“There's difference between agreement and popularity, and people confuse those two things. What we have is agreement with people. The iPhone is popular… for most Americans they want their lights to work and they want their bill to be, you know, moderate and, you know, they don't want dirty skies and dirty water and we can deliver all those things, but we're still not delivering 3,000 songs in their pocket and social media. Like we're not popular.”
Volts · Climate & Energy · October 2026
Context
David Roberts closed by saying the clean-energy industry has leaned too long on being liked. Matzzie adds that polling support for solar and wind is agreement, not popularity, and that agreement alone doesn't build political power.
Transcript
be a u.s person or a u.s corporation no foreign money and yeah i think you have to be 18 has to be your money all the things that normally are part of giving to a political campaign that's the number one thing
…for years for for something like this something like this mythic power which you know involves both fear and attraction i think right as you said and people have been leaning on the attraction part and betting on the attraction part almost solely for many many years now and it's just not working
it's also not sufficiently attractive i just want to note like people talk about how much people like solar and wind and energy storage and all that's true you know there's difference between agreement and popularity yeah and people confuse those two things what we have is agreement with people the iphone is popular right we're not the iphone maybe for you me we're the iphone but like for most americans they want their lights to work and they want their bill to be you know moderate and you know they don't want dirty skies and dirty water and we can deliver all those things but we're still not delivering 3000 songs in their pocket and social media like we're not popular there's a difference
do you think that is an achievable thing for people to care enough about energy period to you know normies to care enough about energy period to really get invested in well
it's an intangible good right that's the thing that's complicated it's not like you can't touch it taste it feel it smell it hold it eat it you know
well i've been wondering like with all the smart appliances and the smart home management moving in and the balcony solar and the evs like there are ways now that energy is bumping up against people's lived experience i just wonder if that's going to amount to anything
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