Robinson Meyer

Washington, D.C.

Founding Executive Editor at Heatmap News

Host at Shift Key with Robinson Meyer and Jesse Jenkins

Executive Editor, Heatmap News. Contributing Opinion Writer, NYT.

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Articles

New GOP Budget Bill Guts Decades-Old Fuel Economy Rules for Cars and Trucks

3 weeks ago | heatmap.news | Robinson Meyer

A new provision in the Senate reconciliation bill would neuter the country’s fuel efficiency standards for automakers, gutting one of the federal government’s longest-running programs to manage gasoline prices and air pollution. The new provision — which was released on Thursday by the Senate Commerce Committee — would essentially strip the government of its ability to enforce the Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards, or CAFE standards.
The Supreme Court’s Double-Edged Change to Permitting Law

3 weeks ago | heatmap.news | Robinson Meyer

Did the Supreme Court just make it easier to build things in this country — or did it give a once-in-a-lifetime gift to the fossil fuel industry? Last week, the Supreme Court ruled 8-0 against environmentalists who sought to use a key permitting law, the National Environmental Policy Act, to slow down a railroad in a remote but oil-rich part of Utah. Even the court’s liberals ruled against the green groups.
The Supreme Court Just Started a Permitting Revolution

3 weeks ago | heatmap.news | Robinson Meyer

A new chapter opened for one of the country’s most important environmental laws this week. On Thursday, the Supreme Court transformed the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA, an environmental permitting law that affects virtually every decision that the federal government makes. The quasi-unanimous ruling limits the law’s scope and cuts off future avenues for challenging energy and infrastructure projects under the law.
Save Us, Senators, From a Very Expensive Mistake

3 weeks ago | nytimes.com | Robinson Meyer

Every so often, Americans rely on the Senate to save us from the more ill-considered urges of the House of Representatives. That time has come again. House Republicans have sent an abysmal reconciliation bill to the Senate that would wreak particular havoc on the country's energy policy and undermine America's industrial strength. But the Senate can fix it.
Shift Key Classic: The World Will Miss 1.5C. What Comes Next?

1 month ago | heatmap.news | Robinson Meyer

Shift Key is off this week for Memorial Day, so we’re re-running one of our favorite episodes from the past. With Republicans in the White House and Congress now halfway to effectively repealing the Inflation Reduction Act, the United States’ signature climate law, we thought now might be a good moment to remind ourselves why emissions reductions matter in the first place.
The GOP Tax Bill Is a Dangerous Gamble at a Precarious Moment

1 month ago | heatmap.news | Robinson Meyer

When President Barack Obama signed the Budget Control Act in August of 2011, he did not do so happily. The bill averted the debt ceiling crisis that had threatened to derail his presidency, but it did so at a high cost: It forced Congress either to agree to big near-term deficit cuts, or to accept strict spending limits over the years to come. It was, as Bloomberg commentator Conor Sen put it this week, the wrong bill for the wrong moment.
How the GOP Megabill Would Reshape the U.S. Energy Economy: Transcript

1 month ago | heatmap.news | Robinson Meyer

Robinson Meyer: You are listening to SHIFT KEY, a weekly podcast from Heatmap News. On this week’s show, we are talking about the Republican effort to gut the Inflation Reduction Act. What their cuts will mean for emissions, what their proposed rewrite would mean for the clean energy economy, and why huge changes to the IRA could result in a huge increase in U.S. consumer power bills. It’s all coming up on SHIFT KEY after this. [ad break]Jesse Jenkins: Oh God, this sucks.
How the GOP Megabill Would Reshape the U.S. Energy Economy

1 month ago | heatmap.news | Robinson Meyer

Republicans are preparing to tear up America’s clean energy tax credits as part of their budget reconciliation megabill. Hollowing out those policies will have sweeping implications for the country’s energy system — it could set back solar, nuclear, and geothermal development; bring less electricity supply onto the grid; and devastate the country’s fledgling electric vehicle supply chain.
How a House GOP Proposal Would Essentially Gut the IRA’s Biggest Tax Credits

1 month ago | heatmap.news | Robinson Meyer

On Monday, the Republican-led House Ways and Means Committee released the first draft of its rewrite of America’s clean energy tax credits. The proposal might look, at first, like a cautious paring back of the tax credits. But the proposal amounts to a backdoor repeal of the policies, according to energy system and tax analysts.
Shift Key Special Edition: The Fight Over the Inflation Reduction Act Has Arrived

1 month ago | heatmap.news | Robinson Meyer

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 its proposal to gut the IRA, and we had to review it on-air.