Energy Frenemies

What makes clean energy “clean” and why is everyone always fighting about it?  Aliya, Vijay, and Rich called in their first guest, Sara Chieffo, to dig into it together. She is Senior Vice President at the League of Conservation Voters and spends most of her time telling Congress what to think. Sara breaks down all the things she considers when deciding whether energy is clean. The Frenemies debate permitting reform, nuclear, innovation and whether there should be a place for fossil fuels in the future clean economy.

The UN settled on net-zero emissions by 2050 as a global climate goal, and now everyone—from scientists to policymakers to corporate leaders—uses it. But after saying "net-zero by 2050" an infinite number of times, Aliya wants to know if it's still the right target. Rich thinks the word "net" does the heavy lifting, and Vijay thinks the whole concept is an aspiration (just like improving his golf game). The Frenemies dig into emissions targets, energy burden, and the green premium, and ask how best to measure progress toward clean, cheap, and reliable energy.

Aliya is a veteran of the environmental movement, Vijay is a retired ExxonMobil executive, and Rich is a conservative clean energy leader. What could they possibly agree on? Turns out, a lot more than you'd think. In this episode, the three find out they agree on three guiding principles for energy policy. 

What happens when a veteran environmentalist, a former ExxonMobil executive, and a conservative clean energy leader host an energy podcast together?

Meet Energy Frenemies — a new podcast from CleanEcon, bringing together Aliya Haq, Dr. Vijay Swarup, and Rich Powell: three people with very different backgrounds and plenty of opinions about America's energy future.

They disagree. They make fun of each other. And often, they find more common ground than you’d expect.