The Energy Optimist Episode 6: Career Reflections & Reasons for Hope from an Incoming Utility Regulator

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Episode Show Notes

Key Takeaways

1. Long-time Energy Optimist podcast host and former IREC Regulatory Vice President was appointed as a Commissioner on the New York Public Service Commission, the utility regulatory body for the state, earlier this year. Her last day with IREC was June 18, 2024. As a New York Public Service Commissioner, Valova will have significant authority in shaping New York's utility and clean energy markets and its ability to meet its ambitious climate change and clean energy targets as one of seven members of the Commission.
2. This interview, recorded prior to her first day as a utility Commissioner, explores Radina's career to date and her advice for others interested in following a similar path. We also discuss her strategies for maintaining a hopeful and constructive perspective in the face of sometimes challenging energy and climate news, and her personal reasons for optimism.
3. Highlights:
   • "…my first piece of advice… from a career perspective for lawyers in particular is if you have the opportunity to work with a smaller firm, go for it. I know larger firms can come with a bigger paycheck and can come with other advantages, but you're much less likely to get the breadth and depth of experience immediately after being admitted to the bar the way that you would with smaller firms."
   • "the biggest takeaway for me from [my career so far] has been that very few of us know, the moment we enter college or when we graduate, where we're going to land in our careers and there is very little sense in worrying about it because life has a way of offering opportunities and sending you in different directions that you could never have expected. And as long as you put in the work, and you're open to learning new skills, and then transferring those skills to wherever you go in the future, you can build a really solid career that way."
   • "my favorite quote to keep me optimistic is 'Just because you can't do everything, doesn't mean you shouldn't do anything.' No one can solve every single ill in the world, but we can all do something to make the world a better place, whatever issue you're working on."
   • "I think what gives me hope the most is knowing how far we've already come…. within the energy space. You have laws like New York's Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, like in Illinois, the Clean Energy Jobs Act. You have these very forward-thinking legislative actions that are shaping the way that we operate the energy system for the benefit of ratepayers, for the benefit of the environment, and energy equity-in a way that I don't think any of us could have imagined, you know, 10, 15, 20 years ago. I think if you had asked advocates back then, do you think you're likely to see many states across the country adopting ambitious laws like the CLCPA or like CEJA, they probably would have said, 'No, it doesn't, it doesn't seem possible.' But now here we are, and more and more states are doing that. So I think for me, I have hope because I see what we've already managed to accomplish."

Resources and Further Readings

1. This 2016 white paper from the New York State government provides an overview of the state's Reforming the Energy Vision (REV) process, an effort to transform energy regulation in the state, with stated goals that included achieving the following by 2030: a 40% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from 1990 levels; 50% of New York State's electricity generation coming from renewable energy sources, and a 23% decrease in energy consumption of buildings from 2012 levels.
2. This ABC news article provides additional context on environmental activist Erin Brockovich.
3. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the United Nations body for assessing the science related to climate change. The IPCC prepares comprehensive Assessment Reports about the state of scientific, technical and socio-economic knowledge on climate change, its impacts and future risks, and options for reducing the rate at which climate change is taking place. Its reports can be viewed on its website.
4. Learn more about the book Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer in this NPR interview with the author, which also includes a link to purchase the book.
5. On July 18, 2019, the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA) was signed into law. It is among the most ambitious climate laws in the nation and requires New York to reduce economy-wide greenhouse gas emissions 40 percent by 2030 and no less than 85 percent by 2050 from 1990 levels. This page on the State of New York's website provides additional information on the law.
6. Illinois' Climate and Equitable Jobs Act (CEJA), Public Act 102-0662, was passed by the General Assembly and signed into law by Governor Pritzker on September 15, 2021. CEJA includes provisions to phase out carbon emissions from the energy and transportation sectors. It directs the Illinois EPA to establish rebate and grant programs for electric vehicles and charging stations and oversee the phase-out of fossil fuel-fired electrical generation units. Learn more about the law on the Illinois EPA's website.

Episode Transcript

Gwen Brown, IREC Communications Vice President and podcast host: Hello, and welcome to The Energy Optimist, where we start with the bad news and end with what increasingly feels like a radical idea, that there are reasons for optimism.

The Energy Optimist is produced by the Interstate Renewable Energy Council, or IREC, an independent nonprofit that's been building the foundation for the rapid adoption of clean energy and energy efficiency for more than 40 years.

Each episode, we tackle a thorny energy policy challenge in bite-sized interviews with leading experts. If you're totally new to energy policy, we'll demystify it for you. If you're a seasoned practitioner, we'll hopefully leave you with renewed optimism to keep doing the work to improve our energy system. Because hope is the fuel for change.

If you've listened to the podcast before, you may notice a new voice this week! I'm Gwen Brown, IREC Vice President of Communications, and I'm excited to share that I will be taking over as the new host of the Energy Optimist.

When this podcast launched last year, it was led by my former colleague Radina Valova, IREC's Regulatory Vice President. A couple of months ago, Radina got some very exciting career news which is part of why this podcast has been on a bit of a hiatus.

In June, Radina was appointed as a Commissioner on the New York Public Service Commission, the utility regulatory body for New York. In this role, she will work to deliver on the Commission's mandate of ensuring electricity safety, reliability, affordability, and achieving New York's energy and climate goals. Her last day at IREC was June 18.

This was of course a bittersweet moment for our team. We were sad to lose Radina as a colleague, but also very heartened to know that the people of New York will get to benefit from her commitment to advancing the public interest through sound energy regulatory policy. And we're proud to see Radina's electricity and clean energy regulatory expertise recognized in this way.

Although Radina is no longer with IREC, we are excited to continue to host the Energy Optimist podcast and strive to build her vision for this show to demystify energy policy issues, with a focus on reasons for optimism.

Before Radina's last day, she and I took some time to sit down for a transition episode. This episode that you'll be listening to today is a bit different from our normal policy-based interviews, focusing more on how Radina got to this point in her career, and what makes her optimistic about our energy policy trajectory. I hope you enjoy the discussion!

Next episode we'll be back to our usual format of tackling thorny energy policy topics. And if there's an energy policy question on your mind, or topic you want to understand better, please feel free to send episode topic suggestions to us at [email protected]!

Let's jump in!

Gwen: It's not every day that we have a confirmed utility commissioner on hand. So for today's episode, we have decided to shift gears a little bit and take some time for a more personally focused interview that explores how you got to where you are today and what advice you might have for others who are inspired to follow a similar path. And of course, we'll end with what gives you hope because, as you have so eloquently put it, hope is the fuel for change.

Radina Valova: I'm really looking forward to our conversation. Thank you.

Gwen: Of course, our regular listeners already know you as IREC's Regulatory Vice President and as the host of the Energy Optimist podcast. But now that you are our guest, I would be remiss if I didn't give you a proper introduction that covers some of your accolades.

As we noted earlier, Radina Valova is now a confirmed Utility Commissioner on the New York Public Service Commission. She will be officially starting in that capacity later this month. But at the time of this recording, and since 2020, Radina has been IREC's Vice President for the regulatory team at IREC, providing strategic direction and oversight of our state regulatory team which facilitates policies and regulatory reforms that allow more communities to benefit from clean, renewable energy.

Prior to joining IREC, Radina served as Senior Staff Attorney and Regulatory Affairs Manager for the Pace Energy and Climate Center in White Plains, New York, where she led the Center's engagement in New York's Reforming the Energy Vision, developed policy solutions for decarbonizing the building sector, and pushed for clean and affordable energy for low- and moderate-income communities.

Radina is a graduate of the Elizabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University with JD certificates in Environmental and International Law and an LLM in Land Use and Sustainable Development. She taught Energy Law at Pace and has a strong commitment to training the next generation of energy and climate advocates.

So happy to have you as a guest, Radina. Let's jump right into our interview.

Gwen: So in a few of the previous episodes that you've hosted, you've covered energy regulation in America and the significant impact that utility regulators play in shaping our energy landscape-even though those positions are very much behind the scenes in terms of public awareness of them.

Very few people in America have the opportunity to hold these impactful positions. And that's not only because they require very specialized knowledge, but also because there's really only a handful of these positions available in each state, and they only become available every few years. And typically they require nomination from the state's governor or election by the public.

So for listeners that might aspire to such a role, can you tell us about your career path and how you got to this exciting moment in your career? Particularly, how did you get started in this field? And are there any pivotal decision points that stand out to you?

Radina: That is such a great question, and I hope my answer will be helpful to current students, recent graduates, or folks looking to make a pivot in their careers.

The short answer is I had no idea when I first started my journey in environmental work that I would be here. I've had a passion for environmental work for as long as I can remember, and I entered law school thinking that I would be the next Erin Brockovich, which I quickly found is not the work for me.

So I ended up redirecting into energy. I was lucky to go to, uh, Pace Law School where even in 2012 and 2013 they were already offering energy law as a course. They were leaders in the environmental law field, always have been-I believe they're now the number one ranked environmental law program in the country, I think at the time they were number three, so always at the top-for this reason, because they were always forward thinking. And that course just set me on this path.

I realized this is a topic that is absolutely fascinating both in terms of the individual issues that come up within regulating the energy system, as well as the fact that energy is one of the core necessities of our modern life. We cannot go about our lives or our businesses without it, similarly to water.

And so I ended up, after I graduated with my certificate in environmental and international law, staying on at Pace with a fellowship for one year during which I had the opportunity to work part-time at the Pace Energy and Climate Center as a fellow and had a tremendous experience.

And at the end of that fellowship, they did not have a full-time position to take me on. So I was left with the question of, "Well, what now?" And for a couple of years, I worked in commercial litigation, which is not something that was at all remotely something that I had wanted to do as a lawyer. I didn't want to be a litigator in the courtroom, I wanted to work on policy. And lo and behold, I ended up loving it.

I worked for a small firm that represented predominantly small business owners who had found themselves in difficult situations. And being able to make an impact in someone's life through just good lawyering practices ended up being super, super rewarding. We also did some mortgage foreclosure defense. So again, just helping people.

And because it was a small firm, I was thrown to the wolves as they say. My first day after being admitted, I was in court and I got to do everything from drafting appeals to doing discovery, to motion practice-basically everything that you would want to get experience in as a lawyer.

So my first piece of advice, I think, from a career perspective for lawyers in particular is if you have the opportunity to work with a smaller firm, go for it. I know larger firms can come with a bigger paycheck and can come with other advantages, but you're much less likely to get the breadth and depth of experience immediately after being admitted to the bar the way that you would with smaller firms.

And then from there, I kept in touch with my former colleagues at Pace Energy and Climate Center. I volunteered to work on a report on clean air law. And I came to my mentor one day and said, "I'm looking to transition back into the energy and environmental field, do you know, anyone who's hiring?" and he said, "Well, we are."

So it was very much a right place, right time moment. That's how I got my foot back in the door with the energy work. I was at Pace for five years as staff attorney and then senior staff attorney. And got to work on pretty much every issue touching utility regulation in New York at the time-both clean energy, as well as traditional utility regulation through rate cases.

And after my time at Pace, I joined IREC, which again, is not something that I had foreseen doing. I don't know that I ever saw myself being in a vice president position running a program. When I was at Pace, for a long time I thought I would always work on the litigation side. Once I fell in love with litigating, I couldn't get enough of it. And I wouldn't have known that I loved it if I hadn't happened upon the law firm that I worked for.

And at IREC, it's been such an amazing experience because I've developed a different set of skills, working with engineers, developing a deeper policy and technical understanding of the engineering foundations for safe and reliable grid operation.

And I will close all of this by saying that the biggest takeaway for me from this experience has been that very few of us know, the moment we enter college or when we graduate, where we're going to land in our careers and there is very little sense in worrying about it because life has a way of offering opportunities and sending you in different directions that you could never have expected.

And as long as you put in the work, and you're open to learning new skills, and then transferring those skills to wherever you go in the future, you can build a really solid career that way.

And I do want to close with a recognition of the fact that I have certain inherent privileges in my life as a white woman, and not everyone's hard work is recognized in the same way in the workplace. We do know that there are systemic inequalities in salaries for black women, for example, and, with the opportunity for upward mobility. So I think that is also important to recognize. I'm not undercutting the fact that I've worked hard. I'm not undercutting the fact that I've had amazing mentors who've lifted me up in this profession, but I do think it's important to recognize the role that privilege plays in advancing in any field.

Gwen: Yeah, that's a really important caveat. Thank you so much for kind of walking us through your career so far. Even having, you know, read your bio many times, I learned a lot about some of the different avenues that brought you to where you are today.

I'm going to shift gears a little bit. And one of the things that I really admire about this podcast and the framework that you've created for it, as well as your approach personally, is your commitment to optimism.

A lot of us working in the space of clean energy and climate change are confronting pretty heavy topics on a regular basis. And I'm wondering, do you have any advice for our listeners on how you manage what can sometimes seem like a constant barrage of negative or scary news on climate and the environment? And, how you manage your feelings and do something constructive with them?

Radina: I love this question, and I think this is at the heart of a lot of the work that we all do, both individually as people and within our organizations, is how we go about our daily work with so many weighty issues that we're trying to tackle.

I'll start at the very, very meta high level and say that my favorite quote to keep me optimistic is "Just because you can't do everything, doesn't mean you shouldn't do anything." No one can solve every single ill in the world, but we can all do something to make the world a better place, whatever issue you're working on.

Taking it down now to the super micro level in terms of daily habits and the way that I manage absorbing information, I tend to have a practice of reading the trade news that is important for any of us working in this space to be aware of, on a day to day basis. There are lots of great newsletters and resources and journals, magazines to do that from. That's things like, you know, what's happening in the regulatory space across the country-the more day to day activity within the energy sphere.

And then there's the bigger news around what's happening with the climate-with the Intergovernmental Panel and Climate Change reports, with what we're seeing with the shrinkage of the ice caps on the poles, those kinds of big, often very disturbing news. That news I consume in a very targeted and intentional way.

I do not open my news apps except on Sunday mornings. I have a little ritual where I pour myself a cup of coffee and I sit down on the couch. And it's basically a very intentional consumption of news, where you're accepting that for a period of time it's going to be uncomfortable, but you want to be aware. So that's my more practical, day to day advice.

And then in terms of managing the emotions, I have to be honest over time, I have just naturally gravitated away from thinking about the big picture too much, whether it's climate change or the energy affordability crisis or energy access and reliability, whatever it may be, I tend to just put my head down and focus on doing the work, knowing that again, no one single person can just wave a magic wand and change everything for the better in a single moment.

I think going back to that quote, "Just because you can't do everything doesn't mean you shouldn't do anything," is what can really help us keep going. And for me, doing anything means doing my job and doing it as well as I can and trusting that it's going to have a positive impact.

Gwen: Thank you so much, that was a really great answer. And, on your news tip, I think that is a really great actionable approach. I think I might have to adopt that myself because I know, if I find myself looking at headlines early in the morning before I start work, sometimes that can just be, you know, not the right way to start your day. So I think the idea of being really intentional about how you consume some of those difficult topics, I think is really great.

And I loved also what you said about not worrying too much about thinking about the big picture all the time. Um, I think that's kind of a nice way to sort of strike a balance between focusing on the actions and the impacts that you can have on a personal level, and sort of, letting go of the things that you can't control and just trying to do your part. So, I really love that quote that you shared with us.

Kind of related to the same topic, I'm curious, if there are any books, movies, TV shows, or other content like that that you've found particularly helpful in providing a hopeful or constructive lens on energy and climate issues.

Radina: Yeah, there are. I would say more on the constructive side than the hopeful side because I tend to consume books, movies, and TV shows that are thrillers or, you know, dystopian stories. That just is what I gravitate to in my free time, it's what I enjoy reading and watching.

They do all have, I think-the stories that I like to read-have Hollywood happy endings, typically. Some of them don't. Most of them do. So there, there is hope. It's just not necessarily, "big H" hope, where all of a sudden all the ills in the world are okay. They're just okay in the context of whatever those characters are experiencing.

So one example of that, that combines, both hope for the characters, as well as the opportunity to process these complex emotions around the really big issues, is Annihilation. And the title might make you think, is this really going to give me hope if we're talking about annihilation? And oddly enough, the answer, for me at least, is yes. It's a book by Jeff VanderMeer.

He is a writer who tells really fascinating stories, often with some sort of a science fiction element, that are very rooted in nature. And at the same time, they're still incredibly thrilling. Annihilation, when I first read the blurb on the back of the book, I said to myself, "How is this not a movie yet?" Well, a couple years later, it was made into a movie, because it's such a good story line, in addition to being very thoughtful and raising some really profound questions around how, we as humans, as individuals, grapple with issues that are larger than we can truly absorb. If you think about something like climate change, you're talking about global shifts at a seismic scale that I don't think any of us can truly appreciate or truly imagine or grasp.

And this book deals with the characters confronting a similarly vast and ungraspable issue. And in a sense, it is the annihilation of one's expectation of being able to control that issue. It's letting go of the expectation that, again, we have that magic wand and can just make everything okay. It is how you find a way to ground yourself in the midst of a stormy sea.

And so even though it's not this super chipper story, I find it very healing in a way and very helpful because it allowed me-through the experiences of the characters-to find a pathway for me confronting my own feelings around climate change, and the other really big issues, in a constructive way.

Gwen: That sounds like such an interesting book. I'm definitely going to have to check that out. Thank you so much, Radina.

You've talked a lot about, like, how that kind of content can sort of give you a different way of looking at things, and I think that's a nice segue into our last question, which, as our regular listeners know is our consistent last interview question for all of our episodes:

What gives you hope?

Radina: I think what gives me hope the most is knowing how far we've already come. And I tend to be a pretty data-driven person. That is how I make decisions in my own life, that is how I have conducted myself professionally, is just make sure that you are developing policy and making decisions based on good data.

And the data in this case that I'm thinking of is the record of success and progress that we have behind us. I just think about the fact that prior to the sixties and seventies, there were none of the foundational environmental laws that we have now.

And now we have them, and we've continuously built upon them. And yes, sometimes they have been weakened by administrations, but the fact is at one point they did not exist. And we have greater protections of our waterways and of our air than we did before they were passed.

And similarly within the energy space. You have laws like New York's Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, like in Illinois, the Clean Energy Jobs Act. You have these very forward-thinking legislative actions that are shaping the way that we operate the energy system for the benefit of ratepayers, for the benefit of the environment, and energy equity-in a way that I don't think any of us could have imagined, you know, 10, 15, 20 years ago.

I think if you had asked advocates back then, do you think you're likely to see many states across the country adopting ambitious laws like the CLCPA or like CEJA, they probably would have said, "No, it doesn't, it doesn't seem possible." But now here we are, and more and more states are doing that. So I think for me, I have hope because I see what we've already managed to accomplish.

I recognize that it's not enough and that we can do better still-in terms of greater energy affordability, greater reliability of the energy system with better energy services, and certainly driving more aggressively towards climate change mitigation and towards energy equity. So this is not at all to say that our work is done and we can call it a day, but I do have hope seeing how far we've already come.

And I will close by saying I think it's very easy for us to forget how much progress we've already made because we know how much more we're capable of and how much better we can make things.

So if you ever feel hopeless or if you ever feel, um, some degree of impatience with the slowness at which things are progressing, I think that impatience is good if it keeps driving you towards continuous improvements, just don't forget that we are here because of all the progress that we've made thus far.

Gwen: I love that. Thank you, Radina. Yeah, I agree. I think it's very easy to be caught up in seeing how much more we have to do and forget how much has already been achieved.

I know I think about that a lot in the context of like the solar industry and other clean energy industries that barely existed, you know, just a couple of decades ago. So I think that's a great perspective.

Thank you so much for sharing your insights today. And of course, more broadly, for all of the important contributions that you've made to IREC and the clean energy and climate space so far.

It's been a true pleasure both to interview you today and to work closely with you over the last four years. Thank you for creating this platform for exploring these thorny energy policy issues, and for bringing optimism into our clean energy and climate work.

I'm really honored to have the opportunity to try to continue in your footsteps with these important conversations, and I'm so excited to continue to follow your work as you join the New York Public Service Commission.

Radina: Thank you so much, Gwen. This has been such a delightful opportunity to reflect and it has been such a pleasure working with you. Thank you for all you do to tell the story of energy and the clean energy transition. And I look forward to seeing all the wonderful things you do with the podcast~~~~

This episode of the Energy Optimist was produced and recorded by Gwen Brown, and edited by the team at Podcast Engineers. Graphic design was provided by Nicole Wilson and Megan Berry. If you enjoyed this episode of the Energy Optimist, subscribe to our email announcements about new episodes by visiting irecusa.org/TheEnergyOptimist. Or you can find us on your favorite podcast streaming service.

Click here to explore other episodes of The Energy Optimist podcast!

Gwen Brown

Gwen Brown is IREC's Vice President of Communications. She oversees IREC's communications and outreach to promote awareness of IREC's programs and resources.