What Ted Lasso Can Teach Us About Climate Politics

To understand the big ideas about the energy transition in a new book by David Spence, a professor at the University of Texas School of Law, let’s start with a quote from the fictional soccer coach Ted Lasso:

“Be curious, not judgmental.”

Those words are often attributed to Walt Whitman, although there’s no record that the poet ever said that.

Spence cites Lasso’s advice as part of a larger argument about the need to engage with people and to avoid being caught in an ideological silo at a time when the country needs to build a durable majority in favor of a transition away from fossil fuels.

His new book, Climate of Contempt: How to Rescue the U.S. Energy Transition from Voter Partisanship, digs into the structural political and regulatory challenges that hinder the energy transition, and how a polarized media environment is a barrier to consensus.

But this is not a pessimistic book.

“We need to start talking to one another offline, or, if it’s online, across ideological and partisan boundaries, in patient, respectful and open-ended ways,” Spence said in an interview.

He urges a bottom-up view of the politics of the energy transition, in which the main obstacle is that many voters have been swayed by dubious information and economic fears. The antidote is not to demonize or mock people who have been swayed by bad information, but to genuinely engage with them, he said.

Admit it. Some of you rolled your eyes with that last sentence, and that’s part of the problem.

If more voters come to outwardly appreciate the benefits of the energy transition, it will give their elected officials more leeway to support policies that promote renewable energy, electric vehicles and limits on carbon emissions.

Spence is originally from the Rochester, New York, area. He typically votes for Democrats, and grew up with parents who were Democrats, but he was influenced by a New York political landscape in the 1970s that included moderate Republicans like Nelson Rockefeller, Jacob Javits and Frank Horton.

He has taught at the University of Texas since 1997, developing a specialty in the law as it applies to energy policy and regulation.

His book speaks my language. As a Midwesterner who covers the energy transition, I am struck by how often the national discussion led by climate and clean energy advocates excludes or is insensitive to the concerns of rural residents. For example, I see lots of talk about the need to develop vast amounts of wind and solar on farmland, but not enough about how to do it in a way that steers an appropriate share of financial benefits to people in host communities.

A larger issue is the perception in rural areas that the energy transition is being imposed on them by outside forces. This view creates fertile ground for bad actors to argue that renewable energy is harmful to health or will wreck the local economy.

I don’t mean “rural” to be a synonym for “conservative” or “Republican” in all cases, but as it applies to this debate, I’m talking about rural people who are likely to be conservative and vote Republican.

Spence makes it clear that a big part of the problem is misleading messages being aimed at conservative audiences. He also finds fault with a media landscape in which politically liberal audiences consume media that can make them more extreme in their views.

“The general problem,” he writes in the book, “is that when advocacy journalists frame their coverage so as to nudge their listeners and readers to political conclusions or to portray groups of adversaries as worthy of contempt, they undermine the kind of deep learning that comes from regular engagement with opposing viewpoints.” Spence sees this occurring more frequently outside of mainstream media outlets.

This made me think of how the Inflation Reduction Act, the landmark 2022 law, was greeted by some as a failure because it didn’t go far enough to protect the climate. This reaction perplexed me, seeing that this was not only the largest climate legislation in the history of the world, but also the best version of a climate bill that ever was going to pass, and barely did so.

Spence sees the bill as a deft bridging of policies supported by progressive Democrats that also won the support of Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, then a conservative Democrat and now an independent.

The IRA was a victory, but Manchin ended up being viewed as a villain by many on the political left for not supporting a more ambitious bill and for taking other socially conservative stances.

Spence notes that progressive commentators sought to explain Manchin’s reluctance as a matter of personal financial interests because of family business connections to the coal industry. In essence, they were saying Manchin was corrupt.

But to take such a view downplays the role of Manchin’s constituents in a state that relies on and supports fossil fuel industries and has shifted Republican in recent decades. 

Spence isn’t suggesting that people who want to take substantive action to address climate change should dial back their ambitions. But there needs to be greater thought given to how to accomplish this goal within the existing political system.

Or, as Manchin said in the heat of the debate that led to the IRA, if people want progressive policies, “all they need to do is … elect more liberals.”

This is hard for a number of reasons, including gerrymandering in the House and the way the Senate’s structure gives a sparsely populated state like Wyoming the same voting power as California.

The solution, I think, is not to toss up one’s hands and declare the other side to be a bunch of morons. It’s to engage and persuade, because building a durable majority in favor of climate action is going to have to include making more rural Americans into allies as opposed to adversaries.

Other stories about the energy transition to take note of this week:

How a Trump Presidency Could Undo Aspects of the Biden Administration’s Clean Energy Policies: A significant share of the money the Biden administration allocated for clean energy programs has not yet been spent, which provides an opening for a potential Trump administration to redirect the funds, as Kelsey Tamborrino, Timothy Cama and Jessie Blaeser report for Politico. But Trump would face some obstacles, including Republican officials who don’t want to jeopardize spending in their states. This story explains what Trump could do and which steps would be easiest for him to implement.

Democrats Work on Climate Messaging, Which Include Touting the IRA Without Saying ‘IRA’: A group of U.S. representatives have prepared a memo that describes how to talk about the achievements of legislation such as the Inflation Reduction Act by focusing on programs and projects without saying the names of laws or using wonky terms like “net-zero emissions,” as Emma Dumain reports for E&E News. Instead of using acronyms such as “IRA,” the memo says Democrats should use terms such as “clean energy plan,” “affordable energy plan” and “climate plan” in order to better explain the IRA’s benefits. 

GE Vernova Suspects ‘Manufacturing Deviation’ Was Behind Vineyard Wind Blade Failure: GE Vernova, the manufacturer and installation contractor for the Vineyard Wind turbine blade that broke last month, said the problem was due to a “manufacturing deviation—in this case, insufficient bonding,” as Diana DiGangi reports for Utility Dive. The company should have identified the problem with the blade before it was installed, and there is no indication that the issue is related to a design flaw, a GE Vernova spokesperson said. The blade failure, which dumped broken parts into the sea and onto Nantucket beaches, has been disastrous for the offshore wind industry at a time when it is trying to convince the public that the technology is safe and effective.

A California City Unveils the Nation’s First All-Electric Police Fleet: Officials in South Pasadena, California, say they are the first U.S. city to have an all-electric fleet of police patrol cars. The police department has phased out gasoline patrol cars and introduced a fleet of 20 Teslas, as Jaimie Ding reports for The Associated Press. Since police cars spend a lot of time idling, switching them to EVs brings the potential for substantial air quality benefits.

How to Power Your House With an Electric Car: An increasing number of EVs have the ability to export electricity to power the user’s house. Chris Teague writes for InsideEVs.com about which models offer this option and how it works.

Inside Clean Energy is ICN’s weekly bulletin of news and analysis about the energy transition. Send news tips and questions to [email protected].