Oct 8, 2026 · 1 hr · 11 segments
Mary Kipp is the President and CEO of Puget Sound Energy, one of the Pacific Northwest’s largest energy providers. In this episode of the "Nameplate" podcast, Nat Bullard sits down with Kipp to…
Mary KippGuest
Nat BullardHost
Let- let's, let's talk a little bit about the, back to the sort of the, the, the unique aspects of what you have to run here in terms of the broad group of things that you have to balance at once.
I would say that in any, in any given utility, you, you have, uh, the, the business implications and the pure financial nature of what you do.
You have to balance your, your ratepayers, uh, you have to balance anything related to environment regulation that might be specific to where you are.
So if we're, if we're to sort of do a weighting here, like what are the things, if you're talking to your peers, you say that they're like, "You need to know about us.
You need to know about Washington State, and you need to know about PSE specifically, as opposed to just utility in general."
We are the vehicle for delivering the clean energy promise, and essentially we're making a generational investment in transitioning from a highly emitting fleet to a non-emitting fleet over time.
But if I were to say the thing that is hardest about my job outside wildfires or-
... safety or things like that, it really is how do we balance moving towards this clean energy future in such a way that it doesn't become unreliable, but even more importantly, and we're seeing this today, that it doesn't become unaffordable.
Politicians live and by... die by the voters, right? And we are seeing people with so many cost pressures from myriad areas across, across everything we can imagine, that people are starting to get really frustrated, rightfully so, and really incensed about the way inflation has behaved and everything they're buying from like a backpack for school to their kids' cereal really is getting tough.
Well, let's decompose this a little bit because I think it often gets missed, in particular, I would say, in the states in the West that have had not only strong, but I would say early and aggressive targets on climate.
How much of this is, and I use it in a neutral sense, imposition? How much of this comes down from the state and a renewable portfolio standard or other sort of legislation and policy that is essentially given to you to enact? If given is the right word.
... because PSE partnered with the then hair- uh, chair of the Senate Energy Committee in believing that we should transition to a clean energy future.
Similarly, more recently, we agreed to the Climate Commitment Act, which is the cap and trade law in Washington.
Let- let's, let's talk a little bit about the, back to the sort of the, the, the unique aspects of what you have to run here in terms of the broad group of things that you have to balance at once.
I would say that in any, in any given utility, you, you have, uh, the, the business implications and the pure financial nature of what you do.
You have to balance your, your ratepayers, uh, you have to balance anything related to environment regulation that might be specific to where you are.
So if we're, if we're to sort of do a weighting here, like what are the things, if you're talking to your peers, you say that they're like, "You need to know about us.
You need to know about Washington State, and you need to know about PSE specifically, as opposed to just utility in general."
We are the vehicle for delivering the clean energy promise, and essentially we're making a generational investment in transitioning from a highly emitting fleet to a non-emitting fleet over time.
But if I were to say the thing that is hardest about my job outside wildfires or-
... safety or things like that, it really is how do we balance moving towards this clean energy future in such a way that it doesn't become unreliable, but even more importantly, and we're seeing this today, that it doesn't become unaffordable.
Politicians live and by... die by the voters, right? And we are seeing people with so many cost pressures from myriad areas across, across everything we can imagine, that people are starting to get really frustrated, rightfully so, and really incensed about the way inflation has behaved and everything they're buying from like a backpack for school to their kids' cereal really is getting tough.
Well, let's decompose this a little bit because I think it often gets missed, in particular, I would say, in the states in the West that have had not only strong, but I would say early and aggressive targets on climate.
How much of this is, and I use it in a neutral sense, imposition? How much of this comes down from the state and a renewable portfolio standard or other sort of legislation and policy that is essentially given to you to enact? If given is the right word.
... because PSE partnered with the then hair- uh, chair of the Senate Energy Committee in believing that we should transition to a clean energy future.
Similarly, more recently, we agreed to the Climate Commitment Act, which is the cap and trade law in Washington.
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