Just Power

This episode is different. No guests. No data. Just Carolyn Parrs revealing what she has been sitting with since finishing eleven conversations about energy affordability this season — and what she believes every leader in this space needs to hear right now.

This is not a political statement. It is a leadership reckoning. Because the truth this season made impossible to ignore is this: the most credible responses to the energy affordability crisis are not coming from Washington. They never were. They are coming from a lender in Florida who built what the banks refused to build. A utility VP who made love a business strategy. A regulator who got creative with a financial tool and protected ratepayers in a way no one had tried before. A community advocate who put real people front and center as witnesses, not statistics.

Different sectors. Different seats. Different cities. Same instinct: I'm not waiting.

If you lead in this space — or want to — this episode is calling you forward.

Be on the waiting list for early access to our "Leading Through Energy Affordability" training.

About our host, Carolyn Parrs: Carolyn has spent 25 years at the intersection of clean energy, strategic communications, and human change. She is the creator and host of Just Power, and a certified Co-Active coach working with leaders navigating meaningful transitions. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolynparrs/

Just Power Podcast: Just Power is about the human side of the energy transition — the leaders, the tradeoffs, and the real-world impacts that don't make it into the headlines. Featuring voices from utilities, policy, technology, and frontline communities.

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The pendulum always swings towards justice. That's what Dr. Tony Reames told host, Carolyn Parrs in the last season of the Just Power podcast. It's the thread that has quietly connected every conversation in the Leading Through Energy Affordability series since.

Dr. Tony Reames built the first-ever Office of Energy Justice Policy and Analysis at the U.S. Department of Energy and now directs the Detroit Sustainability Clinic, where he works alongside communities navigating the very pressures this series has been mapping all season. In this replay from Season 4, he speaks candidly about what a credible response to energy affordability actually requires — from utility CEOs, from state regulators, from the rest of us — and why the answers have always been closest to the people carrying the burden.

Highlights

The federal retreat has happened before, and the playbook for what comes next is already being written at the state and local level.

Your utility commissioner may be the most powerful person you've never thought to pay attention to.

Data centers are the new boom towns, and communities are getting the burden without the benefits.

Detroit is already writing the blueprint for what utilities and communities can build together.

The answers are closest to the people carrying the heaviest energy burden — if we stop and listen.

About our guest, Dr. Tony Reames: Tony is an internationally recognized scholar in the fields of energy and environmental justice, as well as a senior government policy advisor. He is the Tishman Professor of Environmental Justice position and an associate professor at the University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tonygreames/

About our host, Carolyn Parrs: Carolyn has spent 25 years at the intersection of clean energy, strategic communications, and human change. She is the creator and host of Just Power, and a certified Co-Active coach working with leaders navigating meaningful transitions. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolynparrs/

Just Power Podcast: Just Power is about the human side of the energy transition — the leaders, the tradeoffs, and the real-world impacts that don't make it into the headlines. Featuring voices from utilities, policy, technology, and frontline communities.

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Most people will never set foot in an energy regulatory proceeding. And for the ones who do show up — without a lawyer, without technical expertise, without money to intervene — showing up is often where their influence ends. Jolette Westbrook spent eight years as a utility commissioner in Massachusetts watching that dynamic play out, and she's spent the years since working to dismantle it. As a Director and Senior Attorney at the Environmental Defense Fund, she's one of the people most focused on turning community participation from a checkbox into something that actually changes outcomes.

Highlights

• An open door is not the same as a seat at the table — and the difference lives in a part of the process most people never hear about.
• The communities most affected are also the least resourced to fight back — so what does it actually take to change that?
• Massachusetts tried something — and two years later, there are real answers about what stuck and what didn't.
• The incentive structure for utilities can be rewired — and some states are already doing it.
• The word "equity" is under pressure — but the problem it describes isn't going anywhere.
• Being heard isn't the same as being listened to — Jolette draws a distinction that reframes what accountability actually means.

About our guest, Jolette Westbrook: Jolette is Director & Senior Attorney, Regulatory Solutions at Environmental Defense Fund, where she works with regulators, utilities, consumer advocates and communities to advance affordable, equitable and consumer-centered energy policies. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/environmental-defense/

• Community Voices in Energy: Website with tools and training to help communities shape affordable, equitable energy decisions
• EDF/Environmental Law Institute CLE Webinar #1: Energy affordability and the power of community voices
• EDF/Environmental Law Institute CLE Webinar #2: Building an energy future that leaves no one behind
• EDF Statement from Jolette: Massachusetts takes major step to reduce energy burdens for low-income residents
• EDF Co-Authored Report: Recommendations to make Massachusetts energy decision-making more equitable and community-driven
• EDF Intervenor Compensation Blog Post: Supporting public participation in utility decisions

About our host, Carolyn Parrs: Carolyn has spent 25 years at the intersection of clean energy, strategic communications, and human change. She is the creator and host of Just Power, and a certified Co-Active coach working with leaders navigating meaningful transitions. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolynparrs/

Just Power Podcast: Just Power is about the human side of the energy transition — the leaders, the tradeoffs, and the real-world impacts that don't make it into the headlines. Featuring voices from utilities, policy, technology, and frontline communities.

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When you design a financial system around people instead of profit, it works. That's not a theory. For Duanne Andrade, CEO of the Solar and Energy Loan Fund (SELF), it's 13 years of receipts: $60 million deployed, less than 2% default rate, and 70% of borrowers are low-to-moderate income families that traditional lenders turned away.

As part of our LeadingThrough Energy Affordability series, in this episode Duanne breaks down what a credible response to energy affordability actually looks like when capital flows to the people who need it most — not just the ones who look best on paper. From a widowed woman in 120-degree heat to a veteran single mom with a caving roof, SELF's model meets families where they are.

Highlights

• Why credit scores are the wrong metric — and what SELF uses instead to assess ability to repay
• The "four-lane highway" lending model from — from conventional borrowers to zero-credit Kiva crowdfunding
• How SELF manages the entire project — vetting contractors, checking for price gouging, and releasing payment only after homeowner approval
• Why geography and local policy shape what affordability solutions can actually work — and why standardization has limits
• The white-label "plug and play" platform for green banks and CDFIs
• What energy affordability could look like in 10 years — and the role AI plays in making this mainstream

About our guest, Duanne Andrade: Duane is the CEO of Solar and Energy Loan Fund (SELF): http://www.solarenergyloanfund.org/. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/duanneandrade/

About our host, Carolyn Parrs: Carolyn is a Strategic Communications Leader and the CEO of Mind Over Markets. mindovermarkets.com; LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolynparrs/

Just Power Podcast is about the human side of the clean energy transition. The podcast focuses on grid modernization, energy affordability, and community engagement — featuring leaders from utilities, policy, technology, and frontline communities navigating the real-world impacts of energy infrastructure change.

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The affordability crisis isn't a fuel cost problem or an infrastructure problem — it's a power problem. Who's in the room when rates get set, who has decades of precedent on their side, and who's actually fighting for the customers that neither the utility nor the industrial intervenors are motivated to protect. John Wilson is one of those people. As Vice President at Grid Strategies, he has worked inside more than 70 utility proceedings across the US and Canada — representing consumer advocates, environmental organizations, and public interest groups. 

In this episode, he's direct about what he sees: where cost accountability is actually working, where the hyperscaler contracts are setting up tomorrow's stranded asset problem, and why the most credible response to affordability isn't a policy announcement — it's sustained, expert pressure inside a system that often defaults when no one's watching.

Highlights

• Small businesses get the worst deal — and they have almost no power to change it. When settlements get struck between industrial and residential representatives, small businesses are consistently left on the floor.
• Settlement negotiations reward incumbency. Parties with long track records and deep resources shape outcomes. Newer intervenors fight for scraps.
• "We'll pay full cost" has a gap in it. Eight-to-fifteen year hyperscaler contracts on infrastructure built to last 40 years creates a cost recovery mismatch that ratepayers will eventually absorb.
• Cost accountability is working — in some places. Nova Scotia's annual capital cost review is producing measurable results. It's not fast, but it's real.
• The North Dakota "miracle" is a warning, not a model. Today's falling rates are an echo of stranded costs from a previous industrial boom. The data center wave could replay that story.
• Enhanced geothermal may be the grid's closest thing to a silver bullet. Scalable, dispatchable, low-footprint — and the oil and gas industry already has most of the skills to build it.

About our guest, John Wilson: John is a Vice President at Grid Strategies. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wilsonjd/

About our host, Carolyn Parrs: Carolyn is a Senior Strategic Communications Leader and the CEO of Mind Over Markets. mindovermarkets.com; LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolynparrs/

Just Power Podcast is about the human side of the clean energy transition. The podcast focuses on grid modernization, energy affordability, and community engagement — featuring leaders from utilities, policy, technology, and frontline communities navigating the real-world impacts of energy infrastructure change.

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The energy affordability crisis is well understood. What's less clear is what's actually holding up as credible solutions from inside the system. Meena Beyers knows. As Vice President of Business and Community Development at NICOR Gas — serving 2.3 million customers across Northern Illinois — she's doing that work right now.

In this conversation with host Carolyn Parrs, Meena takes us inside several of NICOR's on-the-ground initiatives — from a Smart Neighborhood built with Habitat for Humanity to a Community Connection Center linking customers to over 350 social service providers — and shares what it actually takes to scale what's working. She also makes the case for customer choice over mandate in a region where 95% of buildings heat with natural gas, and what she'd tell policymakers still asking the wrong questions.

Highlights

• The Community Comfort Pilot in action: How NICOR flipped the traditional weatherization model — bringing contractors and bulk purchasing directly into a targeted neighborhood — and delivered a 20% reduction in winter energy bills for participating households.
• Why Illinois is different: With 95% of buildings heating with natural gas and one of the most robust storage systems in the country, Meena explains why energy diversity is Illinois's superpower — and why a planned transition looks very different here than anywhere else.
• From pilot to scale: What Meena is learning about why good pilots stall, what regulated utilities need from their regulators to move faster, and why building "change agility" is now a core utility competency.
• Customer choice, not mandate: Why policies that restrict gas access — through building codes or municipal ordinances — are landing differently in communities than policymakers intended, and what that market response is telling us.
• What policymakers need to ask: The questions that too rarely get asked — about real costs, real benefits, and who's actually at the table — and why Meena says it's okay to change course when the world has changed.

Referenced in this podcast

Nicor Gas Smart Neighborhood: Nicor Gas Smart Neighborhood – Making sustainable living affordable

Video: Community Connection Center: https://youtu.be/4wVTqcPnpnw?si=WnXippVhz6nub6o4

About our guest, Meena Beyers: Meena Beyers is the Vice President of Business and Community Development at NICOR Gas. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meenabeyers/

About our host, Carolyn Parrs: Carolyn is a Senior Strategic Communications Leader and the CEO of Mind Over Markets. mindovermarkets.com; LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolynparrs/

Just Power Podcast is about the human side of the clean energy transition. The podcast focuses on grid modernization, energy affordability, and community engagement — featuring leaders from utilities, policy, technology, and frontline communities navigating the real-world impacts of energy infrastructure change.

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What if the most radical thing a utility could do right now isn't build more infrastructure — it's decide that how it cares for customers is just as important as how it powers their homes?

Utibe Bassey grew up in Lagos, Nigeria without reliable power. Today she is Vice President of Customer Experience at Dominion Energy, Virginia's largest utility. She brings to that role a personal philosophy she calls Love as a KPI — the idea that love, defined not as sentiment but as a genuine commitment to the greatest good of another person, can be taught, measured, and operationalized. In this conversation, Utibe speaks both as a utility leader navigating one of the most challenging affordability moments in recent memory, and as a thinker who believes the human dimension of this work is not separate from the business case — it is the business case.

In this episode:

• Why there's no single message that works for every customer — and how to think about what actually resonates with the person in front of you
• How Dominion embeds empathy across its entire organization, from call center training to website copy to leadership modeling
• What it actually took to put contact center agents live on the news — and why the team was already ready
• How grace, one of the five indicators of Love as a KPI, shows up within the real constraints of rate structures and collection policies
• Why every Dominion employee is a de facto community ambassador, and how the company equips them for it
• What love-led leadership looks like in the age of AI — and why the human dimension will matter more, not less
• The one shift Utibe would ask of every utility leader navigating this affordability moment

Referenced in this podcast: VIDEO: How do we express Love through business? 

About our guest, Utibe Bassey: Utibe is Vice President of Customer Experience at Dominion Energy, Virginia's largest utility. dominionenergy.com; LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/utbassey/

About our host, Carolyn Parrs: Carolyn is a Senior Strategic Communications Leader and the CEO of Mind Over Markets. mindovermarkets.com; LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolynparrs/

Just Power Podcast is about the human side of the clean energy transition. The podcast focuses on grid modernization, energy affordability, and community engagement — featuring leaders from utilities, policy, technology, and frontline communities navigating the real-world impacts of energy infrastructure change.

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The utility industry says affordability is a priority. So why do half of struggling customers expect to lose power in the next 12 months — and 80% don't even know help exists?

That number — nearly 50% — comes straight from a national E Source survey conducted in February 2025, and it stops you cold. In this episode of our "Leading Through Energy Affordability" series, Ben Nathan, Director of Affordability and Equity at E Source, returns to Just Power to lay out the full scope of the affordability crisis hitting utilities and their customers right now. 

From the $5.5 billion in outstanding customer debt accumulating on utility balance sheets, to the 80% of eligible customers who have no idea help even exists, Ben brings the data — and the honest assessment of what a credible industry response actually looks like.

Highlights

• The numbers are getting worse, fast. 62% of surveyed customers report higher bills year over year, a third are cutting food to pay their utility bills, and the window for a customer to recover from missed payments has dropped from three months to just one or two.
• Awareness is the biggest barrier — and it's fixable. 80% of eligible customers don't know utility assistance programs exist. Ben breaks down why community-based messengers, mobile outreach, and faith-based partnerships are proving more effective than bill inserts alone.
• What a real affordability strategy looks like. Most utilities still don't have one. Ben describes what a holistic, portfolio-based approach — with actual KPIs and stacked program offerings — looks like, and why new organizational structures (think: Chief Affordability Officer) may be necessary to make it stick.
• Data centers and the communities hosting them. Utilities are beginning to negotiate community affordability agreements — direct contributions to energy assistance funds, efficiency program funding, and workforce development commitments.
• Customer debt is now a business crisis, not just a social one. With $5.5B+ in arrearages hitting utility balance sheets, Ben explains why drawing down that debt through proactive outreach and program enrollment is becoming a financial imperative.
• Demand-side investment as essential infrastructure. Weatherization and efficiency programs aren't charity — they reduce grid load, lower utility capital costs, and deliver real quality-of-life gains for customers. Ben makes the case for why these programs belong in every credible affordability strategy.

About our guest, Ben Nathan: Ben is the Director of Affordability and Equity at E Source. https://www.esource.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-nathan-676a83b5/

About our host, Carolyn Parrs: Carolyn is a Senior Strategic Communications Leader and the CEO of Mind Over Markets. mindovermarkets.com; LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolynparrs/

Just Power Podcast is about the human side of the clean energy transition. The podcast focuses on grid modernization, energy affordability, and community engagement — featuring leaders from utilities, policy, technology, and frontline communities navigating the real-world impacts of energy infrastructure change.

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What happens in a room most people never think about — no cameras, no headlines, no viral moments — shapes every electricity bill in your state. 

In this episode of Just Power, Carolyn Parrs sits down with Eric Blank, Chair of the Colorado Public Utilities Commission, for a candid conversation about what it actually takes to manage the most expensive grid transformation in American history without leaving people behind. Eric brings a rare combination of regulatory authority and real-world developer experience to one of the most complex moments in energy history — where billion-dollar decisions, climate uncertainty, and kitchen-table affordability all collide.

Highlights

• Why Colorado could see electricity demand grow 10 to 25 times faster than the last 15 years — and what that means for your bill.
• How the Commission is thinking about new large loads like data centers in Colorado.
• The creative financing tools Colorado is pioneering so ratepayers don't absorb the full weight of grid transformation.
• What 400,000 income-qualified customers tells us about the scale of the affordability crisis already underway.
• Why public testimony — from security guards to kids — still shapes how Eric makes billion-dollar decisions.
• What Eric would tell the next person who sits in his chair.

About our guest: Eric Blank is the Chair of the Colorado Public Utilities Commission, appointed by Governor Polis in January 2021 and reappointed in January 2025. Before joining the PUC, he spent nearly 20 years co-founding and running a pioneering national renewable energy company. Colorado PUC: https://dora.colorado.gov/; LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eric-blank-35549144/

About our host, Carolyn Parrs: Carolyn is a Senior Strategic Communications Leader and the CEO of Mind Over Markets. mindovermarkets.com; LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolynparrs/

Just Power Podcast is about the human side of the clean energy transition. The podcast focuses on grid modernization, energy affordability, and community engagement — featuring leaders from utilities, policy, technology, and frontline communities navigating the real-world impacts of energy infrastructure change.

🔔 Never Miss an Episode of This Series! Subscribe Now.
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@TheJustPowerPodcast?sub_confirmation=1

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We have programs. We have data. We have red-ink notebooks full of public comments. So what do credible, leadership responses to energy affordability actually look like — and who is truly stepping up to deliver them? Dr. Diana Hernández has some answers — and some of them aren't comfortable. In Episode 3 of Just Power's Leading Through Energy Affordability series, Carolyn Parrs welcomes Diana back, the associate professor at Columbia University and author of Powerless: The People's Struggle for Energy. 

Building on the national data from Episode 1 and the community voices from Episode 2, Diana bridges research and reality — unpacking what genuine leadership actually requires, what's broken in our current systems, and where real hope lives right now.

Highlights

• What energy insecurity actually feels like — drain, the energy equivalent of hunger — compounding financial, physical, and psychological toll.
• Why LIHEAP is failing the moment — crisis-only, heating-focused, and mismatched with today's year-round affordability challenges.
• The enrollment gap no one talks about — millions are eligible for assistance but never access it, and closing that gap may be the highest-leverage move available right now.
• What separates leaders who act from those who just listen — red-ink notebooks aren't enough. Diana draws a sharp line between performative engagement and real follow-through.
• The role of utilities, regulators, and community trust — why state-level enabling environments are essential for building genuine, durable community partnerships.
• Diana's Four C's of leadership — Conviction, Courage, Creativity, and Commitment.

Referenced in this podcast: 7 Traits of an Effective Energy Coach: https://mindovermarkets.com/energycoach/

About our guest: Dr. Diana Hernández is an associate professor at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health and author of Powerless: The People's Struggle for Energy — a groundbreaking exploration of energy insecurity and the human cost of our energy system. drdianahernandez.com; LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/diana-hern%C3%A1ndez-10668237/

About our host, Carolyn Parrs: Carolyn is a Senior Strategic Communications Leader and the CEO of Mind Over Markets. mindovermarkets.com; LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolynparrs/

Just Power Podcast is about the human side of the clean energy transition. The podcast focuses on grid modernization, energy affordability, and community engagement — featuring leaders from utilities, policy, technology, and frontline communities navigating the real-world impacts of energy infrastructure change.

🔔 Never Miss an Episode of This Series! Subscribe Now.
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@TheJustPowerPodcast?sub_confirmation=1

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