Name: Impact Initiative 2023: Electrifying America With Stacey Abrams
Uploaded: 2023-09-13
Duration: 15 min 34 s
Description: Stacey Abrams, Former Minority Leader, Georgia House Interviewer: Alan Murray, Chief Executive Officer, FORTUNE

Stacey Abrams, Former Minority Leader, Georgia House Interviewer: Alan Murray, Chief Executive Officer, FORTUNE

Impact Initiative 2023: Electrifying America With Stacey Abrams

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So it was, it was about a year ago that President Biden signed the inflation reduction act into law. And one key part of that act was some pretty remarkable rebates for low and moderate income households. As it stands. If you make less than 80% of the area median median household income, you can be fully refunded for up to $1800 a year in home energy costs and appliance upgrades uh for this next session. I'm, I'm happy to be talking to uh author, former Georgia House minority leader Stacey Abrams who has thrown herself into the challenge of, of getting people to avail themselves of these new rebates in order to electrify everyone. Uh Let me welcome to the Sage Stacey Abrams. You got you. Good to see you. You have some fan. I see all of you may not know this, but the governor of Georgia is sitting about 200 ft away in the uh uh in the next room. I wonder if we should get him in and have a show. We did. Well, ok, we don't do politics here. So, um uh I, I wanted to, first of all, let me say it's an honor to have you here you are. And, and all of you may not know this. We all know a lot about Stacey Abrams role in the voting rights uh efforts. But she is a true polymath, a renaissance woman. Um uh not only uh house minority leader, first black woman to run for the Senate uh but also a novelist, a couple of novels. I've downloaded them. I've gotten started a little bit actually, 15 books. Everybody got that number, 15 books. So I, I just want your Amazon queue to be completely limited. I I I'm I'm starting with the most recent one. If that's ok. Um Available at your local bookstore. I learned backstage. She is uh a, a foodie, a chef um which we're not gonna talk about in the short time we have here. Uh But this uh rewiring America, your role in electrification is really interesting and we'd love to start by having you talk about that. What are you doing? Why are you doing it? Why is it important? So, 40 2% of all carbon emissions come from the household. So it's what you use to wash your clothes, how you heat your home, how you cook your food, what you drive. So 42% of the emissions come from the home. Some portion of the investment to address climate change should come to the home. And the inflation reduction act added $8.8 billion in direct rebates and tax credits that go to families. So basically in real money, real money, $1800 a year in what we call an electric bank account, it will yield, it will leverage that 8.8 billion will leverage $859 billion in commercial activity because people have to go and buy these machines. We're talking about 1 billion machines that need to be purchased for the home over the next 10 years. And my job is helping rewiring talk about how we get this done because most folks, especially the ones we're targeting low to moderate income families. They don't know or they don't believe. And if they know and believe they have a cost, there's a cost interference. The upfront cost for trying to do this, trying to wade through a tax credit, trying to figure out how to get your rebate is hard. It creates a friction that stops them from even starting. How do you eliminate that friction? So I'm glad you ask rewiring America. We've built a tool, an very simple online tool to start that just helps you understand what you get from the IRA. But what we're adding to it are additional tools that help you find a contractor, help you understand where to get those machines, let you know what your family can afford and how to get it. Uh The two challenges that we're very aware of. It's the upfront cost. And so we're working, uh, we're actually bidding for resources to help cover those costs for the, to find the upfront. Exactly. And we will help you get your credits later. And then we're also making sure that you understand what it means and how it changes the cost for your home. So for example, if you get a heat pump, we think heat pump means heat. It actually means air conditioning too. And if you remember the heat bubble that was in Oregon two years ago, that killed all those people because they've never had central ac this saves lives. And as we watch more extreme events take place across the country. This is a way that we can protect our families, protect our homes and protect our future. Is this full time for you? It is not, but it's not a simple path. It is not. Is it working? Are you getting people over that friction bump? We are. So we actually have demonstration projects outside of. So there's a lot of work that's already being done in California on the east coast. And so we're intentionally in places not there. So we're in the Midwest, the northwest, southwest and the southeast. Shockingly, I'm doing a few projects here in Georgia. The goal being to show people what this can mean and use it to demonstrate to others that there is a way to make this work for all families. The Inflation Reduction Act was obviously a game changer for this country. We have been a laggard in terms of policy on climate and suddenly left to the head of the pack, at least in terms of incentivizing action like the one you're talking about. But critics have said it has an awful lot of strings attached. Uh you know, on bigger projects. You have, you run into these uh uh local sourcing, native sourcing, national security concerns. Um You've got a lot of labor rules tied into that. It's not only complicated for, for the constituents you're talking about. It's kind of complicated for everybody, even big companies. It's an awful lot of strings, but it's an awful lot of money. We're talking about $278 billion that have already been let to suit 272 projects, 44 states and 170,000 jobs that we believe can be created across the country. And so with that in mind, the goal is to use this opportunity to learn how to create this, not just for the short term, but to create a long term transition in our economy that keeps up with the reality of environmental change. So you're, you're a fan. Yeah, I, I want to change the subject a little bit to another because you point out this is not your full time job. You are a polymath. You have a, I have uh uh fingers and more pies than you have fingers. Um uh uh Another thing that's been a topic of conversation over the last 24 hours among this group is the spate of lawsuits challenging a variety of corporate diversity efforts. I know you're talking to some people about defending those about what's going on there. What's your view of what's happening and what can the people in this room do to make sure that they're not subject to legal action? Well, let's start with the end in mind. There's no way to avoid being sued because it's working that the attacks on DE I are directly a response to the effectiveness of actually matching our commercial side and matching our economy to our populace. That's a native good. But there are those who are very resistant to it who would like to both ignore the past and I would say want to manufacture a false future where we disallow participation from communities that for so long were not included. But we also know it is lucrative companies that participate in de I make more money when you add people to the roster. I mean, let's go back to rewiring one of the things we know about the energy economy. We need 1.4 million additional people just to take on the jobs for the residential side of electrification. But if they can't be introduced into those apprenticeship programs, because they're targeting populations that are typically not participating, then we're never going to get the workforce we need. I would say that first of all. Thank you for those of you who are willing to engage. Thank you for your bravery. But also remember your bottom line, you make more money when more people can afford to use your products and when we improve access in this country, we improve the bottom line for everyone. Lawsuits are designed not for victory but for a chilling effect. And the chilling effect is when you decide to unilaterally disarm for fear of being attacked. I'm in politics. If you do that, you never go anywhere. Unilateral disarmament only works if you already have everything you need. But Stacy having said that nobody in this room, nobody in this room wants to be caught up in this legal fight. No one does and they don't want to be caught up in the political fight either. So are there things they can do to minimize the risk? You can't avoid the risk, minimize the risk. So the the challenge is that the risk is a fundamental attack. This is not a question of how do you game the system? It is a fundamental question of whether or not we are going to address inequity and diversity. They're attacking military academies. We know that the military was the first major institution to engage in desegregation. And one of the lawsuits is seeking to end access to military academies. We know that people of color are more likely to be enlisted, but they are less likely to go through the military academies and have the means of access. And so I would love to give you the, the fun answer which is, oh, just keep your, keep pride and you'll be fine. But this is actually a moment for action. This is a transformative moment where we can do right? And do well, we can do good and do well. At the exact same time, you can urge yourself by making sure that we're creating a new narrative. Part of the way they're winning is that those of us who agree are silent and not this community. But there are so many who are going silent hoping that if they just stand still and keep their mouth shut, no one will notice them. They've already found you, they know who you are. And so the issue is it is more important that we bind together that we use our philosophical premise, which is that we want to do. Well, I'm a small business owner. We can do well and do good. But we have to defend the fact that it makes sense that more people have access to the and dream and that's your fundamental. You know, it's really important that you're saying that I one theme I've heard over the last 24 hours uh from members of this group is, hey, we're, we're, we're doing all the same stuff we were doing before. We just aren't talking about it as much. You're saying there's a cost to not talking, there's a cost and you and I have a mutual friend who has just been sued, not because she, she didn't stop talking about it, but she didn't know anyone else was paying attention. And they found her. We know that when you are silent, silent is often seen as consent, we are agreeing to the attacks. We are agreeing that they are correct. If we do not push back and put, I mean, you guys know this silence when you're, when your competitor is putting their narrative into the air and you are silent, your competitor wins. And the same thing is true on D I, this is not about changing your value system. It's about articulating those values. That's a strong message. Anybody, any questions, anybody uh want to uh further clarification on that comment. You know, it's really ironic that I'm getting silence in that sense right here, please right here on the front table. Stacy. Thank you for your leadership. Um What can business leaders do with regards to rewiring America? Get their employees? I mean, absolutely. And, and, and when you're done, can you pass the microphone to this woman sitting right in front of me? So we get her question. Yeah, go ahead. So if you will sign up with, go to rewiring America, we're actually in the process of getting letters of support for our efforts. Find me, I'm, I'm right here. Uh But we are, we're going to ask employers because your employee, these, these, these rebates, they want this help. And so we will be creating a roundtable of businesses to help us push this information out. It makes it better for you because their costs go down and their money goes further. So we'd love to have your help. It's a great benefit. Yeah. Go ahead. Hi, Jackie Martin Fox Factory. I didn't have a question. I just want to thank you for your courage, your role model ship. If that's even a word and your resiliency, you said everything. I would imagine everyone here in this room wants to say and should be saying if not shouting from the rooftops. So thank you for that reminder of, of courage. Thank you. One of the ironies of this. Yeah, you got fans in this room. One of the ironies of this moment in sort of corporate history is companies are really stepping up and recognizing that things like climate change and inequity are existential problems for them in the long term. But I don't think they've gotten to the point where they realize that our political dysfunction is also an existential problem for them in the long term because so many CEO S who stand up on climate, stand up on, on social inequality, but say please, please, please don't get me involved in any kind of political debate. Uh uh because I don't know how to deal with it. I, I, and I understand the reticence but politics, politics is a stalker. Whether you want to be there or not, it's going to find you. So, my, my posture is, I don't have to have an opinion about everything, but when I believe something, I have to have an opinion about that. And I think the challenge is calibrating where your opinion matters and where it ties to your business. Bottom line. If what you do affects people and if what you're silent about will harm them, then you have the responsibility to speak up. It's well put. We were talking about that earlier. Quick question right here. Hi, Stacey. Thank you for everything that you do. So my question is going back to your combat action and voice and thinking about the lessons that corporate America learned in this, in their own racial awake awakening after George Floyd. So what would your advice be to corporate influencers frankly? Right. All these CEO S and C Suite leaders who have the podium and have the national ear, what can they learn from the, the actions they took in the voice that they use for George Floyd in this moment as we think about the future of diversity equity inclusion in 30 seconds or less. Talk about the successes. Right now, the narrative is only filled with the stories of failure or difficulty. We know that transformation is difficult. We know evolution is difficult. But when you tell the positive stories, it starts to create a counterbalance and that's where we start. Talk about how it's helped you improve your bottom line, how it's improved your workforce and how it improves your ability to deliver your product. When you start there, it creates an environment where more people can join to amplify the good and we can start to protect against the bad Stacey Evans. Great conversation. Thank you so much for joining us. That was our first standing ovation. No one gave me a standing ovation. Thank you, Peter. Ok. It's time for a break from the main stage conversations. You'll have about 30 minutes. Then we'll meet back here for our next conversations which will begin at 11 o'clock. When we come back, we'll kick off with a presentation and a demonstration from text on how they're using generative A I to remove biases from performance reviews. So you're going to want to want to be back in the room at 11 o'clock. Thank you.