Shah: Low-income customers pay 30% interest on electrification loans after gas bans
Jigar Shah · The make-or-break moment for America’s energy transition · Jan 19, 2023 · at 24:38
DOE Loan Programs Office Director Jigar Shah highlights implementation failures by cities banning natural gas without affordable financing for low- and moderate-income residents.
0:00 / 0:15exact quote · 15.9s
720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“How many cities have banned, you know, new natural gas hookups, right? But then the actual, like, implementation of figuring out how to help LMI customers with loans, right? Has fallen flat, and so LMI customers are paying an average of 30% interest when they want to, like, buy these things, right?”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Jigar Shah
Shah: NRC is not currently the primary bottleneck for nuclear
“I would say that having done this nuclear stuff for the better part of three years, I don't know of a single project that was hurt in any material way by the NRC. Right? So I do see the NRC being a bottleneck where we're building 10 reactors a year, but we're …”
Shah: Wildfire costs account for only 3-5% of PG&E rate hikes
“You know, what amounts to, I think, 15% rate increases every year for the last four years for PG&E because of uncontrolled distribution grade investments, and it's not wildfire related. Let's just be crystal clear. People call it wildfire. Three to four percen…”
Shah: No EPC contractor will provide a guaranteed price on AP1000
“I don't think any EPC contractor wants to wrap that thing and provide you a guarantee price, but whatever, you know.”
Shah: Solar and wind generated 36% annualized returns since 2007
“Most of us who've been in the solar and wind industry have generated 36% annualized returns every single year since we were in there from 2007.”
Shah: US transformer backlog stems from avoiding VPPs, not actual shortages
“This is why we have a three-year backlog on distribution transformers. It's not because we have a shortage of distribution transformers in this country. It's because everybody wants to fix the problem using 19 eighties approaches instead of virtual power plant…”
Shah: Oil and Gas Outspends Clean Energy 20 to 1 on Influence
“I think where we are today is that the clean energy industry in the United States, in all of its forms, invests roughly five hundred billion dollars a year but pays about two hundred million dollars a year in influence. The oil and gas industry invests about t…”