Energy Empire

"Little Red Riding Hood is kind of a dumb story without the wolf."That's how Senator Sheldon Whitehouse thinks Democrats have been telling the climate story. His wolf is the fossil fuel industry, and it shows up on your electric bill.When the Trump administration blocks cheap clean power, the grid falls back on pricier fossil plants and families pay the difference. He calls it a "ginormous money pump."Whitehouse represents Rhode Island and is the top Democrat on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. He is also one of four senators behind the bipartisan permitting bill released shortly after this conversation was recorded.Part of Energy on the Ballot, our series on energy and the 2026 midterms.In this episode:The half-price offshore wind power for Rhode Island that drew two federal stop-work orders"Have you ever seen anything go from zero to everybody hates you faster than data centers?"Why he hates, loathes, and despises one stage of federal review, and his fix for itWhat a plumber in Orlando loses when nobody will insure their homeRussia as "a gas station run by gangsters who have an army," and the sanctions law he wants the president to useThe dark money bill he wants Democrats to pass and dare the president to vetoLearn more at energyempire.fm

AI data centers are straining the grid. NVIDIA and Phaidra say part of the fix is more AI: software that runs the cooling, data centers that ease off when demand peaks, and chips that do more with every watt.This episode was recorded live at The Nest Campus during Climate Week NYC. Jigar and Jamie talk with Josh Parker, head of sustainability at NVIDIA, and Jim Gao, co-founder and CEO of NVIDIA-backed Phaidra.In this episode:An AI agent that predicts heat spikes on CoreWeave's NVIDIA chips and stops them before they hitWhy NVIDIA is cooling its chips with 113°F coolant to cut water useWhether AI needs gigawatt-scale data centers, or GPUs on the side of a houseHow half a percent of flexibility could free up about 100 gigawatts on the US gridThe cost of adding 12 hours of battery backup to a $125 million data centerWhat it would take for a data center to lower its neighbors' power billsLearn more at energyempire.fm

Four senators introduced the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act on September 30. One of them recorded this episode with Jigar the day before.The bill puts deadlines on federal environmental reviews, gives opponents 150 days to sue instead of five years, hands the federal government a backstop for interstate transmission, and, as Heinrich describes it, bars utilities from putting a data center's grid costs on anyone else's bill.Martin Heinrich is the top Democrat on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and negotiated the deal with Senator Sheldon Whitehouse and Republican chairs Shelley Moore Capito and Mike Lee. In this episode:Why Heinrich didn't wait for a Democratic Senate: "why don't you just wait until you have the gavel?"The difference between a "sternly worded letter" and a law when a hyperscaler wants to plug inThe one-year clock a state gets before a transmission route goes to FERCWhy a geothermal well is harder to permit than an oil well on the same acre of federal landWhat got "a little rocky" with the White House the week before the deal"If you're calling people ratepayers, you're probably making some mistakes"Submit a question to Ask Jigar: https://octopusenergy.com/ask-jigarS2G Investments: https://www.s2ginvestments.com/insights/report-illusion-of-crowdsOctopus Energy: https://octopusenergy.com/faasOur merch store: https://energy-empire.bonfire.com/collection/all-products

Electricity bills are rising across America, and for the first time in years, they're a campaign issue. Candidates on the left and the right are promising to cut your power bill. But are they even the ones in charge? What gets decided in Washington, and what gets decided in your state capital? And how do you tell a real promise from an empty one?Those questions are what Energy on the Ballot is for: a new series from Energy Empire, released every Monday until Election Day.To kick it off, Jigar and Jamie sit down with Arnab Pal, co-founder and executive director of Deploy Action, who spends his days in state capitals pushing laws that make utilities use the grid they already have before they build more and bill you for it.Together they walk through the basics: what really makes a power bill go up, who signs off on it, and which of this year's promises to lower it can be kept. Recorded in person at the new Energy Empire studio in New York.In this episode:Why the backlash against data centers is really a backlash against AI, and why the tech companies didn't see it comingThe extra $5.77 a month on Arkansas power bills after the local utility refused to let Google pay for its own grid upgradesPromises made: Trump's pledge to halve energy bills in 12 months, New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill's rate freeze that became a $25 credit, and a Big Tech pledge nobody can point a dollar toPaying people to use less power at peak times is 80% cheaper than building a new gas plant, so why aren't more utilities offering it?Why your state legislator matters more than your member of Congress when it comes to your power billLearn more at energyempire.fm

In Germany you pick up a solar panel at IKEA or the grocery store and plug it in at home.Here you order online, the cheapest kits can take four months to arrive, and in most states you still technically need your utility's permission to install it.Cora Stryker co-founded Bright Saver, a nonprofit that sells the kits at cost, $285 for a 180 watt system. They helped draft Utah's balcony solar bill, the first in the country, and have since worked with legislators in 35 states and DC. Nine have passed laws so far.In this episode:Why some states make you hire an electrician to plug in an applianceWhat a $285 panel takes off a monthly bill, and how fast it pays for itselfThe emails from PG&E that killed Bright Saver's first business modelThe for-profit company that rewrote one state's bill so only its own product would be legalWhy balcony solar has bipartisan supportWhen Cora thinks you'll be able to buy one at WalmartSubmit a question to Ask Jigar: https://octopusenergy.com/ask-jigarS2G Investments: https://www.s2ginvestments.com/insights/report-illusion-of-crowdsOctopus Energy: https://octopusenergy.com/faasOur merch store: https://energy-empire.bonfire.com/collection/all-products