David Roberts

David Roberts

Energy, politics, and more

David Roberts is a staff writer for Grist. You can subscribe to his RSS feed or follow him on Twitter or email him at droberts at grist dot org, if you're into that sort of thing.

The sun! It burns!

Rooftop solar is just the beginning; utilities must innovate or go extinct

Fights over rooftop solar generally focus on "net metering," but the challenge to utilities is far greater than that, and if they hope to survive, their response must be more ambitious.

Climate & Energy

Is there hope for West Virginia as it moves away from coal?

Not as much as we might like, because next the state will fixate on fracking for natural gas, as West Virginia native Jeff Young explains.

Ceci n'est pas une pomme

Republican scandal-mongering is now a perpetual motion machine

The congressional investigation into EPA-NRDC "collusion" is a sad sign that the Republican scandal machine no longer needs any fuel to keep running.

IAM what IAM

We don’t, and can’t, know how much it will cost to tackle climate change

Report after report claims to tell us how much climate action will cost this century. But no matter how much faux specificity our climate economic models produce, the fact is that we cannot know.

Climate & Energy

Should the feds bail out coal miners?

As we shift to a cleaner economy, what do we owe workers from the coal fields? What about workers from other dying industries?

Politics

Democrats: Coal country is just not that into you

Dems should stop wasting time trying to win over rural whites and instead embrace the diverse, urban voters who value a clean environment.

Politics

Republicans flail about looking for alternative to climate denialism

The GOP position on climate change is unstable, both intellectually and politically, and it's getting ever more awkward for candidates to stick to it.

Climate & Energy

Hey, Paul Krugman: Here’s the real argument about climate change and economic growth

The New York Times columnist says we can keep our economy growing even while we cut CO2 emissions. But is that true if we cut emissions as dramatically as we need to?

Climate & Energy

Radical judge kneecaps clean electricity under cover of boringness

It might not sound like a big deal when a federal court nixes an obscure regulatory rule from an obscure federal agency. But it is! Why do you think that bunny is so alert?!

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