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Series 4, Issue 6
​The week of March 30, 2020

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women in energy

Editor's Note:  It's unsettling to live through history.  It's hard to know what to say, harder still to know what to think. The tendency is to simplify ... binary options are comforting though not necessarily insightful. Should we shelter-in-place or exercise our freedoms and go out to dinner (yes and temporarily no)?  Should we hop on a plane or hunker down (no and yes)?
 
We've been through this before -- remember the anthrax scare that followed the 9/11 terrorist attacks? So, go easy on family and friends, co-workers and neighbors. Dare we say it -- go easy on presidents, presidential candidates and the media, too.
 
The media. Most don't know what to say. So they turn to tautology - the study and then statement of the obvious. Two examples seem most prevalent right now:
  • Coronavirus Creating [________] Industry 'Crisis'  (Fill-in-the-blank with any industry ... solar, oil, gas, etc.) 
  • Sustainability Loses Momentum as World Fights Coronavirus  (Emissions are down, "but not in the right way").
These are already tired stories and we are no smarter if we read them. If there is one new idea to consider, perhaps watch how the San Francisco Bay Area is responding to its aggressive "shelter-in-place" mandate - this could be a useful case study. It seems to be working, which might mean that the communities that take the difficult step of shutting down in the short-run may get control of COVID-19 -- and their economies -- in the long run. 
 
And let's remember: we can still make a better future, even in troubling times. During the global influenza pandemic of 1918 and the First World War, President Woodrow Wilson called on the US Senate to support the 19th Amendment to grant women the right to vote.
 
In honor of Women's History Month, we highlight some notable "Women in Energy."​

Vicki Hollub

​​Vicki Hollub became the first woman to lead a U.S. oil company in 2016 when she took over as president and CEO of Occidental Petroleum. Since then, she turned around a company that lost $1 billion in 2016 to a profit of $4.1 billion in 2018.

See also: Jessica Matthews: CEO Rising
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Emily Kirsch

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The founder of Powerhouse Ventures, Emily Kirsch, is often dubbed "the Oprah of Clean Energy." Her Oakland-based organization connects startups, corporations and investors to build clean energy systems that are decarbonized, democratized and digitized.
 
See also: Regina Mayor: Leading From the Front
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Lise Meitner

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Some say this forgotten woman of nuclear physics deserved the Nobel Prize. Meitner was the first to come up with the physical explanation of how nuclear fission could happen. It was a massive leap forward in nuclear physics, but she was excluded from the victory celebration because she was a Jewish woman.
 
See also: Nicole Poindexter: "Energy Is Life!"
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Bonus article for Premium Members
 
Let's Listen
 
Three podcasts with Women in Energy
 
Sunrun's Lynn Jurich
Nancy Pfund of DBL Partners
Opus 12's Etosha Cave

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