Climate Change

[On the energy transition in the United States] ...working to ameliorate these impacts in affected communities is likely to be a much more effective strategy than attempting to revive the coal industry with policy.

[On green technology] The clean tech boom was based partly on the idea that new innovations in clean tech will scale quickly.

Consumers are more focused today than ever before on understanding what is included in their energy… portfolio, how they can harness their own potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and how they can inform decisionmakers and policymakers. I would suggest that what we should continue to focus on is how we are working to address climate change, how we are working toward harnessing innovative technologies, how we are taking advantage of cost competitiveness today to move toward this clean energy future.

[On conducting energy policy] in a way that is in the public interest … [and] contemplates economics and costs to everyday people and vulnerable populations, but also is not afraid to take hold and grab onto the potential of what our future really could be if we are all working collaboratively and fearlessly toward a carbon-free future.

[On a new method of generating electricity from cold air] I’m concerned that this device probably is not competitive with other ways of generating energy at night or providing energy at night — namely having a solar panel with a battery pack connected with it.

[On the breadth of energy resources needed for decarbonization] What we see from the energy models is if you remove one of those options, then the costs for controlling [carbon] go up and the feasibility of cutting carbon quickly goes down. If you care about carbon, you’ve got to take nuclear seriously as one of many options.