From Corn to Carbon

Farming two ways

Howdy and welcome to the first of many. My name is Jack Andreasen, and I work for the Breakthrough Energy United States Policy and Advocacy team on industrial decarbonization, and carbon management. As the general disclaimer goes, all views espoused on this site are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of Breakthrough or the USPA team.

I’ve taken a rather circuitous path to carbon dioxide removal, and policy in general. I was born and raised in a small-ish town in Nebraska. I attended the University of Nebraska-Lincoln for my undergraduate. I received my biology degree with a focus on resource allocation in plants, specifically oak shrubs. Little did I know this was fundamentally my first experience with carbon dioxide removal, usage and storage.

From undergrad, I took two years teaching middle school science in rural Eastern Washington state. I was participating in the Teach For America program. While there I coached the boy’s soccer team (Go Spartans!) and suffered at the brutal, and hilarious emotional whims of 8th-grade students.

I decided to go back to graduate school at Indiana University to pursue a Masters in Environmental Science and a Masters in Public Affairs. While at IU, I focused broadly on energy policy, and pointedly, on the carbon storage potential of saline aquifers in the Illinois basin. I had the incredible opportunity to work as a lobbyist in the EU while in school and work on CarbonSAFE projects through the Indiana Geological and Water Survey.

Post-graduation I worked for Duke Energy in the distributed interconnection business, focusing on the policy related to the interconnection in the Southeast and Florida, most notably the queue reform efforts. I moved on after about 3 years to work, briefly, for The Climate Reality Project as their Energy Policy Advisor before moving to Breakthrough Energy.

So what’s with the biography? You should know who you’re reading, and what may or may not color my opinions. I have biases, blind spots and a past the influences my future. Aside from that, I’m new in my carbon management career, I’ve got plenty to learn and this newsletter will be a manifestation of that learning. Let’s get carbon farming.

Come for the memes, stay for the dreams and let’s take some carbon out of the atmosphere (at scale).