Energy Policy Now

As home gas use declines, rising infrastructure costs are pushing consumer gas bills higher.
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Americans are using less natural gas at home, yet their gas bills continue to rise. A growing share of those bills now reflects the cost of maintaining and upgrading gas distribution networks, even as electrification and state climate policies raise questions about the long-term role of gas in buildings.
James Van Nostrand, a senior fellow with the Kleinman Center and policy director at the Future of Heat Initiative, discusses how rising infrastructure spending has reshaped household gas costs and why extensive pipeline replacement has not necessarily produced better safety outcomes. He also examines a growing challenge for utility regulation: how to manage increasingly overlapping gas and electric systems that can provide many of the same household services.
Van Nostrand, former chairman of the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities, explores when continued investment in gas infrastructure may become uneconomic, whether targeted electrification could offer a lower-cost alternative to replacing aging pipelines, and what regulators and policymakers can do to ensure that the transition is both reliable and affordable.
James Van Nostrand is a senior fellow with the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy, and policy director at the Future of Heat Initiative.
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Coping Under Strain: How Climate, Utility Disconnections, and LIHEAP Shaped Household Energy Strategies During the Pandemic https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/research/publications/coping-under-strain-how-climate-utility-disconnections-and-liheap-shaped-household-energy-strategies-during-the-pandemic/
Energy and the Economics of Affordability https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/commentary/podcast/energy-and-the-economics-of-affordability/
Energy Policy Now is produced by The Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. For all things energy policy, visit kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

PJM is under pressure to overhaul how it makes decisions. The harder question is whether the market can reform itself, and what meaningful change would require.
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The PJM Interconnection, the nation’s largest electricity market, is under growing pressure to reform the way it makes decisions. FERC’s push for change follows years of mounting concern over PJM’s ability to respond to challenges ranging from electricity supply and rising costs to rapidly growing data-center demand. Those concerns have now culminated in a broader question: whether the way PJM is governed is itself making the market’s problems harder to solve, and whether PJM can reform that system from within.
Seth Blumsack, director of the Center for Energy Law and Policy at Penn State University, explains how PJM makes decisions, why power is divided among its leadership, members and other stakeholders, and where that system can break down. He discusses the relatively limited role of states and consumers, how PJM compares with other regional electricity markets, and how much of its current predicament can really be blamed on governance.
Blumsack also looks at FERC’s unusual effort to broker governance reform through mediation, the changes now being considered, and what may happen if PJM and its stakeholders cannot agree on a path forward.
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Breaking Down or Charging Up? Local Political Repercussions from Clean-Energy Manufacturing Investments https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/research/publications/breaking-down-or-charging-up-local-political-repercussions-from-clean-energy-manufacturing-investments/
Data Center Regulation (Or Not) in Pennsylvania: Part 1 https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/commentary/blog/data-center-regulation-or-not-in-pennsylvania-part-1/
Energy Policy Now is produced by The Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. For all things energy policy, visit kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Hormuz crisis tests China’s energy security while highlighting its growing clean-tech advantage.
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The closure of the Strait of Hormuz following the outbreak of war between the U.S. and Iran has disrupted about a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas flows, driving up energy costs around the world. Yet China, the world’s largest energy consumer and oil importer, has so far weathered the disruption with relatively little economic impact. Strategic stockpiles, alternative fossil fuel supplies, and domestic energy resources have all contributed to China’s resilience, while clean energy and electrification have played a more limited role.
Scott Moore, a Faculty Fellow with the Kleinman Center and Director of China Programs and Strategic Initiatives at the University of Pennsylvania, discusses what the Hormuz crisis reveals about China’s energy strategy and its position as the world’s dominant clean-energy manufacturer. He also explores how the crisis could accelerate global demand for renewable energy and electric vehicles, and argues that the United States needs a new approach to Chinese clean-energy technologies if it hopes to compete in a future in which critical energy supply chains are increasingly concentrated in China.
Scott Moore is a Faculty Fellow with the Kleinman Center and Director of China Programs and Strategic Initiatives at the University of Pennsylvania.
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Breaking Down or Charging Up? Local Political Repercussions from Clean-Energy Manufacturing Investments. https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/research/publications/breaking-down-or-charging-up-local-political-repercussions-from-clean-energy-manufacturing-investments/
When Geopolitics Disrupts Energy Systems https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/commentary/podcast/when-geopolitics-disrupts-energy-systems/
Energy Policy Now is produced by The Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. For all things energy policy, visit kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For the month of August, we’re highlighting episodes from the 2025-2026 season of Energy Policy Now. We’ll be back with new content, and a new season, on September the 8th.
John Helveston of George Washington University discusses why a U.S. pullback from China on EVs is risky, and why engagement could strengthen America’s auto industry.
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China has rapidly become the center of global EV innovation, producing cars that are cheaper, faster to develop, and increasingly competitive in international markets. The United States, by contrast, is pulling back, eliminating incentives and pursuing policies that distance the country from China just as the global EV transition accelerates.
George Washington University’s John Helveston, whose work focuses on global EV markets and China’s manufacturing system, argues that this course risks sidelining the U.S. from the technologies and supply chains shaping the automotive future. On the podcast, he explains why a more pragmatic approach that protects national security and workers while engaging with China’s central role in the EV ecosystem may be essential for America’s long-term position in the global auto industry.
John Helveston is an associate professor in the department of Engineering Management and Systems Engineering at George Washington University.
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Electric Vehicle Penetration and Urban Spatial Restructuring: A Case Study of Beijing with Geospatial Machine Learning https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/research/publications/electric-vehicle-penetration-and-urban-spatial-restructuring-a-case-study-of-beijing-with-geospatial-machine-learning/
Battling for Batteries: Li-Ion Policy and Supply Chain Dynamics in the U.S. and China https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/research/publications/battling-for-batteries-li-ion-policy-and-supply-chain-dynamics-in-the-u-s-and-china/
Energy Policy Now is produced by The Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. For all things energy policy, visit kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For the month of August, we’re highlighting episodes from the 2025-2026 season of Energy Policy Now. We’ll be back with new content, and a new season, on September the 8th.
An economic sociologist discusses the growing heat dangers facing last-mile delivery drivers, and why federal protections remain stalled.
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E-commerce has transformed the way goods move through the American economy, driving unprecedented growth in parcel deliveries and intensifying competition among major carriers and the U.S. Postal Service. Yet this push for speed and volume now unfolds amid longer, more intense heat waves, exposing the nation’s roughly 1.5 million delivery drivers to climate-driven temperature extremes that pose growing risks on their routes.
In this episode, economic sociologist and Kleinman Center faculty fellow Steve Viscelli discusses how rising heat intersects with the structure of the delivery industry. He describes the job conditions that can leave drivers vulnerable, from demanding routes to the use of monitoring technologies that encourage workers to stay on pace even when temperatures climb.
Viscelli looks at the policy landscape that shapes these conditions, explains why federal heat protections for workers have been slow to materialize, and how this reality affects drivers’ day-to-day experience. He also points to steps some states are taking to set their own standards to address hotter and more demanding delivery seasons.
Steve Viscelli is an economic and political sociologist at the University of Pennsylvania and a faculty fellow with the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy.
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Energy System Planning: New Models for Accelerating Decarbonization https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/research/publications/energy-system-planning-new-models-for-accelerating-decarbonization/
Who Buys Down the Risk When Federal Funding Recedes? https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/commentary/blog/who-buys-down-the-risk-when-federal-funding-recedes/
Energy Policy Now is produced by The Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. For all things energy policy, visit kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.