Jessica Lovering, Nuclear, California

Jessica Lovering is the executive director at Good Energy Collective. She lives in Santa Barbara, California. She’s been in the industry for 10 years.

Why is clean energy important to you? Air and water pollution have significant impacts on public health and the environment, but abundant energy is also critical to human well-being and progress. Developing abundant and affordable clean energy is therefore one of the most important issues of our time.

What’s your proudest accomplishment in clean energy? Honestly, completing my PhD in Engineering & Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University. Now I have the expertise and credibility to speak on complicated energy issues. Plus, having an eight-month-old daughter, and it's very important for me to feel like I'm making the world a better place for her generation.

What did you do before entering clean energy? I was a student working on an M.S. in Environmental Studies.

How did you first get introduced to clean energy? I cared deeply about climate change after living and working in Alaska. I saw the effects of wildfires, glacier retreat, beetle-kill, and permafrost melting. After taking a course on climate policy, I became interested in the technologies needed to reduce emissions.

How does clean energy impact your community? Nuclear energy currently provides 9% of California's electricity.

What is something you wish more people knew about your job? Nuclear energy will be critical for fully decarbonizing the global energy systems. And nuclear energy is a dynamic and innovative ecosystem with dozens of start-ups receiving private investments.

Why should Congress invest in clean energy jobs, not fossil fuel jobs? Clean energy employs a lot more people per unit of capacity. And in nuclear, those jobs are high-paying and they’re more likely to be union jobs. Investing in clean energy will make the economy more resilient to price shocks in the future, like those incurred by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.