Utility Dive
Summary
Rep. Sean Casten, D-Ill., accidentally found fame one Thursday afternoon in an obscure world he didn't know existed: "Energy Twitter."
"A lot of my colleagues have achieved social media fame for things other than … tweet threads on the nature of hydrogen," he said in an interview with Utility Dive.
"OK, so I need to do a brief rant on something hugely important that almost no one cares about. Humor me," the August Twitter thread began. 584 retweets and around 1,500 likes later, the then-freshman Congressman realized that, in fact, a lot of people cared.
"It's an uplifting statement on humanity" to find such a wonky audience in a world like Twitter, where arguments are so often limited to sound bites and "gotcha" moments, the former clean energy executive said.
Since then, he's become a sought after speaker for clean energy forums, speaking at National Clean Energy Week and an American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE) conference earlier this year.
"Congressman Sean Casten is an innovative and inspirational public servant," said ACORE President and CEO Gregory Wetstone in an email. "His policy approach is thorough, thoughtful and unabashedly pro-science, and his technological and market expertise have made his twitter explanations of key energy issues a must-read for the industry."
Casten relishes any opportunity to "nerd out" with fellow climate and clean energy enthusiasts. He's been passionate about the climate crisis since college, and calls it the "North Star" that has guided his path. On Capitol Hill, it's given him a particular niche at a critical time for the energy transition and the rising urgency to mitigate climate change. He's able to help disentangle the perspectives of various think tanks, interest groups and Hill staffers for his fellow members of Congress, similar to how they've aided him in understanding issues on healthcare and national security, for example.
But being the go-to energy guy has also made it clear there is a disconnect on the Hill: "We have a PhD level problem. And Congress is at a 6th grade reading level," he said. Policies like the Green New Deal, which he considers equity policy more than energy policy, represent a "sound bites without substance" problem, while more bipartisan policies don't go far enough in contemplating what is scientifically necessary.
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