WASHINGTON, March 24, 2026 — Two things have occupied a lot of my brain space lately: how we plan for the future, and how optimistic we can be about it. EDF is in the midst of strategic planning, and I’ve participated in brainstorming exercises recently that have given me the chance to exchange ideas with really smart colleagues with whom I don’t often get to collaborate. In a session last week, a colleague commented that it’s important not to be overly reliant on “techno-optimism.” That got me thinking. While it’s not a term I use often, I do view myself as a techno-optimist. I believe that the future of energy is clean and that change can happen faster than most people and models expect. One bright, shining example is the miraculous decline in clean energy costs and the rapid scaling of technologies that, just 20 years ago, were four times the cost of fossil fuels. (Many people, including Paul Krugman and Bill McKibben, have written about this more eloquently than I can.) I think that electric cars have already pulled ahead on cost and performance, and once people realize that fact, adoption will accelerate. Within the next decade, I doubt there will be much of a market for gas powered cars — why buy something that costs more to run and doesn’t perform as well? These beliefs shape my view that we can enact policies that preserve consumer choice and avoid higher costs, which are two must-haves in the current political environment.
That said, it’s possible to be a techno-optimist and still worry about whether the political will exists to move as fast as science demands. Those worries are exacerbated when we see actions like those reported in the New York Times this week, which revealed that the Trump administration is considering paying nearly $1 billion to a French wind developer to abandon two utility scale offshore wind projects that could provide enough electricity to power more than 1.3 million homes and businesses. Our EDF Action polling, along with research from others in the field, show that President Trump’s policies aren’t just senseless, they’re also bad politics. We didn’t test this newest revelation, but it’s hard to imagine voters supporting a plan to pay a foreign company a massive sum to do nothing, at a moment when energy demand is rising. I certainly don’t think they would.
As EDF Action also embarks on a strategic planning process, I’m hopeful that this process will help us better articulate what makes us unique and the value that we bring to EDF’s broader mission. A good example of that value is our recent Texas water infrastructure ballot initiative. It passed with support from 70% of Texans last November, thanks in large part to years of careful policy development by EDF and meaningful support from business leaders, including the Texas energy industry. When that foundation was paired with a sophisticated, timely advocacy campaign from EDF Action, it became a winning formula. It’s a powerful illustration of how EDF’s policy priorities become more achievable when they’re supported by our work at EDF Action. That’s why, even in a complicated political moment, I’m optimistic about the progress we can deliver.