was little more than a science project, but it advanced quickly because it made then-inefficient photovoltaics more cost effective. 

In the second half of this epi, Reporter Sebastian Bouknight takes listeners to Morocco and the Noor Ouarzazate Solar Complex for the story.

The other 11 episodes cover topics ranging from activism to investments and food to urban design. 

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The Building Science Podcast is a production of Positive Energy, a residentially focused engineering firm in Austin.

https://app.stitcher.com/splayer/f/175346/57610511

This is one long-form podcast I watch for in my feed so I can set aside time (typically an hour) on a flight or long drive to really listen. They’ve been podcasting since 2015 when they grabbed my attention with an episode about PCM. The hosts explore various technical aspects of the built environment from a people-centric perspective.

The second decade of the AIA 2030 Commitment is approaching. In this example episode of Building Science, architect Nathan Kipnis FAIA of Chicago’s Kipnis Architecture + Planning talks about sustainability in the firm’s culture, the energy focus and getting client commitments. Over 500 A/E/P firms have adopted the AIA 2030 Commitment, launched in 2009 to support the 2030 Challenge. Kipnis is an architecture school graduate of my alma mater Arizona State University and Co-chair of the AIA National 2030 Commitment Working Group.

Podcast co-hosts Kristof Irwin PE and Miguel Walker dive into the topic of the month with wide-eyed fascination. Irwin is a principal of the firm and its lead engineer. Walker is Positive Energy’s chief rainmaker and a board member of Passive House Austin. The duo does a good job of keeping up a monthly podcast schedule. Production quality varies, but the discussions are always thought provoking and deserve a place in the environment podcast anthology.

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Climate One is a project of The Commonwealth Club of California, produced in association with NPR affiliate station KQED Public Radio in San Francisco. Thanks to podcasting, we can enjoy the show everywhere.

The sample episode I have chosen, “Climate Silence: Why Aren’t There More Votes,”  is from back before the 2018 midterms. Most epi’s are not so centered on politics. New York Times reporter Trip Gabriel tells how climate and energy issues were (or were not) playing in the elections.

Sam Arons, whom I met five years ago when he was still buying wind power for Google data centers, explains how he encouraged his Lyft coworkers and customers to get out and vote. And Nathaniel Stinnett, founder of the Environmental Voter Project, described what his organization was doing to mobilize the more than 10 million Americans who cite environmental protection as a core value but who don’t vote regularly. And we all know how that turned out (I’m looking at you, WA).

Host Greg Dalton founded Climate One in 2007, but you may remember his name from his 12 years covering news for the Associated Press, “McNeil-Lehrer News Hour,” and Industry Standard magazine. His broadcast experience is reflected in the overall quality and professionalism of Climate One.

Please share your thoughts with us and your friends by posting this on your favorite social media network. We’ve provided sharing buttons to make it easy. Mention @ClimateOne and @Cleantech. You can also send comments to me by email.

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If you find it hard to keep up with all the news of the changes happening with environmental policy, slip into your soundproof phone booth and check out this podcast. Trump On Earth promises deep analysis, clear information, and real talk from experts on the issues.

In this episode: EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt wants to reject vast amount of data about harms to public health, in the name of transparency. Pruitt’s attempt to restrict what kinds of research the agency can use when making regulations could have long-term effects.

Host Reid Frazier interviews Bernard Goldstein, an assistant administrator for research and development at the Environmental Protection Agency during the Ronald Reagan administration, who says the proposed Strengthening Transparency in Regulatory Science rule is a bad idea.

Cohost and Managing Editor Julie Grant is a radio industry veteran who has devoted her career to news producing and reporting. She is joined by cohosts Kara Holsopple and Reid Frazier, each a respectable environment reporter in their own right. Kathy Knauer and Andy Kubis are the podcast‘s producers. The team is based in the Northeast, but their podcast is nationally focused.

Trump on Earth is produced by The Allegheny Front, a Pittsburgh-based environmental reporting project. The podcast is available on iTunes, RadioPublic, Libsyn and Stitcher.

https://art19.com/shows/the-energy-gang/episodes/5193958f-63ec-4f0e-85d8-f8e7ab0807ad/embed?theme=dark-blue
This installment of “The Energy Gang” podcast dives into the pros and cons of new solar import barriers that took effect February 7, 2018. Sudden 30 percent tariffs are indeed spurring talk of new onshore solar module assembly plants, says guest Julia Pyper.

There’s a hitch: The plans that solar manufacturers are discussing would not represent enough capacity to meet the volume needs of a growing solar industry in the United States. Installers and developers are at risk of losing jobs because of capacity constraints. Some manufacturers had signed multiyear deals before the quota was imposed — so U.S. jobs could already be on the chopping block.

New manufacturing would make up for the job losses, right? Not even close. Module manufacturing is highly automated. Any plausible number of new U.S. plants are not likely to employ thousands. And when the economics change, those plants can close as easily as they opened. Tariffs intended to encumber solar exporters for the next four years are likely to harm America first.

“The Energy Gang” is an informal industry-insider podcast for green energy business listeners. Co-hosts Katherine Hamilton (Partner at 38 North Solutions) and Jigar Shah (founder of SunEdison), led by Greentech Media Editor in Chief Stephen Lacey, jump on a conference call every week to spar about the headlines. They share their deep industry knowledge and engage in lively discussions about the technologies, policies and market forces shaping a global energy transformation.

This anthology of energy podcasts would not be complete without this show. Stephen Lacey and I started podcasting about energy wa-a-ay before most people knew what a podcast was. We became friends while he was a reporter-producer at Renewable Energy World and I had just started Energy Priorities. We’ve supported each other’s podcast work, appeared on each other’s shows and collaborated on web pieces together.

Please share your thoughts with us and your colleagues by posting this on your favorite social media network. We’ve provided sharing buttons to make it easy. Mention @TheEnergyGang and @Cleantech. You can also send comments to me by email.

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The Republican administration has been rolling back policies, such as the Clean Power Plan, that were created to address climate change. Dean Scott, senior climate change and Capitol Hill environment reporter at Bloomberg BNA, says not to worry — the private sector will drive the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

I wrote in April 2017 about the “retropolicy term” and the role of the private sector in addressing climate change in the short term. It is happening fast. Microsoft, for example, has an internal cost of carbon, even though they’re not required to, nor to pledge to achieve 100 percent renewable energy use. (Mr. Scott points out that there’s an opportunity for an independent third-party arbiter in lieu of a federal agency to prevent rampant greenwashing.)

Intrepid podcaster David Schultz speaks with fellow Bloomberg BNA reporter Dean Scott and others about what companies are doing to become more sustainable and whether companies really can “do well by doing good.”

This is episode 36 of “Parts per Billion,” a newly rechristened podcast from Bloomberg Environment. Bloomberg has been involved with energy podcasting for several years. We expect great things from this smart podcast as Bloomberg drives standards ever higher. Each episode of Parts Per Billion features interesting discussions about what’s happening in Congress, in the courts and in federal agencies.

Please share your thoughts with us and your colleagues by posting this on your favorite social media network. We’ve provided sharing buttons to make it easy. Mention #partsperb @BloombergEnv

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“Anthropocene,” popularized just this decade, is already a familiar term. Culture leads language, but language can lead culture. For example we may wonder if global climate disruptions are being worsened by the use of the palliative “climate change” rather than more disturbing terminology.

Our consociates at the Center for Energy and Environmental Research in the Human Sciences (CENHS) at Rice University interview The Guardian contributor Robert Macfarlane. They consider how to label today’s buried toxic wastes to warn the civilizations of a distant future, the extinction of vocabularies, oceanic plastics, shifting baseline syndrome and humans’ relationship with ice.

This podcast is the 100th episode of “Cultures of Energy.” If you’re new to their show the “A” segment will give you a laid-back opportunity to get to know the hosts, Cymene and Dominic, before the interview begins at 14:00.

Then settle in for an hour of wide-ranging erudite discussion. Post comments about it on your favorite social media using the sharing buttons on this page.