Building Political Power for Clean Energy

Today’s guest is Jigar Shah, a clean energy entrepreneur who served as director of the Loan Program Office in the US Department of Energy during the Biden administration. Previously, he was co-founder of Generate Capital, founder of Sun Edison, and founding CEO of the Carbon War Room. Now, he’s advising clean energy companies. He’s also a devout optimist. (I know, go figure.)

I interviewed Jigar for my book What if We Get It Right? back in April of 2023. Given how much has changed in the last 2+ years — especially since the start of the Trump administration 🫠 — I wanted check in with Jigar on where things stand on the clean energy transition. (AKA, WTF?!). From critical minerals to energy justice, to geothermal and nuclear, to battery recycling and salt caverns, we got into it all, folks.

TL;DR “We need to stop chasing shiny objects and start just executing on stuff that hasn’t yet been fully deployed.” — Jigar Shah

An abridged version of this interview will be added into the paperback edition of What If We Get It Right?, which will be coming your way in time for Earth Day. 📚✨

And while you’re listening, it’s super duper helpful if you follow, rate, review, and tell your crew. ✅ Thanks!

JIGAR'S CALL TO ACTION 🗣️

“People need to get engaged civically, in their sphere of influence. I don’t care whether it’s your school board, your knitting club, your church, your city council, your county, or if you have ambitions for your state, get involved and tell people: This is what is awesome. This is where my kids are gonna find a job. This is what is going to unlock all of this clean air and clean water.

I think people just assume this technology is gonna sell itself and it’s gonna be fine. We actually need permission from the local permitting board. We need permission from the local city council.

Think about how many school districts are saying, “Ugh, we know that all the diesel fumes are hurting the kids in the school buses, but it’s just too hard to go to electric, so we’re just gonna let another generation of kids suffer from fumes from diesel and school buses.” What? That’s your official policy? No! Get to the school board meeting.

Get involved because it matters. We are in this extraordinary revolution that’s gonna be beneficial for everyone. And I think people are just like, “Yeah, it’s gonna be fun to watch from the sidelines.” No! Get in the game.”

NOTES:

If you want more from Jigar, that’s smart of you. Check out his podcast Open Circuit, and follow him on LinkedIn.

This podcast is ad-free thanks to the support of Future Being, a grant making and special project studio, which supports the healing of our planet and the safeguarding of biological and cultural diversity.

This episode was produced and edited by Gabby Bulgarelli, and me, Ayana, with help from associate producer Jenisha Shrestha.

And if you’re new here, peruse the back catalog. A few dozen hours of sweet podcast conversations with incredible guests await you. ✨