Robinson Meyer

Washington, D.C.

Founding Executive Editor at Heatmap News

Host at Shift Key with Robinson Meyer and Jesse Jenkins

I’m the founding executive editor of Heatmap News and a contributing Opinion writer at The New York Times.

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Articles

The Coming Bloodbath at the Department of Energy

2 weeks ago | heatmap.news | Robinson Meyer

The Trump administration is overseeing a chaotic set of changes at the U.S. Department of Energy that could gut its in-house bank and transform one of the government’s key scientific and technology development agencies. In the coming days, the department could see thousands of its employees — nearly one-fifth of its staff — resign in one of the largest headcount reductions in memory.
How China’s Industrial Policy Really Works

2 weeks ago | heatmap.news | Robinson Meyer

China’s industrial policy for clean energy has turned the country into a powerhouse of solar, wind, battery, and electric vehicle manufacturing. But long before the country’s factories moved global markets — and invited Trump’s self-destructive tariffs — the country implemented energy and technology policy to level up its domestic industry. How did those policies work? Which tools worked best?
Trump’s Tariffs Are a Catastrophe for the Oil Industry

2 weeks ago | heatmap.news | Robinson Meyer

President Donald Trump campaigned on a promise to “drill, baby, drill” and help the American oil and natural gas industry. Executives loved it — the industry gave more than $75 million to Trump’s campaign and its affiliated groups. Now the trade is blowing up in their faces. This week, the president accomplished two of his biggest goals — and the result has slammed the oil industry and imperiled its near-term future.
Trump’s Plans to Build Data Centers on Federal Land

3 weeks ago | heatmap.news | Robinson Meyer

The Department of Energy is moving ahead with plans to allow companies to build AI data centers and new power plants on federal land — and it has put together a list of more than a dozen sites nationwide that could receive the industrial-scale facilities, according to an internal memo obtained by Heatmap News. The memo lists sites in Texas, Illinois, New Jersey, Colorado, and other locations.
The Least-Noticed Climate Scandal of the Trump Administration

3 weeks ago | heatmap.news | Robinson Meyer

The Inflation Reduction Act dedicated $27 billion to build a new kind of climate institution in America — a network of national green banks that could lend money to companies, states, schools, churches, and housing developers to build more clean energy and deploy more next-generation energy technology around the country. It was an innovative and untested program. And the Trump administration is desperately trying to block it.
Here Comes Degrowth Donald

4 weeks ago | heatmap.news | Robinson Meyer

Dear Mr. Trump,What can I say? You astound me. You enthrall me. I am, in short, very impressed!Why? Well, earlier this month, I sent you an open letter in which I confessed that I finally understood your secret plan. It’s true, I wrote, that you campaigned as a scourge of climate activists. You publicly called global warming a “hoax,” a “scam,” and something that you “don’t believe.” Sure, that’s what you said. But, as I wrote in my letter, you have governed very differently.
What’s Really Holding Back New Data Centers

4 weeks ago | heatmap.news | Robinson Meyer

If you care about decarbonizing the power grid anytime soon, you have to care about data centers. The AI boom and the ongoing growth of the internet have driven a big new cycle of data center construction in the United States, with tech companies trying to buy electricity on the scale of large cities’ energy demands. Peter Freed has seen this up close. As Meta’s former director of energy strategy, he worked on clean energy procurement and data center development from 2014 to 2024.
Why BYD Keeps Shocking the World

1 month ago | heatmap.news | Robinson Meyer

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How to Crash America’s Manufacturing Renaissance

1 month ago | heatmap.news | Robinson Meyer

Republicans in Washington are pushing for at least two big changes to the country’s car-related policies. In Congress, some lawmakers want to repeal the $7,500 tax credit that helps consumers buy or lease a new electric vehicle — as well as a matching tax credit that lets companies buy heavy-duty zero-carbon trucks. And at the Environmental Protection Agency, officials are trying to roll back Biden-era rules encouraging dealerships to sell more EVs through 2032.
‘The Bill Gates Era of Climate Giving Has Ended’ - ‘Closing his (climate) policy & advocacy office and has laid off much of its staff’ - Gates was ‘instrumental to the lobbying effort to pass the IRA’ - Climate Depot

1 month ago | climatedepot.com | Marc Morano |Robinson Meyer

A major chapter in climate giving has ended. Breakthrough Energy, the climate philanthropy organization founded by Bill Gates, is closing its policy and advocacy office and has laid off much of its staff in Washington, D.C., Heatmap News has learned. The layoffs will effectively gut an organization central to the effort to enact the package of clean energy tax cuts passed during the Biden administration.