Our off-the-cuff chat might be a little rough around the edges, so lets unpack. Summary: we'd decarbonize/electrify better/faster when white-collar policy makers/shapers work *with* blue-collar (HVAC) technicians, rather than design programs *for* them from afar. 1/

I was very lucky to be able to catch a bit of @Skills_Canada event in Winnipeg this year and lucky to have witnessed some Canada’s next generation of skilled tradespeople. Such a fantastic initiative to help young people find meaningful work. https://t.co/k7Uh3rmZ6p

HVAC contractors work in the nasty parts of homes. As did I as an insulation contractor. The work needs to pay well or it won’t get done, or at least not done well.

Want boots on the ground home electrification knowledge? And analysis of the challenge with hvac contractors? Check out @akantamn and I’s Boundary Spanners podcast. This is a wicked heavy lift! https://t.co/YU59tc3HtC #electrifyeverything #HVAC

In my own conception of the world, I would like to be more attentive to our rich inner orderings that drive, shape our character and destiny. In particular, I'd like to account for it somehow in the policy research work I do. I am as yet unsure what that would look like /end

However, we are all not merely fragmented automatons that can be nudged into certain 'preferred' policy pathways to maximize our private utility. 7/

The (contested) role of public policy in advancing home performance and electrification seems to largely be relegated to 'directing investments' and 'aligning incentives' 6/

Uprooted as I am from my own provenance, I wouldn't know that feeling myself. But I can imagine that it fills your heart with a clarity of purpose and destiny unmatched by anything a 'jobs training opportunity' or better ''incentive rebate programs" can provide. 5/

What would it feel like, I wondered, to be walking in the footsteps of your fore-bearers, carrying the torch of responsibility for caring for this equipment - and subsequently the home and its occupants - across generations? 4/

On a recent ride-along with a contractor friend, I had a profoundly moving experience when I noticed that signatures and notes from three generations of his family were pinned to the ductwork of the heating system we were servicing. 3/

Your call to duty to serve your community and the people you call your own? A yearning for belonging, and a place to call home? A desire for self-mastery or the pursuit of a calling? To seek not just to be loved, but to conduct yourself in ways that are seen as lovely? 2/

How to make room for - in thinking about energy policy - for the ordering of our inner lives? Where to begin accounting for things like - your sense of honour and dignity that bind you to a certain way of being? 1/

I'm tired now but I'll have to think about all this a bit more and write it up somewhere else.

Same patterns come up in nearly every conversation with all kinds of people. Concerns about > Uprootedness from and disenchantment with places > Erosion of shared spaces and corrosion of shared aspirations > Hostile fragmentation of attention and affection

Takeaways from 2 months spent driving 15k kms across 🇺🇸/🇨🇦 1) Home is where you're missed 2) There's an epidemic of profound loneliness & a devastating decline of social relations, in communities of all kinds- from coal towns in WV to software suburbs of WA 3) Wither antidote?

Embarking on a cross-country 'goodwill tour' of 🇺🇸 next week to forge deeper ties between our two great nations .... but mostly to learn first-hand about HVAC & home performance biz models from the best in business - #hvac20 @jeffdoug26 @energysmartwv @EfficiencyLast et al

Sometime this month, I'd have lived here in 🇨🇦 longer than I did in the 🇺🇸. I have very fond memories of the people, places and my 'hometowns' of the US, but the enduring legacy of my time there will be : fully internalizing this disposition to Self and life .

This is just an early chart from a larger cross-tab dataset I am putting together. What's on your data wishlist? I can break this out by fuel-type, province, CMA, year of construction, homeowner/renter and any combination of those variables.

What do folks make of this? Nearly a third (4.5 M) of all 🇨🇦 homes have both a central AC for cooling AND a forced air furnace for heating. What if - at end of life - either of those systems was replaced with a single heat pump that could do both? 🤔

A Heat Pump Policy Thread: What if we paid resi HVAC manufacturers ~$400 per AC they manufacture if they make all of their production heat pumps? Currently US OEMs make ~5M ACs and ~3M heat pumps. What if they were all heat pumps? This might only cost ~$10 billion over 4 yrs

This is a horrifying piece on #climate, dripping with contempt for poor people from developing countries. Aside from just being wrong, these malthusian arguments increasingly come from people who can't seem to stop talking about saving the planet. https://t.co/OcmSfJX0mW