Ezra Klein

And all they can do is tell me all the reasons they can't do it. The real estate board, the planning board, the fractured zones of authority between different councils in LA and the way that the LA municipal structure actually works. I'd

And all they can do is tell me all the reasons they can't do it. The real estate board, the planning board, the fractured zones of authority between different councils in LA and the way that the LA municipal structure actually works. I'd

talk during the fight for congestion pricing in New York City, the head of the MTA, and he was so frustrated by how much time he was spending working on environmental assessment with the Biden administration at that point, right?

talk during the fight for congestion pricing in New York City, the head of the MTA, and he was so frustrated by how much time he was spending working on environmental assessment with the Biden administration at that point, right?

It's always a different story, but what you often see is we just don't give the people we've imbued with democratic authority, a mayor, a governor, honestly, even a president, as much power as you sort of think from the outside. It's to the public, Obama promised a public option. Why couldn't he deliver it? Joe Biden said, I'd get this. Why didn't I get it?

It's always a different story, but what you often see is we just don't give the people we've imbued with democratic authority, a mayor, a governor, honestly, even a president, as much power as you sort of think from the outside. It's to the public, Obama promised a public option. Why couldn't he deliver it? Joe Biden said, I'd get this. Why didn't I get it?

And does it lead you, Zephyr, towards, because I think there's a tension here that I find difficult to resolve between wanting things to be like very small-D democratic and then also recognizing that small-D democratic processes can get very captured, thinking that maybe we need more executive power, but also recognizing that then you can get a bad executive like we have nationally at the moment, then you have a different problem.

And does it lead you, Zephyr, towards, because I think there's a tension here that I find difficult to resolve between wanting things to be like very small-D democratic and then also recognizing that small-D democratic processes can get very captured, thinking that maybe we need more executive power, but also recognizing that then you can get a bad executive like we have nationally at the moment, then you have a different problem.

How do you think about the level at which power should be exercised and the ability of some central voice to say, thank you for your concerns. We're doing it this way.

How do you think about the level at which power should be exercised and the ability of some central voice to say, thank you for your concerns. We're doing it this way.

Green energy has become a culture war.

Green energy has become a culture war.

Not at the climate change level. But I wouldn't call it left-NIMBYism either.

Not at the climate change level. But I wouldn't call it left-NIMBYism either.

Look, here's the question I would ask if I was complicating the story, because of course I agree that there has been a huge multi-billion dollar, now multi-decade effort by fossil fuel industry to destroy any action or any real action on climate change, right? That's just fact.

Look, here's the question I would ask if I was complicating the story, because of course I agree that there has been a huge multi-billion dollar, now multi-decade effort by fossil fuel industry to destroy any action or any real action on climate change, right? That's just fact.

I think where your story begins to demand complication is why is it easier to to build green energy in Texas than California. So I've gone and run these numbers, working with the people who are modeling the Inflation Reduction Act's build-out.

I think where your story begins to demand complication is why is it easier to to build green energy in Texas than California. So I've gone and run these numbers, working with the people who are modeling the Inflation Reduction Act's build-out.

If you look at where the IRA's money is going, if you are looking at deployment of green energy infrastructure or advanced manufacturing for green energy, that money is going majority to red states. They are building more of it.

If you look at where the IRA's money is going, if you are looking at deployment of green energy infrastructure or advanced manufacturing for green energy, that money is going majority to red states. They are building more of it.