It’s been a tough few weeks for Energy and Democracy. In case you haven’t heard, here are a few highlights:

• The House of Representatives passed a budget bill now in the hands of the Senate that repeals EVERY energy efficiency and renewable energy tax credit by the end of 2025, for residents and industry. No Wind. No Solar. No EVs. No Heat Pumps. No Panel Upgrades. No Insulation. No Weatherization.

• The same budget bill would repeal and rescind every major pollution reduction program under Energy and Commerce. No Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. No Environmental Justice Block Grants. No Vehicle Efficiency Standards. No Methane Emissions Reduction. No State Climate Pollution Reduction Planning. No Department of Energy Loans. No Clean Ports. No Air Pollution Monitoring for Low-Income and Disadvantaged Schools. No Fenceline Pollution Monitoring. No Corporate Greenhouse Gas Reporting Standards.

• In place of environmental review, the budget bill will substitute a pay-to-play permitting process allowing methane gas pipelines to receive a permit for a $10 million and for methane export projects to pay $1 million for an export permit.

Any person of conscience, including those worried about “mortgaging our children’s future,” ought to make their voice heard by Senators to stop this willful ecocide that will drive energy costs up (by as much as 50%), our health down, and accelerate the natural disasters happening all around us. In the Midwest (and apparently Europe!), we need go no further than out our own doors before we are confronted with unsafe air quality from yet another year of out of unprecedented wildfires in Canada.

Surely there must be an upside to this budget bill you ask? The Republican Party must stand for something more than ecocide and war right? Aren’t they trying to balance the budget? Well here are the topline budget outcomes:

• It adds $2.4 Trillion to the deficit

• 16 million Americans would lose health coverage

• “The Largest Upward Transfer of Wealth in American History.”

• Banning states from regulating A.I. for 10 years.

• Imposing a first-ever $1000 fee for seeking political asylum

There is nothing in this bill for you, me, or the communities we love. This is a bill by and for Billionaires, Oligarchs, and Wannabe Kings. Which brings me to the first event:

No Kings Mass Protest - Tomorrow, June 14th

Hundreds of organizations have come together to plan more than 2000 protests tomorrow. Find the nearest protest to you. Make a plan to attend. Invite your friends to join. (What to know about ‘No Kings” protests)

Protest is as much about sending a message to our leaders as it is about showing up for and inviting our neighbors into solidarity with one another.

Health Risks of Indoor Natural Gas - June 19th

When: Thursday June 19, 2025 at 12:00pm (CST)

Where: Online, Register Here

Intended Audience: Homeowners and Renters anywhere in the US

Description: Join the American Lung Association and Waukesha County Green Team as we dig into the Health Risks associated with Indoor Natural Gas. We'll cover the basics of natural gas, the health hazards associated with using natural gas indoors, and what we can do about it!

Accessibility: This event is free, closed captioning is available, and the recording will be available on demand after the event.

Home Energy Question & Answer - June 26th

When: Thursday June 26th, 4:00-5:00 PM CT (drop-in anytime)

Where: Online - Register here

Intended Audience: US Homeowners and Renters with questions on how to take home energy action.

Description: ⚡️Are you a renter or homeowner wondering how to take advantage of home energy programs and incentives available thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act? Do you want to know more about the experience of switching to an induction stovetop, heat pump, electric car, or e-bike? You have questions; we have answers.

Home Energy Office Hours aren't presentations – they're opportunities to talk to energy experts to learn more, whether you're interested in reducing your energy bills, improving the air quality and comfort of your home, or reducing your environmental impact. 🌱

This free event is hosted by the Green Neighbor Project.

Accessibility: This event is free. Drop in at any time during the hour. AI Translated Captions available. This event will not be recorded, but a transcript will be saved to track frequently asked questions.

Thank you to those who came out last month! We had some really wonderful discussions about:

• Getting rooftop solar quotes (& sizing your array without sufficient bill history)

• How to find rebate-eligible contractors (depends on the state)

• Reasons to install a home battery with solar (there are many possible)

• Tax Credits for New Energy Efficient Home Construction

• Considerations when designing a passive home

• Dealing with hostile HOAs or county permitting processes

Echoes from History - A “Chance for Peace”

In this moment in time, I find wisdom and some small comforts in returning to the lessons of history. In 1953, Dwight D. Eisenhower, a Republican and the only five-star general to occupy the Oval Office, speaking shortly after the death of Joseph Stalin, and responding to the arms race that would later become known as the Cold War, warned the American people of the true cost of the war machine:

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone.

It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.

The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities.

It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population.

It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals. It is some 50 miles of concrete highway.

We pay for a single fighter plane with a half million bushels of wheat.

We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people.

This, I repeat, is the best way of life to be found on the road the world has been taking.

This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.

These plain and cruel truths define the peril and point the hope that come with this spring of 1953.

This is one of those times in the affairs of nations when the gravest choices must be made, if there is to be a turning toward a just and lasting peace.

In his farewell address 8 years later, he would coin the term Military-Industrial Complex to describe this new and seemingly permanent industry accumulating a dangerous political influence in Washington:

This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence-economic, political, even spiritual-is felt in every city, every state house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.

He later continues:

Another factor in maintaining balance involves the element of time. As we peer into society's future, we-you and I, and our government-must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering, for our own ease and convenience, the precious resources of tomorrow. We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without risking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage. We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow.

Down the long lane of the history yet to be written America knows that this world of ours, ever growing smaller, must avoid becoming a community of dreadful fear and hate, and be, instead, a proud confederation of mutual trust and respect.

Such a confederation must be one of equals. The weakest must come to the conference table with the same confidence as do we, protected as we are by our moral, economic, and military strength. That table, though scarred by many past frustrations, cannot be abandoned for the certain agony of the battlefield.

While I hope soon to return towards my original intention of creating a walkthrough for each step in a whole-home re⚡volt, I cannot help but feel and comment on the gravity of this moment in world and US history where a movement of fear and hate, stoked and mobilized by unaccountable and selfish billionaires, is rapidly working to dismantle the US government, destabilize international cooperation, and irreversibly damage the planet we all depend on.

Get out there neighbors! Make yourself seen and heard. We write our own history.

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Just a reminder, this Thursday, May 29th from 4-5pm CT, I’ll be hosting a Home Energy Question and Answer on Zoom. This is a free, drop-in space for ordinary people to ask about home energy incentives, programs, and technologies. You can register here, for Thursday, or any/all of the future Q&A’s, through October.

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I appreciate your patience as I work to find time to write my next post! Coming off the heels of a 3-day Midwest Energy Retreat, not long after a Wisconsin Climate Table gathering, I’ve had a abundance of connections and collaborations to navigate in May!

Take Action: With a House reconciliation bill headed to the Senate which would repeal almost every clean energy credit and incentive at the end of the year, while cutting Medicaid and Medicare for 15 million Americans, in order to redistribute income from the bottom 40% of families to the top 20% of families, now is a critical time to call and write your congressional representatives in the House and Senate.

“This is the general schizophrenia: that we are extremely discontent in the very system in which we must participate to survive, and to whose functioning we contribute by participating. Such a widespread ambiguity can only be resolved either by permanent self-hatred and cynicism or by a serious commitment to revolution.”

-The Boston Travellers, Science for the People 3, no. 1 (1971)

We here in the U.S. are living through a war on the environment, which is a war on that which life depends. If you have been understandably unable to track the news, the Trump/Musk regime has prioritized pollution over people at every stage in the EPA’s 31-step plan to dismantle federal environmental protections. In an extraordinary follow-up, an executive order directed the Attorney General to sue States for laws and policies that address “climate,” “carbon,” or “environmental justice.”

And for those confused by the lie that the tariffs are meant to rebuild American industry, this administration’s unconstitutional freeze of all grants under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and Inflation Reduction Act, the cancellation of Department of Energy loans, the stalled revocation of the Green Bank fund, and a string of actions blocking onshore and offshore wind development, lay bare the craven pro-pollution power-grab unfolding.

Taking this war into 6.2 million low-income homes, the administration fired all federal staff who administer Low-Income Home Energy Assistance (and Weatherization Assistance). Even in war, withholding lifesaving energy required for medical devices and medicines amounts to a violation of the Geneva Conventions.

Slow violence is still violence. What we are facing is ecocide.

In an age of ecocide, Green Neighbors are called to ecological rebellion. If we choose to relate to our world as neighbors and ancestors, we are called to be water protectors, clean-air champions, and cheerful land stewards. It is our responsibility to find ways to reduce the violence produced by the system we must also participate in to survive.

What follows is A roadmap, not THE roadmap for action. Protest? Yes! Call and petition? Definitely! Donate? Please do! But between those actions and becoming a community organizer or running for office lies a wide chasm. I founded Green Neighbor Challenge to help fill that chasm with practical steps for ordinary people. We need energy organizers in every community. This is a way to become one.

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Welcome to your Whole Home Re⚡Volt.

Let me put this simply — There is no path to a stable climate that does not involve decarbonizing American homes. Rewiring America calculated that 42% of energy-related emissions in the US come from homes and vehicles. Since 80% of all US emissions come from energy, how we use energy to live and commute is one-third of the solution, before we include food and waste.

So I’ll say it again — There is no path to a stable climate that does not involve decarbonizing American homes.

The good news — 100% energy-decarbonization of American homes is 100% possible with existing, commercially-available technologies.

Even better news — There are $10,000+/year in tax credits and $14,000+ in rebates available to American homes to make this unprecedented energy-infrastructure transition (for now).

Okay, but WHAT is a Whole Home Re⚡Volt?

A Whole Home Re⚡Volt is the process of working through four activity areas:

• Green Generation

• Weatherization

• Electrification

• Energy Preparedness

The goal is a climate-safe home and environmentally non-violent living.

HOWEVER, each of these four activity areas may require multiple actions on your behalf, and there is no single “best” order to the actions or even the activity areas. So let’s start to unpack what may be included in each one:

• Green Generation - Switching from dirty to green electricity

  • Purchasing Green Power - from a utility or retail energy supplier

  • Rooftop Solar - Putting solar panels on your roof

  • Ground-mounted Solar - Putting solar panels on your property

  • Community Solar - Subscribing to solar panels on someone else’s property

• Weatherization - Minimizing energy loss, maximizing comfort and safety

  • Home Energy Audit - Discovering your home’s opportunities for improvement

  • Insulation - Reducing energy loss through attics, walls, basements, and rim joists

  • Air Sealing - Addressing cracks and crevices where air gets in or out

  • Doors - Insulating and sealing your doors

  • Windows - Insulating and sealing your windows

  • Ventilation - Filtering air, venting air, and energy recovery

  • Smart Technology - Thermostats, lighting, and everything else

• Electrification - Switching over from combustion to electric

  • Heating and Cooling - Maintaining the comfort of your home with electricity

  • Water Heating - Heating your water with electricity

  • Cooking - Feeding your family with electricity

  • Clothes Drying - Drying your clothes with electricity

  • Transportation - Moving from place to place with electricity

• Energy Preparedness - Being prepared for change, sudden or slow

  • Wiring & Pre-Wiring - Ensuring the safe and sufficient flow of electricity

  • Electric Panels - Managing increasing electrical load in your home

  • Battery Storage - Saving electricity for later, with chemicals

  • Power Outages - Having a plan for when the power is out

To be perfectly honest, this is a LONG, COMPLEX, and DIFFICULT process, which is why I created this community of practice in the first place. We must become the energy leaders we need, to help our friends, family, coworkers, and neighbors navigate this same process in the years to come. But if you know folks ready to throw down today, invite them to join us, because having accountabili-buddies is radical!

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Over the coming months and years, I aim to detail each action with its own post, which will be linked back here for easy reference. This post will probably experience changes over time, reflecting that process. While the Whole Home Re⚡Volt is a great place to begin the work of Energy Democracy, it would be an unfortunate place to end the work. A second roadmap focused on ways we can democratically engage with the energy system is forthcoming. I will do my best to strike a balance between the two, and will rely on your feedback to guide me!

“Praxis is the action and reflection of people upon their world in order to transform it.”
-Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed

Where should my Re⚡Volt begin?

Where each Re⚡Volt begins is a matter of preference and context. If your context is a state of overwhelm, then starting simply is key! Choose an action below to start:

• Sign up for a Green Energy Program

• Explore the tax credits and rebates available to you

• Request fresh quotes for rooftop or community solar

• Forward this post to 3-5 friends, inviting them to subscribe!

• Set up a small monthly donation to support this navigational work

• Register to attend a Home Energy Q&A (details below!)

FAQ

Aren’t rich people responsible for more than their fair share of pollution?

Absolutely! Send this post to any rich people you know.

Does their inaction excuse me from doing what I can?

No. No one is excused from doing what they can.

Isn’t a “Whole Home Re⚡Volt” the same thing as a home energy transition?

😴💤. Yes, but isn’t active language more inspiring than passive language?🌱

Individual action is a waste of time, what we really need is collective action!

What is collective action, if not a constellation of connected individual actions?✨

But changing homes doesn’t change laws… I’m talking about systems change!

We are all part of a single system, learning to change ourselves is great practice for learning to change with others. And self-organization is one of the most effective strategies for systems change. Stay tuned for the Energy Democracy roadmap!

Several of my earliest memories in life involve waking up and being unable to breathe. Unable to call out for help, I would struggle down the hallway gasping for air that felt like sandpaper as it was pulled and pushed between the swollen flesh of my throat. The sound produced is often referred to as a “bark.” If I was lucky my parents would hear this sound before I even got to their room, and they would rush me into the bathroom grabbing a towel to put over my head, as they’d help me lean over the bathtub, head next to the spigot blasting out scalding hot water. It might take 5, 10, or 15 minutes — an eternity to a child, and surely to parents as well — for my throat to open up enough that my rescue inhaler could even begin to work. And if it didn’t by the time the hot water started running out, it would mean another morning of watching the sun come up in the emergency room, hooked up to a nebulizer.

The catastrophe has been with us all along.

In our communities. Where our neighbors work. Where our children play. Our energy system has wrought immeasurable damage to the people we love, to the planet we depend on, and to our pocketbooks. The energy system we have today represents decades of carefully orchestrated public policy neglect and failure.

I grew up three miles downwind of the Pleasant Prairie coal plant, which we innocently referred to as the “cloud factory.” At home, we regularly opened the windows to let in “fresh air.” Somehow, it actually wasn’t until I reached graduate school that I realized the reason I could so easily borrow an inhaler from a friend or grandparent growing up was not normal, or a lucky coincidence, but that the prevalence of asthma in my community could best be described as a policy of “slow violence.”

It turns out that industry lobbyists did such a good job steering the Clean Air Act of 1970 towards VISIBLE causes of air pollution, that it wouldn’t be until 1997, when I was 8 years old, that Congress would revisit the issue to give the EPA power to regulate the particles small enough to pass through the lining of our lungs, aka “PM2.5.“ Big, visible, particles are simply cheaper to remove, and harder to lie to the public about.

Denial. Doubt. Delay. This is has been the industry playbook for over a century. Exxon knew… and so did the rest. And if you want to know how they keep getting away with putting profit over people, decade after decade, look no further than Drilled Podcast.

The less we know about energy, the more license the industry has to pollute and profit — and the more children who will have to grow up with asthma.

I refuse to be complicit in the polluting of our air.

That’s my why.

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Why Talking About Morals, Matters

In my energy advocacy work over the last six years, the most common question I’m asked, directly or indirectly, is “Why should I pay more for _______?”

That, I’m convinced is the answer people actually looking for. That is the answer I wish I gave each and every time I was asked. But that is not the answer, nor even the type of answer, that nonprofit professionals or academically-educated people, like myself, are trained to give.

The question being asked is about cost, so I should respond with a benefit, right? I am being presented with a limited fact (or a misperception), and I should expand the context of their understanding with additional facts, so they can properly weigh the costs and benefits to arrive back at our initial mutual interest in the climate, right?

Change is threatening. Costs are threatening. The economy AND the climate are threatening. Trading a small quantity of one threat for a little more of another does not address the underlying anxiety of the question. Likewise, facts have never been known to be an effective remedy for anxiety.

Facts are great for when we want to rationalize why we made a decision. But in making actual decisions, we humans by and large rely on feelings. How we feel about ourselves, how we feel about our relationship to others, how we feel about our future, and how we feel we will feel in the future about ourselves or our relationships to others. And it turns out we prefer feeling good to feeling bad.

There are few more effective ways at making humans feel bad, or at least anxious, in this modern world than speaking the language of money — Speaking to the frame of money. Money is not how we measure ourselves, but how we measure how we’ve compromised ourselves to protect what we actually value.

There’s a reason product specifications are an afterthought in most marketing. We are typically not being sold the benefits of a product, but the fear and insecurity of life without the product. A loss in social status. Being left behind. Being unprepared. Not being likable. Not being lovable. Not belonging.

Yes, we must all make a living, but how we choose to live within our means and want be seen by others is a moral consideration. What do I value? What do I want to be seen valuing? What do I see the people whose opinions I value, valuing?

When people are expressing their anxieties, they are not looking for additional facts to weigh and analyze — they are looking for moral guidance.

“It is the right thing to do,” is an expression of values. It is an expression of your values. It is an invitation for them to mirror your values—and to live into their own values. It is a vulnerable expression because it also invites accountability.

And ideally also, it’s an invitation for you to share your own story.

Why are we here?

In the 1973 book, Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered, by economist and environmentalist E.F. Schumacher, he identifies education — specifically “metaphysical” education — as humanity’s most important resource.

When people ask for education they normally mean something more than mere training, something more than mere knowledge of facts, and something more than mere diversion. Maybe they cannot themselves formulate precisely what they are looking for; but I think what they are really looking for is ideas that would make the world, and their own lives, intelligible to them. When a thing is intelligible you have a sense of participation; when a thing is unintelligible you have a sense of estrangement.

A central aim of Green Neighbor Challenge has always been to cultivate “agency” or our ability to participate in the energy economy. Our guiding values are “creating hope through collective action,” and “community capacities for self determination.” It is not enough to merely address the symptoms of the climate crisis, but we must all be involved in the solution to address the sense of alienation that helped create it.

Education can help us only if it produces “whole men.” The truly educated man is not a man who knows a bit of everything, not even the man who knows all the details of all subjects (if such a thing were possible): the “whole man” in fact, may have little detailed knowledge of facts and theories, he may treasure the Encyclopaedia Britannica because “she knows and he needn’t,” but he will be truly in touch with the centre. He will not be in doubt about his basic convictions, about his views on the meaning and purpose of his life. He may not be able to explain these matters in words, but the conduct of his life will show a certain sureness of touch which stems from his inner clarity.

When we allow ourselves to be ruled by fear, by our basest instincts for survival, we withdraw from cooperation, from relationship, and even from action unless strictly necessary, to conserve our energy. When we instead cultivate connection with our inner story and fundamental convictions, we are able to act generously, collectively, & out of abundance to achieve impossible feats as agents of our own history.

The problems of education are merely reflections of the deepest problems of our age… We are suffering from a metaphysical disease, and the cure must therefore be metaphysical. Education which fails to clarify our central convictions is mere training or indulgence. For it is our central convictions that are in disorder, and, as long as the present anti-metaphysical temper persists, the disorder will grow worse.

What I take E.F. Schumacher’s lesson to be is that it is not enough in an age of misinformation (or scientism) to have the facts on our side. We must master and share our own stories if we are to speak to the generalized anxiety of others, while inviting them to reconnect with their own values and stories so we can work together towards a common purpose.

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What’s Your Why?

I’d like to invite you now to ask yourself why you care about the environment. Why do you care about other people or our shared future? What is the purpose of your life, and how does energy action fit into it? Was it one formative experience —one sudden ‘aha’ moment or epiphany? Or the gradual accumulation of experiences, and practices into a greater worldview or way of being?

Whatever it is that comes to mind, please share it in the comments below. Let us practice our own stories together. To not only build our own sense of community, but to develop your own ability to share it with others.

There are no right or wrong stories that lead us into action. Please accept each story shared in our community as a gift, not an invitation for debate. Always be kind.

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If you are not sure what your story is, or feel like there are more layers to your story you are still unearthing, I’d invite you all to give a listen to Wallace Shawn, a professional actor, unpack his own story, in a life full of unpacking the stories of others.

This newsletter is a labor of love. If you found it valuable, please continue to share it and invite others to join this community. This issue took longer than I had hoped to complete, but my commitment to you is one of quality over quantity. Environmental groups like Green Neighbor Challenge are navigating a hostile funding environment and are in need of more public support than ever. If you’re able to chip in to support my work, I would be most grateful and humbled! Thank you to all who already have and do!

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Up Next: I plan to answer the question, “What does a home energy transition look like?” and lay out a roadmap of topics for future posts (and home energy action)!

Neighbors are defined by their relationships to others. Green Neighbors are ordinary people who believe in the extraordinary power of collective energy action. Green Neighbors take seriously their social responsibility for any pollution they can prevent. Green Neighbors hold utilities and regulators accountable, while engaging and educating friends, family, coworkers, and even neighbors about their power to make meaningful change in their homes and communities.

A home is a powerful place to make change. Our homes are where we live and where we invite others into our lives. Homes are where we spend most of our time and consume most of our energy. Every grid-connected home is a part of the grid. This means every outlet and appliance we use in our home is also a part of the grid. When we change how we consume energy — we change the grid. This is power.

• Efficiency keeps our energy from going to waste.

• Electrification replaces fossil fuels with electricity we can get from green sources.

• Generation allows us to produce our own energy.

• Storage allows us to move energy through time.

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What is this about?

This is a community of practice for Green Neighbors. What are the largest uses of energy in my home? What are my biggest levers for change? Where should I begin? How much will it cost? How much can I save? What is a heat pump or induction stove? How can I leverage federal, state, and local incentives? Does my utility have programs I should look into? How do they all interact? How can I find a good contractor? How can I engage my community? We’ll explore all these questions, and more. This is a space to share our successes and setbacks. The goal is to learn from one another.

“Praxis is the action and reflection of people upon their world in order to transform it.”
-Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed

Who is behind this?

My name is Andrew Butts. I am the founder of Green Neighbor Challenge. I will be your guide. I am a system-thinker, tinkerer, educator, and misfit. I grew up in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin downwind from the state’s largest coal fired power plant. I’m an asthmatic, a renter, and a first-generation college graduate. Knowledge is power, and I believe good information in the hands of ordinary people is essential to a functioning democracy. I reject technocracy and embrace community agency.

I am a member of Science for the People, the RE-AMP Network, Wisconsin Climate Table, and WI Climate Action Navigators. I also coordinate a working group of Midwest energy advocates who help residents navigate their home energy transition.

I want to help you take energy action because we all breathe the same air.

Why should I join?

Over the last century, we’ve all been alienated from choice over the most essential building block of life: energy. The antidote to energy alienation, as far as I can tell, is energy democracy. Energy systems built by and for the communities they serve. But while its easy to agree what energy means, it’s harder to agree on what “democracy” means. I’ll spare you a singular definition, but I know something’s not a democracy if it doesn’t involve meaningful relationships and meaningful choice.

To rebuild energy democracy, we must rebuild our meaningful relationships to energy and each other while expanding access to meaningful choices in the energy system. This is our intergenerational call-to-adventure. And we cannot do it alone. Together, we can build a better present, and leave behind a brighter future. Will you join us?

The theoretical perspective of worldmaking and the concrete task of climate justice both force us to contend with the immense scale of injustice and thus the immense scale of the struggle for justice. It may well be outside of any generation’s ability to win outright. But if we choose to relate to the world as ancestors, we can prevent this realization from overwhelming us into political paralysis. Many of the things that we do every day link us with countless people who have come before us and—if we succeed at preventing the worst climate outcomes—countless people who will come after us. We can do the spiritual work to act from this knowledge and faith right now. The world depends on it.”

-Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò, Reconsidering Reparations

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What comes next?

Educational newsletters every 1-2 weeks covering a range of home energy topics, including:

1. How to plan your home energy transition

2. How to access home energy incentives at federal, state, and local levels

3. What to consider when you’re electrifying specific appliances

4. What to know when you’re working with a contractor?

5. Upcoming home energy webinars and online Q&A’s for residents

6. How utilities, policies, and regulators shape our energy choices

7. Responses to this community’s questions and concerns!

To help me figure out what you want me to write about, please take a few minutes to take this New Reader Survey if you haven’t already:

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How can I participate?

1. Subscribe to get full access to the newsletter and publication archives.

2. Comment on posts! Ask questions! Share your experiences!

3. Invite friends, family, coworkers, and neighbors to join the community.

4. Use GreenNeighborChallenge.org to find your energy programs and incentives!

5. Directly support this community with a small monthly donation.

6. Wear Green Neighbor gear out in your community.