It's daily.

It's TED Talks Daily. I'm your host, Elise Hugh.

What happens when clean energy initiatives collide with bureaucratic red tape?

Climate Innovation Leader Rich Powell has seen it.

And he illustrates the conflict in his 2023 talk

from the TED countdown summit,

while suggesting what needs to be done

to accelerate the clean energy transition after the break.

When I was a junior in college from the back row of a darkened auditorium,

I listened to the CEO of a clean energy developer

describe an amazing new technology

that could produce a lot of clean electricity

and reduce a lot of clean electricity and reduce a lot of emissions.

It was a project called Cape Wind,

an audacious plan to drive 130 massive offshore turbines to the coast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts,

supplying enough clean electricity to supply more than 300,000 homes

and eliminate the need for a mid-sized emitting power plant.

It was one of those moments that inspired me to a career in clean energy and climate policy.

Now, in the 20 years since that night we could have built literally thousands of those

turbines up and down the US East Coast but instead we have built literally six total turbines in the U.S. East Coast.

That's because a combination of wealthy coastal landowners, both liberals and conservatives,

don't like those turbines spoiling the views

...