CETI had a big October! Not only did we add two team members, but we also secured new funding and contracts that will allow us to expand our rural and workforce-focused efforts.
We are thrilled to announce two important additions to the CETI team: Jamie Ptacek joins as our new Communications Manager. Jamie grew up in rural Pennsylvania and studied Climate Science at Bowdoin College. She spent the past decade at several nonprofit organizations advancing policy campaigns that worked at the intersection of climate change and social justice on the local, state, and national levels.
Katie McNabb comes on board as our Program and Development Assistant. Katie grew up in Spokane and recently graduated from Western Washington University with degrees in Journalism and English. She worked as a reporter and editor for several publications, covering stories related to conservation and environmental issues.
Jamie and Katie are excited to bring their experience and passion to help CETI achieve its mission to scale decarbonization and facilitate a clean energy transition across the Northwest.
CETI received several exciting grants that will further our work to understand how an equitable clean energy transition might unfold in Northwest rural communities.
Support for Community-Defined Decarbonization: With a $50,000 grant from the Seattle Foundation's Climate Justice Impact Strategy, we aim to explore how to site and permit renewable energy and transmission equitably in rural communities, as well as to enable rural communities to reap economic development benefits from clean energy.
Funding Workforce Analysis in Montana and Idaho: A $50,000 grant from the Arthur M. Blank Foundation makes it possible for CETI to produce state-specific workforce data for Montana and Idaho as part of our Net-Zero Northwest Workforce Analysis. Without this funding, we would only have been able to provide Washington and Oregon data. We aim to release all four state workforce analyses in early 2024.
Grant to Explore Benefits of Rooftop Solar: The University of Washington’s Population Health Initiative awarded CETI and two UW professors a $50,000 grant to produce accurate, accessible, interactive county-by-county data that show the health, emissions, and economic potential for developing community-scale solar in Washington’s rural communities.
Department of Commerce Rural Clean Energy Report: The Washington State Department of Commerce awarded a contract to a team led by Ross Strategic that CETI is a part of to develop a “Rural Clean Energy Economics and Community Engagement Study and Report.”
We continue to respond to requests to explain what achieving net-zero emissions in the Northwest means. Here’s a brief rundown of events from the fall:
Separate from the Net-Zero Northwest presentations, I had the honor of moderating a panel on “Inclusive Workforce Development” at the Solar WA Summit on October 20. I facilitated a conversation among Michael Carter, Program Manager for the King County Green Jobs; Adam Powers, Co-Founder of DC Power Plants and Key Tech Labs; and Aubrey Newton, Director of Northwest Laborers Employers Cooperation and Education Trust (LECET).
These individuals are doing amazing work ensuring that the clean energy transition creates economic pathways for historically marginalized communities.
We are excited to join the NW Energy Coalition's December 6 Clean & Affordable Energy Conference in Portland, where we will learn how utility planning, energy efficiency, and distributed energy resources could deliver equitable and affordable outcomes. Hope to see you there!
Keep an eye out for the release of our Net-Zero Northwest Workforce Analysis next week. We have been working with BW Research Partnership since June to produce the Northwest’s first comprehensive clean energy workforce analysis.
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