Interview with Nicole Steele, Co-Chair of Clean Energy for Biden​

Catherine: I’m Catherine McLean Founder and CEO of Dylan Green, and today I have with me Nicole Steele, Principal and co-founder of Insight Power Partners. Thanks for joining me Nicole.

Nicole: Hi Catherine. Good to see you.

Catherine: Can you introduce yourself?! And talk a bit about your background and how you came to take on the co-chair of Clean Energy for Biden?

Nicole: Absolutely! I spent about 15 plus, maybe 20 years, in the clean energy, environment, housing, affordable housing, political space and so I’ve done everything from standing up programs for affordable housing agencies, to running political campaigns to being the Executive Director of a regional nonprofit organization that installs solar and does workforce training. My current adventure is to really do just that, and work on clean energy access and creating good clean energy jobs and build healthy communities around that, all with an equity lens. That’s what I am up to today and the reason that I got involved with Clean Energy for Biden, when it was launched back in April of this year, was because I realized that, from my perspective, the number one most important thing that has to happen this year to benefit the climate and to push the clean energy industry forward, is to get Joe Biden elected President. So that is how I got engaged with CE4B and it’s an amazing network, 5000 plus members and growing, and we are actively growing that, and we can talk a little bit about that shortly, with the goals of raising money for the campaign, really building a platform for the clean energy industry, and getting out the vote and really showing how important this election is to the clean energy industry. 

Catherine: Absolutely. In 2020, 81% of Americans believe that the Earth has been warming over the last 100 years. Nearly two thirds of Americans believe the federal government should act more aggressively to combat climate change. Do you think this will translate into votes for Biden, given his strong climate platform? 

Nicole: From my perspective, I absolutely think so. There was a really great New York Times article that came out, about a week ago, that really talked about where voting blocks are and what the important issues are today, and particularly in this election, and climate change came up as number two. So I really think that climate change is becoming incredibly important across the board, so not just Democrats but also Republicans are seeing the effects of climate change personally. They’re being impacted by natural disasters, and seeing that their utility bills are going up because they’re having to run their air conditioning longer, whatever it might be, but they’re truly seeing personal impacts and I think that’s one reason why that voting block is growing, exponentially. Then, the other sort of element I would say, is, recently, after Biden announced his climate plan, and his clean energy jobs plan, there was this huge groundswell of activists supporting the Biden campaign. So an element within the campaign, called Climate Voters for Biden, was created and is the second largest affinity group within the campaign today. So, CE4B, or Clean Energy for Biden, which is what I am co-chairing, is coordinating directly with those Climate Voters for Biden. Just behind Women for Biden, just as another key point, we do our national phone banks on a weekly basis, and we had our second one this past Tuesday, and we had over 230 registered to participate in that phone bank, where we called climate voters in Arizona and we called over 1500 individuals in just a 45 minute time frame. We are going to be doing that moving forward and it’s really showing that people really highlight climate as a top issue area. Then, also, the campaign sees us as a huge opportunity and sort of partner on this, and that they see the value that CE4B has been able to bring to the table and really motivate the industry, and really see opportunity for that industry to grow with a Biden administration.

Catherine: Very exciting. I love those stats. I want to switch gears, slightly, to Covid. How do you think Biden’s approach to the Covid recovery will ensure growth of clean energy jobs while ensuring former fossil fuel employees are not left behind? 

Nicole: Yeah, from my perspective, and not speaking on behalf of the campaign, all of the climate and clean energy recommendations have that recovery lens. I would say that, even more specifically, the Clean Energy for Biden work has that recovery recommendation lens, and that everything that we are sort of providing as recommendations to the campaign, either for day 1 actions, or first 100 day actions, or even a 4 year administrative plan, is going to focus on good jobs that result in an opportunity to join a union, and having strong labor standards around the growth of the industry, so then also job creation. Growing huge segments of the industry, so that there are jobs, and then sort of knitting that together, around what do job training programs look like, what do career pathway programs look like, and entrepreneurship hubs look like, then also pre-apprentice and apprenticeship programs. So that, we’re not only providing good jobs, but also jobs in communities that need just transition, they’re a former fossil fuel community and really needing to make sure that we are focused on communities that would be impacted by this new clean energy revolution. Then, also, in Biden’s plan, that was announced earlier this summer, he specifically called out frontline communities, and that frontline communities can be communities of color, it can be low-income communities, it can be communities that are impacted by Covid, it can be communities that are impacted by recent natural disasters, or even natural disasters that we are still recovering from. From that 40% of the dollars allocated in the plan, well it’s leveraged so it’s not like we are going to pay $2 trillion dollars, but it’s a $2 trillion dollar plan and 40% of those dollars are intended to go towards those frontline communities, that does include that Covid lens, and really building a much stronger economy as we start to recover from this pandemic. 

Catherine: Yeah, I’m really glad that you addressed that because one of my questions was around Biden’s climate plan and addressing racial and environmental justice. Is there anything that you wanted to add to that? 

Nicole: Absolutely! I think from a CE4B perspective, we have been incredibly intentional in building a diverse representation in the clean energy community, and then also what is our role in bringing in other networks to diversify this movement. We’ve been very intentional around who are our co-chairs, who are representing us on leaderships, our executive committee, and then also highlighting topics around environmental justice, equity, building an equitable future, and black CEOs and what are opportunities there, and what have been the challenges, and how can we support more people of color in leadership roles, then also highlighting a diversity of voices. CE4B has been incredibly intentional around bringing equity, inclusion and diversity into our lens, and I would say, honestly, that’s how I got really involved as a co-chair. It was on our first call and publicly highlighted how white and how male that call looked. So right from the very beginning we made that shift. I would say, our coordination with the campaign, there’s been recognition and it’s really been made clear to us that making sure that people that have been doing work in the environmental justice space really do get a platform, and really do have their voices heard, as those plans are created. There was a whole environmental justice roundtable that was created before his plan was announced this summer. From my perspective, we can always do better and we will continue to do work in this space but I think the campaign is listening and is definitely integrated that frontline, low income, community of color aspect into his plans moving forward.