Heather O’Neill shares Advanced Energy United’s playbook for making progress in clean energy despite federal headwinds.
Heather O’Neill’s career in energy started in a pretty unusual place: working for a Republican billionaire. But in 2004 she joined the Robertson Foundation as a program officer just as it was exploring clean energy investments.
In 2012, Heather joined Advanced Energy United — an industry association that promotes grid-scale and distributed energy innovations — to focus on state-level and regional energy policy. Today, she leads the organization as president and CEO.
This week on With Great Power, Heather O’Neill reflects on some state-level clean energy policy wins from an otherwise dark 2025. She describes Advanced Energy United’s strategies for supporting policy in 2026, and explains why she’s focused on the 36 gubernatorial races and midterm elections in the coming year.
Credits: Hosted by Brad Langley. Produced by Mary Catherine O’Connor. Edited by Anne Bailey. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand. Stephen Lacey is executive editor. The GridX production team includes Jenni Barber, Samantha McCabe, and Brad Langley.
Brad Langley: Like all of us, Heather O'Neill watched energy issues dominate the headlines in 2025 and not in a good way.
Heather O'Neill: You can't open up a paper or listen to a podcast without hearing energy issues pop up.
Media clip: Electricity prices are surging more than twice as fast as the inflation rate. Americans are getting sticker shock. Nearly 60 utility companies are set to increase rates this year.
Brad Langley: By now, we all know what's behind the headlines: spiking load growth driven by new data centers and electrification, plus the cost of maintaining an aging grid that's often ravaged by storms or fires. But instead of supporting efforts to add clean generation to the grid, the Trump administration rolled back incentives for wind and solar last year.
Heather O'Neill: There's a set of advanced energy solutions that are available now. They're deployable. They're going to help reduce some pressure on the grid and they're going to ease some of the affordability concerns. And I think some of the actions that we're seeing out of this administration are throttling … are shutting down avenues to opening up those resources.
Brad Langley: And the Department of Energy is using emergency orders to keep coal plants running beyond planned retirements. Heather says that just adds to the affordability crisis.
Heather O'Neill: The DOE's actions are actually feeding the crisis as opposed to solving a crisis.
Brad Langley: Right now, the headwinds of the clean energy transition in the US are substantial. But as the president and CEO of Advanced Energy United, Heather is undeterred.
Heather O'Neill: I'm mission-driven right at my core. So I am incredibly motivated and energized by the set of issues I'm working on, which for the last couple of decades has been clean energy and climate.
Brad Langley: Heather lives in California these days, but she has deep roots in another coastal state that's feeling the impacts of climate change acutely.
Heather O'Neill: So I'm a third generation Floridian. My folks still live there and my maternal grandfather owned citrus groves. So I grew up riding in the back of his pickup truck through rows of orange trees. So the connection to the natural landscape, to the environment was, I think, just part and parcel of my childhood.
Brad Langley: Heather wasn't always drawn to science and technology. She describes herself early on as more of a liberal arts, government, history type of person. She graduated from Harvard with a poly-sci degree in 1992, then started a career in healthcare. It wasn't until 2004 that she made a hard pivot, becoming a program officer for a family foundation established by the hedge fund manager and philanthropist, Julian Robertson.
Heather O'Neill: This family had a nascent interest in climate and clean energy solutions. And I was able to dive in and learn from experts in the field and then really build out and lead a grantmaking portfolio and strategy.
Brad Langley: During her seven years at the foundation, climate change conversation and debate around how to respond to it entered the mainstream and the halls of Congress.
Heather O'Neill: The early 2000s, there was this moment of time where you had really bipartisan interest in market-based policy solutions for tackling climate and scaling clean energy.
Brad Langley: The Waxman-Markey bill would've established a national cap and trade system and advanced cleaner energy solutions. In 2009, it passed the House, but it died in the Senate.
Heather O'Neill: Momentum on the federal level came to what felt like a screeching halt, and we saw just no ability in DC to move forward-looking policy around clean energy.
Brad Langley: Heather began pondering her next move. She had seen firsthand that clean energy innovations were accelerating, but she knew they needed favorable policy to gain traction.
Heather O'Neill: Policy is such a high leverage opportunity, particularly around big, complex societal issues like our energy system, like climate.
Brad Langley: So in 2012, she joined Advanced Energy United, an industry association that promotes grid scale and distributed energy innovations. Six years later, she would become president. And in 2023, she was named CEO.
Heather O'Neill: Our north star is 100% clean energy, and so it's really any technology, product, or service that is going to allow us to scale clean energy and move us towards that North Star.
Brad Langley: Since its founding in 2011, Advanced Energy United, also known as United, has focused on state level and regional energy policy.
Heather O'Neill: That's where energy decisions, energy investments, energy policies are being made day in, day out.
Brad Langley: This is With Great Power, a show about the people building the future grid today. I'm Brad Langley. Some people say utilities are slow to change, that they don't innovate fast enough. And while it might not always seem like the most cutting edge industry, there are lots of really smart people working really hard to make the grid cleaner, more reliable, and customer-centric.
Today, my guest is Heather O'Neill, president and CEO of Advanced Energy United. We spoke back in late December at the end of a challenging year for clean energy policy to put it mildly, but Heather is focused on the long game.
Heather O'Neill: At United, we talk about the importance of sustained engagement, right? That we have boots on the ground really working every step of the policy process.
Brad Langley: And she talked about some state level policy wins last year, including one in Illinois that put the cost of energy front and center.
Heather O'Neill: The Clean and Reliable Grid Affordability Act, a set of energy efficiency, virtual power plant, rate design solutions, community solar, that give you some tangible tools that can reduce the peak demand, reduce bills.
Brad Langley: All while the state also adds three gigawatts of utility scale battery storage. So I asked Heather about policy and technology priorities for United and its member companies going into 2026.
Heather O'Neill: We have, I think, three simple messages to state policymakers: “Build it, make it flexible, make it affordable.” And so “build it” is pretty self-explanatory. We have to remove regulatory roadblocks and we have to be able to build. And so that is reforming siting, permitting, interconnection and procurement, both on the... It's generation and transmission development. It's making sure that state leaders are able to accelerate least-cost energy projects so that they're able to meet the compressed federal incentive timelines that are now in place. So there's a number of initiatives and work that would fit within that. On “make it flexible,” how can we get more out of the existing system? How can we make demand more flexible? So that's scaling up distributed energy resources, energy efficiency, virtual power plants, and advanced vehicle and building electrification solutions, whether that's through a state program, a plan or a rate.
Also, advanced transmission technologies fit into this. Can we get more out of the existing transmission system? And then with “make it affordable,” this is where states and regulators have a strong role to play because we can make sure that our public utilities are planning, optimizing, and delivering the right types of energy investment at the lowest possible cost. So there are a number of affordability packages in state legislatures in pretty much every region of the country that we're working on helping shape and influence so that we can really meet the moment with our technologies.
Brad Langley: Virtual power plants are obviously a very hot topic and you mentioned them just there. Are you seeing any specific examples of VPPs that are really effectively addressing load growth quickly? Any kind of best practices that you're seeing worth discussing as it pertains to VPPs?
Heather O'Neill: I think there's no cookie cutter answer here. And so I think the state environment matters, the regulatory environment matters, all of that, and you know that for sure. But I think making sure that whatever VPP tariffs we're putting into place, that there's tech neutrality that goes along with this. I think actually in Illinois, the VPP part of that package is compelling, but we also see, I think, really good VPP decisions coming out of Colorado in their commission. And certainly when we look at opportunities for 2026, places like New Mexico, New Jersey, and Michigan all are places where we see promise around really putting forward strong VPP policies.
Brad Langley: And how about on the advanced transmission technology side? Any specific technologies or approaches that you're particularly excited about in that area?
Heather O'Neill: Yeah. I mean, this one, I think advanced transmission technologies like VPPs have really been having a moment. And again, it's I think in recognition that yeah, we need to build out more and yet what can we do quickly to get more out of the existing system? And so just pretty straightforward legislation that requires utilities to include advanced transmission technologies in their infrastructure planning. And again, we're tech agnostic on that. There are lots of technologies within the advanced transmission technology bucket that make a difference that really expand capacity in the transmission system. And so I think requiring utilities, requiring states to really evaluate ATTs, and if they're able to put some benefits onto that transmission, expand the capacity, then let's put them to work. And so we've been able to pass advanced transmission technology legislation along those lines in New Mexico, Massachusetts, Virginia, Connecticut, California, I'm probably missing some others.
And then looking ahead and looking at 2026, see opportunities in states like New York and Colorado to continue pushing for advanced transmission technology legislation. So again, I think both VPPs and advanced transmission technologies are really having a moment. You have decision makers really, again, because of the affordability and reliability crisis, looking for solutions they can deploy now that allow us to just get more juice out of the squeeze, so to speak.
Brad Langley: Permitting reform is an issue that's once again gaining momentum at the federal level. Why is permitting reform so important right now?
Heather O'Neill: Our industry is running into roadblocks, being able to site and build large scale renewable energy projects, transmission projects, right? And so we absolutely, I know there's federal permitting reform and transmission reform conversations that are live in Washington DC right now, and we're at the table working those through. Regardless of what Washington DC does or does not do on permitting, we are going to need siting and permitting reform at the state level. You have states as diverse as Indiana or Virginia where you have localities that have basically created so many restrictions that you're not able to build anything. And so we absolutely have to change siting and permitting at the state level in order to be able to expand the supply and meet the moment of load growth that we're in. Michigan passed siting reform that I think is a good example of the types of reforms that we need.
The basic principles from a state perspective is that state or local governmental processes don't interfere with the property rights of landowners or impede the ability of developers to work with the landowners. And so that's, again, one basic principle. The second is creating clear and reasonable siting criteria and permitting requirements. And absolutely states and localities will want to require setbacks, will want to figure out road use agreements, decommissioning agreements and all those types of issues, but making sure that those criteria are reasonable and concrete or as concrete as possible. And then the third is just really transparent and predictable permitting. And again, this is basic, but we need businesses and investors, we need certainty. They need to know upfront what's being required and what the review process is and what the timeline is for a decision and for an appeals process and what the timeline is there.
So you absolutely want clear, reasonable, enforceable timelines, consistent rules. And so just looking at those three principles and working those through to a siting reform package, if states can do those things, they'll be able to clear out roadblocks and red tape and really make sure that they're able to build more and add more to the energy supply.
Brad Langley: So 2026 will bring us a round of midterm elections and we're already starting to see the high price of energy kind of be used in some social media posts. Vote for one party means your bills are reduced in half, a vote for the other party means they'll be doubled. Does it worry you that affordability and high energy costs are kind of being politicized? What are the ramifications of that? And do you think that will continue to ramp up as we head into the 2026 midterms?
Heather O'Neill: Energy affordability is front and center for everyone for real reasons. When you see your bill go up, shoot up in the ways it has in some states like Maryland, absolutely energy affordability is going to be a headline issue and going to be a campaign issue. And I think, again, this moment provides us with a huge opportunity. From where I sit, we have been talking for a number of years about the need to invest in our grid. Our grid is out of date. If we're really going to reap the benefits of this energy transition and transformation, we need to make smart investments in our grid. And I think we now have an opportunity to really put a set of solutions in front of decision makers that they're ready to hear them because energy affordability is hitting home for so many people right now. So if you just look at the elections in New Jersey and Virginia this past November, you had energy affordability front and center and you had, I think in both situations, you had candidates that the governors-elect were really thinking through and putting forward advanced energy as a key component to tackling energy affordability.
And so I think we have, again, a real opportunity to work with gubernatorial candidates across the country. It's something like in '26, there'll be 36 gubernatorial elections. And so as an industry, to be able to show up early in those conversations on both sides of the aisle and really engage around energy affordability and put forward a set of solutions, sort of quick, no regrets policies, whether it's surplus interconnection or whether it's virtual power plants on the demand flexibility side or removing some of the red tape on permitting so that we can build more. All of those solutions, I think again, are going to be essential in '26 to help decision makers meet the moment.
Brad Langley: That's a lot of gubernatorial races in '26. Are there any you're watching particularly closely? And if so, what are some of the key energy issues at stake in those states?
Heather O'Neill: California stands out. You will have a new governor and California is always at the forefront in terms of its... And it has very ambitious climate policies, there's very ambitious clean energy policies, and yet we've seen some real challenges. There's affordability challenges here as well. There's the sort of perennial challenges around wildfires and how we're dealing with that situation and making sure that our grid is reliable. So I think there's a tremendous amount of education to do with whomever the incoming governor will be, as well as with state legislators here around the importance of many of our priorities, ranging from the need to build out transmission, to keep moving forward on Western organized market, to the important role that virtual power plants can play actually in alleviating some of the pressure on the grid. New York is another important one where, again, we're seeing affordability come to the fore.
And so we believe there's a tremendous amount that we can do in that state to keep moving forward. Another state where I think, again, we've been incredibly excited about the role that advanced energy resources have played in the state is Texas, the response coming out of the tragedies of Winter Storm Uri, the amount of build that Texas has been able to do, particularly again, I want to highlight the role that battery storage has played there. So you've seen, I think, something like 10 times the capacity increase in battery storage over the last three years, and that's actually probably out of date at this point. And so really being able to deploy so much more storage and then the growth of solar, and they obviously have a tremendous transmission backbone and wind backbone. So making sure, again, that the state decision makers there really see the benefits that our technologies are providing to their consumers and to the grid in terms of making sure that the lights stay on and folks stay safe.
Brad Langley: We call the show With Great Power, which is a nod to the energy industry. It's also a famous Spider-Man quote, "With great power comes great responsibility." So Heather, what superpower do you bring to the energy transition?
Heather O'Neill: I love this question, and in part because I have a Spider-Man fanatic in my house, so this is a question that comes up in all kinds of ways. The great power I have, I think, is translation. I translate. Energy experts, energy wonks are super wonks, right? They tend to talk in acronyms and jargon. And fundamentally, there's a need for expertise, there's a need for nuance, but that also means if you're talking in acronyms and jargon, you're talking to yourself or at best to a very, very small circle of experts. But we've just spent a bunch of time talking about all the ways in which energy matters to so many folks right now, right? Consumers, state decision makers, governors, lawmakers, all of that. So how do you take this incredibly complicated, nuanced system, work, technologies, and translate that so that regular folks hear you, so the decision makers hear you.
And so I think that is my superpower.
Brad Langley: That's the liberal arts major in you, of which I am a fellow one, so I can definitely appreciate that. Well, Heather, thank you so much. I really enjoyed our conversation. I really appreciate your time.
Heather O'Neill: Thank you for doing this. This was fun.
Brad Langley: Heather O'Neill is the president and CEO of Advanced Energy United.
With Great Power is produced by GridX in partnership with Latitude Studios. Delivering on our clean energy future is complex. GridX exists to simplify the journey. GridX is the enterprise rate platform that modern utilities rely on to usher in our clean energy future. We design and implement emerging rate structures and we increase consumer investment in clean energy, all while managing the complex billing needs of a distributed grid.
Mary Catherine O'Connor produced the show. Anne Bailey is our senior editor. Stephen Lacey is our executive editor. Sean Marquand composed the original theme song and mixed the show. The GridX production team includes Jenni Barber, Samantha McCabe, and me, Brad Langley. If this show is providing value for you, and we really hope it is, we'd love it if you could help us spread the word. You can rate or review us on Apple and Spotify, or you can share a link with a friend, colleague, or the energy nerd in your life.
As always, we appreciate you listening. I'm Brad Langley.