Just Power Podcast

05/20/2026

Just Power is about the human side of the energy transition. Not just the technology, not just the policy — but the people (like you and me) who are most affected by the decisions being made right now. My guest, Jolette Westbrook, is an advocate of what she calls the "overly impacted and rarely heard." In this episode, she makes it count.

Jolette spent eight years as a utility commissioner in Massachusetts — inside the room where these decisions get made. Now, as Director and Senior Attorney of Regulatory Solutions at the Environmental Defense Fund, she's working to make sure those same people have a real voice in them. Not just an open door. A seat at the table.

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 ...

05/14/2026

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.

Next up on Just Power: Jolette Westbrook, Director & Senior Attorney, Regulatory Solutions at Environmental Defense Fund on "who gets heard shapes who benefits". Subscribe here for our full series on Leading Through Energy Affordability: https://www.youtube.com/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYKYRB3-5Es

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 ...

05/08/2026

Way to go Colorado! Governor Jared Polis signed SB 26-021 into law, expanding the Clean Fleet Enterprise to support replacing aging, heavy-duty diesel trucks. The law authorizes the Enterprise to incentivize and support operators in replacing the oldest, dirtiest heavy-duty trucks in the state with vehicles from model year 2018 or later, until December 31, 2031.

04/30/2026

I've been talking with leaders across the energy system for months now, and the affordability crisis is no longer the mystery. What's harder to find are people who are actually inside a utility, doing the work, and willing to talk honestly about what's holding up — and what isn't.

Meena Beyers is one of those people.

As VP of Business and Community Development at NICOR Gas — serving 2.3 million customers across Northern Illinois — she's testing credible solutions in real time. In our conversation, she takes me inside several of NICOR's on-the-ground initiatives: a Smart Neighborhood built with Habitat for Humanity, a Community Comfort Pilot that delivered a 20% reduction in winter energy bills, and a Community Connection Center linking customers to over 350 social service providers.

She also makes the case for customer choice over mandate in a region where 95% of buildings heat with natural gas — and shares what she'd tell policymakers still asking the wrong questions.

This is exactly the kind of conversation this series is for.

🎧 Listen on Apple, Spotify or YouTube here:

Leading Through Energy Affordability: From Pilot to Practice With NICOR Gas (S5:E7)

04/24/2026

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.

Leading Through Energy Affordability: When Love Is a Business Strategy (S5:E6)

04/22/2026

Rachel Carson knew that connection to the earth isn't just poetic - it's where our resilience comes from. Go outside today. Then come back and keep going. Happy Earth Day!

04/16/2026

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?

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.

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...

04/07/2026

Hi Friends! As a longtime Messaging Strategist — and I would love to invite you to my upcoming virtual Master Class series “Storytelling for Changemakers”. It starts on April 14 and it’s free. This is not a lecture series but instead a roll-up-your-sleeves, hands-on workshop to dig into the real strategic work behind your project or business — who you're talking to, what you're really solving, and how to say it in a way that moves your organization forward.

BONUS! You’ll get my 17-page messaging workbook when you register.

Hope you’ll join me!

Your messaging should work as hard as you do. But for too many growth-minded changemakers, it doesn’t.

04/02/2026

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 aren't comfortable.

In Episode 3 of Just Power's "Leading Through Energy Affordability Series", I welcome 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.

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...

03/25/2026

Several months ago, Energy Outreach Colorado came to me with an idea. They'd been watching the work I was doing on my Just Power podcast — specifically an episode from Season 2 called 5 Questions We Must Ask Communities Now — and they asked: could they take those questions directly to the people they serve? Real households. Real energy bills. Real consequences.

I answered a resounding YES.And then I immediately pushed it further (that's how I'm wired). "Why don't we videotape their responses — and then do a podcast where we listen to them together?"Jennifer Gremmert, EOC's CEO, didn't hesitate. Yes. Let's do it.

That conversation is what you're about to hear.We honed my original five questions to four. EOC went out into their communities — rural and urban, Front Range and San Luis Valley — and sat with real people who are right now navigating rising energy bills. They asked. They listened. They videotaped.

And in this episode, Jennifer comes back on Just Power and we listen together — in real time — and reflect on what these voices are telling us about this moment in the energy transition.What you'll hear stopped me. A single dad in fight-or-flight mode over his bills, unable to afford daycare for his four-year-old daughter with ASD. A family in the San Luis Valley staring down a $900 bill — for just two months. People making impossible choices between internet and electricity, food and prescriptions, rent and keeping the lights on.

This is what energy unaffordability actually feels like. Not the rate filings. Not the policy language. The lived experience.In an industry of poles, wires, and rate filings — where people are called "ratepayers" — our mission at Just Power is to bring forth the human side of the energy transition.

This episode is that.

Ready to listen? Check it out here.

What does energy unaffordability actually feel like? Not the policy language, not the rate filings — but the lived experience of a family in Colorado's San L...