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Electric Ladies Podcast

Joan Michelson

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Engaging and enlightening interviews with women leaders on energy, climate, sustainability and corporate responsibility -- ESG, environment,social and governance issues. Business, policy and technology, money, the arts and careers. Topics include driving innovation, leadership, communications and career advice. Inspiration, trends and insights. Hosted and produced by Joan Michelson, acclaimed journalist, business leader, coach and speaker, based in Washington, DC.
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“We’re giving [companies] the avenue to take something that historically has been an inconvenience and turn that into an opportunity to make them some money, whether that be selling energy to the grid, or putting energy back into the operations of their facilities. So, what could have cost them money in the past can now be a huge benefit. At the sa…
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“I think there needs to be more women stepping up and realizing that they proudly should play the game…I hear a lot of women second guessing themselves before they step out on their own. And that is what we have to recognize. We have so much to offer, and half this battle is just us opening our mouths and letting it out.” Majora Carter on Electric …
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“We're ceding ground to China, which has become everyone's favorite punching bag. Whether Democrat or Republican, both sides are beating up on China. Meanwhile, China is saying, ‘Okay, we'll make all your solar panels, electric and autonomous vehicles,’ because they see the financial opportunities. It's past time for the U.S. and our politicians to…
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“When we think about sustainable living, it's not just about electricity. Energy encompasses more than electricity. As we advocate for sustainability and net zero, let's not forget the heating and cooling of our homes, businesses, and industries - geothermal is a direct resource for that.” Dr. Marit Brommer on Electric Ladies Podcast Drilling for g…
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“Thinking about an opportunity to rebuild... So now what are we going to do? And, how do you rebuild in a way that actually does involve equity and equality and sustainability in ways that impact people of all different kinds. And that's, I think, the opportunity that we should be looking toward." Majora Carter on Electric Ladies Podcast After deva…
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“Deploy, deploy, deploy. More than half a trillion dollars has been invested in the United States since the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act and the bi-partisan Infrastructure Bill. These laws have made investing in America irresistible. They have made the energy transition inevitable - and inexorable.” Speech by Jennifer Granholm Federal-lev…
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“Renewable energy is women-friendly. It has the potential to be customised for every use case, but I don’t think enough has been done. Women have always been both producers and consumers of energy, from gathering firewood to cooking. What’s needed is for women to understand that this is an area where they can make a difference and adopt this energy…
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“This is not just an executive order. There is a point behind net zero goals, and this is to address climate change and global warming. A million and a half EVs were sold last year. Infrastructure is still being built. I’d say the train has left the station." Joan Michelson on Full Crew Podcast The U.S. government has provided $7 billion in funding…
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“Many countries are looking to lead on AI and embed it in as many aspects of our lives as possible. But right now we do not have an electricity grid that is built for this purpose. We also need to think about the fuel needed to power up this grid.” Dr. Stephanie Hare on Electric Ladies Podcast We’re putting artificial intelligence (AI) to work for …
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“Resilience is a team sport. You cannot build resilience in insolation. I cannot emphasize how important multi sector action and teamwork is. So let’s understand that and work together.” Lauren Sorkin on Electric Ladies Podcast To kick off the first interview of 2025, we’re diving into a topic that affects us all: Can the cities we live in truly pr…
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“If you want to get something done in this world that transcends what’s already happening, you have to be willing to listen to the people that are trying to hold dearly to how it has been. Become a master bridge builder. Be committed to asking questions such that you understand where the commonality is. Find the common points.” Jennifer Hough on El…
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“Today we are talking about accelerating the clean energy transition, including government policy, lowering costs, and decarbonization...The new 2024 Energy Fact book (by BCSE & BNEF)… found that the energy transition is in full swing with ‘record breaking’ public and private sector investments in clean power and renewable energies showing cost com…
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“Women make up 80% or more of the garment industry workers. Women garment workers make meager wages and work excessive working hours, 14 to 16 hours a day…Fashion is ranked as the second most polluting business in the world by the UN, 7% of the landfill is garments. The garment industry emits 8 to 10% of global CO2 and 500,000 tons of micro plastic…
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“1% for the planet is really set up as a way to sort of break it down, and create a pathway to action that kind of gets us through the overwhelm. So, the way it works is that we have businesses who are our members, and they're actually supporting environmental partners at the level of 1% of revenues….You invest in the things that matter and the pla…
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“Carbon Recycling International was founded around the idea of taking something which was waste, like CO2 and turning it into some valuable product…(Today they are) converting CO2 into sustainable methanol…(W)e have technology, which takes CO2 as a waste, and it takes hydrogen and turns it into methanol…and it is used today both like into chemicals…
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“It's really that investment to transition from a legacy industry into a future industry…that is aiming to drive more sustainability and manufacturing processes and products overall…One of the things that we fundamentally see as being important in this economic shift, and we say it in this Practical Guide to the Green Economy, is that this transiti…
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“You need to be looking 360 in terms of industry, what's developing, what's coming down the pike from a technology standpoint, from a risk standpoint. You should be educating yourself constantly and stretching yourself to go into a new area. Don't just be content to sit and do the same thing….Push yourself to do something a little different, stretc…
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How Climate Policies Boost Economic Opportunities – Gina McCarthy, Fmr. White House National Climate Advisor & Head of the Climate Policy Office (Biden Admin.), Fmr. EPA Administrator (Obama Admin.) “(People) just have to work with their own local communities….We are talking about $400 billion of investment in the Inflation Reduction Act already ca…
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“If you're sitting on a board, you're a member of the executive leadership team…You need to make sure you're stepping back and understanding geopolitical risk, social, cultural risk, legal, regulatory, risk, activism. What are the activists looking at?... Who are the key stakeholders that you need to be aware of so that you can make sure that you a…
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“I coined the phrase ‘threat multiplier,’ which has come to really stand for the connection between climate change and national security….Threat multiplier conveys that climate acts on every other threat we face, whether it's strategic competition with Russia and China, or terrorism, weapons of mass destruction, biological threats, and other threat…
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“If you want to get something done in this world that transcends what's already happening, if you want to be a pioneer or a leader and make something new out of what has been…then you have to be willing to listen to the people that are trying to hold dearly to how it has been and who are afraid of how it has been going away. And one has to become a…
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“Our job is to recycle so that we can recover all of that scrap and goods that you and I are recycling in our garbage bins every week or recycling as we get new cars. And our job is to recover that because we make steel in a very clean and efficient process through what's called an electric arc furnace. So, we take all of that scrap, we melt it dow…
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“Energy efficiency…is doing more, using less. The megawatt not used is the cheapest megawatt and there's so many things, either by using technology, old technology like insulation or digitalization, that allows us to really stretch what we can get out every single megawatt ,a kilowatt electron that we use. And so that's what we're talking about. If…
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“One of the big differences between Canada and the United States on climate policy spending broadly is that unlike the United States, Canada has a national carbon pricing system. So, we have a carbon pricing system that sets a national minimum standard. There's a retail price for retail fuels, including gasoline for cars. And there's also an indust…
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“Much of our infrastructure isn't built to withstand certain kinds of flooding or certain levels of heat. And yet, as the climate changes, so many of the things… that we did know in a world with a stable climate, those are now being upended. And all of that affects costs fundamentally… So, we need to transition to net zero…The three pieces of (fede…
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“I think some of the biggest themes throughout (Project 2025) are a sort of reorganization or dismantling of some of our environment agencies. They literally use the word ‘dismantled’ for what they would like to do to NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The others are a little bit more subtle, but they talk about shifting sen…
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“I think we are really at an inflection point for a couple different reasons, the first being climate change and the fact that buildings are the cause of so much carbon emissions…(T)he second one, as you sort of referred to is the pandemic, and our intersection with how we use our residential and commercial buildings is different…(and) we also have…
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“Sustainable fashion has … given us more permission to wear our values, to choose what reflects our personalities and our values…We have a lot more choices. We have a lot more agency, we have a lot more resources and authority and influence…We can choose to make our impressions the way that we want to…Think about it, because you're sending a messag…
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“We look at how long sharing storage can really fill in the gaps when you don't have wind and solar 24 /7. ….(There are) four families of long sharing storage.….different ways you can store for multiple hours, days, and seasons. This diversity is really important, because whether you're an island nation, and you maybe have floating solar or offshor…
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“We work with this entire portfolio of buildings of the federal government, as you mentioned, about 350,000 buildings, also including 600,000 cars and trucks in the fleet, all of them looking towards decarbonization…We do it through policy and planning. So, we analyze the management mandates, the energy management mandates that come out, and we hel…
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“Women often have far more skills than their resumes translate into. And actually we're going into a good period now where I think employers and organizations are looking for the skillset that you have more than the job titles that you have. And that's good for women because we have a lot of skills that we will have acquired in different arenas. Br…
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“There are those individual actions that we can take. But if I can work with my community or work inside of my company, or if I can work inside of my house of worship and we can build some community and some action that way, it will have a much bigger impact than anything that I can do as an individual… The communities that they're already a part o…
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“We like to break (the tax credits) down by industries and audiences...On the industry side, we have energy efficiency, energy generation, manufacturing, vehicles, fuels, and carbon capture. Now, overlaying all of those are a handful of cross crosscutting bonuses and requirements that can greatly affect, in many cases, increase the amount of the un…
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“The economic information on clean energy is amazing…We're decades deep in it now, where you're seeing the cost competitiveness of renewable technologies on an unsubsidized basis…We can do this. We can grow the economy and we can use more clean energy.” Lisa Jacobson on Electric Ladies Podcast The facts in the new Sustainable Energy 2024 Factbook, …
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"I went for wave energy just because I saw a field that has huge demand, that has huge potential for positive impact on the world, and that nobody's succeeding in. So, that kind of was for me, I don't know, maybe a feeling of destiny here. I got a second chance in life and maybe I can make something for the first time in the world, so maybe my seco…
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Financial Support For Exporting, Trade – Judith Pryor, Export Import Bank of U.S. “We help anyone in the United States who wants to sell their good or service overseas through short, medium, and long-term financing tools for international buyers. It's usually medium term and long term. We provide foreign buyers with the ability to purchase U.S. goo…
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“Regulation can really be a catalyst for transformation, for business transformation, because this is so much more than a disclosure and compliance exercise. “When you think about the mechanisms, the infrastructure, the data that will emerge from instituting more discipline and rigor around these disclosure objectives, (it) is absolutely critical t…
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“We have on our website what's called the DOT Navigator. Sounds wonky, but go take a look. It is a wealth of information about all our grant programs, and you can answer a series of questions and it can help point you in the right direction. We also have a team of folks here who are dedicated to technical assistance and capacity building. So, if yo…
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“Women are very worried about these (extreme weather) events, and they're the ones that really worry about the impact on communities.…They want to leave a better country for their children...They will say that climate change is something that really is on my agenda more because my children talk to me about it and they listen to their children and g…
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“During the pandemic, a lot of companies underwent digital transformations…At the same time that that was happening, sustainability was really catching wind, particularly in places like Europe.… (I)f you are a non-manufacturing company, your largest source of operational emissions is probably your IT. So…CIOs now have these mandates trickling down …
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“The link for us with (the WHO) is about universal health coverage and the sustainable development goal number three, which obviously the WHO places in the middle of the wheel of all the sustainable development goals. But on top and behind and with each other is climate action. We cannot have one without the other. And our role is to remind a lot o…
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“Corporate America has a very important role to play in this transition. They have the resources, they have the talent, and they are being nudged by their customers, their employees, even their suppliers, their investors, and obviously regulators to do this work. They know it's the right thing to do…Just as a quick thing to think about is it used t…
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“The march that we have seen in businesses taking on climate commitments has been one of those forcing functions to bring the data related to buildings front and center (because buildings account for 40% of greenhouse gas emissions) ….There is a whole heck of a lot of inefficiency to cut out of those buildings. And so, as we think of the enormity o…
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“We start to look at the advantages of the technology, and we start to really focus in on where can we go forward? What are the things we're doing and how do we get there collectively so that it is the industry, and the infrastructure side actually coming together and making those choices and implementing these safety features or implementing these…
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Mobilize, Measure, Manage ESG – Evelyn Saelens, ESG Advisory at UL Solutions “These climate events, they're impacting our everyday lives. They're making the world unsafe…Sometimes it might feel that it's hard to get to solid, tangible information. It's hard to know that what you're doing is meaningful, that it really has an impact. So the, what mad…
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What Is 'Brave Thinking'? - Mary Morrissey, Renowned Speaker & Advisor, Author of "Brave Thinking: The Art and Science Of Creating A Life You Love" ”Brave thinkers on the other hand, developed the courage to think and live from a vision…They're not going to let circumstances win. They don't deny the circumstances or situations, but they don't let t…
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“Really think about why are you doing what you're doing, what motivates you?…(and) be extremely opportunistic and don't be afraid to take risks….(M)ost of my opportunities that I've had have come from me putting my hand up, taking a chance, doing something that feels scary and terrifying, but that is aligned to my core goal and mission of working o…
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“Philanthropy generally, we consider, contributing private money for public good or community good. And climate philanthropy is simply, when we are making those private contributions in ways that are going to address the climate crisis that our country and that the world is facing today. I would expand that slightly by saying that one of the trends…
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“The theme across all of this, this clean energy transition, it is private sector led, but government enabled. So, we as a government are trying to enable the private sector to move faster so we can meet our very ambitious goal, which includes a 50% reduction from 2005 levels of greenhouse gas pollution by 2030… There's a lot of clean energy techno…
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“For me, the key to my career was being clear on what my mission is….I feel so enormously fortunate that I found a president to be able to work for who shares that goal….So I think the lesson in that is either be the leader that you want to believe in, or find that leader and attach yourself to them and see what amazing things you can do together. …
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