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The Energy Transition Show with Chris Nelder
[Episode #268] – Activism 101
The Energy Transition Show with Chris Nelder
•January 28, 2026•26 min
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The Energy Transition Show with Chris Nelder•Jan 28, 2026
Why It Matters
Despite broad public support for clean energy, the issue often stalls in politics; this episode equips citizens with concrete strategies to create political pressure and achieve real policy wins. By demystifying advocacy tactics, it empowers a wider base to shape the energy transition, making the climate fight more inclusive and effective at a critical moment for climate policy.
Key Takeaways
- •Political power, not correctness, drives advocacy success.
- •Translate broad climate goals into specific local policy actions.
- •Build volunteer networks and assign roles matching skills.
- •Use targeted messaging to connect climate benefits with community values.
- •Evaluate tactics based on campaign stage and resources.
Pulse Analysis
In this episode of the Energy Transition Show, host Chris Nelder sits down with veteran organizer Carter Lavin to unpack the core lessons from Lavin’s new handbook, *If You Want to Win, You’ve Got to Fight*. Lavin traces his journey from teenage climate protests to leading solar permitting reforms in Fresno and bike‑lane campaigns in Oakland, emphasizing that advocacy is fundamentally a political power struggle. He argues that being right on climate science is insufficient; success hinges on mastering the tactics of political organizing, a skill set comparable to sales or marketing.
The conversation then drills into actionable strategies for activists and business leaders alike. Lavin stresses the importance of translating broad climate ambitions into concrete, local policy targets—whether it’s faster solar permitting, protected bike lanes, or revised parking regulations. By articulating clear, bite‑size goals, organizers can identify shared values such as lower energy bills, healthier air, or reliable heating and cooling, and then craft messages that resonate with those community priorities. Building political power follows a stepwise approach: recruit volunteers, match tasks to individual strengths, and create a leadership pipeline that distributes workload and sustains momentum.
For professionals in the energy transition space, Lavin’s framework offers a pragmatic roadmap to influence policy and accelerate sustainable infrastructure. He highlights the need to evaluate tactics—flyers, town halls, social media bursts—based on campaign stage and resource constraints, ensuring each effort drives measurable pressure on elected officials. By treating advocacy as a structured campaign, businesses can align their sustainability goals with grassroots momentum, turning community goodwill into concrete legislative wins and ultimately advancing the broader energy transition agenda.
Episode Description
What do aspiring energy transition advocates need to know to become effective changemakers in their communities?
Show Notes
Free mini‑episode
Length: 26:48
If you want to see the energy transition succeed where you live, you might want to get involved in some local advocacy campaigns, or even become an organizer yourself. But how?
The energy and climate movement is overwhelmingly popular. Surveys consistently show broad public support for clean energy. Yet energy transition issues rarely crack the top ten concerns of most voters, and we remain remarkably bad at enacting political consequences when decision‑makers ignore us. If being right were enough, energy transitionistas would have won by now.
In this episode, Carter Lavin—a climate and transportation activist who has spent 15 years training nonprofits, grassroots groups, businesses, and individuals to win local and state‑level campaigns—shares what he's learned. His new book, If You Want to Win, You've Got to Fight – A Guide to Effective Transportation Advocacy, serves as a handbook for anyone who wants to move the needle on policies that support energy transition in their own community.
We discuss how to translate your goals into specific campaigns, how to connect with allies who share your values, and how to apply pressure at the right decision points. Carter explains the “inside‑outside game” that bridges the gap between wonks who read 500‑page regulatory filings and activists who show up at protests. We explore power mapping, coalition building, and why working on multiple campaigns simultaneously makes your movement stronger.
If you’re ready to move from watching the energy transition unfold to actively shaping it, this conversation will show you how.
Guest
Carter Lavin is a climate and transportation activist who helps organizations and individuals hone strategy and build political power. For over 15 years, Carter has directly supported and trained non‑profits, candidates, grassroots groups, businesses, and hundreds of individuals to win on the issues that matter to them at the local, regional, and state level.
He has written for Streetsblog and Convergence Magazine. He lives in Oakland, California and is a co‑founder of the transportation advocacy group Transbay Coalition and the board‑game design company Serious Mischief.
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Substack: https://carterlavin.substack.com/
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Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/carterlavin.bsky.social
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Web: https://www.carterlavin.com/ | https://www.transbaycoalition.org/
Recording date: January 12, 2026
Air date: January 28, 2026
Geek rating: 1 (see FAQ)
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