How Divesting from Fossil Fuels Can Ease Inflation

Inflation and the Energy Transition

Last year—when energy prices accounted for one-third of total inflation—the Inflation Reduction Act and CHIPS and Science Act took historic steps to combat the climate crisis and invest in more price-stable renewable energy.

But expanding renewables will not eliminate climate risks or energy price volatility on its own—we also have to fully divest from fossil fuels, the Roosevelt Institute’s Kristina Karlsson and The New School’s Lauren Melodia outline in a new fact sheet.

“Effectively managing energy price inflation while retaining a fossil fuel–based economy is nearly impossible, especially as energy commodity markets are getting more, not less, volatile,” they write in a follow-up to their May 2022 brief.

While the recent reduction in inflation was a result of declining fossil fuel prices, “as long as our economy is reliant on fossil fuels, those price declines are not stable or permanent,” the authors write. “Our macroeconomy is vulnerable to continued price volatility—both the highs and lows.”

Read more in the new fact sheet.

Bold Ideas, Emerging Leaders: The Roosevelt Network’s 2023 Emerging Fellows

In a new collection of undergraduate research papers, student authors from the Roosevelt Network Emerging Fellowship program engage deeply with the failures of neoliberal thought and detail how we can shift paradigms and advance progressive policy.

The Emerging Fellows’ papers dig into bold ideas ranging from expanding worker-owned cooperatives to advancing racial equity in higher education.

“The Roosevelt Network has been a moral and political home for progressive young folks for nearly 20 years,” Roosevelt Network National Director Katie Kirchner writes in the foreword. “If you’re reading our new Emerging Fellows journal, Bold Ideas, Emerging Leaders, it means that you are interested in the ideas that our Network’s young people have for the future of their communities.”

Read the Journal

What We’re Talking About

Before we dive into this excellent PCE inflation print, let’s step back and look at inflation’s slowdown against the unemployment rate.

This disinflation is simply unprecedented in the past 60 years. But the supply shock challenges from reopening were equally unprecedented. /1 pic.twitter.com/Li55rBhSP3

— Mike Konczal (@mtkonczal) November 30, 2023

What We’re Reading

US Taxpayers Should Not Be Subsidizing Harmful Big Oil Mergers – by Roosevelt’s Niko Lusiani – ProMarket

Biden Turns Up Pressure on Corporate ‘Price Gouging’ as 2024 Nears – feat. Roosevelt’s Mike Konczal – Washington Post

Tens of Billions of Dollars of IRA Funding Will Now Be Earmarked for Environmental Justice – The Verge

UAW Announces Drive to Organize Nonunion Plants – New York Times