From The Texas Energy and Power Newsletter’s Energy Capital podcast with its host, Doug Lewin. Story by Nathan Peavey

For this episode, I talked with former North Carolina Representative and CEO of the Conservative Energy Network John Szoka. John’s a veteran, a conservative Republican, and businessman. He’s committed to clean energy not despite his conservative principles, but because of them.

John is focused on helping policymakers and business leaders understand the economic and national security benefits of clean energy. John talks about renewable energy, batteries, and distributed energy resources in terms of competition, innovation, affordability, security, and local empowerment.

We talked about how the United States needs to learn to build again. One major obstacle we kept coming back to was permitting reform. While often overlooked, it’s one of the biggest barriers to building the energy infrastructure we need. 

Even when there’s alignment on transmission planning and market coordination, projects still get stuck in years-long approval processes. Szoka makes a compelling case that these delays hurt both the economy and the environment—and that streamlining permitting can, and should, be a bipartisan priority.

Szoka also shared his perspective on how the U.S. can lead globally by accelerating the deployment of advanced technologies—like next-generation nuclear and high-voltage transmission—while supporting domestic manufacturing and workforce development. It’s a vision grounded in John’s conservative values, aimed at national competitiveness and long-term reliability.

We also touched on the Inflation Reduction Act, the growing demand from data centers, and how America can maintain and extend its energy leadership while bolstering its commitment to resilience and innovation. John brings a clear-eyed view of what it means to balance innovation with practicality and how conservative leadership can play a key role in making the energy transition work.

At a time when energy debates often get stuck in zero-sum framing, this conversation is a reminder that clean, reliable, and affordable energy isn’t a partisan goal—it’s a national one. We need more people like John: grounded in experience, open to evidence, and focused on what works.

As always, thank you for listening, and please share the episode and/or leave us a 5-star review wherever you listen to podcasts. Thank you!

Related: Five clear-eyed reasons for conservatives to support solar

The preceding article originally appeared on April 3, 2025 at The Texas Energy and Power Newsletter’s Energy Capital podcast and is made available here for educational purposes only. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 106A-117 of the U.S. Copyright Law. Any views or opinions expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Carolina Leadership Coalition.