This Taught Me a Lot About How Decarbonization Is Really Going
About this episode
Ezra Klein asks Heatmap executive editor Robinson Meyer what the Inflation Reduction Act's first year reveals about how decarbonization is really going. Meyer argues the law is working better than expected: the Loan Programs Office is financing projects private capital would not touch, and clean-energy investment is flowing disproportionately to red states. But he warns the binding constraint is now permitting — environmental reviews and transmission bottlenecks could strangle deployment. They debate green-hydrogen rules, whether strict sourcing requirements help or hurt the industry, and the politics of 'friendshoring' supply chains away from China. Klein argues the politics of climate have been transformed — decarbonization is now an industrial strategy, not just a moral plea — while Meyer cautions that execution, not ambition, will decide outcomes. Both are optimistic about falling technology costs but worried about state capacity.