From the Mind of Trevor Stone

My funemployment priority last fall was getting a heat pump installed before the end of the year so I could take advantage of the Inflation Reduction Act's tax credits, before Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill increased taxes on energy saving systems. As a perennial procrastinator I managed to get everything in under the wire, wrapping up a week before Christmas and just a few working days before the end of the tax year. Despite IRS deadlines being the spark to get my butt into gear, by far the largest savings came from Xcel Energy's incentive programs. I saved $2,000 on my taxes on the heat pump and $1,000 for improving insulation, but Xcel gave a $6500 rebate on the heat pump, a $3000 rebate on insulation, and a check for $2500 because I did three efficiency projects in a year. So if you're considering energy efficiency upgrades to your house, don't let the death of tax benefits dissuade you: you might still be able to get it installed at a significant discount.

For anyone interested in a home energy project, step one is to get a home energy audit. Xcel offers these at reduced cost: I paid a little over $100 for an expert to spend a couple hours at my house identifying thermal leakage, checking furnace combustion, measuring air-changes-per-hour (which is the main way your house looses heat), and he probably installed at least $100 worth of free LED lightbulbs. This audit also unlocks the Xcel rebate program. It was scheduled about a month ahead of time last year, so get on it early. While you're waiting for that to happen, talk to a free advisor at Go Electric Colorado who can talk in depth about home electrification and efficiency options, navigating rebate programs, and providing a neutral assessment of project bids. One important thing I learned from the energy audit was that Xcel will only give a heat pump rebate if the insulation project happened first; otherwise they assume the heat pump system was oversized. It's also crucial to use companies on Xcel's approved vendors list; otherwise you won't get a rebate. I went with Independent Power for the heat pump project; they were great to work with, and had a lot of experience in the HVAC space. I also had a good experience with Elephant Energy and would definitely recommend them; the main reason I didn't choose them was crew availability before the end-of-year tax deadline. Bestway Insulation had the lowest of three bids, but also did the most thorough job on the free estimate visit, and were able to schedule on short notice. "This is an Eloy job," the estimator said as he squeezed himself out of my crawlspace. "We've got a guy who's really short and skinny. He says 'I was born to either be a jockey or work in crawl spaces and attics.'"

I was looking forward to comparing this winter's energy bills with last year's to get a sense of return on investment. Unfortunately, Colorado kinda forgot to have a winter this year. On the Front Range we basically got one snow storm per month from December through March, and much of the rest of the time was often T-shirt weather, with late March spending a week in the high 70s and low 80s. So aside from a week of Stock Show Weather, the new heat pump hasn't had a whole lot of work to do.

Comparing the unseasonably warm months of November-ish to January-ish, our natural gas usage was cut by a factor of about 10 (just hot water and cooking now), while electricity use doubled (the heat pump was working hard during the single-digits cold snap). The unseasonably warm February-ish increased electricity use by 50 to 60% over November-ish, and gas usage remained decimated. The November-ish bill was about $150 for electrical and $130 for gas. January-ish was about $310 for electrical and $25 for gas; February-ish was about $220 for electrical, $30 for gas. Taxes and other adjustments are included; $7 and $11 are fixed costs for just having service. Febraury's weather was more similar to November's, so this suggests our overall energy bill is similar after the change, given fixed per-unit utility prices.

This is a bit surprising, since with a conversion rate of roughly 29 kilowatt-hours per therm, our total consumption of units of energy dropped by more than half. Electricity is currently billed higher than an equivalent kWh of gas, and a kilowatt-hour of gas burned at a power plant delivers less than one kWh to your meter, of course. This does highlight that the time horizon for a payoff for energy efficiency projects is long-term; before the project I'd estimated perhaps $30 per winter month in savings, which will take more than a decade to overcome the price differential of maintaining the gas furnace status quo. This is one reason energy efficiency tax credits and rebates are important: it's a significant up-front capital cost borne by the consumer with a slow pay-out and the public receives some of the benefits through reduced energy demand. However, market forces may act in my favor: I expect natural gas prices to increase significantly over time (with a lot of short-term spikes too), while deployment of renewables—which have nearly zero operating cost. If Xcel's gas rates rise faster than their electrical rates, I'll break even on the project sooner. (There is, however, a Jevons paradox risk that expanded cheap clean energy will induce demand for electricity, keeping prices high. This is one reason I support carbon pricing in addition to renewable buildout and transmission expansion.)

There are some non-financial benefits of this project, too. I wanted to get a heat pump in part because my house didn't have air-conditioning. Our cooling tools are a swamp cooler and an attic fan, which has been pleasant on warm days but it has trouble keeping up in the heat of summer. A heat pump provides both heating and cooling through the same mechanism, just running in reverse. Insulating the attic and crawl space has also been a big win: when days are sunny to warm up the house (thanks, sun porch!) and nighttime temperatures are in the 40s the heating system often doesn't seem to come on at all, with the house cooling down to the thermostat's room temperature by the time the sun comes up. This was particularly useful handy when Xcel cut power for 20 hours on the final day of the heat pump install; the thermostat around 70 when I went to bed and had only dropped to about 65 the next morning. The air-sealed crawl space also means the bathroom tile floor isn't so chilly on bare feet headed to the toilet in the morning.

The heat pump is also a lot quieter than the gas furnace was. A heat pump can run at slow speed to pull latent heat inside from the outdoor air, then blow that air into the house to keep it a consistent temperature. A gas furnace must periodically start a fire, then blow a bunch of air that's significantly hotter than room temperature around before dousing the fire and waiting for the house to cool below the thermostat setting. The furnace cycles and air movement was pretty noisy, with an air return vent in our living room. Getting warm air meant it was harder to hear the radio, or we'd turn up the TV. Now I often don't notice the heat is on unless I step over a vent. I do sometimes miss the very-hot air rising from the floor, though. When you come in from a cold and wet snow adventure it's nice to be able to temporarily turn the thermostat up one or two degrees and then stand over a vent to quickly warm up. When I was a young kid, my mom would turn on the furnace when I got out of the bath and have me lie next to the bathroom floor vent with a towel over me while she narrated my adventure as a cloud rising over the Pacific and blowing east, dropping rain on the mountains. I also used to wake up in the morning and lie next to the long register in the living room and marvel that I could hear my parents through the duct work in their bedroom downstairs. The efficient "maintenance warm air" from the heat pump doesn't give quite the rosy feeling. Fortunately when the sun's out I can use our sun porch when I want to emulate a heat-seeking feline.

I was listening to Listening to a podcast featuring Jack's Solar Garden. The idea is to install solar panels on farmland and then grow shade-tolerant crops below it, or let livestock range and benefit from the shade on hot days. This provides the farmer with multiple income streams: electricity sales and agricultural produce. Agroforestry follows a similar farm-as-ecosystem approach—trees, crops, and livestock grown together can be more productive in the long term than the three grown in separate monocultural areas. (This is partly because the three work symbiotically with soil health. Also, chickens are a pretty effective insecticide and fertilizer, reducing cost of inputs.)

This led me to think about maps and statistics I've seen about land use, which tend to account for just a single use for any given acre of land. You might see an infographic about the percentage of land devoted to cattle, to wheat, to forests, to solar power. This accounting system makes the math easier, but blinds the reader to the possibility of multi-use synergy. Why settle for 20 acres of lettuce and 20 acres of solar when you could have 40 acres of both?

As we combat climate change and account for a rapidly-growing global population, the more creative we can get with the mostly-fixed amount of land on the planet the better chance we'll have of thriving as a human species.

(slightly different wording based on existing positions)

Senator Gardner,

Thank you for your recent op-ed in the Coloradoan arguing that science should be nonpartisan. Thanks also for your work to ensure that Colorado’s leading research institutions like NIST, NOAA, NCAR, and NREL receive sufficient funding to further understand our complex and dynamic world. For over 50 years, Colorado researchers have been instrumental in understanding the Earth’s weather and climate.

I am writing in support of Citizens' Climate Lobby, a nationwide nonpartisan group committed to fair, effective, and sustainable climate change solutions. Earlier this month, 1000 Americans, including 35 Coloradans, traveled to Washington and met with representatives and senators from across the country. CCL is building bipartisan support for a carbon fee and dividend proposal. This proposal would help relieve Americans from the challenges faced by climate change while accelerating American businesses focused on clean energy, all without increasing the size of government or putting American exports at risk.

The last two decades have seen remarkable changes in temperatures and climate, contributing to bigger heat waves and more frequent natural disasters. I experienced the changing climate first hand during the 2013 Boulder floods. When I woke up on September 12th, the thousand-year flood had turned the canyon road to my house into a roaring river. While I was fortunate and avoided significant loss, my family’s lives were disrupted for several months and several friends were much harder hit. Without systemic action to address the rapidly warming atmosphere, this kind of disaster will become more common, straining the ability of first responders and relief organizations to help those impacted.

Energy lies at the core of any economy, and fossil fuels have long played a key role in the American economy. We now know that carbon dioxide emissions are a major contributor to climate change. It is therefore crucial that we transition to a lower-carbon energy mix. The most efficient way to make this transition is to put a price on carbon emissions so that the costs of fossil fuels are no longer externalities. To avoid sudden disruption to the American economy, CCL’s proposal begins with a modest $15/ton fee, rising predictably every year. The money collected will be rebated equally to all Americans. This dividend will give citizens and businesses the opportunity to respond to market changes and to invest in transitioning to a affordable clean energy solutions. These investments in turn will create new jobs and help keep America competitive in global energy technology. Over the course of a generation, we can make the transition to a resilient low-emission economy.

Although President Trump withdrew the U.S. from the Paris Accords, it is still crucial for America to take action on climate change. CCL’s proposal would help America take the lead in clean energy while boosting our economy and creating jobs. The proposal includes a border adjustment to ensure that American exporters remain competitive. This will also incentivize our trading partners to implement their own national carbon fee, leading to a global decline in carbon emissions without the need for complex multinational treaties. A substantially similar proposal was put forth by James Baker, George Shultz, and the Climate Leadership Council. It has received support from many leading organizations and individuals including Larry Summers, Stephen Hawking, ExxonMobil, and The Nature Conservancy (https://www.clcouncil.org/founding-members/).

Sincerely,
Trevor Stone
Boulder, CO 80304

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Senator Bennet,

Thank you for speaking out on the Senate floor in support of climate science. Thanks as well for publicly questioning President Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement. Although the U.S. is no longer part of that international process, we can still work as a nation to reduce carbon emissions, grow the American economy, and build resilient communities.

I am writing in support of Citizens’ Climate Lobby, a nationwide nonpartisan group committed to fair, effective, and sustainable climate change solutions. Earlier this month, 1000 Americans, including 35 Coloradans, traveled to Washington and met with representatives and senators from across the country. CCL is building bipartisan support for a carbon fee and dividend proposal. This proposal would help relieve Americans from the challenges faced by climate change while accelerating American businesses focused on clean energy, all without increasing the size of government or putting American exports at risk.

The last two decades have seen remarkable changes in temperatures and climate, contributing to bigger heat waves and more frequent natural disasters. I experienced the changing climate first hand during the 2013 Boulder floods. When I woke up on September 12th, the thousand-year flood had turned the canyon road to my house into a roaring river. While I was fortunate and avoided significant loss, my family’s lives were disrupted for several months and several friends were much harder hit. Without systemic action to address the rapidly warming atmosphere, this kind of disaster will become more common, straining the ability of first responders and relief organizations to help those impacted.

Energy lies at the core of any economy, and fossil fuels have long played a key role in the American economy. We now know that carbon dioxide emissions are a major contributor to climate change. It is therefore crucial that we transition to a lower-carbon energy mix. The most efficient way to make this transition is to put a price on carbon emissions so that the costs of fossil fuels are no longer externalities. To avoid sudden disruption to the American economy, CCL’s proposal begins with a modest $15/ton fee, rising predictably every year. The money collected will be rebated equally to all Americans. This dividend will give citizens and businesses the opportunity to respond to market changes and to invest in transitioning to a affordable clean energy solutions. These investments in turn will create new jobs and help keep America competitive in global energy technology. Over the course of a generation, we can make the transition to a resilient low-emission economy.

Bipartisan support for climate change legislation is growing in Congress, and I urge you to help bring it about. Please also ensure that any climate legislation passed by the Senate follows the fee and dividend model. Not only will the dividend help offset higher energy prices for struggling citizens, the revenue neutrality is crucial for gaining Republican support. Both climate change and renewable energy affect everyone, so it’s important that the bill is supported by leaders and voters across the political spectrum.

Sincerely,
Trevor Stone
Boulder, CO 80304