Robinson Meyer

Outside of China, almost nobody knows the Chinese energy & emissions data better than @laurimyllyvirta. I’m thrilled to have him on Shift Key today to discuss the country’s new five-year-plan, the next phase of its energy buildout, and its response to the Hormuz crisis. LISTEN:

@laurimyllyvirta You can listen to every episode of Shift Key on @heatmap_news: heatmap.news/podcast/shift-… Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the… Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/7mOrgB… or wherever you get your podcasts: shows.acast.com/65bac3af03341c…

Outside of China, almost nobody knows the Chinese energy & emissions data better than @laurimyllyvirta. I’m thrilled to have him on Shift Key today to discuss the country’s new five-year-plan, the next phase of its energy buildout, and its response to the Hormuz crisis. LISTEN:

@souljagoyteller the funny thing is it wasn’t, and we were constantly warned that this sort of stuff would prevent us from running for office (and sometimes even getting a job?) in the future. that’s why that line about “the internet is written in ink” is in the social network!

I feel like we’re gonna start having a crisis when millennials run en masse for office because this shit was normal from like 2008-2015

The Trump Administration just canceled another one of my projects even though we hit all of our technical and scientific milestones. What a way to run a country.

“Chinese automakers are moving fast. Three companies — BYD, Chery Automobile and Geely Holding — are preparing to sell in Canada as soon as this year, according to Automotive News.” politico.com/news/2026/03/1…

Incredible post. I had no idea the industrial policy that helped spawn the world's biggest semiconductor manufacturer traces directly back to the New Deal's Tennessee Valley Authority.

This was the first thing I thought of when the strait closed and it’s coming to fruition

Had a great time talking with Rob. Check it out!

Listen to this episode of Shift Key on Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/shi… Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/5qkYnQ… Overcast: overcast.fm/+ABGreAyZP20 or RSS: shows.acast.com/65bac3af03341c…

Today on Shift Key: The Inflation Reduction Act was meant to create a domestic coalition that would protect it from repeal. That obviously didn’t happen. Why? I speak to the author of a big new paper arguing why it failed — and what it means for future US climate policy.

Here is the full piece: fivepoints.mattglassman.net/p/the-court-ie…

On this theme, I really enjoyed @MattGlassman312’s piece from last month about how Congress did not write the version of IEEPA that exists on the books today; it gave itself a legislative veto in the original statute, which SCOTUS later stripped out of the law

Nobody writes songs about sometimes being the windshield and sometimes being the bug anymore

Average US gasoline prices have risen at the fastest pace over the past two days since 2005.

One takeaway from the night: Don’t lie about @elainejgodfrey

Economists getting more into industrial policy

English language Wikipedia is debating whether it’s a “conflict” or a “war” and what the theater is:

It’s a measure of how desultorily this war has been sold to the American public (among others, obviously) that we don’t have a recognizable name for it yet.

Read this from @MattZeitlin. While everyone's focused on oil, one upshot already from the war is that US LNG exporters are set to do more business. heatmap.news/energy/iran-wa…

A major risk to consider around the continuation of the U.S.-Iran War is the impact on the Russia-Ukraine War. Bloomberg Economics sees potential for oil prices to rise above $100/bbl if there are sustained disruptions to exports through the Strait of Hormuz. If Russia simply manages to raise its discounted price from $60/bbl to $90/bbl and manages to take a further 15% share of China's import mix, that is an additional $4.8 billion in Russian coffers each month, easing fiscal pressure on the Russian government at a critical moment in the Ukraine war. Even a few weeks of disruptions will be highly lucrative. This also leaves aside the additional surcharges that Russian Railways will be able to charge for freight from Central Asia that can no longer pass south through Iranian ports. That is about 10% of all Central Asian freight throughput.