When Sean Casten is sworn in as a freshman Democrat in the House of Representatives tomorrow (Jan. 3), he will bring on-the-ground, practical experience in energy conservation and efficiency to the 116th Congress. He founded and ran several successful firms helping industrial energy users figure out how to use waste heat and power generation and to double or triple down on energy and financial savings.
Plus, energy runs in the family blood. Casten, 47, is the son of energy efficiency icon Tom Casten from the 1970s and 1980s, founder of a large, successful combined cooling-heat-and-power company, Trigen Energy Corp. Sean Casten also inherited his interest in politics from his father, who served on a policy advisory group for then-presidential candidate Barak Obama in 2008.
After an undergraduate degree in molecular biology, Sean Casten earned two advanced engineering degrees from Dartmouth College. While at Dartmouth, he worked on alternate heat and power generation technologies, including fuel-grade ethanol.
Casten then moved to Arthur D. Little consultancy, where he focused on energy and clean technologies. From 2000 to 2006 he was CEO of Turbostream Corp., looking at recycling to reduce greenhouse gases, generating heat and power from waste energy.
In 2006, he founded Recycled Energy Development (RED), working on recycling waste energy, and was the CEO, running day-to-day operations. Tom Casten was chairman. During that time, Sean was chairman of the U.S. Clean Heat and Power Association, the industry’s Washington lobbying group. The Castens sold RED in 2016 for an undisclosed amount.
In his first political race last year, Casten knocked off six-term conservative Republican Peter Roskam by seven points in a closely-watched race in the Illinois 6th District, a large swath of Chicago suburbs. While Casten campaigned heavily on Roskam’s ties to President Trump, he also touted his energy chops.
Climate activists cheered Casten’s election. Bill McKibben, founder of the climate pressure group 350.org, tweeted on election night that Casten “is going to be one of the most climate-savvy folks in Congress right from the get-go.”
In an interview in late December, Casten told me that in the new Congress, he plans to focus on global warming issues and pragmatic ways of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. He’s not persuaded that the Green New Deal (GND), with its emphasis on 100% renewables, a favorite of many of the new cohort of progressive Democrats, is realistic. The GND, he said, “Might be great politically,” but pushing to replace all fossil fuels with renewables is more aspirational than achievable and may have unintended consequences. “I don’t care whether or not we use renewables,” he said, “I care that we get the carbon down as quickly as possible.”
Casten told the Washington Examiner late last November, “The No. 1 thing people don’t understand about climate change is lowering CO2 emissions will make our economy more productive. There is no conflict. We talk about climate the wrong way. Our whole business approach was, let’s go in and help companies save money in the course of making a difference on climate change. I hope we can have that same conversation nationally.”
Casten is not a fan of a special House climate change committee House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has agreed to establish. Pelosi is mollifying incoming freshman allies of new member Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, the darling of the more progressive cohort among the Democrats. He told me he prefers keeping that role in the House Energy and Commerce Committee, where he hopes to win a committee assignment. The special committee “might be great politically,” but may end up producing politically attractive panaceas that can’t work in the real world, such as the push to eliminate fossil fuels in the U.S. by 2030.
Instead, Casten said he prefers that the energy committee have the legislative initiative, as it has members with more experience with the issue. That’s a position that incoming chairman Frank Pallone of New Jersey shares.
Pelosi says she will create a “select committee” on climate, to be chaired by Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Fla.). According to the Washington Post, unlike the 2007 special House committee that crafted “cap-and-trade” legislation that ultimately failed, Pelosi’s new climate committee will not be able to approve legislation nor will it have the power to issue subpoenas. Both authorities will remain with the energy committee.
Looking at how energy policy has developed in the U.S., Casten told me, “In my experience, the things that most transformed the power industry weren’t grand statements about lowering CO2 emissions,” but less-high profile events, including the 1992 Energy Policy Act and FERC’s Order No. 888, both of which led to the creation wholesale energy markets, including capacity markets. “They probably had more positive difference on CO2 than darn near anything else,” he said.
— Kennedy Maize