**Title**: Energy in the North - Cady Lister
**Date**: October, 1 2025
**Participants**: Amanda Byrd, Cady Lister


00;00;00;16 - 00;00;08;26 [Cady Lister] A lot of the work that REAP does takes longer to bear fruit. You know, we invest in kids and in workforce and advocate for policy and some of that work can take years and years to really get put into place.

00;00;08;26 - 00;00;35;25 [Amanda Byrd] This week on energy in the North, I speak with Cady Lister, the new executive director for Renewable Energy Alaska Project. Cady took over leadership of the Alaska Energy nonprofit from founder Chris Rose, who started the organization in 2004 and recently retired. Cady has been working in the energy world for over 20 years, and I began the conversation by asking her what is important about energy.

00;00;35;25 - 00;01;53;18 [Cady Lister] The work is important and it's just basically useful. And, that is what has always drawn me to energy work and what's kept me in it for more than 20 years. I think this moment is really challenging for renewable energy development, but Alaska has always been an all of the above state. And really the technology that we choose for power generation shouldn't be a political issue. Hasn't been in the past, and it shouldn't be moving forward. We are, an island up here and we are part of the global economy. Globally. Last year, more than 90% of new investment in power generation went to renewables. There are a lot of market forces that have already shifted, and, technology that has improved to the point that it really makes sense. The reasons driving the energy transition are different for different people in different places around the globe. For some folks, it's like buffering against price volatility associated with fossil fuels. Fore some it's using more local resources in order to keep more money in our local economies. And for some it's about carbon reduction. And, we're lucky in Alaska that renewable energy can tick all of those boxes and that we have such abundant resources. Not that they're not difficult to develop, but we can do hard things.

00;01;53;18 - 00;01;58;17 [Amanda Byrd] In the past 20 years, seeing the renewable energy systems that have been installed.

00;01;58;18 - 00;01;58;19 [Cady Lister] Yeah. 

00;01;58;18 - 00;02;01;13 [Amanda Byrd] And, in really hard to get to places

00;02;01;13 - 00;02;56;21 [Cady Lister] Absolutely. I mean, I think that there are some incredible examples of communities that have really committed to trying to do whatever they can to reduce price volatility and stabilize costs for their power. Consumers to try and create sustainable and reliable energy systems and have seen success. There are different opportunities and challenges depending on what part of the state you're in and it's a big state. And so, you know, we have really legacy hydro projects in Southeast Alaska that have been providing clean power for 100 years. But then we have these really innovative and interesting sort of integrated systems further north. I mean, Kotzebue Electric is an example that gets brought up a lot and it gets brought up a lot for good reason, because they both started early, in the late 90s and continue to improve and develop their system, to the benefit of the community there and to the benefit of the environment.

00;02;56;21 - 00;02;59;05 [Amanda Byrd] And the other communities that are seeing what can be done.

00;02;59;10 - 00;03;00;19 [Cady Lister] Yeah, absolutely. I spent much of my career working on projects and programs that were implemented in over relatively short timelines a handful of years. A lot of the work that REAP does takes longer to bear fruit. You know, we invest in kids and in workforce and advocate for policy and some of that work can take years and years to really get put into place. This work requires patience and commitment, but it can really be transformational. You can see the market transformation. So that's the piece of the work that I feel like I'm most excited to work on now, and have been in it long enough to sort of see the value of that long play. And it is sort of a somewhat unique space that REAP holds in the energy sector kind of universe in Alaska.

00;03;46;13 - 00;03;50;24 [Amanda Byrd] Cady Lister is the new executive director for Renewable Energy Alaska Project, and I'm Amanda Byrd, chief storyteller for the Alaska Center for Energy and Power. Find this story and more at uaf.edu/acep.