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Welcome to our fourth and final special edition podcast for the Future of Energy series.

Over the past month, we've laid out the state of play, the legislative landscape, engaged in key interviews with leaders in the space.

And today, we're going to be talking about the key players, who are the folks in government, as well as on Capitol Hill, as well as in the private sector who are playing a huge role when it comes to the future of energy.

A big thank you to Duke Energy for making this podcast and product possible.

You can check out the full project at Punchbowl. News.

Today, I'm going to be speaking with Diego Munoz,

a tech reporter at Punchball News, who has been working on this series for us.

Diego, thanks much for joining me.

Thanks for having me.

All right.

We often talk about how people are policy at Punch Bowl News. They are the people who are actually enacting some of the policies. You're trying to get things done. And you write, energy policy has long been a divisive issue in American politics. Democrats and Republicans have clashed for decades over the government's role in the debate and ensuring clean energy.

Democrats continue to push for a transition to cleaner sources such as wind and solar.

Republicans, however, have favored ramping up production of fossil fuels, nuclear energy, which has advocates and adversaries in both camps and remains in the middle of that debate.

All right. So that sets the stage for us a little bit. But let's talk. Let's go to our bread and butter.

Who is important in the space when it comes to the congressional world? You write a bit about Senator Mike Lee.

Yeah, I think Senator Mike Lee is obviously will be a very important player in this debate.

He's chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, which is probably the main

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