Executive Q&A: Sam Evans-Brown, Executive Director, Clean Energy New Hampshire

An NPR-reporter-turned-clean-energy-champion is the focus of our Executive Q&A series today. (Do you know someone who should be featured in a future edition of the Echo Chamber newsletter? Reply to this email to let us know.)

Today we’re featuring Sam Evans-Brown, executive director of Clean Energy New Hampshire.

About Sam: Sam grew up in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire. Prior to joining Clean Energy New Hampshire (CENH) in 2021 he was a radio journalist with New Hampshire Public Radio for nearly ten years.

During that time, he was the founding host of one of the station’s first podcasts, Outside/In, and answered listeners environmental questions every other Friday on the Ask Sam segment. He wrote stories about New England energy issues extensively and won several regional and national awards.

He’s an excellent bike mechanic, a certified Spanish medical interpreter, and a father of two. Sam graduated with a B.A. from Bates College in Politics and Spanish in 2009.

We spoke with Sam over email last week:

  How did you get into the climate world and end up leading Clean Energy New Hampshire?

Sam Evans-Brown: Prior to taking my job at CENH, I spent 10 years as a journalist and podcast host at New Hampshire Public Radio. I frequently joke that this period was basically an opportunity to get a PhD in the environmental movement broadly and the politics of climate change in New Hampshire specifically.

After a decade of doing radio journalism, I started to feel like I was becoming a little too opinionated to be able to approach my work with the “journalistic remove” that I felt I needed to appropriately perform my duties as a reporter.

That’s when I saw the job opening at Clean Energy NH. CENH had always been the organization that I would turn to when I wanted to know what was happening and wanted an organization that wouldn’t lie to me about the facts.

It was also the type of advocacy that I think we desperately need in the climate space. For too long the environmental movement has attempted to get people to act on climate change by making sacrifices in order to reduce emissions. Too many policy packages have focused on making energy more expensive in order to discourage its use.

Years of talking to more conservative folks (and frankly just regular folks, too) taught me that the sacrifice approach was deeply off-putting to a huge swath of Americans, and is particularly alienating for conservatives.

What I believe we need is a frame of abundance regarding the solutions that we have to offer. Don’t focus on how a more efficient home uses less energy, talk about how it’s a healthier, more affordable living space. Don’t focus on how EVs have shorter range than gas cars, talk about their superior performance and their potential to serve as a source of backup power for your house. Don’t focus on how expensive rooftop solar is up front, talk about how solar is now the cheapest form of energy in human history and is being deployed faster than any energy resource ever. These are messages that resonate with more types of people.

 What is the biggest challenge facing advocates for advancing clean energy?

SEB: Incumbent industries that are threatened by the energy transition are very good at crafting messages that plant the seeds of doubts in people’s minds. Those doubts are often easiest to spread amongst those who should be aligned with us, too.

The abundance agenda has become a dirty word for some on the far left, because those who would seek to slow the transition have successfully coupled it with concerns about overconsumption. Those who have been pushing for “degrowth” for decades are now seeking to repudiate the “green growth” model that I believe is the only effective path forward.

I can’t say how many times I’ve heard specious concerns about the impacts of lithium mining raised by both well-meaning liberals and by conservatives who used to worry themselves about the impacts of coal mining.

These messages are effective because we are comfortable in our lives, and find it easier to accept misinformation that says “the status quo is better than the alternative” than to challenge ourselves to change. The solution to this is the same as the solution to the overarching clean energy challenge: we need to demonstrate that the future is better.

Just like how Americans ditched horses and buggies for cars, they will come to our solutions when they see they are unequivocally an improvement in their standard of living.

 What’s the biggest risk you’ve ever taken?

SEB: Taking this job. I had a pretty sweet gig that I could have stayed in for 25 years and been perfectly happy. It was great work, which satisfied my curiosity, and in which I was surrounded by great coworkers.

The reason I made the jump to advocacy was because I wanted to feel like I was doing something more tangible. When you spend weeks crafting a beautiful podcast episode and send it out into the void, it can be extremely difficult to know what impact it has.

In my new role, my impact is very real and measurable. It’s a lot harder work, but it’s genuinely more fulfilling to see how the policies we work on and the projects we assist communities in completing are changing the world.

 What’s something about you that might surprise people?

SEB: I’m a gringo who speaks Spanish to my kiddos. I lived in Spanish speaking countries when I was younger, and got certified as a medical interpreter before landing in journalism, but never really used my Spanish professionally.

The ability to comprehend another language was a gift I could give my kids, and so my wife and I early on made the decision that I would speak to them exclusively in Spanish. It’s been a challenge to keep it up, but to date it’s been an extremely [worthwhile] one to take on each day.

Know someone who should be featured? Email us: [email protected]. 

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