Inevitable

Joselyn Lai is the Co-founder and CEO at Bedrock Energy . Bedrock uses geothermal energy to transform the heating and cooling of buildings.  We've covered geothermal on the show a few times, but Bedrock brings a unique approach. On one end of the spectrum, we've explored large utility-scale geothermal projects, which aim to drill deep to tap into underground steam vents for turbine-powered electri...

Erica Nemser is CEO at Ardent , a Series A stage startup that's aiming to help drive industrial decarbonization by developing and selling membranes to perform point source carbon capture.  Point source capture differs from direct air capture in that it's focused on concentrated greenhouse gas emissions coming right out of the flue of an industrial system, as opposed to direct air capture (DAC), wh...

Molly Yang is CEO and co-founder of  Hgen , a company that develops clean hydrogen to decarbonize heavy industry. Specifically, they are working on alkaline electrolyzer technology to make it have higher efficiency and higher power density, which they claim will allow them to produce hydrogen with a smaller footprint and lower cost, using a modular, mass-manufacturable design. Based in Los Angeles...

Russell Kenneth DeGraff spent 18 years as a staffer on Capitol Hill, including 12 years as the Chief Climate and Technology Advisor to Nancy Pelosi, notably during her second term as Speaker of the House. He was, as they say in the room where it happened when negotiating the landmark climate legislation of the last few years, including the Inflation Reduction Act, the Infrastructure Investment and...

This My Climate Journey podcast episode was recorded in front of a live audience at the Ion during Houston Energy and Climate Startup Week .  Zach Dell is the Co-founder and CEO of Base Power Company . Base aspires to build a reliable and affordable home energy service powered by distributed batteries. Their technology supports the grid during times of peak need and protects customers during outag...

*This My Climate Journey podcast episode was recorded in front of a live audience at the Ion during Houston Energy and Climate Startup Week .  Our guest is, Vicki Hollub , CEO of Occidental Petroleum (Oxy) , a century-old oil and gas company employing over 12,000 people globally with a market cap near $50 billion. Recently the company has made significant investments into what they refer to as “ca...

The election cycle can feel overwhelming for the average person who is climate-concerned, but not deeply political enough to understand where and how to plug in. If you have money to give, where should it go? If you have time to contribute, what should you do? We could think of no better group than the experts we have here to help walk us through it.  Tiernan Sittenfeld is the Senior Vice Presiden...

Doug Bernauer is the CEO and Co-founder of Radiant . Radiant is developing a portable nuclear micro-reactor to replace diesel generators. They raised a $40 million Series B in 2023 led by a16z, after previously raising capital from investors including USV, Founders Fund, and DCVC. They're targeting the development of a portable, mostly self-contained, one-megawatt nuclear reactor that is roughly t...

Jeff Chapin is the Co-founder and Chief Product Officer at Haven Energy. Haven aims to make it easier for homeowners to install home battery systems, including choosing the right battery, permitting and installation, tax credits, and virtual power plant setup. Haven recently began offering bundled installation of solar and batteries. Jeff has seen scale before as he and his co-founder, Philip Krim...

Matt Soule is the CEO and Co-founder of Parallel Systems .  Parallel Systems is re-imagining how goods can be transported via rail by building automated battery-electric freight rail vehicles. These vehicles resemble box cars that can drive independently and form on-the-fly connections with each other to create mini trains. According to Matt, the goal is not to upend existing rail freight use case...

Katie Siegel is CEO and Co-founder at Flipturn . Flipturn is an EV charging management platform for fleets and we're diving into the electrification of trucking. At the beginning of 2024, the Advanced Clean Fleets law came into effect in California creating a number of mandates for zero emissions vehicle adoption in the trucking space. And the law impacts any fleet doing business in California, so...

Julia Strong is the Executive Director of Symbiosis Coalition . Announced in early 2024, Symbiosis Coalition is an advanced market commitment from Google, Meta, Microsoft, and Salesforce to purchase up to 20 million tons of nature-based carbon removals.  The forestry credit space has faced challenges over the last couple of years, prompting interest in how Julia and these large tech companies coll...

Joe Daniel is a Principal on the Carbon-Free Electricity Team at RMI . Our topic today is coal, specifically the "non-economic dispatch" of coal. This phenomenon occurs when coal-fired power plants deliver power to electricity grids even when their electricity is not the most cost-effective option, thereby disrupting the "merit order" of electricity dispatch. This complex topic is explored with Jo...

Siva Yellamraju is the Co-founder and CEO at Fourier .  Fourier's mission is to make hydrogen universally accessible with on-site and on-demand production. Fourier is not Siva's first startup, it's his fourth. He sold his last company to Apple the one before that to Google and the one before that to Polycom, so he knows a thing or two about entrepreneurship. Fourier is barely two years old and the...

Japan is important to consider on the global energy stage. The country’s emissions footprint is considerably smaller than China and the U.S. While Japan's energy footprint isn't growing as rapidly as India's, it’s still the fifth-largest emitter of any country globally, with emissions representing roughly three to 4% of the global total. Japan's energy system is heavily fossil fuel-based, especial...

Max Jamilly , CEO and Co-founder at Hoxton Farms . And today, we're talking about fat.  Hoxton Farms, a London-based startup, grows and sells animal fats without animals. They aspire to be an ingredients provider; cultivating fats via bioreactors and selling cruelty-free and sustainable fats to other food brands, starting with meat alternatives.  It's been a challenging time for the alt-meat space...

Julia Reichelstein is the CEO and Co-founder at Vaulted Deep , a carbon removal company that injects carbon-rich waste slurries deep underground into permanent geologic storage. They've come onto the scene quite fast recently securing just north of a $58 million order from Frontier to sequester over 152,000 tons of carbon between now and 2027, which is Frontier's largest commitment yet. They're on...

Mish Thadani is the CEO and Co-founder of Rhizome . Rhizome helps utilities plan for resilience. It's an AI-powered software platform that helps electric utilities identify vulnerabilities from climate threats to quantify risk and to measure the economic and social benefits of grid enhancing investments.  In our discussion, we delve into how utilities address vulnerabilities arising from extreme w...

Today's conversation is all about how the US is trying to onshore manufacturing of key clean energy supply chains, things like EV, battery metals, and the like.  Giulia Siccardo is the Director of the US Department of Energy's Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains or MESC.  We start out with a bit of a history lesson on why manufacturing somewhat intentionally moved offshore from the 19...

Dr. John Wagner is the President of Battelle Energy Alliance and Director of the Idaho National Laboratory or INL.  INL is one of 17 national labs in the United States and leads the nation in work on advanced nuclear research. INL boasts a rich legacy in the narrative of nuclear energy, marked by its pivotal role in producing the inaugural usable electricity from nuclear sources on its premises. D...

Christina Yagjian leads global renewable energy strategy and origination at Cargill . According to Forbes, Cargill is the largest private company in the USA by revenue with $177 billion in the fiscal year ending in May, 2023. Before Cargill, Christina managed the renewable energy footprint at Meta, the parent company to Facebook and Instagram and one of the world's largest corporate clean power pu...

Cyrus Wadia is the CEO of Activate , a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that empowers scientists to bring their research to market. Having supported nearly 200 scientists in founding around 150 companies, including notable names like Fervo, Twelve, Sublime Systems, and Antora Energy, Activate offers selected fellows a unique blend of financial support, business capital, and access to a vast mentor...

Dr. Seonghoon Woo is CEO and co-founder at Amogy . Amogy is building technology to unlock ammonia's potential as a clean energy fuel source for transportation and beyond. About a year ago, they raised a Series B of funding led by SK Innovations, with backers including Temasek, Aramco Ventures, Mitsubishi, DCVC, Amazon Climate Pledge Fund, Mitsui OSK Lines, and others. Ammonia is a workhorse chemic...

Adam Stein is the Director of Nuclear Energy Innovation at the Breakthrough Institute , where he focuses on the technology, policy, risk and economics of nuclear energy. The Breakthrough Institute is a global research center that identifies and promotes technological solutions to environmental and human development challenges. Among its many projects, the Breakthrough Institute recently launched B...

In today's episode, recorded live during San Francisco Climate Week, we delve into the critical intersection of climate policy and carbon removal. Joining us are two distinguished guests:   California Senator Scott Wiener , the author of the recent landmark climate legislation known as California's SB 253 or the Climate Corporate Data Accountability Act, and Shashank Samala , the CEO and Co-founde...