Transcript
Jigar Shah: The way we power the world is changing at a fundamental level. Across the United States, clean energy now makes up more than 90% of new electricity added to the grid — not because of politics or ideology, but because these technologies simply work better.
Jamie Nolan: They're cheaper to build, faster to deploy, and easier to scale than anything we've had before.
Jigar Shah: Whether you're curious about where the economy is headed, how energy affects your daily life, or who's behind the billion-dollar deals shaping our future —
Jamie Nolan: Energy Empire is your guide to what comes next.
Introduction
Only in Washington
Jamie Nolan: When you work from home, you've got to switch it up. Living room floor can be good.
Abby Hopper: I'm constantly moving the microphone and changing how I sit — that's my version of having to move around.
Jamie Nolan: I have a hypermobility spectrum disorder and really bad scoliosis, so I have to move all the time. I was already thinking, we've got an hour and a half recording — we're going to have to take a break. I'll probably be doing forward folds on camera at some point. We'll get comfortable.
Jigar Shah: You can absolutely teach us all physical therapy.
Jamie Nolan: I'm bringing my whole self to this project. You're going to get what you get.
Jigar Shah: I was at a neighborhood meeting and someone was talking about how she and the executive from Green Mountain Power are in the same Pilates class.
Abby Hopper: I used to be in the same spin class as the government relations slash lobbyist slash lawyer for Pepco. Then she became a commissioner at the PSC, and we were 6 AM spin class buddies.
Jigar Shah: That's how you do it.
Abby Hopper: That's how it works around here.
Jamie Nolan: That's the most DC thing ever — like the Supreme Court justice in your coffee line.
Jigar Shah: You pass notes via the Starbucks coffee cup.
Jamie Nolan: Nerd Hollywood. We love it over here. I'll be like, "Did you see that? That was Obama's Secretary of Labor." And my husband will be like, "What are you talking about?" I can't turn it off.
Jigar Shah: I was at the Silver Diner and Scott Bessent was right behind us with his daughter.
Abby Hopper: The one near the National Cathedral? I'm going there for dinner tomorrow night, actually. And Heather Cox Richardson is speaking at the National Cathedral tomorrow evening. My aunt and uncle — who are 81 and have been protesting every Saturday in their beach town — are driving over from Delaware to come with us. We're going to the Silver first, then the Cathedral.
Jigar Shah: All the Buddhist monks who did the 2,300-mile walk for peace are at the National Cathedral today too.
Jamie Nolan: They walked one block from my house yesterday in Del Ray, Alexandria. I didn't get to go out because I had too much going on, but they had all the roads closed.
Abby Hopper: I don't go over the river. That's over the river and through the woods territory for me.
Who Is Abby Hopper?
Jigar Shah: Abby Hopper, you have had so many different hats in your career — firefighter, divorce lawyer, energy advisor, and most recently trade association head. Where to even start. Which one of those jobs was the toughest?
Abby Hopper: Honestly, every one of them was toughest at the beginning. It's the temporal aspect more than the job itself. When I got to SEIA I had never worked in solar before — I had to figure out all these people. When I was a firefighter, I had never been a firefighter before, so I had to climb up and down ladders in training. They all got easier once I had a sense of what I was doing. So my answer is: the beginning. That's when they were hard.
Jamie Nolan: So you're saying that even you had some imposter syndrome when you started at SEIA as executive director — and that it doesn't go away?
Abby Hopper: It alleviates some, but it never fully goes away. I had a great mentor in Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell. My first day at the Department of Interior, she brought me into her office on the seventh floor — just the two of us — and said, "Abby, you are now going to oversee an organization of about 800 people. Every single one of them knows more about this topic than you do. My advice: just listen and ask questions." It really helped to just acknowledge that I wasn't the expert. When I got to SEIA, I wasn't the expert there either. But I asked a lot of questions and listened.
On Energy Politics and the Moment We're In
Rate Hikes, Political Opportunity, and the Lesson from Maryland
Jigar Shah: You got your start in energy policy during the O'Malley administration in Maryland — the first governor's race I know of that was decided over a 72% rate increase when deregulation caps came off. How do you think about this moment we're in now, with governors like Spanberger and Mikie Sherrill taking office amid their own energy crises?
Abby Hopper: I think it is a moment that is way more politically fraught than many politicians appreciate — and there's a real opportunity for those who come with solutions rather than just complaints. Everyone loves to yell about prices going up or utility rates going up. But politicians who can offer a solution, not just identify the problem, have a real opening. When those rate caps came off in Maryland, it was a political disaster, as you know. Rate hikes alone are not an answer. We have 36 governors races coming up, every member of the House and a third of the Senate — every single one of them should be running on solving rising energy costs, not just calling attention to them.
Jigar Shah: What I find shocking is that everyone reaches for broad platitudes — we're going to build a nuclear plant here, or a hundred-megawatt battery storage facility at a transmission substation. But if we learned anything from the Inflation Reduction Act, it's that people want to see things on their street. They want weatherization in their home, a battery in their garage, solar panels on the roof. Solar panels 500 miles away in a big field are not the same as everybody on your block getting solar. How do you get people to understand that distinction?
Abby Hopper: It's about building power at the local level. If I were running someone's campaign, I would be organizing at the very local level around local energy solutions. People want to know: how can I exercise control over my own home, my own electricity bill, my own community? You both have been singing that song for a long time — what's your take?
Jigar Shah: I think people have to go all in on solar. The residential solar industry has problems — we're fixing them. The door-to-door salespeople are annoying, costs need to come down, there are more things to work through. But when people ask me what other options exist besides solar, I genuinely don't know what to tell them. You're not going to put a diesel backup generator behind your house. A fuel cell in your basement? No. The only way to generate your own power and give the system the middle finger is solar on your roof and a battery in your garage.
Jamie Nolan: Some people are doing residential geothermal — very small percentage.
Jigar Shah: But that's just heating and cooling, not electricity.
Abby Hopper: It's part of the solution. But you're right — people want control over their own environment. The door-to-door sales practices did us no favors. Shady business practices have been incredibly challenging to work through. And I agree: there's no magic alternative waiting in the wings. I told Jigar before you joined us, Jamie, that I'd been listening to your trailer episode — Jigar's most common answer to "what technology are you most excited about?" is: the one we already have. The one that exists. How about that one?
SEIA: Running the Solar Industry's Trade Association
Navigating Consumer Protection and Industry Self-Policing
Jamie Nolan: I want to talk about the bad sales practices issue. When we were at LPO, we went a little head-to-head with the SEIA team on this. A rooftop solar company — which will remain unnamed because the specifics don't matter — was having issues with its third-party dealer network around shoddy sales practices. There was a lot of misinformation in the press, and I felt like I was in hand-to-hand combat with reporters who had already decided their frame before finishing their reporting. I was really hoping SEIA would step vehemently into the fray and say: here are our standards, here's what we've done, here's what we're doing. That moment didn't quite come. Looking back, where do you think progress has been made — and what still needs to happen?
Abby Hopper: I totally agree with you — it is by far one of the biggest threats to the solar industry, and unfortunately it's largely within our control as an industry. SEIA did a lot. We built out education and homeowner rights resources. We created standards for salespeople and a nationwide registry — so if there's a bad salesperson who moves from company A to company B to company C, the registry is designed to track them. But I'll be honest: I report to a board of directors made up of dues-paying members, and sometimes there were people who wanted to go fast and people who wanted to go slow. Leading a trade association, you've got to figure out which direction you're heading, and that tension is real.
Jigar Shah: There was also the issue of manufacturing. In 2021, we were having spicy conversations around SEIA members and their reluctance to commit to domestic manufacturing. Today it's obvious that everyone needs to onshore just because the rules require it. But back then, people were saying, "I don't know if I want to buy domestic panels." And a lot of those manufacturing facilities never got built because they didn't have off-take agreements signed. When you're running a trade association with manufacturers on one side, developers on the other, and companies with wildly different cost models in between — how do you balance those interests?
Abby Hopper: My job as head of a trade association is to tell people what the political reality is. That's job number one — they're investing in our organization to hear that. There were many times I would walk the board through a map showing how many state attorney generals were bringing lawsuits against solar companies in how many states. I brought two attorney generals directly into the boardroom — one Democrat, one Republican — to tell our members what they were hearing from constituents and what was about to happen legislatively. I'm going to tell you what's coming. Then we can decide together what to do about it.
On the 2021 manufacturing issue specifically: right before the 2020 election, I brought Neera Tanden in to speak to our board about what a Biden presidency would prioritize. She said very clearly: if he's elected, focus on domestic manufacturing, labor and unions, and racial equity. The board was surprised. But she was exactly right — those were the defining tensions of the next four years, and you both lived it.
Jigar Shah: They were fighting us actively on domestic manufacturing and unions, for sure.
Jamie Nolan: It's not just the national politics though — it's also the politics within the organization. I was at SEIA from 2012 to 2013. I remember sitting in a board meeting where a rooftop solar rep and a utility scale rep were standing up and actually yelling at each other. And in my day-to-day work managing the PR committee, some companies wanted to review every set of talking points and drive how we talked about every issue. Managing those internal conflicts was the most challenging part of my job. How did you navigate that — and how did you last nine years?
Abby Hopper: When I was interviewing for the CEO role in the second half of 2016, the most common question from board members and the search committee was: how are you going to manage the politics between the different sectors of the industry? I had never worked at a trade association before, so my answer came from my time in the governor's office, where I'd learned how to work with different constituencies and reach a common solution.
When I first arrived, it was actually fairly fresh. I never saw our utility-scale and distributed members fight the way you're describing. And honestly, as the pie got bigger, there was just a lot less tension — people weren't fighting over a small slice of a small program. The stakes were bigger, and there was more room. We eventually got to a place where the rule was simple: the resi people do what the resi people want to do, the utility-scale people do what they want to do, and we do not fire at each other. That's the golden rule. We maintained that for most of my tenure. How did I last so long? Strong leadership. My own strong leadership and my amazing diplomacy skills.
Jigar Shah: I vote for strong leadership.
State Politics, Affiliates, and the California Situation
Jigar Shah: Let's move to the states for a second. SEIA has always had this interesting structure — national staff working at the local level, but also affiliated state organizations that are somewhat independent. How does that work? Because so much of the market building is really state driven.
Abby Hopper: You described it fairly accurately. We have six, seven, eight people dispersed across the country representing different regions, plus subject matter experts who testify in state proceedings or support state legislation — it's actually a pretty big team. When you look at SEIA's budget, we spend the most money on state policy, though it can feel dispersed because all of Washington's attention is on Washington.
The affiliates operate under an affiliate agreement — we give them the right to use the SEIA name, we commit to working together, but we don't cost-share or share membership lists. We just cooperate. And depending on where you are, cooperation looks different. Over the last five or six years, we built more structure around that — what can SEIA offer to you, how can you support SEIA, how do we stay out of each other's way while jointly investing in a lobbyist or a regulatory attorney. That's been a more successful model.
Jigar Shah: But some of those people can get spicy. Like Lyle Rawlings in New Jersey. And Bernadette out in California.
Abby Hopper: Well — the two you just named both renounced their SEIA affiliation. I was in a hotel room in New York City when Lyle did it. I had just arrived, had an event that night. There was a call with Lyle and a lot of his board and they renounced — it was like the opposite of a ribbon cutting. An affiliate agreement cutting.
And Bernadette changed the name of the California organization — it became CALSA. They said we're not your affiliate anymore. They don't come to affiliate calls or gatherings. They have different voices and different takes on some things.
Jigar Shah: But now that you're out of the job — how does it even make sense that the largest solar market in the entire United States is not affiliated with SEIA?
Abby Hopper: It's weird. We have a lot of staff who live and work in California — a whole person just covering California, regulatory counsel, on-staff lobbyists, a PAC in California. We just try to coordinate where we can and differ where we differ. It's terrible political strategy in my humble opinion. But we both answer to boards with different visions about what the future should look like.
The Industry's Political Investment Problem
Jigar Shah: The oil and gas industry invests enormous amounts of money into campaigns, and solar people are — how do I say this — tight. How much money are we putting into campaigns versus the oil and gas industry? And how did that change over your nine years?
Abby Hopper: The amount contributed to the PAC did increase — 2023-2024 was our highest ever. But the graph went like this when it needed to go like this. I can't tell you how many times after HR1, I heard: "The solar industry showed up to a gunfight with a knife." And I'd say, that's all we could afford. You show up with guns because you have a lot of money to buy them. All of this takes money. The most frustrating part of my job — 100% — was people who refused to invest in political work but then sat on the sidelines and criticized the political work.
Jigar Shah: Do we just need to tax ourselves like every other industry does? The ag industry has the Got Milk campaign, the cement industry created a fee that goes into a collective fund. And honestly it's not just political advocacy — it's marketing too. Part of the reason solar is so addicted to door-to-door salespeople getting paid $5,000 per closed sale is because the industry doesn't do mass marketing. There are no Super Bowl ads with solar panels. There's no market pull, only market push. Should we just charge two cents a watt on all solar panels and put it into an account?
Abby Hopper: I think the theory is a really good one and a really important one. We've talked about a voluntary percentage-of-deal contribution —
Jigar Shah: That's not going to work. Voluntary never works.
Jamie Nolan: We already tried that.
Abby Hopper: Worked exactly 0% of the time. I'm sure one of the takeaways from every strategy session I've been to in the last ten years has been: "Clean energy needs to invest in building political strength and tell its story better." And I always think: that doesn't happen without investment. Raising $2 million for a campaign when we need to be at a completely different magnitude — it's just not enough. The level of investment needed on the communications side and the political side is at a magnitude this industry has not wrapped its head around.
Jamie Nolan: Absolutely. There are no solar or battery companies that are household names. If you asked an average American, maybe Tesla — but a lot of people probably don't even know Tesla sells solar panels and home batteries.
Jigar Shah: Although recently, Elon and Katie Miller have been tweeting up a storm. Elon's talking about 100 gigawatts of new solar manufacturing, and Katie Miller is posting about how wonderful solar is. Are we paying Katie Miller to say nice things?
Abby Hopper: Hopefully somebody is.
Jigar Shah: If that's what it takes, we should be.
Abby Hopper: We did pay some conservative influencers during HR1 to say nice things. That's what it takes. We shouldn't be embarrassed about it. We should be doing opposition research, hiring influencers, addressing all of the social media channels. We cannot keep doing things the way we've always done them. Whoever the new CEO of SEIA is, they have to be ready to do things differently — and the board has to be ready for that too. Otherwise we'll get the same results we've always gotten.
Going Scorched Earth vs. Playing Nice
Jigar Shah: What does the future look like for SEIA under this administration? You tried to toe the line — criticize but also provide an olive branch. API went the other direction with the Biden administration and declared all-out war. Now we've got another three years, the Department of Interior is trying to kill as many projects as it can — how does the next head of SEIA do their job?
Abby Hopper: There's a really live and active conversation happening not just at SEIA but in boardrooms across the industry right now: do you go scorched earth — you're effectively imposing a solar moratorium, you're costing Americans money, you're killing shovel-ready projects — and name exactly who's responsible? Or do you duck and weave and avoid saying the thing that's actually happening so you don't make anyone mad?
Jigar Shah: How's that working for us?
Abby Hopper: I don't think it's the best political strategy.
Jigar Shah: It is clearly raising the cost of energy for everyone in this country. We have AI load growth, shovel-ready projects sitting idle, and we're keeping the tools needed to meet this moment out of reach. That seems batshit.
Abby Hopper: The last week I was at SEIA, I testified before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. It was the strangest — and most congenial — congressional hearing I've ever been part of. Republicans and Democrats alike, with Chair Capito saying: the White House is creating conflict, stopping projects, and this red tape is hurting all forms of energy. The API rep next to me had the exact same message. Permitting uncertainty, weaponizing the permitting process — it creates business uncertainty, drives capital away, and increases costs for consumers. And Capito said plainly: you don't have a problem here in the Senate. You have a problem up the street. That's the clearest I've heard Senate Republicans say: we see what's happening.
I had prepped for every hard question and every gotcha. I didn't get a single one. I got a lot of "Miss Hopper, could you explain how the solar moratorium at the Department of Interior is increasing prices for solar customers?" Why, yes. Happy to put that on the record one more time.
On LinkedIn, Leadership, and Showing Up Authentically
Building an Audience and a Voice
Jigar Shah: During your tenure at SEIA, you really leaned into LinkedIn. You left with over 70,000 followers. Tell us the journey — what you were talking about, and why. Because you were clearly intentional about it.
Abby Hopper: Very much so. It was around the end of 2023 when they put out those lists of the most influential voices on LinkedIn, and I read the list and thought: none of these people are writing about anything I'm particularly interested in. What new thing are they actually telling me? So I started searching for how I wanted to show up and what voice I wanted to have. For the first six years at SEIA, the only thing I did on LinkedIn was repost something SEIA had posted every three months. You can't even call that engagement.
Then someone at a company told me I had interesting stories to tell and should try it on LinkedIn. So I started writing — mostly at first about being a woman in this industry, being a mom and parent, traveling constantly and what that does to you, leadership, how to recognize people on your staff. Then I brought more solar in, more data — SEIA has the best data. And then as political fights kicked up, I started using LinkedIn for real-time communication with the industry about what was happening on the political front.
It's been one of the unexpected joys of the last few years. You can create community — it's different from being in the same room, but there is a type of community that forms on these platforms. And it's been really fun to watch it grow.
Jamie Nolan: When we're talking about the need to invest more in marketing and communications, I think executives also need to invest more in their own personal brands and platforms. Among those 70,000 followers, I'm sure a lot of people discovered SEIA, or you, or even solar for the first time. These new content platforms are where people get their news and where they're being influenced. I hope to see more executives step out from behind their corporate accounts. I was always really struck by your vulnerability. It meant a lot to a lot of us, particularly women in the industry.
Abby Hopper: Thank you. There were moments when I wondered: have I ruined my career with some LinkedIn posts? Does nobody take me seriously anymore?
Jigar Shah: I'm guessing that wasn't the universal piece of feedback you got.
Abby Hopper: No. There was a certain group of people who thought the only followers I had were young women — who weren't considered an important constituency. Why was I using my platform on their behalf? I was told people no longer took me seriously because I talked about being a mom or a woman in the industry. I was told I had frittered away my executive presence on LinkedIn. Those things were said to me directly. So you can only imagine what was being said when I wasn't in the room.
Jigar Shah: I have so much respect for how you showed up in that space. This industry is not going to be successful unless women feel not just comfortable but genuinely invited into it — and the same is true for people of color and other underrepresented groups. This industry has to represent all of our customers. You took real risk to keep going.
The Cost of Speaking Up Under the Trump Administration
Abby Hopper: It did get worse after Trump was elected — 100%. I became more cautious. My job was to represent the solar industry in the United States, and I never wanted to jeopardize the industry's wellbeing because of a LinkedIn post. So I didn't post on Trans Visibility Day in 2025 when I had in 2024. I didn't post anything about Pride Month in 2025 when I had in 2024. Those felt like real decisions I had to make, and they felt icky. I could imagine a world where I posted on Trans Visibility Day, the Trump administration took some action against us, and someone said: it's because of that post. That was a line I wasn't ready to cross in that role.
And that's part of why I decided it was the right time to leave. I don't ever want to live in a world where I feel like I can't speak out for what I believe in. That wasn't the time and place to do it as SEIA's CEO. But now I can.
The flip side: the real-time ability to communicate with the industry during HR1 — here's what's happening, here's what we need you to do — that was invaluable. I'd wake up at six in the morning and just start typing to get information out to people who needed it.
Jamie Nolan: You had built the audience. That's exactly why it worked.
Abby Hopper: And so many positive examples came from it. CEOs, elected officials — almost every elected official I talked to mentioned my LinkedIn. A couple of board chairs said, "I showed that post to my wife and we both felt the same way." I don't lead with the naysayers, but it's important for people to know it wasn't universally celebrated.
Jigar Shah: You've probably had a moment or two of getting in trouble for speaking your mind.
Jamie Nolan: Getting Jigar to be more vulnerable is one of my goals for this podcast. Share your innermost feelings. Shed a tear. Authenticity is a superpower — especially post-COVID, when it opened doors to being more yourself.
Jigar Shah: That part I have down. The vulnerability part — there is a video of me accepting an award at the Earth Day dinner last year where I was bawling on stage. Kathleen Rogers asked if she should release it publicly. I said please don't.
Jamie Nolan: I may or may not have been pulling strings behind the scenes on that one. When my team told me Jigar cried, I was like — where's the video?
Jigar Shah: That was Dennis Hayes. The founder of Earth Day brings that out of me. That man is just extraordinary.
Abby Hopper: There are so many good people in this industry. That's another reason I stayed so long. I really like the people here.
What Comes Next
Life After SEIA
Jigar Shah: What did you do right after you left on your last day?
Abby Hopper: My last day was a Friday. I went to the office, sent the last email — thank you, love you, peace — and then drove to go float in a sensory deprivation tank. I'm not going to lie, it was the most uncomfortable float I've ever had. My heart was pounding, my mind was racing. Then I went straight to the Equinox in Bethesda and signed up. They asked if I wanted to know how much it costs. I said I don't want to know. I just want in. After COVID, I traveled so much that the gym completely fell away, and this was my gift to myself.
Jigar Shah: I did the same thing in 2025 when I left — worked out and got myself in shape. I have a ten-year-old and I feel like I can keep up with them again.
Abby Hopper: Physical wellbeing is really important. I came home, we lit a fire, probably watched a movie, and I was asleep by ten o'clock.
Jigar Shah: Any big goals for what's next? Travel?
Abby Hopper: My husband Johnny and I are planning our honeymoon — Italy and Greece on the agenda, dates TBD. I'm going to Puerto Rico to help put solar panels on roofs — a service trip. And I love the beach. I've already blocked out big chunks of this summer at my place at the beach. Abby will be at the beach.
Puerto Rico and the Bad Bunny Moment
Jigar Shah: I was watching the Super Bowl halftime show in mixed company — not solar people — and when Bad Bunny came on with that song about the blackout, performing on a utility pole, I was ecstatic. Actually crying a little bit. I got text messages from Emma Zerat, Darren Newman, and Hailey Emerson all at the same time. We did so many trips to Puerto Rico, and to have that work recognized — Puerto Rico has the largest virtual power plant in the United States. None of it happened without the partnership between SEIA and the Department of Energy.
Abby Hopper: I was yelling from the rooftops when I saw that. I was like: is that what I think it is? Those are utility poles. That's pretty cool. I'm already thinking about how to incorporate a little Bad Bunny branding into our solar sisters trip down there for International Women's Day.
Lightning Round
Jigar Shah: Lightning round. What's the best advice you ever ignored?
Abby Hopper: Ask for more money.
Jigar Shah: Dunkin' or Starbucks?
Abby Hopper: Does anyone need to ask me that? Dunkin'. Obviously.
Jigar Shah: What's the one thing you can say now that you couldn't say while leading SEIA?
Abby Hopper: There are so many things about this administration that have been frustrating for clean energy. But none of it — none of it — compares to the human rights violations and the way they're treating people. I cannot be silent about it anymore. It was not appropriate for me to speak up as CEO of SEIA. But now I can, and I will. It's disgusting. I'm looking forward to using my voice.
Jigar Shah: I'm so glad this administration targeted Minneapolis, honestly. Those people are fierce and they know how to organize. They're diverse, they stand together, they know how to coordinate. They've shown people how this is done.
Abby Hopper: And it's our job as people who don't live in Minneapolis to support them. Send money to the folks buying groceries for families afraid to leave their homes. Pay rent for people who need it. Check in on colleagues in our Minnesota chapter. I won't be quiet about this anymore.
Jigar Shah: What's one myth about solar you wish would just die already?
Abby Hopper: "Solar isn't reliable." I cannot have that conversation one more time.
Jigar Shah: I mean, the sun is very reliable.
Abby Hopper: But it doesn't shine at night, Jigar! It's unreliable!
Jigar Shah: That's what the moon is for.
Jamie Nolan: You never know — will the sun come up that day?
Abby Hopper: If only we knew what time.
Jigar Shah: If only the app on our phones told us when sunrise and sunset are.
Abby Hopper: Lord almighty.
Jigar Shah: One lesson from Washington that applies far beyond energy.
Abby Hopper: Relationships matter. I don't think people appreciate how much relationships matter in Washington. Everyone assumes it's purely transactional — and this administration is super transactional — but real relationships matter, and that applies well beyond the city.
Jigar Shah: Who was your most unexpected ally?
Abby Hopper: I'm going to take the question a slightly different direction. I had never worked for a board before — I'd worked for governors, presidents, law partners, but never a board. And I did not fully appreciate the magic that can happen when you have a great CEO and a great board chair working in tandem. I had really good board chairs: Nat Kramer, Tom Starrs, George Hershman, and Darren Van Toff. All four of them had my back 100% of the time and let me lead. That was extraordinary. I didn't expect it to be as powerful as it was.
Jigar Shah: George just filed his S1 to take Solterra public by the way — George is getting paid.
Jamie Nolan: Last one from me: what will you miss most now that you've left?
Abby Hopper: Two things. Professionally — having access to the data and what's happening in real time. SEIA has the best data. I already feel a step behind. And more personally — I just really like some of the people who work there. They've been in my life every day for nine years. We're still friends, but when you're not seeing them daily and texting constantly, you have to actually plan dinner and coffee. It's a whole thing. That said, in the last week I've had lunches and coffees with friends I haven't seen in years and years. It's been really fun to reconnect and have a little more flexibility.
Closing
Jigar Shah: Abby Hopper, you have truly achieved legendary status. I can't thank you enough for joining us for this conversation. This whole industry is destined for extraordinary things, and it is more likely to get there because of your leadership. Thank you.
Jamie Nolan: Thank you, Abby. We appreciate you.
Abby Hopper: Jigar and Jamie, that means so much coming from both of you. I have the utmost respect for how you both show up in the world and in this space. You both speak your mind, and I am drawn to people who do that. And serving a president takes a lot from your family and your health — you both served with the utmost distinction. I really appreciate it.