Today is… Maine Day, aka, the day I leave for Vacation Land! I’m so excited that it’s the end of August and all the rust-colored hues of fall await us. But before we get there, we have a few things to discuss, like distributed energy resources, Florida Climate Week, and ice cream!
This week’s must read: ‘Climate Whisperers’ Offer Lessons for Renewable Energy Transition
All politics is local and I love this local approach to solving climate change. H/T to Angela Larck for sharing the story with me.
First, a climate whisperer “is someone who engages at their local level and leads by listening for listening’s sake.”
UVA Professor Cale Jaffe was intrigued by an approach of “using climate programs to alleviate infrastructure concerns…to persuade communities to adopt clean energy projects, even in traditionally conservative areas.”
If you want to deep dive into his approach, check out his recent essay, “The Climate Whisperers,” published in the Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law.
(Fun, totally unrelated note: my first junior high crush was on a boy named Cale Burger. The veggie known as kale rarely played into my life at that point and my plate never saw a veggie burger in the 1980s, thus, I never realized the humor of his name.)
If we build it, they will come
We can build a power system that is resilient and decarbonized. How? Distributed Energy Resources.
Just ask today’s guest, Pat Wood.
The sitation is this: the grid is old. And it’s being asked to do things it wasn’t built to do, like charge a bazillion phones and power our very electricity-dependent lives. Luckily, there are many smart people on the task of updating the grid to handle this load efficiently and effectively.
Pat is one of those people.
The co-chair of The Pew Charitable Trusts Distributed Energy Resources Initiative Advisory Council, he has spent three decades building more competitive, resilient energy systems — first as a regulator in the state of Texas and now as an entrepreneur. He is Executive Chairman of Hunt Energy Network, deploying distributed resources across the Texas power grid, and chairs Luma Energy’s board, overseeing the rebuild of Puerto Rico’s power system after decades of underinvestment. Previously, as Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission under President George W. Bush, Pat helped shape the nation’s wholesale energy markets and strengthen grid reliability, and as Chairman of the Public Utility Commission of Texas, he helped engineer the restructuring that made Texas one of the most competitive electricity markets in the world.
He led the recent Pew report, Distributed Energy Can Unleash the Resilient, Affordable Grid of the Future, a comprehensive policy playbook with recommendations and examples from throughout the country and around the globe for deploying distributed energy resources and virtual power plants.
Coming up next week, my new podcasting BFFs (note: I always wanted podcasting BFFs) Nicole Fonarow and Jolene Conway of We’ve Got To Talk share insights on friendship, thoughtful communication, listening with grace, and learning from someone whose viewpoints differ from your own!
The September podcast lineup is strong—and has been so fun to record thus far (I mean, sorry not sorry but no one was as fun as Nicole and Jolene). Here’s what we have cooking:
Sept 1: We’ve Got To Talk
Sept 8: Bye week (ease back into work after the long weekend)
Sept 15: James Dozier, speaking about the tenth annual National Clean Energy Week
Sept 22: Rebecca Knuffke, Senior Officer, U.S. Conservation at The Pew Charitable Trust, on Legacy Restoration Fund renewal
Sept 29: Mason 4C’s Doran Tucker on strategic climate risk communication
Never miss an episode!
Mark Your Calendars
We are proud to again be participating in Florida Climate Week, seven days of virtual and in-person events sponsored by the VoLo Foundation. This year’s virtual session, moderated by yours truly, features two of our favorite water quality experts in the state of Florida, Nicole Kirchhoff and Brandon Shuler. The date and time of our panel’s debut is TBD, but will be sometime the week of October 5th. Once the program is available, I will be sure to share it.
A Sunny Update
☀️ Have you been following the balcony solar craze sweeping the nation? Thanks for Bright Saver for their recent update that 11 states have passed legislation allowing for plug-in solar. Even though I have rooftop, part of me really wants to buy a kit! (New to balcony solar? Check out my conversation with Utah Rep. Raymond Ward and my more recent chat with Cora Stryker.)
And now… on to ice cream
One of the best parts about summer in New England is that the official pasttime is eating ice cream and there are so many independent ice cream parlors to choose from. Are you a classic flavor person or do you go for the flavor of the month or something with a unique combo of flavors? Chocolate peanut butter fudge is still my favorite from my hometown place (which I will sadly miss this trip as I won’t be that far north) but I also go for anything with raspberry.
Whatever you’re doing this weekend, I hope it involves a treat! See you next week!