Shift Key with Robinson Meyer

For the past few years, Microsoft has basically carried the carbon removal industry on its shoulders. The software company has purchased 72 million tons of carbon removal, more than 40 times what any other organization has financed, according to third-party sources.
Now it’s pulling back. As we reported last week, Microsoft has told suppliers and partners that it’s pausing new purchases. Though the company says that its program “has not ended,” even a temporary pullback will have significant implications for the nascent carbon removal industry. What happens next for these companies? And is a bloodbath on the way? On this week’s episode of Shift Key, Rob speaks to Jack Andreasen Cavanaugh from Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy about Microsoft’s singular importance and what could come next.
Shift Key is hosted by Robinson Meyer, the founding executive editor of Heatmap News.
You can find a full transcript of the episode here.
Mentioned:
Our initial Friday story: Microsoft Is Pausing Carbon Removal Purchases
Jack’s take: The Private Sector Built the Market, Time for Us to Scale It
Heatmap’s Emily Pontecorvo on Ctrl-S, the startup trying to save CDR intellectual property
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This episode of Shift Key is sponsored by ...
Lunar Energy is building the technology to turn homes into active participants in the power system. Learn more about Lunar’s vision of the future at lunarenergy.com.
Music for Shift Key is by Adam Kromelow.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The United States and Iran have agreed to a ceasefire in Iran, and energy markets responded with jubilation — at least initially. Every major Wall Street index surged on Wednesday, and U.S. oil prices fell.
But the actual situation on the ground is far more ambiguous, huge questions remain about the truce, and the Strait of Hormuz is as closed today as it has been since the beginning of the war.
On this episode of Shift Key, Rob is joined by Rory Johnston, a longtime oil analyst, repeat Shift Key guest, and the author of the Commodity Context newsletter. We talk about why Iran gains from extending the ceasefire, where the pressure in the global energy system is building up, and what could happen next. We also talk about why the Midwest has the cheapest gasoline in the world right now.
Shift Key is hosted by Robinson Meyer, the founding executive editor of Heatmap News.
You can find a full transcript of the episode here.
Mentioned:
Why the Real Oil Crisis Hasn’t Started Yet
Iran’s planned toll for the Strait of Hormuz is a $2.33 per ton carbon tax
China Is the Big Winner of the Iran Ceasefire
Rory’s previous appearance on Shift Key: Why Trump’s Oil Imperialism Might Be a Tough Sell for Actual Oil Companies
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This episode of Shift Key is sponsored by ...
Lunar Energy is building the technology to turn homes into active participants in the power system. Learn more about Lunar’s vision of the future at lunarenergy.com.
Music for Shift Key is by Adam Kromelow.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How do utilities decide what they want — and need — to build? It’s one of the most important problems driving the data center and clean energy conversations right now. But it’s hard to get a sense of what constraints and ideas actually drive utility decisionmaking from the inside.
Alice Yake is the vice president of GRIDS at Breakthrough Energy, and the former senior vice president of system strategy and chief planning officer at Xcel Energy in Colorado. On this episode of Shift Key, she walks us through a half century of the grid’s biggest decisions — what constraints utilities and planners thought they faced, what choices they made, and what it means for the future. She also discusses Breakthrough’s work to build an open-source grid planning tool and how it could
Shift Key is hosted by Robinson Meyer, the founding executive editor of Heatmap News.
You can find a full transcript of the episode here.
Mentioned:
California Burning, by Katherine Blunt
Jesse’s paper on uncertainty-aware grid planning in the real world
James Bonbright’s landmark work on public utility rates
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This episode of Shift Key is sponsored by ...
Lunar Energy is building the technology to turn homes into active participants in the power system. Learn more about Lunar’s vision of the future at lunarenergy.com.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Electricity prices rose faster than overall inflation last year. Yet at the local level, it’s been difficult to know why. Is it data centers? Renewables? Aging infrastructure? Or something else more mysterious? Everyone in the political system — including senior Trump officials — wants to blame their favorite energy bugbear. But if we actually want to fix the problem, getting the real answer matters.
Now, Heatmap and MIT’s Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research are teaming up to answer this critical question. On this episode of Shift Key, Rob announces the launch of the Electricity Price Hub, a new public data platform that provides monthly, utility-level estimates of residential electricity rates and bills across the United States going back to 2021, broken down by generation, transmission, and distribution costs.
Joining Rob to discuss the tool are Brian Deese, an MIT Institute Innovation Fellow and the former director of the White House National Economic Council under President Biden, and Lauren Sidner, a senior advisor at MIT's Center for Energy and Environmental Policy who previously served as a senior advisor to U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry.
Shift Key is hosted by Robinson Meyer, the founding executive editor of Heatmap News.
You can find a full transcript of the episode here.
Mentioned:
What Americans Really Pay For Electricity, by Brian Deese and Robinson Meyer
Factors Influencing Recent Trends in Retail Electricity Prices in the United States
Rob’s piece on power prices from last year: How Electricity Got to Be So Expensive
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This episode of Shift Key is sponsored by …
Heatmap Pro brings all of our research, reporting, and insights down to the local level. The software platform tracks all local opposition to clean energy and data centers, forecasts community sentiment, and guides data-driven engagement campaigns. today to see the premier intelligence platform for project permitting and community engagement. Book a demo today to see the premier intelligence platform for project permitting and community engagement.
Music for Shift Key is by Adam Kromelow.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Since Democrats swept to statewide victories in Georgia and New Jersey last year by campaigning against high power prices, “electricity affordability” has been the watchword for climate-concerned politicians everywhere. But what can states and cities actually do to bring down power prices?
The Federation of American Scientists, through its new Center for Regulatory Ingenuity, has a new report out on Tuesday about how to make it happen — and speed up clean energy deployment at the same time. On this episode of Shift Key, Rob is joined by Arjun Krishnaswami, a senior advisor at FAS and the new report’s lead author. He was previously a senior policy advisor for clean energy infrastructure in the Biden White House; before that, he was a special advisor to the chief of staff at the U.S. Department of Energy.
Shift Key is hosted by Robinson Meyer, the founding executive editor of Heatmap News.
You can find a full transcript of the episode here.
Mentioned:
CELS Playbook: Clean Electricity for Local and State Governments
Previously in Heatmap: How Electricity Got So Expensive
Previously on Shift Key: A New Theory About Why Biden’s Big Climate Law Failed
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This episode of Shift Key is sponsored by …
Accelerate your clean energy career with Yale’s online certificate programs. Explore the 10-month Financing and Deploying Clean Energy program or the 5-month Clean and Equitable Energy Development program. Use referral code HeatMap26 and get your application in by the priority deadline for $500 off tuition to one of Yale’s online certificate programs in clean energy. Learn more at cbey.yale.edu/online-learning-opportunities.
Music for Shift Key is by Adam Kromelow.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.