Climate policy has long been framed as a trade-off between protecting the environment and protecting jobs. At a moment when affordability and the cost of living have become major political issues, this raises new challenges and opportunities for the climate left. The Trump administration has tried to frame renewable energy as expensive and unreliable, arguing that the United States needs to double down on fossil fuels to keep costs down. But it’s not just Trump. After Zohran Mamdani’s election, centrist politicians have taken up the affordability mantle — and sometimes used it to challenge renewable energy projects. For example, Gov. Kathy Hochul has framed New York’s signature climate law as being too costly to implement. People across the political spectrum are putting forward the idea that we can’t afford to prioritize renewable energy right now. New research by Climate and Community Institute (CCI) makes a strong case that a well-managed renewable energy transition doesn’t have to contribute to an inflationary crisis and could even offer lower energy prices. In this interview, political scientist and CCI fellow Alyssa Battistoni interviews the organization’s research director, Patrick Bigger, and senior fellow Kristina Karlsson to discuss how decarbonization can actually help tackle the affordability crisis, who should bear the costs of the transition, and what new models and alternatives can offer a path forward to getting us off of fossil fuels.Alyssa BattistoniExplain the basic idea: How can renewable energy help address the affordability crisis?Kristina KarlssonWe started from the point that this transition needs to happen for climate reasons. And we’re also committed to making sure that it’s affordable for working-class people. So if those two pillars are nonnegotiables, the question is: How do you design the transition so that we can fulfill those goals?At its most basic, we know that renewable energy is extremely low cost. We…
