A Matter of Degrees

Donald Trump’s so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” took a sledgehammer to U.S. climate policy, including tax credits for clean cars and appliances. These incentives were helping people cut pollution, lower their energy bills, and make their homes more comfortable. Trump’s bill eliminates the credits by the end of this year.  Wait, don’t change the channel—because these incentives haven’t expired yet! So for the next few months, there is a federally-funded BLOWOUT SALE on clean tech. Shop until your energy bills drop! In this episode of A Matter of Degrees, we break down which credits are expiring, what they can do for you, and how to take advantage of them before they’re gone. We also dive into how the incentives were cutting pollution, improving people’s lives, and transforming our economy. Finally, we talk about what’s next for household electrification and how we can continue to make progress under the current administration.  To help tell these stories, we bring on Ingrid Malmgren [https://www.linkedin.com/in/ingrid-malmgren/], the Senior Policy Director at Plug In America. Visit pluginamerica.org [https://pluginamerica.org/] to learn more about electric vehicles and how to get one before federal incentives expire at the end of September. We’re also joined by Sarah Gracia [https://solarunitedneighbors.org/people/sarah-gracia/], a Senior Go Solar Help Desk Associate at Solar United Neighbors. Visit solarunitedneighbors.org/help-desk [http://solarunitedneighbors.org/help-desk] to find resources to help you get solar panels on your home and save on your energy bills. Lastly, we hear from Saul Griffith [https://www.saulgriffith.com/], engineer, inventor, and clean energy entrepreneur. Saul Griffith’s new book “Plug In! The Electrification Handbook [https://www.amazon.com/Plug-Electrification-Handbook-Saul-Griffith-ebook/dp/B0DFG8BLR8]” walks you through how to electrify your home, save money, and cut climate pollution.

Thousands of people lost their homes in the Los Angeles wildfires. Now, they’re looking to their insurance companies to help them rebuild. But as the world warms, disasters like these are becoming more frequent and more severe, exposing an insurance system that isn’t equipped to cover the rising damages. In Los Angeles, people who lost everything were left to fend for themselves. This is just the latest example of how insurance is failing to keep up with climate change.  In this episode of A Matter of Degrees, we’re joined by Dave Jones [https://x.com/ca_davejones?lang=en], California’s Insurance Commissioner from 2011 to 2018 and the current Director for the Climate Risk Initiative at UC Berkeley’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment. We dive into how the climate crisis is breaking our home insurance system, what we can do to fix it, and how to make fossil fuel companies pay their fair share.

This week we are sharing a special bonus episode from Boiling Point [https://www.latimes.com/about/pressreleases/story/2025-01-16/l-a-times-studios-launches-podcast-slate-with-boiling-point-hosted-by-times-climate-columnist-sammy-roth], a new podcast produced by the LA Times and hosted by climate columnist Sammy Roth [https://www.latimes.com/people/sammy-roth]. This new audio series explores how climate change is impacting California and the American West.  The first episode focuses on the recent wildfires in Los Angeles and what they mean for the future of the city. Sammy talks with Kelly Sanders [https://viterbi.usc.edu/directory/faculty/Sanders/Kelly], an engineering professor at USC and former White House advisor on energy policy, about how Los Angeles can look at resilience as it builds back.  Boiling Point [https://boiling-point.simplecast.com/] is an LA Times Studios podcast and releases new episodes every Thursday.

In this episode of A Matter of Degrees, we partner with Climate One to share an inspiring conversation between Dr. Leah Stokes and Greg Dalton [https://www.climateone.org/people/greg-dalton], the founder and co-host of Climate One, when Leah received the 2024 Stephen H. Schneider Award for Outstanding Climate Science Communication in December. And as a double feature, this episode also includes a conversation between writer, historian, and activist Rebecca Solnit [http://rebeccasolnit.net/] and Climate One co-host Ariana Brocious [https://www.climateone.org/people/ariana-brocious] from 2023. This episode was also released on the Climate One [https://www.climateone.org/] podcast.

The industrial sector makes all of our physical stuff – the clothes we wear, the cars we drive, the buildings we live in, and much more. It’s also one of the biggest sources of U.S. climate pollution. In this episode of A Matter of Degrees, we bring on guest host Dr. Eric Masanet [https://bren.ucsb.edu/people/eric-masanet], world-leading industrial decarbonization expert, to break down how we can clean up this sector. We are also joined by Rebecca Dell [https://www.linkedin.com/in/rwdell/], the Senior Director of the Industry Program at the ClimateWorks Foundation, Nick Santero [https://www.linkedin.com/in/njsantero/], the Sustainability Science Team Lead at Rivian, and Yinka Bode-George [https://www.linkedin.com/in/yinkabg], the Founder, President, and CEO of Sustain Our Future.