The Energy Gang

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 le

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 a

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 

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

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 Du

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

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 i

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 dem

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 Int

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 t

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

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 Blacko

“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

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

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 st

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

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 tur

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

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. Te

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-hos