Shift Key with Robinson Meyer The Peril of Talking About Electricity Affordability
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Feb 27, 2026 Jane Flegal, a senior fellow who previously worked on climate policy at the White House and Stripe, discusses electricity affordability and decarbonization. She debates whether centering affordability helps or distracts. Conversations cover grid planning, transmission financing, limits of demand-shaving tools like virtual power plants, data center impacts, and ideas to shift from scarcity to growth-focused power policy.
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Affordability Is Core To Electrification
- Electricity affordability matters because rapid electrification is essential for decarbonization and economic growth.
- Jane Flegal warns high power prices will block electrification as every sector becomes an electricity consumer.
VPPs Can't Replace Grid Expansion
- Demand-shaving tools like VPPs and demand response help near-term peaks but cannot substitute for large-scale grid expansion.
- Flegal argues you cannot 'VPP' your way to doubling grid capacity in a decade and a half.
Use Public Finance To Cut Grid Costs
- Lower the cost of capital for grid projects by leveraging public financing and cheaper debt instead of equity.
- Flegal calls for creative tools like bonding or other public finance to reduce financing costs for transmission and generation.
