Today’s guest is Josh Freed, SVP of the Clean Energy Program at Third Way.

Third Way is a national think tank that champions modern center-left ideas.  Their work is grounded in the mainstream American values of opportunity, freedom, and security. As the founder and leader of Third Way’s Clean Energy Program, Josh promotes policies to use every tool possible to combat climate change—including scaled-up innovation, advanced nuclear, and carbon capture technologies in addition to the increased use of renewables and efficient storage.  

Since 2009, he has overseen Third Way’s clean energy and climate advocacy efforts, serving as the organization’s chief strategist on these issues. He regularly advises senior federal and state policymakers, philanthropies, academics, and business leaders. Under his leadership, his team’s accomplishments include Third Way’s groundbreaking research on advanced nuclear technology—which transformed federal support for nuclear innovation—and building new alliances to defend federal support for clean energy research and development. 

Josh regularly writes and speaks on climate, clean energy, and innovation issues, and his work has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR, National Journal, POLITICO, The Los Angeles Times and Wired.

In today’s episode, we cover:

• Josh’s history and what led him to Third Way
• Third Way founding story
• What the climate team looked like when he got there vs today
• Their goal to get to net zero carbon emissions by 2050
• Areas of focus, how they prioritize, and what they do in each area to help drive things forwards
• Current political climate and the path forwards
• Sober assessment of where we are with climate progress, and what it will take to solve
• Josh’s thoughts on GND, carbon tax, and other topics
• Josh’s advice for others looking to find their lane in the climate fight

Links to topics discussed in this episode:

• Jim Kessler: https://www.thirdway.org/about/leadership/jim-kessler
• 2004 US Presidential Election: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_United_States_presidential_election
• Advanced nuclear: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_nuclear
• Rachel Pritzker: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachelpritzker/
• Ray Rothrock: https://www.energy.gov/ne/contributors/ray-rothrock
• Ross Koningstein: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rosskoningstein/
• Nuclear Regulatory Commission: https://www.nrc.gov/
• ClearPath: https://clearpath.org/
• Niskanen Center: https://niskanencenter.org/

You can find me on twitter @jjacobs22 or @mcjpod and email at info@myclimatejourney.co, where I encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and suggestions for future topics or guests.

Enjoy the show!

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