Reducing Carbon Dioxide by 27% in Indiana - David Konisky

Our guest, Dr. David Konisky is a Lynton K. Caldwell Professor with the Paul H. O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University, whose research focuses on U.S. environmental policy and politics, with particular emphasis on environmental and energy justice, regulation, federalism, and public opinion.

David came to our attention through a PBS interview in which he described Indiana industries reducing their greenhouse gas emissions by an impressive 27% over the last decade, largely without a state organized campaign or incentives.

He has authored or edited six books on environmental politics and policy, including Fifty Years at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency: Progress, Retrenchment and Opportunities (Rowman & Littlefield, 2020, with Jim Barnes and John  D. Graham), Failed Promises: Evaluating the Federal Government's Response to Environmental Justice (MIT Press, 2015), and Cheap and Clean: How Americans Think about Energy in the Age of Global Warming (MIT Press, 2014, with Steve Ansolabehere). He has been the co-editor of the journal Environmental Politics since the beginning of 2021. 

Konisky’s research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the U.S. Department of Energy, and the Russell Sage Foundation.
Konisky earned his Ph.D. in political science from MIT. He also holds two master’s degrees from Yale University: one in environmental management and one in international relations. At the undergraduate level, he studied history and environmental studies at Washington University in St. Louis.
​
Topics we discuss include:

• Indiana’s greenhouse gases emissions are down largely due to substituting gas power generation for coal, with six more coal-fired plants scheduled to close by 2028. Without a concerted government effort, what caused this to happen? Market forces? Local advocacy? Something else?
• While the gas-fired plants replacing the coal-fired ones emit less carbon dioxide (CO2), they still emit some CO2, and the gas pipelines that feed them can also leak methane gas which is a more potent greenhouse gas than CO2. Is the transition to gas helpful to the climate, or is slowing the transition bad for the climate?
• How much resistance is there in the state and local governments in Indiana to transition to clean energy? Who is causing this resistance?
• Will the Biden Administration’s Justice 40 initiative be effective in addressing economic and environmental justice issues? Can efforts such as these be effective in both rural and urban communities?

---