Is the clean energy economy doomed?
Make Me Smart
Marketplace
4.6 • 5.4K Ratings
🗓️ 6 May 2025
⏱️ 25 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
So far, President Trump’s “drill, baby, drill,” agenda has proven to be a sharp turn from Biden-era climate initiatives, including the landmark spending bill the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
And thanks to President Trump’s attempts to claw back control over IRA funds, as well as his recent budget proposal which drastically cuts climate spending, the future of America’s fast-growing clean energy economy looks uncertain.
“The world is switching to electric vehicles, the world is switching to solar and wind,” said Christopher Knittel, economics professor and associate dean for climate and sustainability at the MIT Sloan School of Management. “And the less we do domestically, the less capability we build domestically to provide those clean energy resources, the worse off our industries will be in the future.”
Knittel explains President Trump’s efforts to phase out Biden-era climate initiatives, why some Republicans are reluctant to get rid of the IRA entirely, and why the U.S. getting left behind in a world committed to decarbonization poses a threat.
Plus, the new Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney told President Trump that Canada is “not for sale” in a meeting earlier today. And, the REAL ID deadline is coming in hot, though not all states seem equally prepared.
Then, we’ll hear about how Seattle businesses are showing love for Canadian visitors and a listener share’s her daughter’s frustrations with “shrinkflation.”
Here’s everything we talked about today:
- Trump administration cancels clean energy grants as it prioritizes fossil fuels by AP News
- What Trump's budget cuts could mean for the environment by AP News
- The Race to the Top in Six Charts and Not Too Many Numbers from RMI
- Republicans haggle over green tax credits as battle lines deepen from Politico
- How We Survive from Marketplace
- Trump’s trade war with Canada has backfired on America. Now he has a crucial meeting with Mark Carney from CNN Business
- Trump knocks Canada ahead of Carney meeting by The Hill
- @carlquintanilla.bsky.social on Bluesky
- What you need to know about the REAL ID requirements for air travel from NBC News
- Real ID deadline is weeks away and most states aren't fully compliant yet from CBS News
- Seattle Restaurants Are Offering Canadian Tourists a Discount, and an Apology by Eater Seattle
Got a question or comment for the hosts? Email [email protected] or leave us a voicemail at 508-U-B-SMART.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hello, everyone. I'm Kimberly Adams. Welcome back to Make Me Smart, where none of us is as smart as all of us. |
| 0:13.1 | And I'm Amy Scott in for Kai Rizdahl. It is Tuesday, May 6th. And today we're checking in on the clean energy transition. We're 100 plus days now into |
| 0:24.0 | the new Trump administration. And the president's drill baby drill agenda is a sharp turn from |
| 0:30.4 | Biden's climate policies, especially the landmark clean energy law, the Inflation Reduction Act. |
| 0:37.3 | So with billions of dollars in funding for |
| 0:39.7 | clean energy on the line, we're wondering, is all the progress now doomed? |
| 0:45.5 | This is such a tangent, but I wonder if the lasting political legacy of Sarah Palin will be |
| 0:50.0 | Drill Baby's Drill. Oh, my goodness. Yes. Maybe so. Anyway, the Trump administration has been |
| 0:57.7 | attempting to claw back some of these funds and Trump's 2026 budget proposal release last week |
| 1:03.7 | outlines dramatic cuts in climate spending. So we wanted to know more about this and what it could |
| 1:09.8 | mean for the clean energy economy, |
| 1:11.8 | the clean energy transition in the long run. |
| 1:14.4 | So here to make us smart about this is Christopher Canittle, economics professor and associate |
| 1:19.0 | dean for climate and sustainability at the MIT Sloan School of Management. |
| 1:24.2 | Wow, what a title. |
| 1:25.4 | And welcome to the show, Christopher. |
| 1:28.7 | Thanks for having me. |
| 1:35.8 | All right. So big picture. How has the clean energy economy been faring since Trump took office? |
| 1:42.6 | Well, like just about every aspect of the economy, I think they're certainly dealing with a lot of uncertainty, whether or not the |
| 1:44.8 | Inflation Reduction Act tax credits will survive, what will happen with the bipartisan |
| 1:50.4 | infrastructure bill portions that went to clean energy. So in many ways, they're in a holding pattern |
| 1:57.8 | until they get a little bit more certainty from the federal government. |
... |
Transcript will be available on the free plan in 2 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Marketplace, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Marketplace and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.