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 ...
Feb 24, 2021•1 hr 3 min
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...
Feb 12, 2021•57 min
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 ta...
Feb 05, 2021•1 hr 2 min
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. ...
Jan 29, 2021•1 hr 3 min
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 hu...
Jan 22, 2021•1 hr
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 c...
Jan 14, 2021•1 hr
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. Bu...
Jan 08, 2021•1 hr 2 min
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 just...
Dec 20, 2020•1 hr 16 min
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: Apple Google Podcasts Spotify Stitcher ...
Dec 15, 2020•42 min
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 ...
Dec 11, 2020•1 hr 6 min
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...
Dec 03, 2020•54 min
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 Zo...
Dec 02, 2020•48 min
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, academ...
Nov 20, 2020•1 hr 6 min
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....
Nov 13, 2020•1 hr 4 min
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 Utiliti...
Nov 10, 2020•29 min
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 result...
Nov 05, 2020•48 min
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. ...
Oct 30, 2020•56 min
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 sch...
Oct 23, 2020•53 min
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 fl...
Oct 16, 2020•47 min
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’...
Oct 14, 2020•11 min
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 ...
Oct 09, 2020•59 min
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 o...
Oct 03, 2020•51 min
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...
Sep 25, 2020•1 hr
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 tell...
Sep 22, 2020•57 min
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 ...
Sep 11, 2020•50 min
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 ...
Sep 04, 2020•1 hr 6 min
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 Pennsylv...
Aug 26, 2020•1 hr 3 min
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 Stat...
Aug 21, 2020•1 hr 3 min
“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...
Aug 14, 2020•1 hr 1 min
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? The...
Aug 07, 2020•1 hr 6 min
