Volts

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Ramón Méndez Galain helped Uruguay decarbonize its grid (today it’s 98% fossil-free) while keeping the utility public and letting private capital foot the bill. Now he’s trying to export the same playbook across the global South. We talk through how Uruguay pulled it off — the hydro “battery” for wind & solar “baseload,” the cross-party political deal, the market redesign — and what actually transfers to countries without the same advantages. We also discuss why, seven years on, no other country has followed Uruguay’s path.
Chapters:
00:00 – Introduction
03:09 – From particle physics to a nuclear proposal
05:46 – Taking the job as energy secretary
07:00 – The 2008 crisis: drought, expensive oil, blackouts
09:26 – Getting every party to sign the same plan
12:51 – Why climate was not the lead argument
15:42 – Attracting private capital without privatizing
20:22 – What a public utility made possible
23:06 – Planning a grid where wind and solar are the base load
29:26 – Thermal plants as insurance, and the last 2 percent
32:36 – EVs, smart meters, and building an electrostate
37:33 – Why bills fell less than generation costs
39:46 – What transfers to other countries
44:15 – Optimum curtailment, Colombia, and Haiti
50:51 – The political work, and the argument against the dominant narrative
56:36 – The Global South and the NDC as development catalyst

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As the U.S. EV market slows and federal charging support recedes, IONNA, a fast-charging network backed by eight major automakers, is still expanding. On Volts, CEO Seth Cutler makes the case that public charging is entering a new phase focused on reliability and customer experience, but the economics remain difficult, with low utilization and demand charges squeezing margins. With roughly 1,300 bays live and a target of 30,000, IONNA is testing whether a multi-brand network can offer a Tesla-like charging experience while building a sustainable business.
Chapters:
00:00 – Introduction: can public EV charging be as reliable as a gas station?
02:30 – Public charging’s four phases, and IONNA’s phase-four bet
08:17 – IONNA’s origin story
09:55 – Scale, footprint & site strategy
11:52 – Rechargery @ vs. freestanding: the two site formats
18:45 – Can DC fast charging make money? Unit economics
21:29 – Demand charges & why fast charging is expensive
23:57 – Getting power: permitting, interconnection & utilities
29:18 – Site design, amenities & the monetization question
34:14 – Regional site customization: the gas station turned bakery
36:35 – The charging experience: apps & Plug&Charge
39:03 – Reliability strategy & metrics
42:47 – Headwinds: the EV market downturn & policy risk
46:54 – Business model, profitability & the IONITY comparison
50:09 – Geographic rollout: the chicken-and-egg problem
54:07 – Competitive position vs. Tesla
56:37 – Closing: vision, fears & timeline

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Last year I did a pod on Montana’s surprising burst of bipartisan housing legislation. Turns out Idaho was watching. This year its legislature passed six housing bills of its own (two others failed). Republican state Sen. Ben Toews and Democratic state Rep. Megan Egbert join me to walk through what passed, what didn’t, and what they gave away to get it done — plus the property tax cap that quietly works against all of it, and why duplexes turned out to be the red line.
Chapters:
00:00 – Introduction and the Idaho housing package
02:43 – How each guest came to the housing issue
06:39 – Inside the interim housing study committee
09:05 – SB 1354, ADUs by right, and Dillon’s Rule
12:52 – The 5,000 to 10,000 compromise, and HOAs
15:03 – SB 1352 starter homes, manufactured homes, lot splits
16:28 – HB 706 and single-stair buildings
18:11 – The permitting shot clock and the 6-day rule
19:48 – Living with the compromises, and why counties were left out
22:54 – The two bills that died: duplexes and YIGBY
28:41 – HB 389, the property tax cap, and the growth undertow
34:41 – What the public understands about growth
37:23 – Regulatory reform on supply side vs. incentives for housing
43:59 – The February deadline and city resistance
48:52 – Horizontal vs. vertical density
56:03 – What comes next for the committee & Idaho housing

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Could the US grid be brought down by Chinese hackers? To find out, I talked with Patrick Miller, who helped write the cybersecurity rules for the bulk power system and became the first person with federal authority to enforce them. We get into what's actually been hacked, why those "rogue devices" in Chinese inverters are less sinister than they sound, and why squirrels still do more damage than hackers.
Chapters:
00:00 – Introduction
02:47 – What state utility commissioners get wrong about cyber risk
04:50 – Real attacks on the grid so far: Ukraine, Poland, and the US
06:57 – IT versus OT, and why grid devices are hard to protect
10:30 – The NERC CIP standards: scope, requirements, enforcement
17:40 – Distributed resources outside the CIP perimeter
20:54 – Dropping the threshold to 20 MVA, and federal jurisdiction
29:12 – Chinese inverters and the commodity board
36:09 – Volt Typhoon, Salt Typhoon, and China's intent
39:26 – Data centers as a new attack surface
43:19 – The trade-off between security and speed
47:44 – Cyber-informed engineering and analog safeguards
54:05 – AI on offense and defense
1:02:21 – Squirrels, balloons, and physical threats
1:04:24 – CISA cuts, CIRCIA, and harmonizing the rules

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State legislatures are writing data center rules faster than they can verify the demand forecasts underneath them. Fifteen states accounted for 80 percent of data center electricity demand in 2023, a single hyperscale campus can arrive as 15 to 20 percent of a utility's demand, and the transmission to serve it takes five to 15 years to build. On this episode of Volts, David Roberts works through Climate Cabinet's Taming Data Center Turmoil series with Saleem Chapman, who leads the group's electricity affordability policy work, on why Georgia's regulated utility, PJM's capacity market, and ERCOT's competitive market each left ratepayers holding the risk, and what a state can require before it approves a project, while the facility operates, and after the deal is done.
Chapters:
00:00 – Introduction
02:49 – How Climate Cabinet came to the data center fight
03:58 – Three things that make hyperscalers unlike past industrial loads
07:51 – Warning signals: forecast opacity, gas dependency, unconditional subsidies
13:44 – Siting near overburdened communities and the Memphis case
15:34 – State preemption versus local control
18:31 – The same failure pattern in Georgia, PJM, and ERCOT
23:52 – Why not just ban data centers outright
28:07 – The framework, and what to require before approval
34:54 – While operating: real cost pricing and on-call load flexibility
37:39 – Scenario-based planning and the utility incentive problem
39:37 – After the deal: new and matched clean energy
43:48 – Siting standards and performance-tied incentives
50:27 – Existing facilities and the threat to build elsewhere
55:41 – Which states are ahead, and step one for lawmakers