Energy Gang

This week: natural gas bans are the newest flash point in the energy transition. What does it mean for the electrify-everything movement -- and the gas industry’s public relations battle?Then: how do we build back better for everybody? We’ll look how Biden’s recent stimulus and climate agenda could mend America’s growing wealth and race divide.Plus: it’s been a year since the start of the pandemic. What transformed, and what didn’t? What did we get right and wrong? We’ll revisit the last 12 months.Katherine Hamilton and Stephen Lacey are joined by Donnel Baird, the CEO of Blocpower. Resources:Mother Jones investigation on gas industry front groups.NPR story on political conflicts over gas bans, and pre-emptive actions in red statesThe Atlantic: Biden’s stimulus is a big deal for public transitNYT: How Biden ties economic goals to racial equity Politico: Congressional democrats unveil sweeping climate billPodcasters declare campaignThis podcast is brought to you by Sungrow, a leading provider of PV inverter solutions around the world. Sungrow has delivered more than 10 gigawatts of inverters to the Americas alone — and 120 gigawatts in total across the globe. Learn more about Sungrow’s cutting-edge solar projects.This podcast is also brought to you by CPower. CPower’s latest book, Demand-Side Energy Management in the Time of COVID, takes a peek into eight of the biggest commercial industries in North America and reveals key energy management strategies that successful organizations executed during the wildest year of the young century. Download it here.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week, we present a crossover episode of our sister podcast, The Interchange. In this episode, host Shayle Kann talks with fellow venture capitalist Abe Yokell about the state of climate tech investing. It’s safe to say that this year has brought some of the biggest changes to the space we’ve ever seen. Shayle and Abe try to separate what’s real from what’s hype.Thanks to everyone for their kind emails and social media reactions after Jigar's final episode. The show goes on! We’re currently booking a diverse range of high-profile guests to join us each week. We think you're going to like what we have in store for you.While you are waiting for new Energy Gang episodes, this is the perfect time to follow the The Interchange where ever you listen to podcasts.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Jigar Shah has been our co-host since 2013. But now he's moving on to new pastures.Starting this this week, Jigar will be leading the Department of Energy's loan programs office -- running the government's strategy to finance the deployment of up-and-coming clean energy technologies.In this episode, we reflect on Jigar's career and his role on the show. Plus, we'll learn more about his mission in the Biden Administration.Read the announcement.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week, we have a bonus episode of Watt It Takes featuring Stephen Lacey, our founding host and executive producer.Back in December, Powerhouse CEO Emily Kirsch interviewed Stephen for a holiday edition of Watt It Takes. They talked in front of an audience about his career in journalism, how the world of podcasting has evolved, and his entrepreneurial journey launching a production company. And great news! Watt It Takes is now a standalone series. You can subscribe on Apple, Spotify, Google Podcasts or anywhere you get your shows. We'll be featuring the top voices in climate tech throughout 2021.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Even for energy veterans, the depth of failures in Texas last week were breathtaking. As arctic air froze power plants, gas lines, and mechanical instruments, the grid was shut down -- leaving 4 million people without electricity, unknown millions without heat, and three times that many without water. Texas has been through freezes like this before in 2011, 2014 and 2018. Regulators were warned. So who is to blame for this historic catastrophe?This week, we’ll talk about what happened in Texas -- reflecting on the responses and projecting the consequences for how we engineer the grid. Then: did the shale boom fail to create all those promised jobs? New research shows that the natural gas boom did not bring a massive employment wave to counties in the Marcellus and Utica shales. Wealth yes, but not so many jobs. Wall Street Journal: In Frigid Texas, Desperate Families Take Risks to Stay WarmAssociated Press: Texas governor’s biggest donors: Energy industry that failedNBC: The GOP is rapidly becoming the blue-collar party. Here's what that means.Inside Climate News: A Decade Into the Fracking Boom, Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia Haven’t Gained Much, a Study SaysThanks to our sponsors:The Energy Gang is brought to you by Wärtsilä Energy. Wärtsilä is leading the energy transition with the Atlas of 100% Renewable Energy. Stick with us at the end of the show to hear how this tool is helping us understand how to best spend stimulus dollars on the clean-energy transition. This podcast is brought to you by Sungrow, a leading provider of PV inverter solutions around the world. Sungrow has delivered more than 10 gigawatts of inverters to the Americas alone — and 120 gigawatts in total across the globe. Learn more about Sungrow’s cutting-edge solar projects.This podcast is also brought to you by CPower. CPower’s latest book, Demand-Side Energy Management in the Time of COVID, takes a peek into eight of the biggest commercial industries in North America and reveals key energy management strategies that successful organizations executed during the wildest year of the young century. Download it here.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week: climate change is certainly the most urgent issue we face. But should it be formally declared an emergency? There’s a real conversation over the label in the US -- and it could have a very real impact on what the president can do.This has been a growing priority for environmental groups. Grist reported that in December, more than 380 of them sent a letter to Joe Biden’s transition team, urging him to issue an executive order mobilizing the National Emergencies Act. And now, Rep. Earl Blumenauer and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in the House and Sen. Bernie Sanders in the Senate among others just introduced The National Climate Emergency Act of 2021, Then: what could be the counter-impact? Changes across the energy economy are set to accelerate. If we don’t do it correctly, are we facing a “Yellow Vest” protest movement like we saw recently in France?And last: a new study shows that some cities are grossly under-reporting their carbon emissions. Do cities even have the resources to measure them properly?   Resources:Grist: AOC, Sanders, and Blumenauer press Biden to declare a ‘climate emergency’Vice: AOC and Bernie Are Teaming Up to Get Biden to Declare Climate Change a National EmergencyVox: “We risk a yellow vest movement”: Why the US clean energy transition must be equitableNew York Times: U.S. Cities Are Vastly Undercounting Emissions, Researchers FindThanks to our sponsors:The Energy Gang is brought to you by Wärtsilä Energy. Wärtsilä is leading the energy transition with the Atlas of 100% Renewable Energy. Stick with us at the end of the show to hear how this tool is helping us understand how to best spend stimulus dollars on the clean-energy transition. This podcast is brought to you by Sungrow, a leading provider of PV inverter solutions around the world. Sungrow has delivered more than 10 gigawatts of inverters to the Americas alone — and 120 gigawatts in total across the globe. Learn more about Sungrow’s cutting-edge solar projects.This podcast is also brought to you by CPower. CPower’s latest book, "Demand-Side Energy Management in the Time of COVID," takes a peek into eight of the biggest commercial industries in North America and reveals key energy management strategies successful organizations executed during the wildest year of the young century. Download it here.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Net-zero pledges are becoming common for utilities. But a huge number of them are failing to decarbonize on any timeframe that truly matters. They’re not phasing out coal, they’re building lots of new gas plants, and they’re not building enough clean energy.We’ll talk about a damning new analysis of utility climate goals from the Sierra Club that digs into the actual numbers.Then, the urgency of a national clean energy standard. What are the new political pieces in place to get a nationwide target in place? And can we build it to serve marginalized communities? A new analysis maps out how.Finally, the bombshell news that General Motors will only sell zero-emissions cars by 2035. How hard is it to turn around a company born and raised in internal combustion? A cautionary tale from Volkswagen offers some answers.  Dr. Leah Stokes, professor at UC Santa Barbara, joins Stephen, Katherine and Jigar this week. Leah is the co-author behind the two reports we are discussing.Leah is also co-host of A Matter of Degrees, a new podcast that looks at the forces behind climate change -- and how “climate curious” citizens can tackle it.Resources:Sierra Club: The Dirty Truth About Climate PledgesStokes, Ricketts: A Roadmap to 100% Clean Electricity by 2035New York Times: G.M. Will Sell Only Zero-Emission Vehicles by 2035Wall Street Journal: How Volkswagen’s $50 Billion Plan to Beat Tesla Short-Circuited Thanks to our sponsors:The Energy Gang is brought to you by Wärtsilä Energy. Wärtsilä is leading the energy transition with the Atlas of 100% Renewable Energy. Stick with us at the end of the show to hear how this tool is helping us understand how to best spend stimulus dollars on the clean-energy transition. This podcast is brought to you by Sungrow, a leading provider of PV inverter solutions around the world. Sungrow has delivered more than 10 gigawatts of inverters to the Americas alone — and 120 gigawatts in total across the globe. Learn more about Sungrow’s cutting-edge solar projects.This podcast is also brought to you by CPower. CPower and its team of energy experts are back with a webinar series aimed to help organizations make sense of the chaos and optimize their energy use and spend in 2021. This hour-long webinar series features market-by-market breakdowns to help energy planners make the right decisions. Register today.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

It was hard to keep up with the destruction of the Trump era. And it’s already getting hard to keep up with the rebuilding. This week brought a series of actions on climate change from the White House that are building a framework for the climate economy. Sam Ricketts, a prominent climate policy advisor, told the Los Angeles Times: “This is the most ambitious climate platform put forward by an American president...It is mobilizing the entirety of the federal government in an unprecedented way. Every agency is now a climate agency.”We’ll sort through it.Then, last week we covered distributed energy modeling. Now we get to the practice: how do we rebuild markets to accommodate a ton of small-scale resources? They’re doing it in the UK. We’ve lagged in the US. We’ll compare.Finally, Elon Musk says he’ll give $100M to carbon-capture tech that shows promise. He can’t run rockets on electricity. Will he get his carbon-neutral jet fuel?Greentech Media: Biden Executive Orders Set Broad Federal Role in Clean Energy and Climate Change MitigationLATimes: Biden Orders Sweeping Actions to Pause Drilling and Fight Climate ChangeGreentech Media: New UK DERMS Project Targets Flexibility Across Distribution and Transmission GridsTwitter: Cisco DeVries’ Feed on the Dissing of OhmConnectNBC News: Elon Musk to Offer $100 Million Prize for 'Best' Carbon Capture TechTyndall Centre for Climate Change Research A Review of the Role of Fossil Fuel Based Carbon Capture and Storage in the Energy System. This podcast is brought to you by Sungrow, a leading provider of PV inverter solutions around the world. Sungrow has delivered more than 10 gigawatts of inverters to the Americas alone — and 120 gigawatts in total across the globe. Learn more about Sungrow’s cutting-edge solar projects.This podcast is also brought to you by CPower. CPower and its team of energy experts are back with a webinar series aimed to help organizations make sense of the chaos and optimize their energy use and spend in 2021. This hour-long webinar series features market-by-market breakdowns to help energy planners make the right decisions. Register today.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week, we finally left behind a destructive regime that thwarted environmental policy at every turn. We exchanged it for a government putting climate experts and clean-energy doers in its highest ranks in a way that no prior administration has done before.What comes next?First up this week: If Biden wants his $2 trillion climate spending plan to make a bigger impact, should he emphasize rooftop solar and small-scale batteries? A leading modeler says a local solar-storage plan could save hundreds of billions of dollars as we build out the net-zero grid.Then: the board members of major corporations are often ignorant about climate change and what it takes to address it, according to a new report from NYU’s Stern business school. Why is that true – still? What can be done about it?And last: Should you sign up for your utility’s green power program? Is there a better way to guarantee that your monthly power bill supports the world you envision? We’ll answer a listener question.Recommended reading:VCE: Why Local Solar for All Costs LessLocal Solar For All RoadmapLA Times: Boiling Point: How rooftop solar could save Americans $473 billionBloomberg: Many Corporate Boards Don’t Fully Understand the Climate CrisisHarvard Business Review: Boards Are Obstructing ESG — at Their Own PerilNREL: Voluntary Green Power Procurement - 2019 Utility Green Pricing RanksEnergy Sage: What to look for, and availability of community solarThis podcast is brought to you by Sungrow, a leading provider of PV inverter solutions around the world. Sungrow has delivered more than 10 gigawatts of inverters to the Americas alone — and 120 gigawatts in total across the globe. Learn more about Sungrow’s cutting-edge solar projects.This podcast is also brought to you by CPower. CPower and its team of energy experts are back with a webinar series aimed to help organizations make sense of the chaos and optimize their energy use and spend in 2021. This hour-long webinar series features market-by-market breakdowns to help energy planners make the right decisions. Register today.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

BlocPower CEO Donnel Baird is on a mission to clean up old, inefficient buildings in America’s cities -- and help people who are exposed to the worst pollution. BlocPower was founded in 2012. It’s raised venture capital from Kapor Capital and Andreesen Horowitz. But that process was not easy for a company with a mostly non-white leadership team. As a black founder, Donnel was turned down 200 times before any venture firms were willing to back his vision.“It was really difficult for us raising capital. One of our investors when I talked to him two or three years ago and said I was struggling to raise capital, he was like ‘yeah man, just hire some white people and send them into the fundraising meetings and it’ll clear things up,’” explains Donnel.BlocPower is a Brooklyn, New York startup electrifying and weatherizing buildings in underserved communities -- slashing pollution and saving money. This includes housing units, churches, community centers. And the mission for Donnel isn’t about just about hitting milestones for investors. It’s about changing the fabric of underserved communities that are plagued by pollution and energy poverty. That’s because Donnel has lived it himself.In this episode, Powerhouse CEO Emily Kirsch talks with Donnel about how he channeled his frustration and anger around racial unfairness into a business model for the energy transition.Listen to all our past episodes of Watt It Takes here. This series is normally recorded in front of a live audience, but we’re now recording the interviews remotely. See future events from Powerhouse here.The Energy Gang is brought to you by Sungrow, a leading provider of PV inverter solutions across the world. Sungrow has delivered more than 10 gigawatts of inverters to the Americas alone -- and 120 gigawatts in total across the globe. Learn more about Sungrow’s cutting-edge solar projects.The Energy Gang is also brought to you by CPower. CPower and its team of energy experts are back with a webinar series aimed to help organizations make sense of the chaos and optimize their energy use and spend in 2021. This hour-long webinar series features market-by-market breakdowns to help energy planners make the right decisions. Register today.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In the final moments of 2020, the most important U.S. energy legislation in a decade flew in under the radar, attached to the coronavirus relief and government funding bill. It’s an astonishing collection of measures. It sets aside $35 Billion in new funding for clean energy R&D, phases out some of the most egregious greenhouse gases, and extends tax credits for wind, solar, nuclear, and carbon capture. What’s the impact?It would have been a bill big enough to discuss this whole episode. But it’s been eclipsed by the possibility of more ambitious legislation under a Democrat-controlled Congress -- thanks to some big Senate wins in Georgia on Wednesday.With a window of action open, how much can get done in the next two years? We’ll dig in. Lastly, one of the biggest business stories from the last year: Tesla. A stratospheric stock price, strong sales growth, and the second richest man in the world. What do Elon Musk’s fortunes foreshadow for EVs?Recommended reading:Greentech Media: What Renewable Energy and Energy Storage Did, and Didn’t, Get from Congress This WeekE&E News: 13 Ways the Massive Omnibus Hits EnergyDave Roberts Volts Podcast: The Energy ActE&ENews: Things to Watch in a 50-50 Senate Bloomberg: Tesla Poised for Expansion After Just Missing 2020 TargetBarron’s: Tesla Passes a Market-Cap Milestone. It’s Worth More Than Facebook.The Energy Gang is brought to you by Sungrow, a leading provider of PV inverter solutions across the world. Sungrow is supplying inverters for a series of new, world-class solar facilities that will support Facebook’s operations with 100% renewable energy. Learn more about Sungrow’s cutting-edge solar projects.The Energy Gang is also brought to you by CPower. CPower and its team of energy experts are back with a webinar series aimed to help organizations make sense of the chaos and optimize their energy use and spend in 2021. This hour-long webinar series features market-by-market breakdowns to help energy planners make the right decisions. Register today.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Goodbye 2020. We’re not sad to see you go. Even though this year brought a lot of outright bad stuff, it also brought a lot of positive, nuanced storylines in energy.We’re going to tackle as many of them as possible, using suggestions from our listeners as a guide.And no, they won’t be pandemic-related. Not explicitly anyway. You can listen to our previous episode for our pandemic picks.We’ll tackle your suggestions: breakout technologies, political corruption, corporate momentum, energy justice, new financing approaches, and regulatory change.The Energy Gang is brought to you by Wärtsilä Energy, leading the transition toward a 100% renewable energy future. Wärtsilä launched “The Path to 100%” to accelerate the transition to renewables. Become part of the discussion.The Energy Gang is brought to you by Honeywell, a leading supplier of IOT solutions to mission-critical industries around the world. Honeywell Smart Energy helps utilities transform their grid operations through advanced solutions and targeted services from edge to cloud. Learn more.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We’re featuring an episode of Google’s new podcast about data centers, called Where the Internet Lives. What would it take to run data centers on clean electricity, everywhere, every hour of the day? In this episode, we look at the evolution of data center energy use in a world confronting the threat of climate change – and explore promising ideas that could fuel a carbon-free future.Subscribe anywhere you get podcasts. Or find it in these top platforms:AppleGoogle PodcastsSpotifyStitcherRSS FeedSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

As we close out 2020, we are diving into the top stories that defined this frenzied and heavy year. This week, we’ll start the show with a look back at how Covid re-shaped the energy transition. We’re going to revisit some predictions that did -- and didn’t -- come true. Next episode, we’ll look at a wider range of (non-pandemic) 2020 stories.Then later in the show, advertising and PR professionals are suddenly being pressured to reveal how much of their income is from fossil fuel clients. Are firms in this industry the next to lose their social license?And last: what could a Youth Climate Corps accomplish? And how should it be set up? We look to a Depression-era program to rally the passions of America’s climate generation. Resources:New Yorker: When “Creatives” Turn Destructive: Image-Makers and the Climate CrisisYale 360: How a Climate Corps Could Put Youth to Work in Greening America“Where the Internet Lives” podcast from GoogleThe Energy Gang is brought to you by Wärtsilä Energy, leading the transition toward a 100% renewable energy future. Wärtsilä launched “The Path to 100%” to accelerate the transition to renewables. Become part of the discussion.The Energy Gang is brought to you by Honeywell, a leading supplier of IOT solutions to mission-critical industries around the world. Honeywell Smart Energy helps utilities transform their grid operations through advanced solutions and targeted services from edge to cloud. Learn more.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Climate risk is now the topic du jour in Washington. The Biden transition team identified it as a powerful policy lever in the business world that could help the president-elect’s climate agenda without Congress. But how? Could it happen at the Securities and Exchange Commission where companies disclose legal and other threats? What about a role for the Federal Reserve? What can Biden himself do?This week, we’ll look at how federal action may happen -- and what impact it would have on emissions.Then, from the first days in office, Trump’s team went after environmental protections with the focus of trained assassins. Those efforts are only intensifying in the weeks before Trump leaves the White House. How might Biden stop these “regulatory bombs?”Last: reactions to Biden’s hires are revealing a split in the climate community. What do they reveal about theories of change in this changing political moment?E&E News: Biden to Shine Light on Corporate Climate RiskBloomberg: All Businesses Everywhere, Get Ready to Disclose Your Climate RiskNew York Times: E.P.A.’s Final Deregulatory Rush Runs Into Open Staff ResistancePropublica: Tracking the Trump Administration’s “Midnight Regulations”Twitter: Bill McKibben defense of Brian DeeseTwitter: Matt Yglesias on the only way to make climate progressThe Energy Gang is brought to you by Wärtsilä Energy, leading the transition toward a 100% renewable energy future. Wärtsilä launched “The Path to 100%” to accelerate the transition to renewables. Become part of the discussion.The Energy Gang is brought to you by Honeywell, a leading supplier of IoT solutions to mission-critical industries around the world. Honeywell Smart Energy helps utilities transform their grid operations through advanced solutions and targeted services from edge to cloud. Learn more.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Cathy Zoi has seen it all. She’s studied and worked in oil, gas and clean energy since the Reagan Era. Now as CEO of charging company EVgo, she knows the future of energy is coming fast. “Rideshare drivers are now starting to drive EVs, those folks need to charge once a day away from home, and they need to do it fast. When COVID hit, delivery drivers for food deliveries needed to charge on our network. Fleet companies like Amazon. So every month that goes by, there is a new opportunity, says Zoi.”Cathy has a breadth of energy and cleantech experience working in leadership roles at non-profits, startups, venture capital, academia, and government agencies.Cathy was on the team that developed the original Energy Star rating when she worked at the Environmental Protection Agency. She was chief of staff in the White House Office on Environmental Policy in the Clinton-Gore Administration. And she is co-founder and executive chairman of Odyssey Energy, a software start-up bringing distributed clean power to developing countries. In this episode, Powerhouse CEO Emily Kirsch sits down with Cathy Zoi to discuss how that journey inevitably led her to electric transportation.Listen to all our past episodes of Watt It Takes here. This series is normally recorded in front of a live audience. But we’re now recording the interviews remotely. See future events here.The Energy Gang is brought to you by Wärtsilä Energy, leading the transition toward a 100% renewable energy future. Wärtsilä launched “The Path to 100%” to accelerate the transition to renewables. Become part of the discussion.The Energy Gang is brought to you by Honeywell, a leading supplier of IoT solutions to mission-critical industries around the world. Honeywell Smart Energy helps utilities transform their grid operations through advanced solutions and targeted services from edge to cloud. Learn more.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In the 1960s, scientists who worked for General Motors and Ford discovered that the exhaust from their cars was very likely changing the climate. They made presentations at conferences. They briefed senior executives. And then, they were publicly contradicted and their work was suppressed. We’ll talk to Maxine Joselow, the journalist who reported the story for E&E News over many months. She talked with more than two dozen former GM and Ford employees, retired auto industry executives, academics, and environmentalists about what the companies knew about climate change five decades ago.It leaves the reader wondering: what if automakers had taken the problem more seriously a half-century ago?Then, plenty of conservative states are embracing renewables. But now 100% clean energy mandates are spreading to redder states. The latest is Arizona: a place where elected officials and a giant utility previously worked to stop the march of clean energy. We’ll look at the shift. And last: can a Marshall Plan for fading coal communities rebuild America’s former industrial regions?E&E News: GM, Ford Knew About Climate Change 50 Years AgoScientific American: A Woman Warned GM about Warming, But Men Didn’t ListenGreentech Media: Arizona Regulators Pass Rule for 100% Clean Energy by 2050Smart Cities Dive: Mayors Unveil $60B Plan to Support Midwest Energy TransitionUniversity of Pittsburgh: Marshall Plan for Middle America RoadmapThe Energy Gang is brought to you by Wärtsilä Energy, leading the transition toward a 100% renewable energy future. Wärtsilä launched “The Path to 100%” to accelerate the transition to renewables. Become part of the discussion.The Energy Gang is brought to you by Honeywell, a leading supplier of IoT solutions to mission-critical industries around the world. Honeywell Smart Energy helps utilities transform their grid operations through advanced solutions and targeted services from edge to cloud. Learn more.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Has 2020 – which seemed irredeemable – just done a 180? We’ll be back in the Paris agreement, Biden’s got a zero-emissions plan, East Asia’s making big moves, and there might even be a vaccine for Covid-19.President-Elect Joe Biden has already named his environment transition team. And he discussed climate change with four European heads of state this Tuesday.He also has a “Build Back Better” one-pager that looks a lot like the green recovery plans in Europe we’ve been discussing for months. We’re going to look at specific things a Biden administration can do in each identified category to get to net-zero emissions.Then, 2020 is turning into the year of net-zero. Japan and South Korea have now promised to zero out carbon emissions by 2050. That preserves the possibility of keeping warming at or below 1.5º C. This fall, China also issued its first-ever net-zero date. That means most of East Asia has now committed to eliminating all new carbon emissions by a certain date. President Moon Jae-in of South Korea actually ran and won on a platform of a Green New Deal for Korea. He’s talking about a ‘just transition’ away from dirty energy. And Japan says it will rethink its reliance on coal. These are big stories on their own. Bigger in the context of America’s re-engagement with the world as we head toward climate negotiations in 2021. The Energy Gang is brought to you by Wärtsilä Energy, leading the transition toward a 100% renewable energy future. Wärtsilä launched “The Path to 100%” to accelerate the transition to renewables. Become part of the discussion.The Energy Gang is brought to you by Honeywell, a leading supplier of IoT solutions to mission-critical industries around the world. Honeywell Smart Energy helps utilities transform their grid operations through advanced solutions and targeted services from edge to cloud. Learn more.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This sponsored episode was produced in collaboration with GTM Creative Strategies and the Opower team at Oracle Utilities.The last two years have brought a surge of plans for zero-carbon energy from some of the biggest power providers in the world. Dozens of U.S. utilities have committed to decarbonizing by 80% or more by 2050."Two thirds of U.S. consumers are now served by utilities with carbon or emissions reduction goals," says Scott Neuman, group vice president of Opower, at Oracle Utilities.National Grid is the latest utility to up the ante. The electricity and gas supplier now wants to hit net-zero emissions by 2050."In terms of decarbonizing and reducing emissions across society, it can break out into three broad areas, decarbonizing generational power, decarbonizing transport and decarbonizing heat," says Badar Kahn, the presdient of National Grid US.In this episode, we’ll hear from Badar Kahn and Scott Neuman about how zero-carbon goals may reshape utility operations -- and reshape the role of the customer."We're taking everything we've learned, everything we've built, and focusing our team on changing behaviors that will deliver the greatest emission reductions as quickly, affordably and accurately as possible," says Neuman.Opower is working every single day to help your utility build a clean energy future. Utilities around the world rely on Opower to connect with their customers. Opower helps people save energy, save money, and adopt all the clean energy products & services we need right now.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week: the future of the planet depends on the mail. The mail-in votes are still being counted, but it’s increasingly likely that Joe Biden will become America’s next president.As of this recording on Thursday morning, Biden’s path to the presidency looks much better than Trump’s. It could be Thursday night or Friday when we get calls for Georgia, Pennsylvania, Nevada and North Carolina. We do not have an official result. But the direction feels clearer -- and we have plenty of local results, too.Meanwhile, America is officially out of the Paris Climate Accord. What happens next?In this episode, we’re just going to cover a smattering of stories coming out of the election.Plus, we’ll answer a bunch of listener questions.The Energy Gang is brought to you by Wärtsilä Energy, leading the transition toward a 100% renewable energy future. Wärtsilä launched “The Path to 100%” to accelerate the transition to renewables. Become part of the discussion.The Energy Gang is brought to you by Honeywell, a leading supplier of IoT solutions to mission-critical industries around the world. Honeywell Smart Energy helps utilities transform their grid operations through advanced solutions and targeted services from edge to cloud. Learn more.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We’re just a few days out from the election -- and how could we talk about anything else? Climate is finally beginning to play the kind of role that we have waited so long for. In this pre-election episode, we’ll recap where things stand: and how energy and climate are playing into late-stage messaging of Biden and Trump. Plus, what are some of the crucial down-ballot races we’re watching election night? And last: Five years have passed since the largest terrestrial natural gas disaster in U.S. history. A methane well in the Los Angeles hills broke open and shot a plume of methane into the air for four months.  What’s changed since the Aliso Canyon leak? And how did it accelerate distributed resources in the state?The Energy Gang is brought to you by Sungrow, the leading global supplier of inverter solutions for renewables. During these uncertain times, Sungrow is committed to protecting its employees and continuing to reliably serve its customers around the world. Sungrow has also leveraged its extensive network across the United States to distribute face masks to communities in need.The Energy Gang is also brought to you by KORE Power. Based in the U.S., KORE Power is situated to meet the growing global demand of the energy storage market. KORE Power is building the first large-scale battery cell manufacturing facility in the U.S. owned by an American company. Once it’s operational, the 1-million-square-foot facility will have 12 gigawatt-hours of scalable manufacturing capacity. Learn more. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Watt It Takes: Powerhouse CEO Emily Kirsch sits down with Solstice CEO Steph Speirs.Solistice is a community solar company trying to make PV accessible to everyone.Steph Speirs grew up one of three kids, first generation, in Hawaii. Her mom had immigrated from Korea. She knows what eviction feels like, and what it’s like to skirt homelessness. And she knows how a poor credit score can sink a human being.She got a scholarship to a private high school, became a National Merit scholar and accrued three masters degrees at Yale, Princeton and MIT.  In this interview, we’ll hear how her time in the Obama administration led to a summer internship with the non-profit impact investor Acumen. She worked on solar lanterns in India. Her time in Yemen, India, and then Pakistan led to an awakening about energy injustice in the United States. Solstice has now developed demand for 100 MW of community solar and just closed its biggest funding round so far. To learn more about future speakers and attending a live event, go to Powerhouse.fund and click on the events tab. You can listen to all of the episodes of Watt It Takes here.The Energy Gang is also brought to you by KORE Power. Based in the U.S., KORE Power is situated to meet the growing global demand of the energy storage market. KORE Power is building the first large-scale battery cell manufacturing facility in the U.S. owned by an American company. Once it’s operational, the 1-million-square-foot facility will have 12 gigawatt-hours of scalable manufacturing capacity. Learn more. The Energy Gang is brought to you by Sungrow, the leading global supplier of inverter solutions for renewables. During these uncertain times, Sungrow is committed to protecting its employees and continuing to reliably serve its customers around the world. Sungrow has also leveraged its extensive network across the United States to distribute face masks to communities in need.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In a year when clean energy and clean vehicle jobs were supposed to increase by some 175,000, we are down by half a million jobs. We will tell you why, and explain the numbers. What will reverse the decline?Then: Did New Jersey just pass the most sweeping environmental justice law in the country? The new law will mean big changes for industrial sites -- and the neighborhoods that often feel their worst impacts. And last: What about all that nice, flat water in hydropower reservoirs? Could we float solar panels on it? The Department of Energy says we could. And it would actually produce massive amounts of electricity. E2: Clean Energy Sector Enters Final Months of 2020 Down 478,000 JobsBloomberg: Most U.S. Oil Job Losses in Pandemic Are LastingFortune: The Oil and Gas Industry Has Lost More Than 100,000 Jobs This YearNJ.com: Landmark Law to Protect N.J.'s Poorest Communities From PollutionDOE: U.S. Hydropower Potential from Existing Non-powered DamsThe Energy Gang is brought to you by Sungrow, the leading global supplier of inverter solutions for renewables. During these uncertain times, Sungrow is committed to protecting its employees and continuing to reliably serve its customers around the world. Sungrow has also leveraged its extensive network across the United States to distribute face masks to communities in need.The Energy Gang is also brought to you by KORE Power. Based in the U.S., KORE Power is situated to meet the growing global demand of the energy storage market. KORE Power is building the first large-scale battery cell manufacturing facility in the U.S. owned by an American company. Once it’s operational, the 1-million-square-foot facility will have 12 gigawatt-hours of scalable manufacturing capacity. Learn more. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Manish Hebbar architects billions of dollars worth of equity and debt deals in clean energy.He’s able to stay methodical and calm in the middle of deals that are very stressful, involving multiple buyers and counter-parties. “M&A transactions are those types of deals, where it's a fast-paced environment, every minute and every hour matters. It's really about who can stay the course and work through each round of progression.”That skill goes back to his time as a Lieutenant in the Navy. It’s also influenced by his experience evaluating risk at Citibank during the height of the 2008 financial crisis. Today, Manish is a managing director at CohnReznick Capital. He’s brokering some of clean energy’s biggest mergers and acquisitions -- like an 800-plus megawatt portfolio of wind projects in the U.S. and Canada in 2019. In this special episode, produced in collaboration with CohnReznick Capital, we’ll hear how Manish used his experience in the military and financial risk to find his way into the fast-paced world of clean energy.CohnReznick builds relationships, closes deals, and helps clean energy companies excel. Learn more about how people like Manish can help you work through some of the most complicated transactions in energy.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What does it mean when the world’s largest generator of wind and solar outpaces the most iconic oil company in market value? We’re talking about NextEra Energy and ExxonMobil. What does the flip tell us about the energy transition?Plus, reporters at Bloomberg got their hands on documents that show ExxonMobil plans to pretty significantly ramp up emissions in the coming years. Is this the planet’s most recalcitrant company?Then, the flattening of hydrocarbon growth will change global political power. But do we really know how yet? We’ll discuss a new piece from Jason Bordoff about the surprising geopolitics of energy.Lastly, a lot of manufacturing relies on very high heat. Are there ways to reach those temperatures cleanly? We’ll look at some new developments in the steel industry.Recommended reading:Bloomberg: Exxon’s Plan for Surging Carbon Emissions Revealed in Leaked Documents Barrons: Green-Oriented NextEra Nears ExxonMobil in Market capWall Street Journal: NextEra Energy Made Takeover Approach to Duke EnergyForeign Policy: Everything You Think About the Geopolitics of Climate Change is Wrong IRENA: A New World, The Geopolitics of the Energy TransformationMighty Earth: ArcelorMittal’s New Carbon-Neutral Commitment Could Catalyze SteelSSAB: “First in fossil-free steel using ‘Hybrit’ technology”Greentech Media: How to Slash the Industrial Emissions that are Heating the PlanetGreentech Media: The Building Industry Gets Serious About Embodied CarbonColumbia Center on Energy Policy : Low-carbon heat solutions for heavy industryA Matter of Degrees podcast with Leah Stokes and Katharine WilkinsonThe Energy Gang is brought to you by Sungrow, the leading global supplier of inverter solutions for renewables. During these uncertain times, Sungrow is committed to protecting its employees and continuing to reliably serve its customers around the world. Sungrow has also leveraged its extensive network across the United States to distribute face masks to communities in need.The Energy Gang is also brought to you by KORE Power. Based in the U.S., KORE Power is situated to meet the growing global demand of the energy storage market. KORE Power is building the first large-scale battery cell manufacturing facility in the U.S. owned by an American company. Once it’s operational, the 1-million-square-foot facility will have 12 gigawatt-hours of scalable manufacturing capacity. Learn more. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

China, the country currently pouring the most carbon into the atmosphere, is making a promise to get to zero emissions – 40 years from now. Is it a breakthrough? Or is it a plan to keep burning coal? Is it both? We’ll hash it out. Then, the Governor of California wants to stop selling any new cars that run on gasoline – in 15 years. It’s ambitious, can it be done? Is it legal? What will that take?And last, a flurry of serious commitments from top American brands – Walmart, Google, Apple.  Each of them is super challenging for a different reason. But also groundbreaking. We’ll dig in.Resources:The Guardian: China Pledges to Become Carbon Neutral Before 2060 Bloomberg: China’s Top Climate Scientists Map Out Path to 2060 GoalL.A. Times: Newsom Orders 2035 Phaseout of Gas-Powered VehiclesAxios: Walmart Aims for Zero Greenhouse Gas Emissions by 2040GTM: Google Pledges 24/7 Carbon-Free Energy by 2030 The Energy Gang is brought to you by Sungrow, the leading global supplier of inverter solutions for renewables. During these uncertain times, Sungrow is committed to protecting its employees and continuing to reliably serve its customers around the world. Sungrow has also leveraged its extensive network across the United States to distribute face masks to communities in need.The Energy Gang is also brought to you by KORE Power. Based in the U.S., KORE Power is situated to meet the growing global demand of the energy storage market. KORE Power is building the first large-scale battery cell manufacturing facility in the U.S. owned by an American company. Once it’s operational, the 1-million-square-foot facility will have 12 gigawatt-hours of scalable manufacturing capacity. Learn more. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Does the loss of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg mean the future of federal climate policy is in jeopardy? What will a changed Supreme Court mean for climate change, and for the all-important endangerment finding? The Gang weighs in. Then, the great plastic cover-up. How important are plastics to the profits of fossil fuel companies? We dive into an important investigation from NPR and Frontline into how fossil fuel companies hoodwinked the public on plastics recycling.Then last, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is out with an important and long-awaited policy that opens the door for all types of distributed energy – hot water heaters, batteries, rooftop solar, electric cars – to feed energy into the grid in the aggregate. Are we finally there?     Recommended reading, viewing:Scientific American: Ruth Bader Ginsburg Leaves a Nuanced Legacy on Env. IssuesPolitico: Ginsburg Left a Long Environmental LegacyAxios: The Climate Stakes of the Supreme Court FightGuardian: Oil industry lobbies US to help weaken Kenya’s strong stance on plastic wasteFast Company: Surprise: Your cleaning supplies are full of fossil fuelFrontline: Plastic WarsNPR: How big oil misled the public into believing plastic would be recycledGreentech Media: ‘Game-Changer’ FERC Order Opens Grid Markets to DERHouston Chronicle: FERC opens grid to power aggregatorsTwitter: Peter Cavan’s threadTwitter: Ari Peskoe’s threadThe Energy Gang is brought to you by Sungrow, the leading global supplier of inverter solutions for renewables. During these uncertain times, Sungrow is committed to protecting its employees and continuing to reliably serve its customers around the world. Sungrow has also leveraged its extensive network across the United States to distribute face masks to communities in need.The Energy Gang is also brought to you by KORE Power. Based in the U.S., KORE Power is situated to meet the growing global demand of the energy storage market. KORE Power is building the first large-scale battery cell manufacturing facility in the U.S. owned by an American company. Once it’s operational, the 1-million-square-foot facility will have 12 gigawatt-hours of scalable manufacturing capacity. Learn more. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Watt It Takes: Powerhouse CEO Emily Kirsch sits down with Michael Liebreich.You may know Liebreich as the brain behind New Energy Finance, which was sold to Bloomberg in 2009.But before that company, Leibreich started a ski-based travel startup and invested in a portfolio of companies that lost 90 percent of their value in the dot-com bust. After that, he was "unemployable." But he used a team of interns to begin compiling data on clean energy investment. in this episode, he tells the story of how that became a 140-employee business that Bloomberg eventually acquired.This conversation was recorded live (remotely) as part of an interview series in collaboration with Powerhouse and Greentech Media.To learn more about future speakers and attending a live event, go to Powerhouse.fund and click on the events tab. You can listen to all of the episodes of Watt It Takes here.The Energy Gang is brought to you by KORE Power. Based in the U.S., KORE Power is situated to meet the growing global demand of the energy storage market. In fact, KORE Power is building a large-scale battery cell manufacturing facility here in the U.S. Once it’s operational, the 1 million square foot facility will have 12 gigawatt-hours of scalable manufacturing capacity. Learn more. The Energy Gang is also brought to you by Sungrow, the leading global supplier of inverter solutions for renewables. During these uncertain times, Sungrow is committed to protecting its employees and continuing to reliably serve its customers around the world. Sungrow has also leveraged its extensive network across the United States to distribute face masks to communities in need.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In the first half of 2020, renewables beat out fossil fuels on the grid in Europe for the first time. They didn’t only beat out coal -- they beat out all fossil fuels put together. We’ll look at what the milestone means.Then, 30 major companies have come together in a new joint lobbying organization to flex united power for clean energy. Will it make renewables a bigger political force? And what will they be fighting for?Then, your view of Texas is probably out-of-date. We look at the dawn of Big Solar in Texas and peek at the ERCOT interconnection queue -- it’s almost all green.    Recommended reading:Danish Startup ‘Tomorrow’: Global Real Time Carbon Intensity Map of ElectricityClimate Home News: Renewables overtake fossil fuels in EU electricity generationForbes: European Renewables Just Crushed Fossil Fuels. Here’s How It HappenedJohannes vd Bosch: Twitter thread about Renewables in GermanyE&ENews: AWEA, Clean Energy Companies Join Forces for Lobbying Greentech Media: AWEA Introduces New Trade GroupRecharge: AWEA and power giants plan new body 'to make renewables dominant'Texas Observer: Texas Solar Hits a Turning PointJigar Shah LinkedIn postThe Energy Gang is brought to you by KORE Power. Based in the U.S., KORE Power is situated to meet the growing global demand of the energy storage market. In fact, KORE Power is building a large-scale battery cell manufacturing facility here in the U.S. Once it’s operational, the 1 million square foot facility will have 12 gigawatt-hours of scalable manufacturing capacity. Learn more. The Energy Gang is also brought to you by Sungrow, the leading global supplier of inverter solutions for renewables. During these uncertain times, Sungrow is committed to protecting its employees and continuing to reliably serve its customers around the world. Sungrow has also leveraged its extensive network across the United States to distribute face masks to communities in need.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Watt It Takes: Powerhouse CEO Emily Kirsch sits down with green jobs pioneer Van Jones.Jones may be best known for “The Van Jones Show” and “The Redemption Project,” which both air on CNN. He is also the author of three best-selling books, including “The Green Collar Economy.”But long before the high-profile Green New Deal, Jones was also a powerful voice for bringing clean energy jobs to black and brown communities. He helped spearhead the Green Jobs Act of 2007, the first time the country deliberately trained workers for the future clean economy. In this episode, Jones reveals a little-told backstory of his childhood and early life, his time at Yale Law School, and the painful time he briefly joined, and then left, the Obama Administration as the green jobs czar.This conversation was recorded live (remotely) as part of an interview series in collaboration with Powerhouse and Greentech Media.To learn more about future speakers and attending a live event, go to Powerhouse.fund and click on the events tab. You can listen to all of the episodes of Watt It Takes here.The Energy Gang is brought to you by Sungrow, the leading global supplier of inverter solutions for renewables. During these uncertain times, Sungrow is committed to protecting its employees and continuing to reliably serve its customers around the world. Sungrow has also leveraged its extensive network across the United States to distribute face masks to communities in need.The Energy Gang is also brought to you by KORE Power. Based in the U.S., KORE Power is situated to meet the growing global demand of the energy storage market. In fact, KORE Power is building a large-scale battery cell manufacturing facility here in the U.S. Once it’s operational, the 1 million square foot facility will have 12 gigawatt-hours of scalable manufacturing capacity. Learn more. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We are just over two months away from America’s presidential election. And that means we are days away from one of the most consequential political moments ever for the planet. Joe Biden put climate and cleantech jobs at the top of his priorities in last week’s nomination speech. His VP pick, Kamala Harris, says she’ll use her background as a prosecutor to hold industries accountable for climate change. And climate donors are pouring millions into their campaign.Meanwhile, Trump was in Pennsylvania telling oil and gas workers that Biden is going to end their way of life. But a new poll from Resources for the Future shows that climate is a higher priority than ever for voters. We’ll start with a political roundup.Then, a story about what’s at stake in the election. More details emerge about Trump Administration censorship of clean-energy research. What is the Seams study, and what happened to it?Finally, we’ll take a bunch of questions from listeners about wave/tidal energy, plastic pellets, small-modular nuclear, geothermal heat, and non-wires alternatives.This episode was recorded live in front of an in-home audience. Thanks to everyone for joining us!The Energy Gang is brought to you by Fluence, a global leader in battery-based energy storage technology and services. From commercializing the first grid-connected battery systems in 2008 to the multi-gigawatt fleet being deployed for customers globally today, the Fluence team is ensuring that storage is the cornerstone of the electric future. Learn more.The Energy Gang is brought to you by Nor-Cal Control. As a total controls and monitoring solution provider, Nor-Cal supports every phase of your project, from turnkey design solutions to post-OEM enhancements, troubleshooting and training. As the only system integrator in solar PV that comes from a traditional power generation background, Nor-Cal has earned a reputation as the “strongest in controls.” Learn more.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Last week, short-term blackouts rolled across an overheated California after the grid operator said there was not enough power to meet demand. This wasn’t supposed to happen again. Not after the Enron scandal. Not after 19 years of reforms. We have a very different grid now. Renewables skeptics, including President Trump, are seizing on the incident. What really happened? Where do we place blame? We explain the confluence of grid-management factors.Then, coal power generation in the United States plunged 30% in just the first half of this year. But what Asia, where 80% of coal gets burned now? What hope is there for a coal decline there? We’ll look at China, Japan and India.Finally, stunning public health research. What happens when you combine this up-to-date science with the new, low-cost renewable energy? You get a blockbuster picture, that’s what. We’ll examine new research that shows the health benefits alone pay for our energy transition. Recommended reading:New York Times: Rolling Blackouts in California Have Power Experts StumpedGTM: Western Heat Wave Tests California’s Clean Grid TransitionTwitter: Ed Burgess Tesla Powerwall ThreadReuters: China's New Coal Projects Account for 90% of Global TotalThe Guardian: India Plans to Fell Ancient Forest to Create 40 New CoalfieldsNew York times: Japan Races to Build New Coal-Burning Power Plants, Despite the Climate RisksVox: Roberts: Air Pollution Is Much Worse Than We ThoughtPrinted version of Dr. Shindell’s testimonyThe Energy Gang is brought to you by Fluence, a global leader in battery-based energy storage technology and services. From commercializing the first grid-connected battery systems in 2008 to the multi-gigawatt fleet being deployed for customers globally today, the Fluence team is ensuring that storage is the cornerstone of the electric future. Learn more.The Energy Gang is brought to you by Nor-Cal Control. As a total controls and monitoring solution provider, Nor-Cal supports every phase of your project, from turnkey design solutions to post-OEM enhancements, troubleshooting and training. As the only system integrator in solar PV that comes from a traditional power generation background, Nor-Cal has earned a reputation as the “strongest in controls.” Learn more.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

“Electrify everything” isn’t just a good slogan. It’s the fastest way to decarbonize and create tens of millions of jobs -- and it can be done using off-the-shelf technology. A respected squad of researchers did the math on a swap-out of every aging boiler, truck and power plant -- and replacing it with equipment that won’t burn fossil fuels ever again. We’ll dig into a new analysis from Rewiring America. Then, BP has more details around its plan to become the first oil major to transition away from the hydrocarbon-drilling business. What do they amount to? Can the company actually do it this time?Last, PSEG promised to do right by its customers after failing them during Hurricane Sandy. So why were Long Islanders left sweltering for days after a few high winds from the remnants of Hurricane Isaias? And what does it portend in a future of stronger storms?   Note: we have a “live” show on August 25th. We’re wrapping up this crazy summer with another live conversation from our homes to yours. Sign up here.Our guest co-host this week is Melissa Lott of the Columbia Center on Global Energy Policy.Recommended reading:Griffith, Calisch, Laskey, Rewiring America: Report VOX: How to Drive Fossil Fuel out of the Economy, QuicklyBloomberg Green: BP Walks Away From the Oil Supermajor Model It Helped CreateGTM: BP Aims to Build 50GW of Renewables by 2030, Cut Fossil Fuel Output by 40%GTM: New Jersey PSEG Seeks to Sell Merchant Fossil, Solar FleetLong Island Herald: Glen Cove Residents, Officials Frustrated with PSEG LI LeadershipThe Energy Gang is brought to you by Fluence, a global leader in battery-based energy storage technology and services. From commercializing the first grid-connected battery systems in 2008 to the multi-gigawatt fleet being deployed for customers globally today, the Fluence team is ensuring that storage is the cornerstone of the electric future. Learn more.The Energy Gang is brought to you by Nor-Cal Control. As a total controls and monitoring solution provider, Nor-Cal supports every phase of your project, from turnkey design solutions to post-OEM enhancements, troubleshooting and training. As the only system integrator in solar PV that comes from a traditional power generation background, Nor-Cal has earned a reputation as the “strongest in controls.” Learn more.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

On this week’s episode of The Energy Gang: big energy companies are putting together bids for multi- renewable power -- and it’s merchant. Global investment in offshore wind more than quadrupled in the first half of this year. More new wind farms were approved at the height of the pandemic than during all last year. Some of offshore projects include storage, and even hydrogen. Some of them include floating solar panels. Is this what the future of projects looks like for oil & gas majors? Then, is green hydrogen here to stay? One Saudi project unveiled last month is at gigawatt scale. Another major utility is getting out of America’s largest coal plant and making investments in solar-generated hydrogen. Bloom Energy is even making electrolyzers. What does this activity tell us? And last, there’s a reason Henrik Fisker hasn’t gone away, even after the demise of the Fisker Karma. We dive into the new Fisker Ocean SUV and a spate of other electric car announcements and ask: Does parity on EV prices even matter? Join us with guest co-host Melissa Lott of the Columbia Center on Global Energy Policy. Recommended reading:GTM: Super-Hybrid: Dutch Offshore Farm to Include Floating Solar, Storage & HydrogenGTM: Dutch Offshore Wind Tender Faces Concerns of Depressed InterestUtility Dive Opinion: Geothermal Energy Is Surging GTM: NextEra Energy to Build Its First Green Hydrogen Plant in FloridaGTM: World’s Largest Green Hydrogen Project Unveiled in Saudi ArabiaInside Climate News: How Soon Will An EV Cost the Same as a Gasoline Vehicle? Reuters-NYT: Electric Car Maker Fisker to Go Public Through SPAC Deal at $2.9 BillionThe Interchange is brought to you by Fluence, a global leader in battery-based energy storage technology and services. From commercializing the first grid-connected battery systems in 2008 to the multi-gigawatt fleet being deployed for customers globally today, the Fluence team is ensuring that storage is the cornerstone of the electric future. Learn more.The Energy Gang is brought to you by Nor-Cal Control. As a total controls and monitoring solution provider, Nor-Cal supports every phase of your project, from turnkey design solutions to post-OEM enhancements, troubleshooting and training. As the only system integrator in solar PV that comes from a traditional power generation background, Nor-Cal has earned a reputation at the “strongest in controls.” Learn more.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Dan Yates and his co-founder Alex Laskey built Opower, an efficiency company that saves more energy every year than the hoover dam can generate. It was based on cutting-edge behavioral science -- but it wasn’t always clear how the science would play out.“It wasn’t okay with us to just know that there was going to be a result. It had to be a certain level, otherwise it wasn’t economic. And in the first few months, the results came in and they weren’t changing behavior. The floor fell out from under me. I said, ‘oh my god, we have no idea if this is going to work.'”Opower was founded in 2007 by Dan and Alex, two friends from Harvard. Dan knew software. Alex knew how to sell. And both of them wanted to build a company for environmental good.Opower was based on a simple premise: send paper mailers to utility customers comparing their electricity use to their neighbors. If people saw they were doing poorly, they’d make changes. It worked.Over time, Opower inked deals with the world’s biggest power companies and started processing vast amounts of smart meter data -- making it arguably the biggest energy efficiency success story in business. The company went public in 2014 and was sold to Oracle in 2016.In this episode, Powerhouse CEO Emily Kirsch talks with Dan about the science behind the idea, how Opower evolved and expanded, and why the company was eventually sold to Oracle.Listen to all our past episodes of Watt It Takes here. This series is normally recorded in front of a live audience. But we’re now recording the interviews remotely. See future events here.The Energy Gang is brought to you by Fluence, a global leader in battery-based energy storage technology and services. From commercializing the first grid-connected battery systems in 2008 to the multi-gigawatt fleet being deployed for customers globally today, the Fluence team is ensuring that storage is the cornerstone of the electric future. Learn more.The Energy Gang is brought to you by Nor-Cal Control. As a total controls and monitoring solution provider, Nor-Cal supports every phase of your project, from turnkey design solutions to post-OEM enhancements, troubleshooting and training. As the only system integrator in solar PV that comes from a traditional power generation background, Nor-Cal has earned a reputation at the “strongest in controls.” Learn more.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Joe Biden just released a plan to address climate change on a trillion-dollar scale. Along with focusing on rapid deployment of renewables, it also devotes resources to environmental justice, sustainable housing, clean transportation, and networking.What would it mean? And who's informing the ideas? We’ll dig in.Then Facebook's disinformation problem. We look at why Facebook is rejecting the conclusions of its fact-checkers on some articles about climate change. We’re joined by Emily Atkin, climate journalist and founder of the newsletter Heated, who dug up some of the documents showing who’s making these decisions at Facebook. Then, U.S. attorneys in Ohio and Illinois have been busy investigating racketeering and bribery by high-ranking public officials who are doing the bidding of utility companies. In Ohio, the speaker of the House is arrested and in Illinois a utility is put on probation. There’s a common thread, and we tease it out. Recommended reading:Biden Campaign: Climate PlanBiden Campaign: Environmental Justice CommitmentsGTM: Biden Pledges $2T in Clean Energy and Infrastructure SpendingHeated: Facebook Creates Fact-Checking Exemption for Climate DeniersNYT: How Facebook Handles Climate DisinformationWaPo: GOP Ohio House speaker Arrested in Connection to $60 million Bribery SchemeAxios: Ohio House speaker charged in $60 million bribery investigationGTM: ComEd Agrees to $200M Fine on Federal Bribery ChargeThe Interchange is brought to you by Fluence, a global leader in battery-based energy storage technology and services. From commercializing the first grid-connected battery systems in 2008 to the multi-gigawatt fleet being deployed for customers globally today, the Fluence team is ensuring that storage is the cornerstone of the electric future. Learn more.The Energy Gang is brought to you by Nor-Cal Control. As a total controls and monitoring solution provider, Nor-Cal supports every phase of your project, from turnkey design solutions to post-OEM enhancements, troubleshooting and training. As the only system integrator in solar PV that comes from a traditional power generation background, Nor-Cal has earned a reputation at the “strongest in controls.” Learn more.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

A group of House lawmakers recently released a 547-page report on climate change. Reporters at E&E News call it “arguably the most comprehensive climate policy plan in American politics.”The report spells out in great detail how to use Congressional policy to decarbonize the economy. It was the result of nearly a year of input from hundreds of experts, 17 hearings, and thousands of meetings.This week, we’ll discuss why this report is so significant. We’ll also look at a companion infrastructure bill from House Democrats that makes clean energy a centerpiece. Can it become a reality after the election?Then, drama for pipelines and batteries. We’ll look at a slew of legal decisions for pipelines in just two weeks, and what they mean for the future of fossil fuel infrastructure. Last, storage, unleashed. A court affirms FERC’s decision to treat energy storage just like any other power source in wholesale markets, opening the door to massive investment.Resources: E&ENews: Democrats: 'We will turn this report into law'WaPo: House Dems unveil ambitious climate package, steer toward a net-0 by 2050Select Committee: ReportBloomberg: Dakota Access Oil Line to Be Shut by Court in Blow for TrumpBloomberg: State Court Judge Shuts Down Michigan’s Controversial Line 5GTM: ‘Enormous Step’ for Energy Storage as Court Upholds FERC Order 841The Interchange is brought to you by Fluence, a global leader in battery-based energy storage technology and services. From commercializing the first grid-connected battery systems in 2008 to the multi-gigawatt fleet being deployed for customers globally today, the Fluence team is ensuring that storage is the cornerstone of the electric future. Learn more.The Energy Gang is brought to you by Nor-Cal Control. As a total controls and monitoring solution provider, Nor-Cal supports every phase of your project, from turnkey design solutions to post OEM enhancements, troubleshooting and training. As the only system integrator in solar PV that comes from a traditional power generation background, Nor-Cal has earned a reputation at the “strongest in controls.” Learn more.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

A rivalry is emerging between two companies trying to clean up the trucking industry: Nikola Motor versus Tesla Motors.Tesla thinks battery-electric semi models are superior. Nikola thinks hydrogen is the best choice.Neither company actually has a semi model on the road. But Elon Musk and Trevor Milton are talking up their visions for the future of heavy-duty trucks, with the hope of getting vehicles to customers in the next couple of years.This week on The Energy Gang: Which company is best positioned to win? Which technology is superior? And who’s the bigger showman, Musk or Milton?Then: are we finally entering the era of the electric pick-up truck? Lots of new models are hitting the internet. But when will they hit the roads? And last, Lyft wants every car in its fleet to be electric -- in 10 years. Most of the cars don’t belong to Lyft, so how are they going to make that happen? Co-hosts Katherine Hamilton, Jigar Shah and Stephen Lacey discuss. Resources:Fast Company: 7 Things to Know About the Rising Tesla CompetitorBloomberg/India Times: In the battle of electric-trucks, it is Nikola vs TeslaHiConsumption: The 8 Electric Pickup Trucks Worth Waiting ForElektrek: The year of the electric truck, finally?Lyft: Path to Zero EmissionsBloomberg: Lyft Says All Rides Will Be in Electric Cars by the End of 2030The Energy Gang is brought to you by Sungrow, the leading global supplier of inverter solutions for renewables. During these uncertain times, Sungrow is committed to protecting its employees and continuing to reliably serve its customers around the world. Sungrow has also leveraged its extensive network across the United States to distribute face masks to communities in need.The Energy Gang is also brought to you by KORE Power. Based in the U.S., KORE Power is situated to meet the growing global demand of the energy storage market. KORE Power is building the first large-scale battery cell manufacturing facility in the U.S. owned by an American company. Once it’s operational, the 1-million-square-foot facility will have 10 gigawatt-hours of scalable manufacturing capacity. Learn more. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This is an original, branded podcast from GTM Creative Strategies, produced in collaboration with CohnReznick.In 2004, Ted Gunther started a new job at a big accounting firm. He led the team overseeing transactions in newly-deregulated electricity markets.On his first day, he met the "Green Book," a thick, complicated book that sets standards for derivatives, hedging strategies and contracts structures.“I still remember it vividly. [...] I remember the partner at the time putting that book on my desk and asking me to go ahead and read this and I just looked at it and I thought to myself, ‘Wow, that's going to be a lot to read.’Ted used The Green Book to become an expert in complicated energy markets.As his career blossomed, he started grappling with another complicated problem: anxiety.It started to grip Ted during meetings. “The heart's really beating fast. You know you have something to say but you have a hard time just getting it out and saying it.” But he wasn’t going to let anxiety hold him back. Ted got help, moved past it, and became a partner at CohnReznick.Today, he leads CohnReznick's renewable energy industry practice, and helps utilities and other energy companies execute all kinds of transactions, from long-term contracts to hedging strategies to tax structures.In this special episode: how Ted is using the lessons from overcoming anxiety to help clients and colleagues grow.CohnReznick serves a wide range of industries from tech to government to entertainment. It’s a leader in cutting-edge fields like renewable energy and cannabis. To learn more about how people like Ted can help you work through some of the most complicated transactions in energy, visit CohnReznick.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Most decarbonization proposals play out over 30 years, aiming toward 2050. But a new roadmap from researchers at UC Berkeley and the policy firm Energy Innovation shows the grid can get 90% clean in just 15 years. No new fossil fuel plants. Lower rates for consumers. 85,000 lives saved. 500,000 additional jobs. Region by region, they lay out exactly how.Prices have fallen so quickly that our understanding of what’s possible hasn’t kept pace. And now, say researchers, we have the chance to decarbonize much earlier than many thought possible.This week, we’ll dig into the study and its implications.Then: pollsters say Americans are “fully bought in” to a clean energy future — and want bigger societal issues addressed with it. But among crucial swing voters, is anyone even thinking about climate? We’ll look at what the latest polling tells us.Lastly, BP decides its assets are worth $17 billion dollars less than they thought. It’s a massive write down. Is this a tipping point? A leading indicator? Co-hosts Katherine Hamilton, Jigar Shah and Stephen Lacey discuss. Resources:UCB Goldman School of Public Policy: The 2035 ReportEnergy Innovation LLC: 2035 Data ExplorerGreentech Media: 90% Clean Grid by 2035 Is Not Just Feasible, But Cheaper, Study SaysEnvironmental Research Letters: Combining Climate, Economic, and Social Policy Builds Public Support for Climate Action in the US (Bergquist, Mildenberger & Stokes)WAPO Opinion: Protesters Want Justice — Including on Social, Economic and Climate DemandsYale Program on Climate Comm: Politics and Global Warming April 2020Climate 2020 Podcast: How Do You Message Climate In This Political Moment?Bloomberg opinion: BP Submits to Brutal Reality on the Future of OilTwitter: Mark Campanale, Carbon TrackerBloomberg opinion: Big Oil Can Help Renewables by Spinning Them OffThe Energy Gang is brought to you by Sungrow, the leading global supplier of inverter solutions for renewables. During these uncertain times, Sungrow is committed to protecting its employees and continuing to reliably serve its customers around the world. Sungrow has also leveraged its extensive network across the United States to distribute face masks to communities in need.The Energy Gang is also brought to you by KORE Power. Based in the U.S., KORE Power is situated to meet the growing global demand of the energy storage market. KORE Power is building the first large-scale battery cell manufacturing facility in the U.S. owned by an American company. Once it’s operational, the 1-million-square-foot facility will have 10 gigawatt-hours of scalable manufacturing capacity. Learn more. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We’re back with another live show from quarantine. Europe is crafting a €750 billion recovery package in response to the economic impact of coronavirus. It will devote more than €200 billion directly to low-carbon infrastructure projects. That could enable hundreds of billions more for renewables, efficiency, clean public transport, and hydrogen.Meanwhile, here in the U.S., our recent stimulus sent billions of dollars to debt-laden oil producers. With potentially one shot left to pass another recovery package, everyone is afraid to utter the word “climate.”Coronavirus highlights yet another political and economic divide. How badly is America squandering this historic moment?Plus, we address listener questions about offshore wind, undercovered climate solutions, career advice, and the mysterious ‘MOPR‘ that could override states’ clean energy preferences. Thanks to all our listeners who tuned in live!Mentioned on the the show: Freestyle Rapper for Pexapark: Chris TurnerRap Artist Who Rhymes on Science: Baba Brinkman Heavy Metal Elon Musk Tribute Band: Raptor CommandRecommended reading: DeutcheWelle: Germany pushes electric cars in $145B stimulus. Bloomberg: The world’s greenest stimulus plan from GermanyBBC: Could the “Green stimulus” go global? Climate Change News: Spain unveils climate law to cut emissions to net zero by 2050Bloomberg: Europe’s Recovery Plan Has Green Strings AttachedThe Energy Gang is brought to you by Sungrow, the leading global supplier of inverter solutions for renewables. During these uncertain times, Sungrow is committed to protecting its employees and continuing to reliably serve its customers around the world. Sungrow has also leveraged its extensive network across the United States to distribute face masks to communities in need.The Energy Gang is also brought to you by KORE Power. Based in the U.S., KORE Power is situated to meet the growing global demand of the energy storage market. KORE Power is building the first large-scale battery cell manufacturing facility in the U.S. owned by an American company. Once it’s operational, the 1-million-square-foot facility will have 10 gigawatt-hours of scalable manufacturing capacity. Learn more. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week: as anger over police brutality explodes into the once-empty streets, we tackle an equally oppressive force for black Americans: environmental racism.Coronavirus has exposed an unsettling reality for black and brown people, who are dying at higher rates in the country’s most polluted communities. We’re suddenly talking again about structural racism in policing and criminal justice. But the story of race, energy and the environment is also very important to understanding the anger of the moment.We’re going to speak with a seasoned lawyer and organizer, who is working on the “mass melanization” of the environmental movement: Tamara Toles O’Laughlin, the North America Director for 350.orgLater in the show: if people lose their jobs and can’t pay their bills, what does that mean for their safety in a summer heat wave? And what does it mean for the financial health of utilities?Finally, a new approach to residential demand response. Why are Consumers Energy, Uplight and Google giving away 100,000 free smart thermostats?Don't forget to sign up for our FREE live show on June 9! Join us and submit your questions.VOX: One reason why coronavirus is hitting black Americans the hardestNY Times: In the Shadows of America’s Smokestacks, Virus is one More Deadly RiskAP: 'Death By Racism': Part of America's DNA From the Start?LA Times Boiling Point: Pandemic. Heat. And for the most vulnerable, no A/CGizmodo: Coronavirus, Summer Heat, and Poverty Could Create a 'Triple Whammy'GTM: Can Free Smart Thermostats Get Homeowners to Enroll in Summertime Demand Response?GTM: Residential Demand Response to Play Key Role Managing US Load This SummerThe Energy Gang is brought to you by Sungrow, the leading global supplier of inverter solutions for renewables. During these uncertain times, Sungrow is committed to protecting its employees and continuing to reliably serve its customers around the world. Sungrow has also leveraged its extensive network across the United States to distribute face masks to communities in need.The Energy Gang is also brought to you by KORE Power. Based in the U.S., KORE Power is situated to meet the growing global demand of the energy storage market. KORE Power is building the first large-scale battery cell manufacturing facility in the U.S. owned by an American company. Once it’s operational, the 1 million square foot facility will have 10 gigawatt-hours of scalable manufacturing capacity. Learn more.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Gia Schneider and her brother Abe started Natel Energy based on a hydropower turbine their father designed. And after more than a decade of R&D, pilots, software development and a project for Apple, Natel is preparing for the next level of scale.“Our objectives have actually not wavered. But they haven’t wavered because of rigid adherence to dogma, they have not wavered because we check in consistently about ‘is this the right problem to solve?’” says Schneider. Natel is commercializing a turbine for low-head hydro applications at old dams, irrigation canals and run-of-river projects. It’s designed to protect wildlife and drastically cut the ecological impact of hydropower. The original design came from Gia’s father, who started working on low-flow turbines back in the 1970s -- but it’s come a long way since then.Gia also has a long history in energy. She worked at Constellation Energy and in Accenture’s utility practice. She started the energy and carbon trading desks at Credit Suisse. And in 2009, she launched Natel with her brother Abe.In March, Natel closed an $11 million round led by Schneider Electric and Breakthrough Energy Ventures, just before the economy shut down.In this episode, Powerhouse CEO Emily Kirsch talks with Gia about starting a company with her family, how to balance short-term tech development with long-term deployment goals, and how coronavirus could impact the next phase of growth.This series is normally recorded in front of a live audience. But we’re now recording the interviews remotely. See future events hereWe’re hosting a live episode of The Energy Gang on June 9. Sign up for free here.The Energy Gang is brought to you by Sungrow, the leading global supplier of inverter solutions for renewables. During these uncertain times, Sungrow is committed to protecting its employees and continuing to reliably serve its customers around the world. Sungrow has also leveraged its extensive network across the United States to distribute face masks to communities in need.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week, we cover some hopeful signs amidst the economic destruction. First, we’ll look at the record-breaking activity in battery storage.A coal plant in North Dakota will be replaced in part with a one-acre battery array from Form Energy that uses a new technology capable of discharging for 150 hours – that’s more than 30 times longer than lithium batteries. Hawaii’s electric utility just awarded contracts for 16 projects that add up to more than 3 gigawatt-hours of storage, in order to replace an oil-fired and a coal-fired power plant. And in California, Southern California Edison signed contracts for 770 megawatts of batteries, many paired with solar projects, to replace gas plants. That’s 200 megawatts more than the entire battery capacity installed in 2019.Plus, in China, more hybrid wind/solar and battery plants are starting to emerge. This led Dan Finn-Foley, Wood Mackenzie’s head of energy storage, to declare: “The utility energy storage market is blowing through milestones faster than we can report them.”Then, renewables are surging and coal is declining. A new IEA report says that renewable generation will increase in 2020 -- pushing higher-cost fossil resources out of the market. "In all regions that implemented lockdown measures," the IEA report said, "the electricity supply underwent a notable shift towards low-carbon energy sources." We’ll look at why.Finally: presumptive presidential nominee Joe Biden just unveiled a new climate task force. From the Sunrise Movement to a former EPA chief, we’ll talk about who’s on it, and look at their roles. What will this task force accomplish in terms of agenda-setting and setting the political tone?Recommended reading:GTM: ‘Blowing Through Milestones’: Hawaiian Electric Picks Winners in Solar-Storage BonanzaGTM: Long Duration Breakthrough? Form Energy’s First Project Tries Pushing Storage to 150 HoursBloomberg: China’s Great Energy Shift Sets Mega Hybrid Plants in MotionInside Climate News: With Planned Closing of North Dakota Coal Plant, Energy Transition Comes Home to Rural AmericaE&ENews: How Lockdowns Boost Renewables and Harm CoalGTM: WoodMac: Global Solar Market Set to Resume Growth in 2021 as Coronavirus Impact FadesCarbon Brief: Will China Build Hundreds of New Coal Power Plants in the 2020s?Inside Climate News: Biden Names Ocasio-Cortez, Kerry to Lead His Climate Task Force, Bridging Democrats’ DivideThe Verge: How the Left is Trying to Fix BidenThe Energy Gang is brought to you by Sungrow, the leading global supplier of inverter solutions for renewables. During these uncertain times, Sungrow is committed to protecting its employees and continuing to reliably serve its customers around the world. Sungrow has also leveraged its extensive network across the United States to distribute face masks to communities in need.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week, we look at sky-high layoffs in clean energy. How do we get people back to work? The first major analysis of unemployment in the clean energy sector has been released for April. According to E2 and BW Research, nearly 600,000 jobs were lost in energy efficiency, manufacturing, electric vehicles and clean power and fuels. We’ve seen a 17 percent drop in the green workforce since the start of the year. Those losses amount to double the employment growth in clean energy for the last three years. It’s likely to get worse before it gets better. How much should we worry? And what sectors will come back the fastest?Then, what do 200 of the world’s top economic advisers think about the most effective low-carbon solutions for economic recovery?And finally, we’ll revisit wildfires. Why can’t California utilities, especially northern giant PG&E, get it right when it comes to fire prevention? Recommended reading:E2: Clean energy Unemployment Claims April 2020NASEO & EFI: 2020 Energy & Employment ReportThe New Republic: There are Green Jobs Hiding in the OilfieldsOxford Report with Stern and Stiglitz: Will COVID-19 fiscal recovery packages accelerate or retard progress on climate change?Axios: Clean energy and climate change unlikely to lead American recoveryPG&E: Q1 Earnings ReportCPUC: Draft Report CA Current: Wildfire Plans Riddled with DeficienciesJudge Alsup: Order Modifying Conditions of PG&E ProbationGTM: Why California Residents Could See Even More Blackouts This YearL.A.Times: California Faces Perilous Fire Season as Coronavirus Threatens FirefightersThe Energy Gang is brought to you by Sungrow, the leading global supplier of inverter solutions for renewables. During these uncertain times, Sungrow is committed to protecting its employees and continuing to reliably serve its customers around the world. Sungrow has also leveraged its extensive network across the United States to distribute face masks to communities in need.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week: while the country is distracted by infection rates, deaths and protests, what else have we been missing?We peek out from behind the quarantine curtain to see what the Trump administration has been up to on the energy front. The Trump administration has declared a national emergency over cyber threats to the power grid. Equipment vendors “where a foreign adversary has an interest” will be banned. Most transformers are built in China. Will this create uncertainty or slow grid work?The executive branch has been busy with environmental rollbacks. The Trump administration wants to loosen as much environmental regulation as possible in the six months before the election. We look at the list.Then, we answer your questions. We sourced nearly 200 questions from our recent live show. And we’re going to tackle some of them.They include: Michael Moore’s bad-faith trashing of clean energy and the environmental movement; one group’s attempt to kill solar net metering nationwide; and how the current economic mess is impacting cities and corporates.The Energy Gang is brought to you by Sungrow, the leading global supplier of inverter solutions for renewables. During these uncertain times, Sungrow is committed to protecting its employees and continuing to reliably serve its customers around the world. Sungrow has also leveraged its extensive network across the United States to distribute face masks to communities in need. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Watt It Takes: Powerhouse CEO Emily Kirsch sits down with Saul Griffith, the founder and chief scientist at Other Lab.Saul Griffith has a PhD in materials science and information theory. He’s co-founded over a dozen companies. And now he’s determined to prove that we already have what it takes to decarbonize the economy.“The reality is I think it's still possible to completely decarbonize by 2030 and save everyone money. And we just got to start thinking about it correctly,” says Saul.Other Lab is an R&D incubator and accelerator that helps pair startups in robotics and renewable energy with government labs and corporate investors. It has partnered with NASA, the Navy, the Department of Energy, Google, Facebook, GE and Ford to help build and fund projects in energy, automation, and robotics “in service of 100% decarbonization.”Saul co-founded Makani Wind, the high-altitude wind company acquired by Google, and the tracker company Sunfolding. He brings the grit of an entrepreneur, the rigor of a scientist, the dirty mouth of a sailor to his passionate work on climate change.A word of warning: there is some swearing in this interview. It might not be appropriate for some young ears.In this episode, Emily talks with Saul about the many companies he’s helped build, and how he’s taken on a new mission to convince people that we have most of what we need — right now — to decarbonize large swaths of the economy.This conversation was recorded at the Powerhouse headquarters in Oakland, California, before the pandemic. Our next episode will be recorded remotely for an online audience. You find more details here. Subscribe to GTM’s newsletter to learn more about the companies we profile on this series.This podcast is brought to you by CPower. CPower is offering a market-by-market analysis of the issues, trends, and regulations that organizations should understand in 2020 to make better decisions about energy. Get your copy today of the “2020 State of Demand-Side Energy Management in North America” here.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week, we bring you a joint episode of The Energy Gang and The Interchange, recorded in front of a live audience from our quarantine quarters around the country. When we started making our podcasts seven years ago, it was clear that the energy transition would be a difficult one. Both shows were designed as a forum to grapple with tough issues in an accessible, candid way. The clean energy industry has faced its share of crises over the years — but nothing quite like the current pandemic and economic freeze.Supply chains are in limbo, funding opportunities for startups have vanished, and once-growing companies are at a standstill. Meanwhile, political leaders are trying to get money to struggling people and businesses, setting the stage for trillions more dollars in spending on infrastructure. How will it all pan out? We’re trying to figure it out, just like you. In this episode, we take listener questions about how to use the current crisis as an opportunity. We use some thought exercises as a way to break up the gloom, and do a mental health check-in with each other. Listeners submitted over 120 questions. We’ll be considering them on future shows. If you have any other show topic ideas, tag The Energy Gang and The Interchange on Twitter. (And please give us a rating and review on Apple podcasts!)This show is brought to you by CPower. Get your copy today of the 2020 State of Demand-Side Energy Management in North America at thecpowerway.com/future.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We’re doing a free live show from our homes! Sign up here to join us on Wednesday April 22nd. You can watch a behind-the-scenes recording with The Energy Gang and The Interchange.This week: The many ways that dirty energy has controlled the politics of clean energy.Dr. Leah Stokes, an expert on interest groups and their influence over policy, joins the gang. Her new book, Short Circuiting Policy, is the focus of our episode.Who are the truly bad actor utilities? How have they held back climate policy, and where would we be without their resistance?Suddenly, utilities are embracing much more ambitious carbon-free energy targets. How optimistic should we be about their intentions?We’ll talk about the history of clean energy politics detailed in Leah’s book, which she researched over a seven-year period.Then: the election. With Bernie Sanders out, what will his climate voters do? How long will they hold out, what influence do they have, and how will they wield it? Recommended reading:Leah Stokes: Short Circuiting PolicyWashington Post: Elizabeth Warren says ‘government has been bought and paid for’ by big business. Political scientists say she’s got a point.Guardian: Trump Administration Declines to Strengthen U.S. Clean Air StandardsL.A. Times: Exposure to Air Pollution Linked to Higher Coronavirus Death RatesThe Atlantic: Trump’s New Auto Rollback is an Economic DisasterThe Atlantic: “We Knew They Had Cooked the Books”NYT: Coronavirus Does Not Slow Trump’s Regulatory RollbacksNYT: Trump’s Environmental Rollbacks Find Opposition Within: Staff ScientistsThe Hill: Democrat questions WH transparency in rollback of bedrock env lawInside Climate News: Joe Biden Must Convince Climate Voters He’s a True BelieverThe Hill: State of the Race: Green groups press Biden after Sanders exitsCommon Dreams: After Sanders Exits Race, Climate Campaigners Thank Him for 'Raising the Bar' and Urge Biden to 'Step Up'Guardian Opinion: Dear Joe Biden, Here is how you can earn our supportThis podcast is brought to you by CPower. CPower is offering a market-by-market analysis of the issues, trends, and regulations that organizations should understand in 2020 to make better decisions about energy. Get your copy today of the “2020 State of Demand-Side Energy Management in North America” here.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The world is experiencing a sudden, dramatic drop in all kinds of air pollution. The skies are dramatically different. People can hear birds they didn’t even know were there, and see landscapes that have been shrouded for decades.It’s saved thousands of lives in averted asthma and heart attacks. When this is all over, will people clamor for cleaner air? We discuss the potential long-term impacts on this week’s episode.Then: the 2020 climate summit is postponed. Could that be a good thing? What are the political benefits and diplomatic drawbacks?Finally, we’ll assess curtailments of solar and wind energy as electricity consumption drops around the world.Recommended reading:Clean Air Memes from India: You Can See Los Angeles from Mumbai NowReuters: Biggest fall in carbon emissions since World War TwoWSJ: Coronavirus Lockdowns Clear the Air But the Effect Could be FleetingTwitter: Katharine Hayhoe’s Most Recent Cool ExplainerBulletin of the Atomic Scientists: Will the coronavirus have a lasting impact on carbon emissions?Forbes: Why Offering “Home-Office” Balance Leads to the Most Productive EmployeesBloomberg: What It Means to Have a Year Without Climate DiplomacyE&ENews: Pandemic Delays Global Climate SummitClimate Action Tracker: How the Pledges of Each Nation Stack UpGTM: California Curtailment Surge as Coronavirus Cuts DemandITWeb: Eskom’s COVID-19 power curtailment bid stuns wind sectorGTM: 2017 Primer–Too Much of a Good Thing? An Illustrated Guide to Solar Curtailment on California’s GridThis podcast is brought to you by CPower. CPower is helping organizations chart a path to energy’s future. Visit thecpowerway.com/future to learn how CPower can guide your decisions on distributed generation, demand response and your energy spend.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.