The case for a climate reset

Open Circuit

For the last decade and a half, the loudest voices in the climate movement have treated decarbonization like a moral crusade: ban gas stoves, declare climate emergencies, punish fossil fuel companies.

But those tactics don’t lower utility bills or build durable political coalitions. And now, amidst a radical shift in U.S. politics where the economy dominates, there’s a growing call for a pragmatic reset.

This week, we dissect two critiques of climate politics. In a Bloomberg essay, Michael Liebreich argues it’s time to ditch the guilt and doom, stop chasing impossible targets, and focus on fast, affordable progress. Alex Trembath of the Breakthrough Institute says the “climate hawk” is an endangered species in U.S. politics.

We’ll walk through their arguments, and debate what a reset in climate politics and policy might look like.

Plus, another reset in finance. Generate Capital and Greenbacker, two of the most important clean energy investors, are both under new leadership. Both companies are re-evaluating their approaches to the market. What do these shakeups say about the state of climate capital and the “missing middle” of projects that still struggle to get financing?

With resilience now a leading driver of grid investments, Latitude Media and The Ad Hoc Group are hosting the Power Resilience Forum in Houston, Texas on January 21-23, 2026 . Utilities, regulators, innovators, and investors will all be in the room — talking about how to keep the grid running in this new era of heatwaves, wildfires, and storms.

Want your clean energy brand to stand out in a crowded market? Work with Latitude Studios, our in-house agency that provides content creation and marketing services for brands at the frontier of the energy transition.

Credits: Co-hosted by Stephen Lacey, Jigar Shah, and Katherine Hamilton. Produced and edited by Stephen Lacey. Original music and engineering by Sean Marquand.