Read My Blog
Joining OhmConnect: Powering up to Power Down
My kids, hard at work saving the world When it got hot this summer, my kids earned $42.39 each for sitting outside with a book. They also, believe it or not, helped make a small but important dent in the climate crisis. Here in California, when the sun sets on a hot...
My next endeavor: Titan Grove
I spent the last decade trying to solve a simple, but devilishly difficult, problem: how do we pay for the rapid de-carbonization we need to do in our buildings? While we have not solved the climate crisis, the availability of capital for energy retrofits and renewable energy has never been better. I am very proud that both the PACE model and Renew Financial have played an important role in that success.
You shouldn’t have to be rich to make your home safe from a wildfire
Last month, the Ferguson Fire in California’s Mariposa County marched over 20 miles to my childhood home. The battle raged for days as firefighters fought, literally at our doorstep, to save the house. First and foremost, thanks go to the firefighters that held the line.
Climate change is here
July has been a difficult month for a warming Planet Earth. Record heat was recorded across much of the globe and fires burned above the Arctic Circle. Here in the western part of the United States, dozens of wildfires are burning. One of the biggest of those fires, the Ferguson Fire, marched 20 miles to my house.
10 years… 63 million trees
Last month, Renew Financial celebrated its 10th anniversary. Much of the celebration centered on our successes – the 91,000 homes we’ve helped make safer and more efficient, the $1.5 billion in financed projects, the 2.5 million metric tons of GHG’s our projects will reduce. I am incredibly proud of what we’ve accomplished.
PACE and Puerto Rico for hurricane recovery
The first thing you notice is the sea of blue tarps. I think PACE can help. Last week, I spent time in Puerto Rico to explore whether Renew Financial could help the residents of this hurricane-battered island rebuild and prepare for the next storm. Since the hurricane, I’d received calls and emails from many different contacts looking to see if Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) – or some variation like it – could be used to finance solar, hurricane mitigation, energy repair, and other critical projects.
Consumer choice: the power behind California’s new energy codes
For more than 100 years, we’ve had a centralized energy system run by governments and regulated by monopoly utilities. Since the advent of the power grid, decisions on energy have been made mostly by government regulators and utility executives. But all that is changing. Look no further than the new California energy codes set to take effect in 2020.