Notes from the Electric Era is a newsletter about building a clean energy future from me, Leah Stokes! As the weeks and months go by, I’ll tell stories about clean energy and electrification progress, examining the policy and politics behind big changes.

You can expect stories informed by political science and public policy research, drawing on the latest energy statistics. I also hope to have some friends and colleagues contribute as well.

About Me

I have a PhD in Public Policy from MIT and currently serve as the Anton Vonk Associate Professor in Political Science at UC Santa Barbara. I’ve written several books on clean energy and climate policy, including The Carbon Wave, and the award winning Short Circuiting Policy, and have contributed to the anthologies All We Can Save and Not Too Late. My writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Los Angeles Times, The Guardian and elsewhere.

For more than two decades, I’ve been working on climate and energy policy, including championing billions of dollars in climate funding in the Inflation Reduction Act. I’ve been named an advocate on TIME100 Next, and as one of Business Insider’s top 30 global leaders working toward climate solutions.

I am also a co-host of the climate podcast A Matter of Degrees.

You can also find me on Bluesky.

Stay up-to-date

Never miss an update — if you subscribe, every new post will be sent directly to your email inbox. Subscribe to get full access to the newsletter and publication archives.

You can also find the newsletter at electricnotes.news.

Join the crew

The newsletter will be free. Participate in the comments section, or support this work with a subscription. This will also enable me to tell more stories and have other paid contributors write for the newsletter.