Paul Gerke and Mike Casey cover the week after the 2026 midterms. Tom Matzzie of the Investing in Tomorrow Coalition calls the results a rebuke of Trump energy policy. Stories include the SunZia wind and transmission project, old jet engines converted to power data centers, OpenAI’s Grid Protectors pledge and its Georgia campus, and an IEA report finding Spain saved $26 billion on gas imports thanks to renewables. Politico’s Kelsey Tamborrino explains what Democratic wins mean for permitting reform, tax credits and state energy policy. Plus, a Cleantecher of the Week.

Episode 152: Featuring Kelsey Tamborrino of POLITICO

Overview

1. How the biggest renewable energy project in US history finally got built — Vox
2. Old, Polluting Jet Engines Are Being Scavenged to Power Data Centers — The New York Times
3. Does it matter that OpenAI is aiming to protect the grid? — Latitude Media
4. Spain saved $26 billion on gas imports thanks to renewables boom, IEA says — Reuters
5. Democratic deluge sweeps over energy world — POLITICO
   

Introduction

Paul Gerke: It’s a weird day to listen to This Week in Cleantech. Mike Casey has got some last-day-of-school energy following the midterm elections, and I’m sure you’re going to feel it in his voice the second you hear him pipe in. But while I’ve still got the platform, welcome to our 15-minute-ish roundup of the biggest stories in climate and clean energy each week. We appreciate you. Today’s Friday, November 6, 2026. We got a returning guest in waiting. Kelsey Tamborrino from Politico will be putting up with us shortly. I’m Factor This content director Paul Gerke, joined as always by cleantech commentator Mike Casey of Tigercomm. Mike, I don’t have to ask how are you doing today? If people are watching the video version, they can see it on your grill.

Mike Casey: My friend, if I was doing any better, it’d be a sin. But listen, hey, you know something? Do you know that my sources, my well-placed sources in Politico, told me they have 550 people who cover energy? You didn’t know that, did you?

Paul Gerke: I do. Staggering.

Mike Casey: That is some badass right there. All right. Hey, well, I want to give two listener shoutouts. The first to Mad River Associates partner Jay Holman, whose partner described him as, quote, “a big fan.” And we want to give a massive listener shoutout to Tom Matzzie, who has agreed to join us. Tom is the tip of the spear for our industry as the head of the Investing in Tomorrow Coalition. He’s also a friend of mine, but he racked up a string of victories this cycle so big we had to have him on the show to offer our congratulations and offer big thanks for his industry leadership. Tom, great to celebrate with you Tuesday night. How big a win was this, my friend?

Tom Matzzie: I mean, it’s a massive win. I think it’s a repudiation of the, you know, Trump energy policy that’s been driving the affordability crisis in the United States. And, you know, it’s real simple math from my perspective. Trump comes in, hundreds of power plant projects are canceled or stalled or paused, prices go up, consumers are furious, and they, you know, throw people out of office. And it should be a warning that fast action is needed now that we’re going to have a new government in place and everyone needs to work together. The voters are going to remember again in ‘28.

Mike Casey: Tom, Lauren Boebert, congressman from Colorado. Is she a future former, or will Congresswoman Beetlejuice be returning to public service? What’s your prediction?

Tom Matzzie: Oh. We are moments away from hearing that Lauren Boebert has lost and that she’s expected to concede any minute now. The number of votes outstanding to be counted is basically the same as the gap between her and her opponent now. And so everything’s done except the crying. And, you know, we will have defeated Lauren Boebert.

Mike Casey: I’m gonna start crying myself. Paul, you better take it back here. But hey, Tom, we want to thank you for coming on. Great work by you, Chris Larsen, Howard Wanger, Dan Sugar, and others who really got this thing off the ground. Massive leadership, massive props to you. Thanks for coming on. Thanks for stopping by the show, man. Appreciate it.

Tom Matzzie: Yeah, happy to be here.

Paul Gerke: We always appreciate hearing from the viewers and the listeners. You just have to say nice things about us and we’ll find a way to put you on the program one way or another. It’s quite that simple. If you have a story you’d like to see covered, you could email that to us, too. We’ve got an address for the show, twic@tigercomm.us, that’s with two M’s. As always, Mike, we’ve got five stories ready to roll. What’s the first one we’re covering this week?

Story 1: How the Biggest Renewable Energy Project in US History Finally Got Built (Vox)

Mike Casey: Sara Herschander from Vox. “How the biggest renewable energy project in US history finally got built.” Paulo Gerke.

Paul Gerke: This one’s about the SunZia wind and transmission project. I’m sure you’ve heard about it if you live in this space. It came online this June. It’s the largest clean energy project in US history. As Mike told you, it’s got more than 900 wind turbines out in central New Mexico. It’s about as tall as the Statue of Liberty and spread over an area about the size of Chicago. The project’s developer, Pattern Energy, says it’s going to prevent 9 million metric tons of CO2 pollution in its first year. Those turbines feed a 550-mile-long transmission line that stretches across the Southwest and now powers more than 1 million homes as far away as California. That was the real endeavor out there, Mike. That wind farm generates more electricity than the Hoover Dam. New Mexico’s wind tends to pick up after the sun goes down, so it fills in right when California’s solar starts to drop off, which is great for the western markets they’re developing out there. SunZia broke a bunch of records for wind power in California’s energy supply as soon as it fired up. Mike, your thoughts on this piece?

Mike Casey: Well, first, hard things are hard, and big congrats to Hunter Armistead and his team at Pattern Energy. It’s been a long time coming. This thing was first proposed in 2006. It’s been 17 years without breaking ground through five presidential administrations, an ownership change, a major reroute, and a standoff with the White Sands Missile Range. State regulators rejected the transmission route in 2018, partly over the risk of migratory birds in one of the country’s busiest flyways. When Pattern took it over, it worked with the Audubon Society. They moved the lines north. They ran them alongside existing infrastructure and added bird diverters, and the state regulators approved the project unanimously in 2022. It became a poster child for permitting reform, and New Mexico’s US Senator Martin Heinrich has cited it as a reason he’s co-sponsoring the Senate’s new permitting plan. Hunter says the big problem was there wasn’t enough demand for the power back then, and now US electricity demand is projected to rise 25% by the end of the decade, and the project lined up $11 billion in financing. Paul, story number two.

Paul Gerke: You say bird diverters. Wasn’t that the name of your band in college? Story number two.

Mike Casey: Get to story number two. Let’s go.

Story 2: Old Polluting Jet Engines Are Being Scavenged to Power Data Centers (The New York Times)

Paul Gerke: Second story this week. Hiroko Tabuchi from The New York Times, titled “Old polluting jet engines are being scavenged to power data centers.” I’ve heard about this, Mike. What’s the deal?

Mike Casey: Well, we’ve heard a lot from past guests about how hyperscalers are scrambling to get power for data centers any way they can. And when we saw the story, it seemed to be the embodiment of what they’ve been talking about. So out in the Arizona desert, there are boneyards where thousands of retired planes sit parked nose to tail. Their engines are now being pulled out and turned into generators for power for data centers. Paul, do you want to know how to convert one of these? So, here’s the directions.

Paul Gerke: Tell me, Dr. Frankenstein.

Mike Casey: First, remove the outer shell and the big front fan. Second...

Paul Gerke: Spooky, spooky. I like where this is going. We should have done this for the Halloween show.

Mike Casey: Anyway, second, modify the engine to burn natural gas. Third, connect the central shaft to a gearbox and generator. A single ProEnergy unit produces 50 megawatts, enough to power about 15,000 homes. Here is the big draw. It’s speed. Grid connections and new turbines can take years. But with converted jet engines, a data center can be running in about 24 hours. One analyst says developers just want power as fast as they can get it, whatever the cost or efficiency. You know, they could just power these lines with solar and long-duration storage. Just saying, Paul Gerke.

Paul Gerke: Yeah, and that’s probably the smarter move, Mike Casey. The problem is that these things weren’t built to be used for power plants, so they’re dirty and they’re noisy. We talked to Molly Taft back in May about xAI piling up gas turbines in Mississippi. Turns out eight of them are actually these converted jet engines. Their permits let them emit carbon monoxide at twice the rate of other turbines on site. So, more than 100,000 people live within 5 miles of those data centers, and they’re exposed to that as a result of this. The Trump administration sided with xAI in court, arguing citizens groups should not be allowed to bring environmental lawsuits and that this one threatens national security, undermining the goal of global AI dominance. Moving on. Story three.

Story 3: Does It Matter That OpenAI Is Aiming to Protect the Grid? (Latitude Media)

Mike Casey: That was a long sigh, my friend.

Paul Gerke: That was a segue, brother. That’s what that was.

Mike Casey: Jeff St. John, Latitude Media. “Does it matter that OpenAI is aiming to protect the grid?” Mr. Gerke, does it matter?

Paul Gerke: This is way too complex to hammer out in a couple of minutes here, but OpenAI announced a new grid protection program this week. It says it’s going to work with utilities and regulators to cut data center power use when the grid is strained. So, that flexible interconnection silver bullet we’re always talking about. This comes as OpenAI starts building its own data centers instead of relying mostly on other developers. The first, Project Camellia near Savannah, Georgia, has a deal with Georgia Power. It’s a 3.2-gigawatt operation, supposed to start in phases in 2028. It’s got a 25-year deal, and that allows Georgia Power to dial back what it sends to the facility, creating up to a gigawatt of flexible demand response. And that’s massive, especially when you’re talking about what they’re going to need to run that place. Georgia Power calls it one of the largest single-facility commitments of any kind in the country. I believe that. Those are staggering numbers. OpenAI says it will be the model for its future data centers as well. This is a step in the right direction. Mike, your opinion?

Mike Casey: To be clear, this is a nonbinding pledge, and nonbinding pledges aren’t my favorite kind of pledges. The utility trade group EEI says these flexibility agreements are becoming more common for data centers. So, in September, Google, Nvidia, and Emerald AI formed an alliance pushing for policies that promote this kind of flexibility. What’s really driving this is politics. You might be surprised to know that, sir. Public backlash against data centers has been growing for a year, up around 70%. Ballotpedia counted at least 50 local ballot measures on data centers in 13 states. Yeah. You know how they did? All but one went against. Bloomberg found one in North Dakota, but it was one of those that had the reverse question, where it was like “no” meant “yes.” And I have to wonder if that had something to do with it. But anyway, that was the only outlier referendum on data centers. In Georgia, where OpenAI is building its first data center, Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms just won the governor’s race after campaigning on a statewide pause on new data center construction. Whoops. Paul, our fourth story.

Story 4: Spain Saved $26 Billion on Gas Imports Thanks to a Renewables Boom, IEA Says (Reuters)

Paul Gerke: Story four. Pietro Lombardi from Reuters. “Spain saved $26 billion on gas imports thanks to a renewables boom, IEA says.” What’s in that story, Mike?

Mike Casey: If you are a fossil fuel bro on LinkedIn, you should take a break right now.

Paul Gerke: They’re not listening. They don’t like getting made fun of by you.

Mike Casey: You’re not going to like what I have to say. A new report from the International Energy Agency found Spain saved $26 billion, with a B, on natural gas imports between 2011 and 2024, thanks to its big buildout of solar and wind. The country’s renewable capacity more than doubled to 119 gigawatts over the past decade, while carbon pollution fell by a fifth. The IEA said that growth made Spain less vulnerable to fossil fuel price shocks and brought down wholesale electricity prices. What do you know, Paul Gerke?

Paul Gerke: If you were to ask someone in Spain, they’re not as stoked about this. They’re not seeing low prices on the power bill. Wholesale prices there are low, but there are taxes, levies, and network charges that pile on top of the bills that are much higher than those for fossil fuels. The IEA notes that this blunts the incentive to go electric, even though it’s cleaner and more efficient. So the IEA is imploring Spain to cut taxes on electricity to help electrify homes and industry out there. Transport and heating are still the big challenges, as they are here in the States. It also recommends adding storage and more wind to balance out all the solar, and strengthening the grid after last year’s historic blackout that we talked about quite a bit. Spain plans to phase out its five nuclear plants by 2035. The IEA says maybe think about that again. We’ll see what they decide to do, but let’s not keep our returning guest in waiting any longer. Mike, story five.

Story 5: The Democratic Deluge Sweeps Over the Energy World (Politico)

Mike Casey: Paul Gerke, you’re playing the role of joy kill on this episode.

Paul Gerke: I’m just trying to bring you down a little, ’cause you’re like a kid that got into the candy store, and he’s got his hand in the jar of lollipops, and he’s going to get us all kicked out.

Mike Casey: There’s like a couple espressos, and I’m lively. All right. You know who’s lively? It’s Kelsey Tamborrino. She came back to us. We had to spend like a year running her down, and we finally got her on the show. She’s been calling me for weeks wanting to come back on. Finally, I relented, but okay. Oops.

Paul Gerke: But you live in this fantasy world, man. We all just play along. At what point do we push back? Do we just let you carry on like this indefinitely?

Mike Casey: It’s totally your call. But Miss Tamborrino wrote a story, “The Democratic deluge sweeps over the energy world.” In other words, that’s called a big old can of whoop-ass that got opened on Tuesday night. Kelsey Tamborrino, man. Oh, man. People are talking about this, but we want to hear your take. You sat there and saw the returns. You took it all in. What’s the big takeaway?

Kelsey Tamborrino: Yeah, the big takeaway is that Democrats are now going to control Congress. They’re controlling governor’s mansions across the country, and that is going to have significant impacts for the energy industry. I think particularly on the federal level, on the Hill, we’re watching what this means for permitting reform. We’re watching what this means for the revival of tax credits, investigations that are going to come and impact oil and gas, but also offshore wind lease buybacks. There’s a lot of different areas we’re going to be tracking going forward. And I think we’re already seeing Democrats emboldened to take all of this on, and it’ll impact so many different things that we’re watching and tracking. And, you know, I think permitting, as I said, is the big thing, but there are many questions for the renewable industry going forward on that.

Paul Gerke: I didn’t bother to send Kelsey any questions that I was planning to ask her, but you walked me right into it. I swear, hand on my keyboard, that permitting is where I was going to go, because I think it all starts there. I released a podcast about permitting reform this morning on Factor This, our [?] media arm, and I know on November 9, the Senate returns for, you know, a potential cloture vote, and we’ll see where it goes. In your reporting and from the conversations you’ve had with those in the know, Kelsey, I’m curious, does what happened this week in the midterms improve or hurt the chances that we see Baja actually make it somewhere?

Kelsey Tamborrino: I think the conventional wisdom is it hurts the chances a bit. We’re already seeing House Democrat members like Jared Huffman making the case that these election results mean that they should hold off and try to get a better deal next year. But you are also seeing pretty forceful pushback from other Democrats on that. So, there’s going to be a debate going forward on this. I think for the clean energy industry, we’ve heard from everyone that we’ve talked to that they’re in favor of this bill, and now it goes to an advocacy, I think, and a lobbying push, where we’re going to have to see if this industry can persuade Democratic members that are maybe skeptical about moving forward on this bill now in the lame duck. But certainly, you know, there’s also environmental concerns that have been in the backdrop of this debate this whole time, but I think you’re going to see that intensified, and already you’re seeing some of those voices also echo Huffman and some of these other Democratic House members saying that they should hold off.

Mike Casey: Kelsey, I had someone this morning make the case to me that the real energy industry significance of Tuesday night was the 700 state legislative seats that changed hands, and what that means for preemption bills and all sorts of considerations about county decision-making for projects, both renewables and data centers. Do you have any response to that, or top-of-mind thoughts?

Kelsey Tamborrino: No, I think that’s accurate. Certainly the data center question, you know, we are going to see some action on that on the federal side, in, you know, some of these committees and Democratic offices that have concerns about the buildout, but it’s really going to be at the state level where a lot of this is going to be happening. But even beyond, you know, data centers, distributed energy resources, VPPs, they’re going to get, I think, a big push in some of these states that now have blue trifectas, or, to your point, you know, are on the county level being led by Democrats.

Cleantecher of the Week

Mike Casey: Paul, we’re just about out of time. We need to go to our Cleantecher of the Week.

Paul Gerke: Let’s do it. This week’s Cleantecher of the Week is Ian Ward. And if it’s Ian Ward, accept my sincerest apologies. If Ian and Ian are watching, congrats to both. Longtime cranberry farmer in southeastern Massachusetts, the one we’re awarding. Ward manages two bogs. Yeah, that’s way harder than one bog, isn’t it? First in the country to grow cranberries under working solar panels. Enough of my jokes. A round of applause for the Cleantecher of the Week. Congrats, Mr. Ward.

Mike Casey: You know who’s not slinging dad jokes is Alex Petersen.

Paul Gerke: They don’t do dad jokes either. And I don’t think Kelsey Tamborrino does. So, it’s just you and me there, brother. But we want to thank all of them for their contributions to this show.

Mike Casey: Yeah. Couldn’t do it without you all.

Paul Gerke: One more shout-out to Tom and to Kelsey for stopping by the program. If you enjoyed what you heard or watched here, man, are you weird. No, just kidding. Subscribe. There’s a way to leave comments and feedback. You could also share story suggestions. We want you to be a part of the show so that it lives beyond the few minutes that we spend taping each week. You can also read the articles that we promote every week. They’re discussed on the show and in the posts. They’re in the links in the episode description and where this thing lives on factorthis.com. Until we speak again, people, be good.