VOA produces . They are not fully edited for grammar or spelling. VOA Connect - Episodes - Voice of America (VOA News) But when you say theyre fighting a giant lithium extraction site, I mean, people dont want to live near a lithium extraction site. The issue is that and weve known this is a problem with the IRA the whole time. Go beyond the headlines with VOA's Flashpoint Ukraine. I mean, and I think . Listen to this English Podcast with Transcripts Improve your English Conversation skills while listening to a fun and entertaining English podcast with transcripts conversations about everyday topics in American English. But when you tell me they just made the biggest loan in their history to Ford, Im not saying you shouldnt lend any money to Ford, but when I think of what is the kind of company that cannot raise money on the capital markets, the one that comes to mind is not Ford. is a false solution, that it will not actually fight climate change. VOA Learning English Podcast - Apple Podcasts And we have become much more antagonistic, ambivalent towards China. And I think the administration would say, we want this to be a big union-led effort. Then it makes a decision about whether to approve the project. And they often are moving very quickly compared to what has been done in that respect before, compared to what they have to get over. And they feel like theyre moving quickly. Its a hundred-page book thats basically how the D.O.E. While it has been reviewed by human transcribers, it may contain errors. One of the co-authors is my favorite economist of climate change, Marty Weitzman, who I think, until recently, was kind of the also-ran important economist of climate change. The Supreme Court has said it ruled last year that basically the E.P.A. On the other hand, no of the actually existing environmental groups want to see that technology get approved. Because theres such support of Chinese financing from the state for massive solar factories and massive scale. Where to listen Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Voice of America website We absolutely do not. I had mentioned earlier this draft law paper Ive been reading called The Greens Dilemma by Ruhl and Salzman. I want to put a pin in permitting . So when we look at sectors of the economy that are going to be quite hard to decarbonize and thats because there is something about fossil fuels chemically that is essential to how that sector works either because they provide combustion heat and steelmaking, or because fossil fuels are actually a chemical feedstock where the molecules in the fossil fuel are going into the product, or because fossil fuels are so energy dense that you can carry a lot of energy while actually not carrying that much mass any of those places, thats where we look at hydrogen as going. As you make the investment to replace the technology, its going to cost money. Its like the best piece of industrial policy Ive actually seen from the government at all. This is the progressive build-out plan . Solyndra was a disaster for the Department of Energy. That alchemy goes into the final debt-ceiling negotiations, which are between principals in Congress and the White House, and what we get is a set of basically the NEPA reforms in Joe Manchins bill from last year and the Mountain Valley pipeline, the thing that environmentalists were focused on blocking, and effectively no transmission reforms. House Progressives werent going to support it, and McConnell wasnt helping on it, and it didnt have the support at all. EZRA KLEIN: Thats not the loan people know that it gave. This does not create a huge pot of money for the supply . Previously known as Special English. to approve a Class 6 well. And there is off-the-record meetings. I think the other thing is that these states, many of them, are right-to-work states. The last part, to answer your question, is, well, lets say we get the minerals. And so in some ways, I think youre right to focus on the Loan Program Office as one of the best places we have data on how this is going right now and one of the offices thats responded fastest to the IRA. This is especially in the Senate. This is bigger than anything we have done at this speed ever. Listen wherever you get your podcasts. Americas 28th President, Woodrow Wilson, formed the National Park Service in 1916 to protect the wild and wonderful landscapes in the United States. EZRA KLEIN: If you stare at this for too long, you will lose your mind, right? How Americans use English grammar in everyday conversation. I just think we havent really figured out what deal and even what mechanisms we can use across the government to strike deals with other countries to mine the minerals in those countries while being fair and just and creating the kind of economic arrangement that those countries want. And so one of the questions I have had is that permitting reform has been having these weird backdoor fights. Its meant to encourage this technology to get built out. There is a deep logical disconnect there between . And in fact, early in its life, it gave a very important loan to Tesla. And they just seem to think we dont. Podcast - Voice of America (VOA News) ROBINSON MEYER: No, we do not. If the I.R.A. People want the tax credits. But that would definitely be helpful in getting manufacturing to relocate here, and this money would flow towards the manufacturing. And thats just solar. We also keep you in touch with social media, science and entertainment trends. Give an example. So the Rhodium Group, which is a consulting firm, they think it could be as high as $522 billion, which is a big difference. The episodes are divided into different sections, from fictional drama and jokes to quizzes and language advice. That can mean large-scale projects that might infringe on local water, right? EZRA KLEIN: The only point Im making here is I think this is where you see a compromise a lot of them didnt want to make . Its the largest loan in the offices history. Learn English as you read and listen to a weekly show about a major story in the news. the private market cant. It's a place to meet street artists and high tech innovators, and everyone in between. A Podcast from Voice of America Podcasts in Special English. or the last 40 percent. Your calm voice and positive spirit radiate through the episodes! Many of these transcripts were written by listeners as part of the LEP transcript writing collaboration. The second book might be a little outdated now, but its called Climate Shock by Gernot Wagner and Marty Weitzman. Agencies have to write the regulations for all these tax credits. But before we begin, were doing our quarterly Ask Me Anything. And in Texas, theres been a raft of laws proposed some of them passing, some of them not that are basically making renewable energy harder to build in Texas, that are trying to make Texas more of an oil and gas state. Because if we fill the atmosphere with carbon, nobodys going to get a good environment. Youve seen the governor of Texas, after there were huge blackouts because the gas system failed, blaming renewables for this somehow and trying to make it easier to build natural gas infrastructure. Solyndra failed because Chinese solar deluged the market. You havent gotten us the community solar bonus. And I think it also depended on what exactly you counted as a climate . That process seems to be proceeding but going slowly. EZRA KLEIN: I was going to ask you about this because there is this bill, Promoting Efficient and Engaged Reviews Act, which Tom Carper, Brian Schatz, Sheldon Whitehouse, who are all climate-oriented Democrats in the Senate, have authored. Are they getting money out fast enough? Transcript: Ezra Klein Interviews Robinson Meyer, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/07/podcasts/ezra-klein-podcast-transcript-robinson-meyer.html. really didnt see a very large take up for the hydrogen tax credits. And Im curious if you think theyre right. Science in the News - Articles - VOA - Voice of America English News Hydrogen is this important tool that were going to use in the industrial sector, maybe transportation sector, to decarbonize and replace fossil fuels in certain uses. John F. Kennedy. But when you say theyre fighting a giant lithium extraction site, I mean, people dont want to live near a lithium extraction site. Hear about music that features the guitar and learn about its history. Its a categorical exclusion statement, which is to basically say this is the kind of project that does not need a NEPA review. The kind of average NEPA Environmental Impact Study today is 500 pages and takes 4.5 years to produce. I dont think people think a lot about who is cutting these checks, but a lot of it is happening in this very obscure office of the Department of Energy, the Loan Program Office, which has gone from having $40 billion in lending authority, which is already a big boost over it not existing a couple decades ago, to $400 billion in loan authority, Jigar Shah, who is not a household name but has become a very, very important figure in climate money. And there are cities you can point to in the Sunbelt that have better permitting. The 14 Best Podcasts to Help You Learn English [2023] - Preply I mean, you can probably attach different numbers to that. And to some degree, Ford now has to compete, and US automakers are trying to catch up with Chinese EV automakers. And these are tough issues. You can send electricity. Audience strategy by Shannon Busta. VOA Newscasts (2 Minute) And so they might pay their workers less. believes were going to build out a clean hydrogen economy. Well, this is what Im about to get to. The kind of average NEPA environmental impact study today is 500 pages and takes 4.5 years to produce. So what could we get out of this process, both sides? Learn American English with English language lessons from Voice of America. The C.B.O. Learn English while learning fascinating things about the world. Like I dont plug my car into a wind turbine. ROBINSON MEYER: All the numbers differ because most of the important incentives, most of the important tax credits and subsidies in the I.R.A., are uncapped. China has a lot of the supply chain for renewable energy, for batteries, et cetera. For English Language Teachers Around the World. Theres a Times profile of Jigar Shah, and hes bragging in it that theyre turning a profit. And theyre fighting any effort. That is what the Supreme Court has ruled. Manchins bill is basically a set of moderate NEPA reforms and transmission reforms. They were furious at Manchin for good reason by this point. And on the other hand, I think anyone looking at the landscape of where large-scale corporate investment was going in the 2000s and the 2010s would see that it was going to go to Georgia, would see that it was gonna go to red states, and hope that by making clean investment there that you might dislodge some of the Republican opposition to climate policies. Legally, we have no other choice because of the constraints the Supreme Court has placed on the EPA. I mean, it's just there's layers upon layers to the story. Stories are written at the intermediate and upper-beginner level and are read one-third slower than regular VOA English. Thank you for having me. It received a huge bonus in the IRA. And we dont have years to get emissions to zero to fight climate change. ROBINSON MEYER: Totally. Lets just start calling it NEPA. This is very thorough. And thats where were getting the fastest response from industry and the clearest response from industry to the law. Environmental groups, within themselves, have different ideas about what it could mean. Real English Conversations Podcast - English Conversation Lessons to Speak English with Confidence ! That was a large economic transition happening in the 70s and 80s, and it dovetailed really nicely with the environmental grand bargain. But if its taking you this much staffing and that much time to say something doesnt apply to you, maybe you have a process problem . Wind kind of works during the evening hours, when its best. Companies are excited about them. In some cases, there is local tax benefits or theres local incentives, write-off. Now, notionally, the study is supposed to inform the project. So on the one hand, its a failure of coalitional courage thats partially as a result of the fact that when we talk about permitting reform and were like, Well, whats the progressive permitting reform, you need to give us some options here, you need to tell us what you think we should change in order to make the I.R.A. Until that body changes, that is going to be the law. It was an entirely separate political process, basically. No, no, no, no, no. Its cousin, the California Environmental Quality Act, gets a lot of attention. So I want to talk through the road from this money to all of this decarbonization infrastructure theyre trying to build. And if the government agency hasnt made a decision in two years, then kind of the sponsor, the applicant for the project, can sue the agency and get a court to give them a decision. Podcast Transcripts: Why and How to Transcribe Your Podcast And, yeah, they may be doing something that at the national level we dont think we should be subsidizing, but were happy to help you come to our state and contribute to our states business environment, and well , EZRA KLEIN: When you say theyre giving away the money . right now, is that generally the government feels like its moving as fast as it can. Whether open or kind of sub-rosa, theyre fighting any effort to streamline and make it possible to build Class 2 wells, to build CCS. Innovations and trends in education in the United States and around the world. And I think its fair to say maybe the biggest bet on that is green hydrogen, if youre looking in the bill. So the Loan Program Office is basically the Department of Energys in-house bank, and its kind of the closest thing we have in the US to what exists in other countries, like Germany, which is a State development bank that funds projects that are eventually going to be profitable. You can listen to the files on your computer or load them on your portable media player and take them with you. VOA Connect brings together stories of people across the United States and around the world, from a virtual reality brain surgeon ushering in a new age of medicine to a Vietnam War vet connecting . ROBINSON MEYER: We cant fight climate change, we cant decarbonize, we cant reach net zero with everyone having rooftop solar. On todays podcast, hear about 40 years of efforts to save Brazilian monkeys; learn how educators are using ChatGTP in their teaching followed by a discussion about the AI service; then listen to what happened during the 2008 financial crisis in our American history series.