About this episode

David Roberts discusses the challenges and strategies of electrification with Hawaii state Senator Chris Lee.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.volts.wtf/subscribe Most of the energy decisions that touch daily life in America get made in state legislatures, and the people making them are increasingly new to the job. In smaller states, a freshly elected lawmaker gets a pad of paper, no staff, and about 150 lobbyists at the door, then votes on billion-dollar energy budgets in a landscape where the technology changes faster than anyone can track. On this episode of Volts, David Roberts talks with Hawaii state Senator Chris Lee, co-founder of the Electric Innovation Initiative, a bipartisan network betting that education moves electrification faster than mandates: put lawmakers in front of working technology, connect them across state lines, and let affordability carry the argument where climate framing will not. As Lee puts it, "nine times out of ten, people just don't know what they don't know." Chapters: 00:00 Introduction 03:39 How electrification clicked: the 2008 iPhone moment 06:10 The education gap: why the initiative exists 11:35 Proxy staff and cross-state validation 15:44 What lands on the…

People in this episode

Host: David Roberts

Guest: Chris Lee

Topics covered

• electrification
• energy policy
• state legislatures
• bipartisan initiatives
• technology education

Keywords

• electrification
• energy budgets
• bipartisan
• technology
• policy reform

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Electric Innovation Initiative

Places: Hawaii, America

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