Hello again, I'm Orman Alney. As this podcast is being recorded, the latest global climate conference is just getting underway. It's being held in San Francisco, that's part of Silicon Valley, the world capital of technological innovation. And it's the brainchild of California's outgoing Governor Jerry Brown, who has made his state

a leader in fighting against climate change.

He has just signed a bill requiring 100% zero emissions from electricity in his state by the

year 2045, but that's not all.

I've accompanied this bill, this bill signing, with an executive order that sets the state

on the path to zero carbon emissions, or what we call carbon neutrality.

And that's much broader than merely cleaning up the electricity network.

This is something that involves agriculture, industry,

buildings, cars, trucks, and actual sequestration of CO2. To get to our goal of carbon

neutrality, we have to do many, many things. Governor Jerry Brown, again, starting a conference on climate change in San Francisco,

with ideas, of course, that go way beyond California law or the conference itself.

Jeffrey Ball is a writer on the energy and environment.

He's now scholar in residence at Stanford's Star Taylor Center for Energy Policy and Finance,

and he's a non-resident fellow at the Brookings Institution.

Good to have you back.

Nice to be here, Warren.

What are you going to be looking for as this conference goes underway?

What is the best case scenario?

Well, I'm going to be looking beyond the politician's rhetoric, which I think we can all predict

will be voluminous and loud, toward actual dollar signs.

At the end of the day, solving environmental problems is about money and solving the mother

of all environmental problems.

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