The Energy Freedom Fund is seeking “full stack” energy freedom lobbyists
We’re looking for someone who possesses (or can develop) a rare combination of skills. And we’re offering a $50,000 referral bonus to anyone who can connect us with such a person.
The Energy Freedom Fund Formula: Extreme Capability + Extreme Integrity
In the 9 months since I started the Energy Freedom Fund, which I have also been running as the (unpaid) President, I am proud of what we have achieved with a tiny core team and with some very talented contractors.
Most publicly, we were (rightly) regarded as an essential force behind cutting $100s of billions of dollars of grid-harming solar-and-wind subsidies in the “Big Beautiful Bill.” While these subsidies were not cut as definitively as I wanted, we still defied the odds—which, at the outset of the process had the “smart money” on continuing the indefinite extensions of these subsidies given how widely they are collected in red (Republican) states.
Behind the scenes, we have achieved a lot more (most of which I am not at liberty to discuss publicly).
I believe the formula for the Energy Freedom Fund’s success is simple, but far from easy: Extreme Capability + Extreme Integrity = Extreme Trust and Reliance.
We have Extreme Capability to help policymakers and staffers advance energy freedom across the board: from permitting policy to electricity policy to emissions policy to nuclear policy. We can write policy, we can produce persuasive messaging, we can make trusted personnel recommendations, and we can give public support to energy freedom policies.
And we have Extreme Integrity: Just as I have supported energy freedom policies for 18 years, regardless of the short-term payoff or (more often) lack thereof, so does the Energy Freedom Fund (and always will). For example, during the often tribal discussions of the Big Beautiful Bill, which had lobbyists for different sources of energy advocating preferences for themselves and penalties for others, we advocated for neither. We were a leader of both cutting preferences (subsidies) for the solar and wind industries and protecting the solar and wind industries from a last-minute attempt at a punitive excise tax.
As I have detailed before, I have taken extreme measures to make sure that the integrity of my work and Energy Freedom Fund’s work is never compromised.
When I first started doing policy work in Washington, I was told that it was foolish to have policies such as refusing to give money or even endorsements to politicians and candidates. “You have to pay to play,” I was told.
But it’s just not true. I only offer politicians the best possible help with energy freedom policies—nothing else—and I have more demand than I can handle.
Which brings me to hiring.
The Energy Freedom Fund is hiring “full stack” energy freedom lobbyists (and paying $50,000 referral bonuses)
The Energy Freedom Fund now has 3 open energy freedom lobbying positions:
Permitting Policy Advisor
Nuclear Policy Advisor
Emissions Policy Advisor
(We recently filled the Electricity Policy Advisor position.)
After 6 months running an advocacy/lobbying organization (albeit not being a lobbyist myself) I have a much better understanding of what an Energy Freedom Fund lobbyist looks like. And it’s in many ways different from a standard lobbyist.
I’ll be honest: what we’re looking for is really hard to find. So I thought the best thing I could do to find what we’re look for is to define it very clearly and publicly.
Oh, and if you introduce us to someone we hire and who lasts at least 4 months, we will pay a $50,000 referral bonus.
In one expression, what we’re looking for are “full-stack energy freedom lobbyists.”
The term “full stack” comes from software (both I and my Chief of Staff Michelle Hung have software backgrounds) and captures someone with the full suite of skills needed to produce a desired product or result.
For example, a full-stack software engineer can design, build, and maintain both the “front end” of software (what users see and interact with) and the “back end” (databases, algorithms, and other software components working behind the scenes).
A full-stack entrepreneur can do everything in a business: vision, product design, fundraising, marketing, hiring, etc.
A full-stack energy freedom lobbyist has what I now regard as the 6 core skills involved in any energy freedom lobbying effort.
The 6 “full stack” skills involved in achieving energy freedom objectives
Policy thinking: You (ideally) help us come up with the best possible energy freedom policies in our area, but at minimum make sure you thoroughly understand our positions and the reasons for them.
Producing materials: You create or commission the persuasive messaging and policy language needed to achieve our policy objectives.
Progress-tracking: You stay totally plugged into what’s going on with our issues so that we can take proactive action and make necessary adjustments.
Planning: You create and adapt effective, extremely efficient plans to accomplish our goals.
Prioritizing: You tell us which opportunities in general and right now have the highest Energy Freedom ROI, and then use your time accordingly.
Persuading: You persuade decision-makers that it’s in their interest to pursue our policies, which often takes many different attempts over time.
These are the skills of a full-stack energy freedom lobbyist. All these skills need to be deployed toward a singular mission—described in the next section.
Ownership of results
The mission of a lobbyist for Energy Freedom Fund is: To own and drive the achievement of difficult, high-priority energy freedom policy objectives.
Let’s break down this mission, since every word is important:
“Energy freedom policy objectives”: These are what we exist to achieve at the Energy Freedom Fund. We are unleashing domestic development, unleashing electricity growth, unleashing nuclear from irrational anti-freedom policies.
“Difficult”: If they were easy, anyone else could achieve them. We achieve what no one else can or will.
“High-priority”: We can’t do everything, so we have to choose the objectives with the highest Energy Freedom ROI, which is a function of how much freedom is created, how essential we are, how likely success is, and what the cost in time and effort is.
“Own”: Someone needs to own every objective, which means that they can and will take full responsibility for achieving the objective.
“Drive”: These objectives need to be driven to completion, day-in and day-out, with someone pushing both on external people and our very talented internal people (including your boss) to make it happen.
Your day-to-day job as an energy freedom lobbyist is to drive 1-2 energy freedom policy objectives to completion. It’s that simple, and that difficult. (The best lobbyists I know say that 90% or more of lobbying efforts are wastes of time..)
You’ll have access to some of the smartest people you’ll ever meet, and you’ll have access to a lot of financial resources. But you need to make things happen.
No number of friendly meetings with big names, networking events, “insider” updates, and other popular signals lobbyists often give of progress matter if they’re not actually driving results.
What kinds of people can own and drive energy freedom policy objectives? I’ve identified 8 core attributes.
The 8 core attributes of a full-stack energy freedom lobbyist
Agentic: You own, drive, and even initiate outcomes; you don’t need hand-holding and you can’t be stopped by anything besides the laws of physics. You eagerly solicit input from our team, but we don’t have to tell you what to do; you tell us what needs to be done and what you need from us to do it.
Empathetic: You are empathetic to the needs of the busy, often overwhelmed, policymakers and staffers you work with. You recognize that your job is to make it easier for them to advance energy freedom policies, and that means you/we need to do as much of the work for them as possible.
Freedom-loving: You are dedicated to our principled mission of unleashing American energy across the board. You have huge conviction in that mission and no conflicts of interest with it.
Fast: Due to a combination of your intelligence and your sense of urgency, you make impressive things happen very quickly. People who work with you are routinely impressed by how quickly you turn things around and how much you get done in a day or a week.
Clear: You can clearly and persuasively explain our positions to policymakers and other stakeholders—so much so that we are comfortable with you taking a meeting with anyone by yourself.
Strategic: You can come up with efficient, effective, and sometimes creative ways to achieve our objectives. You are willing to work like crazy to make things happen, but you are always on the lookout for a fast and high-leverage way to make things happen.
Focused: You are very good at prioritizing your goals and your time, recognizing that it’s much better to actually make 1, 2, or maybe 3 big things happen than to get involved in a dozen things of varying importance.
Well-connected (optional but valuable): You already have great relationships with key policymakers and staffers in DC, and those people value you enough to refer you to most other people you need to know. (If you have the other 7 attributes in sufficient quantity you can start without this one. We can introduce you to everyone you know, and they’ll quickly know you’re one of us.)
How to apply for a position: Take the Energy Advocate Challenge
A fundamental challenge of any hiring process is: How do we predict how someone will perform when we actually work with them?
Because what we do at Energy Freedom Fund is at least somewhat different (often very different) from what anyone else does, looking at experience can’t tell us enough.
And interviewing can only go so far: as business guru Eben Pagan once said, “Smooth talkers are often not smooth doers.”
I’ve found that the best way to predict how someone will work with us is to, in addition to doing the standard elements of hiring, start by giving them an assessment I call the Energy Advocate Challenge.
This is a 2-hour session consisting of 8 assignments that gauge many of the key skills and attributes involved in being an energy freedom lobbyist.
I won’t say much more than that the Challenge is (up to) 2 hours and that it’s challenging, because there is no preparation allowed for the Energy Advocate Challenge, and no AI allowed during the challenge. I love and utilize AI more than most, but this challenge is about seeing what knowledge, skills, and attributes are in a person’s head, not those that they can harness from others.
Do you know someone who might be a good fit for one of our positions?
Here is the application process:
Have them send hiring@energyfreedom.org a resume attached to an email note with a request to take the Energy Advocate Challenge. They can include any other information they think would be relevant (I am a big fan of Elon Musk’s solicitation of “3 examples of exceptional ability.”)
If we hire the person and they last 4 months or more, we will pay a $50,000 referral bonus.
Note: We are open to and even encouraging of unconventional applicants who have most of the full-stack skills and attributes. In particular, if you have a strong entrepreneurial or sales background, and love our mission, I find that can map really well to being a great energy freedom lobbyist.
Bottom line: if you think you might want to work with me in any capacity, I highly recommend you take the Challenge.
“Energy Talking Points by Alex Epstein” is my free Substack newsletter designed to give as many people as possible access to concise, powerful, well-referenced talking points on the latest energy, environmental, and climate issues from a pro-human, pro-energy perspective.
Wish I knew those people to help you, and just not because of the bonus. Good luck, and keep up the great work!