Have we run out of big ideas to fix the grid?

America’s grid problems are often framed as physical constraints: equipment shortages, interconnection backlogs, and a lack of powered land. But are we missing an opportunity to bring bigger ideas to the table as we reindustrialize and electrify the economy? This week, Jane Flegal, a senior fellow at the Searchlight Institute, joins the show to talk about why our biggest constraint is an inability to plan, coordinate, and build at the scale this moment demands. On the left, there’s a growing push to limit demand through data center moratoriums and price controls. On the right, there’s a lot of talk about ratepayer protections and off-grid data centers without much thought to big-picture system planning. We don’t have a system that can align private capital, public priorities, and long-term infrastructure needs. So what would real coordination look like? We’ll talk about Jane’s new proposal seizing the data center buildout to support a grid infrastructure fund. We’ll talk about why the current debate about “utilization vs expansion” misses the point, and what it would take to coordinate a data center buildout for public benefit. Then, we’ll turn specifically to green groups. After spending years playing up electrification, why is the climate movement struggling to bring big deals to the table? And what does it mean to build durable political coalitions around climate? Credits: Co-hosted by Stephen Lacey, Jigar Shah, and Caroline Golin. Produced and edited by Anne Bailey, Sean Marquand, and Stephen Lacey. Want to watch this episode? Subscribe to our YouTube channel. Open Circuit is brought to you by FlexGen, a leader in integrated battery energy storage solutions and energy management software. FlexGen helps owners and operators gain greater visibility and control across complex energy systems to maximize performance. Learn more at www.flexgen.com. Join Latitude Media on April 13-14, in San Francisco for Transition-AI 2026, a two-day, in-person conference on the digital and energy infrastructure buildout needed to support AI load growth. Our podcast listeners get a 10% discount on this year’s conference using the code PODS10. ⁠Register today here⁠!