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Send us a textIn this episode of The Anti-Gravity Group Podcast, Shane, Braden, and Taylor are joined by Brahm Soltes, who is a former competitor and current volunteer of ESRA, the Experimental Sounding Rocket Association. He joins us to tell us about IREC and his past in high power and experimental rocketry. Want to volunteer or spectate at IREC? Check out the ESRA website here:https://www.soundingrocket.org/Support the showFollow Braden Here:https://youtube.com/@rocketvlogshttps://www.instagram.com/bigb1011https://www.tiktok.com/@bradencarlson6Follow Taylor here:https://www.youtube.com/@the_rocketchannelFollow Shane (or as you may know him, Postart) here:https://www.youtube.com/@PostartPropulsionshttps://www.instagram.com/shaneharrisphoto
Dave Ryan je Irec, ki se že več kot desetletje "bojuje" s slovenščino. Njegovo pot učenja slovenščine smo lahko spremljali tudi v skoraj 300 epizodah radijske igre Dave's Challenge: Let's learn Slovene na Radiu Si, na katerem dela tudi kot novinar. Kakšno je danes njegovo znanje slovenščine in kaj mu še vedno povzroča preglavice, izveste v tokratnem Jezikanju.
Con Pablo Ferreras, Científico Titular del CSIC en el IREC hablamos del comportamiento de dos linces que fueron grabados por una pareja en Castellar de Santiago ( Ciudad Real ) peleando a cabezazos
Hosting capacity maps for electricity distribution grid are becoming increasingly critical as electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure rapidly expands across the United States. These maps help project developers make informed decisions on where to optimally deploy EV chargers, ultimately lowering infrastructure costs and accelerating project timelines. In this episode of EV Hub Live, Lucy McKenzie from Atlas Public Policy will be joined by Cristina Botero and Shikhar Pandey from Commonwealth Edison (ComEd), along with Midhat Mafazy from the Interstate Energy Renewable Council (IREC), to explore the benefits and challenges of hosting capacity maps. As organizations actively involved in researching and implementing these maps, ComEd and IREC bring valuable perspectives to the discussion. The episode streamed live on Tuesday, April 15th at 2:30pm EST.
When Maria Robinson took the helm at the Grid Deployment Office within the US Department of Energy (US DOE), she stepped into one of the most pivotal (and difficult) roles in the clean energy transition.Now that she's no longer a government employee, Maria reveals what really happens inside DOE decision-making rooms, why the grid is far more fragile than most realize, and how her new role as CEO of IREC is helping shift the power back to the people.From wildfire response to data center load growth and interconnection bottlenecks, Maria clearly understands what is driving (or stifling) our energy transition —you don't want to miss this conversation.
Enerji Günlüğü Haber Bülteni:Türkiye'nin ve Dünyanın Enerji Gündemienerjigunlugu.net
16 USB's of the first recorded interaction between aliens and humans. Link: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/2386590.rss RSS Feed: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/2386590.rss
Enerji Günlüğü Haber Bülteni:Türkiye'nin ve Dünyanın Enerji Gündemienerjigunlugu.net
Dans cet épisode, Christian s'intéresse aux algues et, comme les cueilleurs d'algues, il plonge dans l'antre mystérieux de cette salade des profondeurs! Il fait le point sur la réglementation désuète et non scientifiquement fondée qui régit les algues au Québec, poussant même les entrepreneurs à devoir quitter le Québec pour opérer leur entreprise, malgré l'incroyable potentiel de cette industrie. Invité(e) 1- Antoine Nicolas, pdg de Un Océan de saveurs2- François L'Italien, chercheur à l'Institut de recherche en économie contemporaine (IREC) 3- Colombe St-Pierre, Cheffe-propriétaire du restaurant Chez Saint-Pierre & de la Cantine Côtière et mentore à l'émission Les Chefs !Hébergé par Ausha. Visitez ausha.co/politique-de-confidentialite pour plus d'informations.
Rufus, a pet and mascot of a solar installer, is dognapped out of the installer's truck while on the job. A chase ensues, but we learn that the dog, the solar installer, and the dog napper aren't quite what they seem.True Solar TakeawaysAs of 2020, there are 20,000 military veterans in the solar industry, making up about 9% of the solar workforce.IREC, the Interstate Renewable Energy Council, supports veteran training programs. Get more information on these programs here.The Solar Ready Vets Fellowship connects mid-to-senior level transitioning service members with on-the-job training in leadership and management roles in the civilian solar workforce.The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) has more information for solar veterans.GRID Alternatives is another solar job training organization that supports both veterans and non-veterans.The U.S. Department of Energy also has job training information and programs for military veterans.Here's a photo of the original Rufus with my real cat--for size comparison.----- Visit ProbablyTrueSolar.com to sign up for the newsletter to learn about new episodes and live solar storytelling events. Support the show by visiting the merch store and buying a tee shirt! Learn how sponsors can be a part of Probably True Solar Stories and tell their own creative stories. Follow @SolarFred and/or @ProbTrueSolar on Twitter to discuss episodes Don't forget to: Subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast streaming service Rate Review, and Share!
Richard Lawrence has a long history in the solar industry and is very knowledgeable in many areas (He was formerly the Executive Director of NABCEP among other things). Our main focus of this podcast was apprenticeship programs. This is a big deal, since to qualify for the Inflation Reduction Act 30% Investment Tax Credit (ITC) for projects over 1MW, fulfilling the apprenticeship and prevailing wage standards are required. Topics covered: Richard Lawrence career: IREC Program Director currently 5 years irecusa.org IBTS 2 years - Institute for Building Technology and Safety NABCEP Executive Director 3.5 yrs Solar (PV) Instructor Training Network Hudson Valley Community College Topics covered and questions answered: What is an apprenticeship? What is prevailing wage? Union vs. non-union Is prevailing wage different for different places? Right to work states (anti-union) Registered apprenticeship programs Unregistered apprenticeship programs How does someone set up an apprenticeship program? Who to register an apprenticeship program with, like the DOL (Department of Labor) Local and federal programs IRA-apprenticeship - tax credits - pay workers prevailing wage 1MW and up 15% of labor hours requirement What is IREC doing for apprenticeship and What is IREC Drama with different unions and non-unions-everyone wants the work $200k/yr electrician cost Prevailing wage for small vs. large projects Can election results take away these benefits Veterans California C46 solar license and batteries Solar PV Instructor Training Network Hudson Valley Community College SPI NYSERDA www.nyserda.ny.gov Massachusetts Clean Energy Center www.masscec.com Burnham Energy AHJ Multi Junction Technology Apprenticeship programs. Solar Energy International Department of Energy www.energy.gov Larry Sherwood Soul Smart Program in Puerto Rico Zoning laws Donations Cod community college Non-Profit Organizations SEAC Sustainable Energy Action Committee www.sustainableenergyaction.org ANSI Standards Jane Weissman Solar ABC's www.solarabcs.org Solar ready veterans network John Kim American Battery Factory IBEW International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers www.ibew.org UBC United Brotherhood of Carpenters www.carpenters.org ITC Eike Weber Herman Scheer NREL www.nrel.gov Learn more at www.solarSEAN.com and be sure to get NABCEP certified by taking Sean's classes at www.heatspring.com/sean
Declan se je rodil v Londonu. Njegov oče je Irec, ki sicer danes živi na Madžarskem, mati pa Slovenka. Kot najstnik se je predvsem na njeno željo, menda pa tudi njegov starejši brat ni bil proti, preselil v Velike Lašče, kjer je preživel večji del svoje mladosti. V intervjuju pripoveduje o prilagajanju na slovensko okolje. Pravi, da so ga vrstniki načeloma zelo lepo sprejeli, je imel pa kljub temu, da je mati z njim od nekdaj govorila slovensko, kar nekaj težav z jezikom: med drugim so jo enkrat iz šole klicali zaradi njegove predrznosti, češ da noče vikati svojih učiteljic, on pa pojma vikanje sploh še ni poznal. Pa tudi: "Če so me vprašali, kako se pišem, sem jim črkoval svoje ime: D-E-C-L-A-N." Danes ima Declan kar štiri državljanstva, zadnjih osem let pa živi in dela v Montrealu. V njegovem dolgoročnem načrtu je vrnitev v Slovenijo, saj pri sebi z vsakim pretečenim letom bivanja v Kanadi opaža, da mu negovanje vezi z domovino vse več pomeni. O pomembnosti občutka pripadnosti matični kulturi (to je, kot zatrjuje, zanj kljub številnim konkurentkam slovenska) se je menda veliko naučil tudi z opazovanjem socialne bede avtohtonih kanadskih ljudstev, ki po njegovem "propadajo" predvsem po zaslugi dejstva, da skozi dolgoletne boje s kolonialnimi hegemoni niso uspeli ohraniti svojih kultur.
Pretekli teden je v Slovenijo prikolesaril mladi Irec, ki si je za cilj postavil kolesarjenje od Irske do Avstralije. Pa ne zato, ker bi mu bili všeč ekstremni podvigi, ampak predvsem za dober namen. Fergal Guihen, 25-letni zdravstveni tehnik s severa Republike Irske, namreč tako zbira denar za dve dobrodelni organizaciji. V Ljubljani se je z njim pogovarjala Andreja Čokl.
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Aproveite a antecipação da Black November da Insider e consiga até 40% de desconto em algumas peças se vc usar o cupom CORRIDANOARBF. Insider Store - https://www.insiderstore.com.br/CorridaNoAr Fui convidado para dar uma palestra e participar de uma prova em Irecê, interiorzão da Bahia e explico como isurgiu essa oportunidade. PARCEIROS | GEIS DE CARBOIDRATO Z2 - https://www.z2foods.com/ - Use o cupom CORRIDANOAR para ter 10% de desconto | INSIDER - camisetas, bonés, roupas íntimas e mais - https://bit.ly/insidercna - Cupom CORRIDANOAR12 para 12% de desconto | PULSEIRAS DE IDENTIFICAÇÃO SELFID - https://www.selfid.com.br/ use o CUPOM "CNA2019" 10% de desconto | ÓCULOS YOPP - https://cnoar.run/oculosyopp - Use o cupom "corridanoar10" para ter 10% de desconto em todo o site | PROVAS LIVE! RUN XP - https://liverun.com.br/ | use o cupom CORRIDANOAR para ter 20% de desconto | PRODUTOS CORRIDA NO AR e CAFÉ & CORRIDA https://www.runfor.com.br/corrida-no-ar | Use o cupom "CAFEECORRIDA10" para ter para ter 10% de desconto
In this episode, Maine State Senator Nicole Grohoski discusses an upcoming ballot measure that gives Maine voters the opportunity to replace the state's unpopular for-profit utilities with a nonprofit public utility.(PDF transcript)(Active transcript)Text transcript:David RobertsMaine's two big investor-owned power utilities — Central Maine Power and Versant Power — are not very popular. In fact, they boast among the lowest customer satisfaction scores of any utilities in the country, perhaps because their customers face some of the nation's highest rates, suffer more and longer outages than average Americans, and pay more to connect rooftop solar than ratepayers in almost any other state. This November, Mainers will vote on a radical alternative: a ballot measure to replace the two for-profit utilities with a single nonprofit utility that would be called Pine Tree Power. Maine and many other states already have lots of small nonprofit municipal utilities, but this would mark the first time a whole state with existing private utilities decided to make them public en masse.Naturally the utilities are opposed and have dumped $27 million and counting into a campaign to crush the measure; supporters have mustered just under $1 million. To discuss this David vs. Goliath fight, I contacted one of its champions, Democratic state Senator Nicole Grohoski. We discussed why she thinks a public utility would perform better, what it would do for clean energy, how it would be governed, and what other states can learn from the effort. With no further ado, Maine State Senator Nicole Grohoski. Welcome to Volts. Thank you so much for coming.Nicole GrohoskiThank you so much for having me. I'm thrilled to be with you today.David RobertsI am super excited to talk about this issue. There's a lot of ins and outs I want to cover, but maybe let's just start with a brief history of this thing. So the idea here is, as I said in the intro, to replace Maine's two big investor-owned utilities, Central Maine Power and Versant Power, with a single publicly owned main utility called Pine Tree Power. Tell me who first had that idea? Where did it first pop up? I know it was legislation and then it got vetoed. Just tell us a little bit about how we got to where we are now.Nicole GrohoskiThe history is really interesting, and I'll try to not spend too much time on it, but I think it's really important to start with the reality here in Maine as a backdrop. So a couple of things that are important to know for listeners is that we, as Mainers, find that our electricity isn't really affordable or reliable and our utilities aren't trustworthy. So we have, for many years running now, the worst customer satisfaction in the country, some of the highest rates in the country for electricity, and those just keep going up. We have experienced a 20% increase this summer, with another increase coming in January.And we also have the most frequent outages in the country. And there are a couple of other reliability metrics that we're not doing so well on, including the length of outages and how long it takes to restore power. So basically what we see here in Maine is that the status quo of these for-profit multinational corporations is just not working for us. About a tenth of our residents in Maine received disconnection notices earlier this year because they just couldn't afford to pay their bills. And it's not working for companies or big corporations that really rely on low cost and reliable electricity to compete.So that's kind of the background. So a number of us were wondering, does it have to be this way? Is there an alternative to worst of the worst? We are Maine, we are very proud and independent, and we like to be leading, but this is not the way that we wanted to be leading. So there was a lot of grassroots pressure. In 2017 we had a big storm, and the power was out for days. But at the same time, there was a billing fiasco, which resulted in billing errors for over 100,000 customers, which is in a state of 1.3 million people, that's a very big percent.So there was a lot of pressure, a lot of phone calls to legislators, to the Public Utilities Commission, to the public advocate about these utilities. And so I think that really planted a seed for a number of folks. Specifically, Maine's first public advocate pointed out to some members of the legislature, including Representative Seth Barry at the time, myself, and a few others, that there were other options and that the financial and local control aspects of those options might be really helpful for Maine. So we started meeting in 2019 with the previous public advocate, economists, labor, legislators, people that were part of a group called CMP Ratepayers Unite.And that's when we formed this idea of creating a consumer-owned utility for Maine that would be non-profit and similar to the ten other consumer-owned utilities we have in Maine. I don't know that we had a name for it at that time, but we do now call it the Pine Tree Power Company. So those were the early days. And then to sort of fast forward, the Legislature commissioned a study which was done by London Economics International in 2019 to learn more about the economics and also legal pathway here. Then, of course, 2020, everybody knows what happened then, things kind of went on pause. And then in 2021, we wrote a bill. And that bill passed in both chambers in Maine with bipartisan support. As you mentioned, the governor did veto that bill.David RobertsAnd that bill was to create the utility or to put the question to voters.Nicole GrohoskiThat bill put the question to voters, and it's very similar to the language that we'll be voting on this November. So we did revise the language based on some feedback from the governor, and that is the language that is now in front of us to vote on this November, November 7. And in order to get the question on the ballot we had hundreds of volunteers working together to collect around 80,000 signatures in total, which is a little bit above the requirement needed to get a question on the ballot in Maine.David RobertsI'm a little curious why — this is a Democratic Governor Mills. What was her rationale? I mean, I guess I can imagine her rationale for opposing the public utility, but what was her rationale for opposing asking voters what they thought? Did she have a good rationale?Nicole GrohoskiNot in my opinion. I'm sure in her opinion it was great. But we read the veto letter for the most part. There was very little in there that was substantive. Some of those minor changes that we made are all things that we would have happily made in advance had we had outreach from her office about them. You know, the unfortunate thing with governors in Maine is that we have yet to elect one that has campaigned using our clean elections, publicly funding campaign option, which is something that most legislators use. So you can draw your own conclusions there about the — money in politics may have been at play.I can't say for certain.David RobertsYeah, we should just make a note here because a couple of podcasts we've done here on Volts are about state laws prohibiting utilities from using ratepayer money to lobby and pay off politicians. Maine does not have one of those laws.Nicole GrohoskiWell, we actually did just pass a law. We were one of four states earlier this year to be sure that ratepayer dollars are not going for lobbying. You know, industry membership, group memberships.David RobertsOh, interesting.Nicole GrohoskiYou know, Edison Electric, for instance, Chambers of Commerce, et cetera. So that is a new law. It will be in effect in about a month. So we'll see if that improves things.David RobertsJust in time or actually just a smidge too late. So the bill of particulars here then, against these two utilities, as you say, they have really low ratepayer satisfaction scores, lots of power outages, more than usual, higher rates, some of the highest rates in the country. Like every state, Maine has a Public Utility Commission that is meant to regulate its utilities. That has members appointed by the governor or elected? I'm not sure how it goes in Maine.Nicole GrohoskiIn Maine, the commissioners are appointed and then subject to Senate approval.David RobertsSo why not just use the PUC to sort of get these utilities in line? That seems like it would be the sort of first order of business.Nicole GrohoskiIt's a great question. I mean, I think everyone kind of wants to default to using the systems we have in place, but I have a couple of thoughts about that. Our Public Utilities Commission I do think is full of folks who are hardworking and really trying to get under the hood with utilities. But there's a lot of information there that the utilities really understand best. And so when you have questions, you're going to ask the utilities and there is sort of a long term back and forth relationship there. Some people might call how that turns into regulatory capture sometimes.Additionally, we do have the ability to fine the utilities if they're not performing up to snuff and that has happened. It doesn't happen that often, and the most recent fine, I think was around $10 million. At the same time they had a significant rate increase and are pulling out over $100 million in profit every year. So it's not really proportional and we could theoretically increase those fines a bit. But there is hesitance. I think the legislature has interest in doing some of that but the utilities are of course not interested and I think we would see another veto pen action is my guess.But all that being said, this effort to create a consumer utility has led to a lot of us just digging down into what is the history of utilities in this country and regulation. And what we found is that utilities are natural monopolies so it makes sense for there to be regulation because there isn't competition. But the folks who sort of started the effort to create public utilities commissions were those who were going to be regulated. And so there has been this hand in glove relationship since the start around the regulators and the regulated.David RobertsIt's not ideal.Nicole GrohoskiThat's probably a subject of a whole other podcast but —David RobertsIt doesn't work quite like you would want it to.Nicole GrohoskiExactly. And additionally, I would say I have recently been talking to folks in other states and other people have served as public advocates. And what I find remarkable is the backflips and cartwheels that we go through with regulation to try to outfox the utilities when, by no fault of their own, the investor owned utilities are created with their number one mission to be maximizing repair profit. So it's like we could keep trying to think of creative and clever ways to balance this out. But at the end of all of it, I keep coming back to the fact that we don't have our roads, which are critical to our economy and our safety and our way of life in the private sector; and nor are our schools, nor is our military.Why does it make sense for something as important as our electricity grid to be subject to for-profit motivations?David RobertsListeners will be rolling their eyes right about now because this is something I say I find a way to say it almost every episode no matter what we're talking about. But utilities, they are structured such that they make money insofar as they spend money. So all they really want to do is deploy more big infrastructure. And so as you say, like PUCs find these elaborate Rube Goldberg mechanisms to sort of beg and plead with them to do things like efficiency or distributed energy, know on and on, inter, regional transmission, name it, all of which are sort of just counter to the basic incentive.So as you say, you can spend the rest of your life coming up with more and more elaborate ways to try to trick them into doing something against their interests. But at a certain point you just got to grapple with the central issue which is that they're set up wrong, they're set up badly, they're set up to not want things that are in the public interest and at a certain point you got to just deal with the root cause. Anyway, sorry to go off on my standard canned rant there. So then a skeptic will say these two utilities, just so people are clear about this, these are not vertically integrated utilities.These are just distribution utilities. They just have wires, they just distribute power. They do not own generation. They're dealing with a certain set of supply issues, a certain set of power plants, a certain geography. Maine is very heavily forested which is a nightmare for transmission lines for all the obvious reasons. So it just has a sort of set of things that it's dealing with. And so I guess the skeptic is going to ask what reason do we have to believe that given the sort of same resources that Pine Tree, a public utility, would perform any better?Nicole GrohoskiWell I think we have a lot of evidence that it would because we already have ten consumer owned utilities in Maine. Just for an example, there is one that's called Eastern Maine Electric Co-op. That's a traditional co-op. It is more rural than most of Maine. You might find it interesting that it is serving about 1.2% of the state's load in kilowatt hours but it is in an area that's twice the size of Rhode Island. Now EMAC, which is in rural downeast Maine is directly adjacent to the territory of Versant that I live in and the cost for delivery in EMAC is nine cents and the cost for delivery in Versant is 13.1 cents per kilowatt hour.So I don't think that's just some kind of magical happenstance that when you take profit out of the equation you're just paying less. We know that together CMP and Versant are sending out about — was last year was $187 million a year in profit. So I think if Mainers are in charge of our utility we can decide do we want to use that money to lower rates? Do we want to use it to reinvest in the grid to increase reliability? And I think it would probably be a mix of both of those things.David RobertsAnd that amount of money you think is material enough that it would show up as improved performance, show up as measurably improved performance?Nicole GrohoskiI do think so. I mean I think for your listeners, while Maine is large and rural we do have 1.3 million people. So, when you sort of divide those numbers out it does make a difference. And we've had some independent economic analysis that shows us that Mainers would be saving on average $367 a month, excuse me, a year, because of the fact that we're basically going from expensive rent for the grid to a lower cost mortgage. So I think it's easy to explain it to folks in terms of, like, "What's better when you're looking for housing, dropping your money down a rent hole, black hole for the rest of your life, or swapping out to a mortgage where you've got a lower interest rate than what we see now with the guaranteed return on equity that happens for our for-profit utilities."David RobertsYeah, this was another piece I wanted to ask about. So part of why you think this will be cheaper for ratepayers is just you take that huge slice of profits that are going, as you say, out of state to the owners of these utilities and keep that in state and that alone will buy you some better service. There's also the issue of investor-owned utilities expect and want and are guaranteed relatively high rates of return on their investments and often resist making investments if the rate of return is lower than that. But as you say, a public power utility can be more patient with its capital, right?Can make investments with lower returns as long as they pay off eventually, right?Nicole GrohoskiYeah. So we see here in Maine that the utilities are getting a ROE of 8% to 12%. And we know that firstly that's kind of astounding because it's not all that risky. Most people are paying their bills.David RobertsCrazy. It's guaranteed. It's huge and it's guaranteed. It's wild what it is. This is like the safest business on the planet as being a regulated utility.Nicole GrohoskiCouldn't agree more. And on the flip side, the Pine Tree Power Company can access low-cost capital through revenue bonding at 3-5%. So when we think about paying off that debt over many years with compounding interest, when we think about the fact that our grid really isn't ready to electrify our economy and experts expect it's going to need to be, increased two to three times. Now is the right moment in time, I think, to move away from high cost, low-risk investment to low cost, low-risk investment before we literally triple our grid.David RobertsTell us a little bit about how the utility would be governed or structured and what implications you think that might have.Nicole GrohoskiI love this question. I am a public servant and so I believe in local governance and people getting to vote and go to public meetings and have a say and all that is built into the ballot question. So the Pine Tree Power Company would have elected board members and there are seven of them, one for each grouping of five Senate seats, state Senate seats. And those members then turn around and appoint six members who have specific expertise in things like utility law and management, concerns of workers, concerns of economic, environmental and social justice, things like that, that we really want to make sure those folks are at the table.And this group of 13 people, they serve six-year terms each of them. And of course, there's like a little bit of a lead-in time because they'd all be elected at once, where some of them served shorter terms at the start. But point is, they are people in our communities. They have to be living in Maine. They have open meetings that are subject to freedom of access laws. And in order to best serve the public, I think they would be doing a lot of public outreach. And that's something that in talking to managers and board members from other consumer utilities in the country, I've been really impressed with how much local engagement they have. I think Sacramento Municipal Utility District, they said they're hosting 1300 community meetings a year.David RobertsGood grief.Nicole GrohoskiA couple a day on average. But they have, I think they said 95% customer satisfaction. So people feel like they're valued, their experience matters and they also have a plan to get to 100% clean energy by 2030. So our Pine Tree power governance is very much in the spirit of "It's a public good. It should be publicly governed."David RobertsThere's a little bit of a controversy in Maine a few years ago. I don't remember all the details, but it was about a big transmission line that would have brought hydro from Canada down through the woods of Maine. It was fought and I believe killed by popular resistance. And there was a lot of, at least nationally there was a lot of talk of like here again we have environmentally minded locals blocking things for environmental reasons, but in a short-sighted way that's going to be worse for the environment overall. In the long term, they're NIMBY's. We've got to figure out a way of dealing with this problem, et cetera, et cetera.So this leads to my question, which is: if you have a governing board that is elected by local people, and it is the local people who are often the source of the NIMBYism, do you not have some fears? That this would lead to a more NIMBY rather than less NIMBY operation of the utility, which is going to be difficult when, as you say, this is the time when every state everybody needs to be increasing and bolstering their transmission systems. Do you worry that local control is going to translate into more rather than less NIMBY opposition to new lines?Nicole GrohoskiI'll put it in a way that I think makes sense to me as a person in Maine who's intimately familiar with what you laid out, which is at the root of that decision, was a fundamental lack of trust in Central Maine Power. A trust that it would be doing anything in our best interest, that it would be giving us appropriate benefits, that it was really after anything more than profits. And so I think it wouldn't be true that as soon as Pine Tree Power was created that everyone would immediately trust the company. But I do think it would be a fresh start.And on top of that, with elected and appointed leaders spending time in communities and just energy literacy, I think in general would increase because it's something we would be talking about more if we had to elect the board. I'll say I think that people's interest in energy policy has gone through the roof this year compared to where it was in the past. And people are asking just really great questions, a new curiosity around electricity that I hadn't seen before growing up here. So I think that the outcome would actually be that folks would feel like they had a say in how the transmission was cited, who was benefiting if we remove the profit motive.Imagine if that money that would have gone to profit was actually going to community benefits. That might really change how people feel. And I think that here in Maine we are sort of skeptical of what's being pushed on us by people from away, quote unquote, is a saying we have. I don't always love it, but it is accurate in this case. You've got Central Main Power, owned by Avangrid, then owned by Iberdrola, based in Spain, telling us, "Oh, we've got this great deal for you." And people are skeptical of that. So I think we have a greater chance actually of doing transmission right and in a way that people can accept if there was this broader community process and a lack of for-profit skepticism that comes naturally to us here.David RobertsOne of the criticisms of the two existing utilities is that they're kind of slow-walking clean energy in particular. So I wonder if you could just say a word about what that means and why and how we think Pine Tree would be better on that score. Because it's not obvious. These are just wires utilities, right? So they're not dealing directly with clean energy generation. So what are the issues around clean energy and how will Pine Tree be an improvement?Nicole GrohoskiSo, historically, we have seen that the utilities do spend a lot of time and money in the State House, not just behind the scenes, but also right out publicly testifying against clean energy bills. Now, that has slowed in recent years, but certainly in the previous gubernatorial administration, that was a very common practice.David RobertsIf I could just pause there, I guess I just don't fully understand why, like, if you're a company that's just running wires, what's it to you?Nicole GrohoskiRight back to the return on equity question. So, these utilities make more money when they build transmission lines than when they upgrade the distribution system. They get a higher rate of return, right? So it is in their best interest to continue with the model of large far-off generation facilities compared to local rooftop solar type solutions or microgrids or battery storage. So that's the first part of the problem, I think. And secondly, I think some of these utilities just really are not very nimble. They're sort of in the business that they've been in for a long time and thinking about how to create a dynamic grid that has time of use rates that actually work, for instance, or bidirectional power.We have had smart meters in this state for over a decade and I can't see how they're being used in any kind of smart way. I mean, people are still calling the utilities to let them know the power is out.David RobertsIt's just baffling to me. Like, if I'm in the utility business, this is like my time to be a hero, you know what I mean? After 100 years of sleepy operation in the background, all of a sudden the world is calling upon me to be cutting edge and be the hero and save the world and instead, I'm just going to "I just want to keep doing things the way I've been doing." I don't know, people are disappointing.Nicole GrohoskiNo comment.David RobertsYeah. So I read in one of the stories about this. One of the opponents of this measure said, quote, "The people behind this proposal have no actual plan to lower rates, improve reliability and enable a swifter energy transition." The implication being that the fans of this measure just think that making the utility public is going to be sort of automagically, make everything easier and cleaner and cheaper, but there's no actual plan to do so. Is there a specific plan for how Pine Tree would operate and how it would do these things? Has anyone modeled out sort of you know what I mean?Is there more than just hope that the structure will do the work for you?Nicole GrohoskiWell, I think that the person who said that spent some time cherry-picking certain things in the ballot language but missed the bigger picture here, which is we have to start by saying yes on November 7 and then at that time then we have an election for the board of directors and it goes on from there. But until that time the Maine Public Utilities Commission cannot compel the utilities to give over their very private data to do that kind of in-depth modeling that is going to be the very next task for the Pine Tree Power Board once it exists and that is spelled out in the ballot question. You know, these utilities, I'm just going to be level about it: They don't have a plan either.And I can tell you that because the legislature last year had to pass a law requiring them to do integrated grid planning and think about how is it going to work to increase renewables on the grid, to increase demand as people install more heat pumps and use electric vehicles. They're not doing that or if they are doing it they're not doing it in any kind of way that is transparent or subject to review. So I think it's like a great bait and switch tactic.David RobertsAren't they supposed to create integrated resource plans? I thought that was something that all utilities had to do.Nicole GrohoskiI think they have some planning, but it is clear from the way that the interconnection queues are looking, the very high cost they're pushing onto developers for even just what turns out to be basic grid maintenance, there isn't really — maybe they have something that says "plan" at the top, but I'm not sure that all the nuts and bolts are actually there.David RobertsYeah, I meant to hit on interconnection before because that's one of the critiques also is that they are slow-walking interconnection of distributed resources, etc. Presumably they're doing that, or at least they say they're doing that to protect the grid. Do we have reason to believe they're slow-walking that on purpose such that Pine Tree could substantially speed up the interconnection queue?Nicole GrohoskiWe do have reason to believe that specifically because of all the complaints that we've received as legislators. We did ask the Public Utilities Commission to look into this and they hired the Interstate Renewable Energy Council, or IREC, to do a study. And the IREC findings were basically especially around Versant, which is in eastern and northern Maine. These guys are some of the worst actors we've ever seen in the United States. They are requiring things that they can't justify why they're requiring them, and we can find no reason from an engineering perspective to require them. And your listeners might find it fascinating to know that for Versant customers, the average cost of interconnecting your rooftop solar to the grid is $10,000.David RobertsJesus.Nicole GrohoskiThat is not normal is what I'm told. Another great story that I've heard from a couple of constituents is that they need a transformer upgrade to interconnect their rooftop solar. Okay, that might be true, and that upgrade is going to cost you $1,000 - $1,500. But we can't get the parts for two years.David RobertsOh my goodness.Nicole GrohoskiNow the same solar installers that are working in my area are also working in CMP's area Central Maine Power. Because I live my district includes both, and the installers are saying "CMP says they can get it in two months." So then I asked my constituents "Can you file a formal complaint at the PUC using this process we had to create because this is such a rampant issue?" And when they do that and go through the whole process, then that transformer has arrived and been installed within two to three months time. So I don't know what to say about it.I can only say what I see from the outside and the experience that I have heard about from people that pick up the phone and call me. But it seems shady to go from two years to two months.David RobertsLet's grapple here with what is probably the biggest and most difficult issue around all this, which is say Maine voters say yes to this, and it goes forward. Basically, it would involve the state of Maine buying these two utilities assets from the utilities, and depending on who you believe those assets are worth anywhere from $5 to I think CMP is now saying it could get up to $13 billion. So that's a big public expense. So how's that going to get financed? Who's going to pay it? How long is it going to take to pay it? Have we thought through in any detail how that process works?Nicole GrohoskiYes, definitely. And that was a big part of what the London Economics analysis included was that legal analysis of what that purchase price process would look like. We also have been able to look at this transition as has happened in other communities in the country, and we created an expedited and refereed process to determine the purchase price. And all told, from this fall to switch over to Pine Tree Power, we expect it to take three to four years. What we know from the LEI study is that this is a completely legal and constitutional effort. It's helpful to remind folks that because these are actual monopolies, they only have the right to be doing business because we give it to them.And in the Maine statutes, it literally says the PUC can take it away.David RobertsYeah, I mean, of course, again, this drives me crazy. I'm reading articles about this and of course, just once I'd like there to be a good argument had in public instead of idiots. But all the Republicans are now saying "This is a communist takeover of private business by the state. It's Communists. Why don't we call it Chinese electricity?" I've read, some of the dumbest quotes.Nicole GrohoskiAre you in the comments section?David RobertsNo, these are legislators. This is not even I mean, there's barely a distinction anymore. But like, the Republican legislators are saying this now. So it's worth just emphasizing the point that you just made, sort of drawing a line under it, which is these businesses have been granted a monopoly by the state and granted guaranteed returns by the state. So of course the state can take that back. Of course this is legal. Like if the state grants, the state can take away if the state is granting it on the grounds that it will be of service to the state's residents and it's not anymore, then of course the state can take that monopoly back.It's just crazy viewing. It's not like Maine is going to go take over the potato chip industry.Nicole GrohoskiWe have no interest in that.David RobertsThis is not a normal business. Utilities are not normal private businesses. They are state basically state created entities. And so of course, the state can uncreate them if it wants to. Sorry, I know that will not have any effect at all on the dumb things Republicans say about this.Nicole GrohoskiWell, I do want to clarify. We do have some really strong Republican support, from certain legislators as well as just regular folks. I mean, that was the greatest thing about collecting signatures for this initiative, which I did and my family did and many other people I know was that when you remove it from a debate in a state house, regular people just get it. They get that this is really important to our economy to have an electricity grid that works for us and for our health and safety. And they also understand that maybe this is not a place for profits.And I've had folks wearing Birkenstocks and folks wearing MAGA hats sign the petition because I think Maine people are really resilient. We are proud of our ability to solve problems and I think the majority of us believe this is something that we can do and that we probably could do it better than some far-off foreign monopoly.David RobertsAnyway, I interrupted you. You were talking about how these giant bills are going to get paid. Basically you say it's going to take about four years to do all the work, to transfer everything over. Would the $5 billion or however much it turns out to be, be paid off over those four years or how will it be financed?Nicole GrohoskiNo. So we did meet with some municipal bond banks. This sort of acquisition, like in the case of Long Island, has been paid off over a long period of time. And that's how we're able to see the rate reduction. You know again, similar to renting versus owning. I was able to buy a home. My mortgage is less than my rent would be, but I am still paying it off. And even with the interest, it's still less. So we have the ability through revenue bonding to borrow that money backed by the ratepayers, not actually by the state government and the general fund, but by the ratepayers.We have the ability to borrow that money, and then pay it off over time, and borrow more as we need to build out the grid.David RobertsWould it being a public utility enable it to draw on state money? Because one of the points a few pods ago we were talking about a new offshore wind bill that would draw money from state coffers rather than from ratepayers. And one of the sort of arguments and defense of that is taking tax money from state taxpayers is much more progressive than taking it from ratepayers. Basically you're getting a much more progressive source of funding. Is there any talk of Pine Tree being able to draw on state money or would it still just operate as a utility and get all its money and revenue and stuff from ratepayers the same way a private utility would?Nicole GrohoskiThe enabling statute has it separate. I think that that is really important, especially to our union workers because they had concerns about becoming public sector workers and what that would mean for their right to strike, for instance. So we have ensured that they are private sector workers.David RobertsOh, interesting.Nicole GrohoskiWhether or not a future legislature might say we're able to maintain that and have the utility doing efficiency programs that are paid through the taxpayer dollars versus ratepayer dollars, I can't predict. To your point about regressivity, one of the things that is required in the bill language for the Pine Tree Power Company is to establish lower rates for low income residential customers in the first five year plan. So we are trying to address that challenge that you're absolutely correct. It's the regressive funding structure, unlike taxation.David RobertsAlso, one of the criticisms of these utilities is that they're sending all these cutoff notices, they're cutting off people from power, which is bad for all obvious reasons. But is Pine Tree going to pledge not to do that? And if it doesn't do that, where does that money to cover those people's rates come from? Because that would seem like an additional expense because whatever you might say about cutting people off, it does save the utilities money.Nicole GrohoskiRight. Well, we do have what's called the Arrearage Management Program here in Maine and that does help folks get out of arrears and that is ratepayer funded program. So that is a somewhat fiscally progressive approach to that. You know the details of that program are probably more than you'd want to know. But the long and short is if you get back on track then some of your debt will be just forgiven. But it's not forgiven by the utilities, it's forgiven by your neighbors.David RobertsRight. Well, would Pine Tree pledge not to cut people off? Like, is that part of the campaign here or how would it treat cutoffs ?Nicole GrohoskiYou know, it's a good question that surprisingly I don't know if anyone has posed to me it is not in the legislation one way or the other. I'm of the belief that if rates go down and we could have rates that were income stratified to some extent, that the amount of disconnection notices that we saw earlier this year would go way down just economically. But I think it would be really a decision of the board. And then I'm also not sure if the Public Utilities Commission if there are any rules on the books because this utility, unlike a lot of consumer utilities in the country, is regulated by the Public Utilities Commission as if it were an investor owned utility.So, there may be specific rules about that already.David RobertsYeah, I would just think though, if you're trying to sell this, making this public rather than private, one of the things you could sell is like we think this is a public right to have electricity on some level.Nicole GrohoskiThe one other thing about it that just comes to mind is that a couple of years ago during COVID, people were especially concerned about the disconnection notices, not knowing if they were going to be receiving a next paycheck but we were told that the disconnection notices were necessary in order to provide certain assistance. So the utilities said, "Oh don't worry, we're not actually going to disconnect anyone but we have to do this to get them into this next program." So, I don't know if that would come into play here but I'm not convinced that the utilities wouldn't have ultimately shut the people off but that was a way that they spun it at least.David RobertsOne more kind of semi-technical question that's a little bit of a side thing but is of interest, I think, to Volts listeners. One of the provisions in the IRA, the Inflation Reduction Act, is that it makes some of the tax credits direct pay, which means you don't have to pay taxes to get it back. You can get it back directly as a check and one of the categories of entities that would qualify for this is tax-exempt entities. So I wonder, has anyone done any thinking, and maybe this is too in the weeds but done any thinking about what advantage it might pose for Maine to have its utility be tax-exempt, whether it will benefit from the IRA through that.Nicole GrohoskiIt is something we're thinking about because we were excited to see that direct pay provision sort of leveling the playing field for publicly owned generation which is another topic I'm very interested in, but I think it remains to be seen. In the case of Pine Tree Power, it is not allowed to own generation and it may be permitted to own some storage as is necessary to maintain the grid functioning. So I'm not entirely sure that that direct IRA provision would help in this case but what I think it does is sort of change the paradigm a bit there that may then also shift to other things. If the federal government says let's have an ITC or PTC for transmission lines, the next step might be —David RobertsPraise be.Nicole GrohoskiWell, let's make sure we set it up the same way we've just done with generation. Yes, I think it's a really important conversation even if it doesn't have a direct immediate effect on the Pine Tree Power Company.David RobertsInteresting. As I think anyone could predict just from what we've said so far, even knowing nothing else about it but what we've said so far, I'm sure people could predict that the private utilities in question are not excited about this happening and have mobilized to prevent it from happening. So tell us a little bit about the campaign against this. Is it as hysterical as one would predict?Nicole GrohoskiYeah, I mean hysterical is one word for it. Deeply troubling is another phrase that comes to mind. But these are utilities, like I mentioned, about the amount of profit that they make and that's just off of their Central Maine Power and Versant holdings. But Central Maine Power is just a small, small fraction of the entire Iberdrola conglomerate. So, yeah, we have seen them spending a lot of money against the campaign. They've put $27 million toward the campaign, both utilities, as of the end of June. So we expect to see more of course.David RobertsNot a small amount in a small state.Nicole GrohoskiNo. And honestly, talking to my neighbors, people are very upset by it. They're kind of irate that they're the people whose power goes out and doesn't come back on for a couple of days. They're the folks who had to spend $10,000 for a generator which isn't part of a clean energy solution last I checked. And there go the utilities putting $27 million toward just running ads.David RobertsYeah, I mean, are they experiencing it as a flood of ads? I mean, $27 million must allow you to kind of dominate the airwaves.Nicole GrohoskiYes, the airwaves are definitely bought up, as far as we can tell. And they have just their two donors, which are the utility parent companies, which are Avangrid and Enmax.David RobertsAre they funding 100% of this?Nicole Grohoski100%, yes. And these utilities, lest they tell you how amazing and green and climate-friendly they are, they are gas utilities, Avangrid and Enmax anyhow. And then on the flip side, we are a smaller organization. We don't have Mainers' pockets to pickpocket on a regular basis.David RobertsI'm guessing you guys haven't hit $27 million yet. How much money have you have?Nicole GrohoskiYou're closer to around a million, I think. And that's over 1000 donors, most of whom are just regular donors giving what they can because they understand these differences. And also I think the big difference is the utilities are putting out a lot of fear, doubt, scare tactic type ads. And on the flip side, what we're offering people is something different and something positive, something that we can all lean into and make sure that it succeeds because it would actually be ours. So I think that's resonating with folks.David RobertsWhat are the scare tactics specifically? Are they saying this will be expensive or what?Nicole GrohoskiYeah, expensive. I mean, you quoted some of their numbers and it's laughable. They're like, "Oh, we're going to get $13.5 billion." Well, they're worth $5.4 billion. That's what they pay taxes on. That's what they filed their official paperwork saying. So I think especially as we learn more and more about how decrepit certain portions of this grid are, they'd be lucky to get a little bit over that. So that's one of them. "Is there a plan? We don't have a plan, but do they have a plan?" is another one. You know what, a lot of it is just to my sensibility is a little insulting to Maine people.You don't know what you're doing, that kind of thing. Meanwhile, we're going to keep the line workers who are doing the work and we're giving them a retention bonus because we value their expertise, because they're the ones that actually know how the grids work, not the CEOs and the CFOs.David RobertsYeah, it is historically pretty easy though just to I mean, when you're fighting against change, you barely even need arguments. You know what I mean? You can just say "Booga booga booga change" and you're halfway there, it seems like.Nicole GrohoskiWell, I think that's why we're in such a unique position in Maine because while that can be kind of an initial gut reaction, I think people here are curious. We've certainly seen plenty of campaigns where one side was outspent a lot by the other and it didn't make a difference. We have led in other policy areas. Ranked choice voting could be one recent example. Clean elections one of the only states that splits our electoral college votes. So I think Maine people, I think we're interested in things that are different if they make sense to us.David RobertsWhere is the public on this? Do we know do we have enough polling or survey data or what have you to know kind of what the level of support is or where the public is on this? Do we have a barometer? Do we have a measure here?Nicole GrohoskiYeah, I think the most recent public polling was probably a couple of months ago. But what it showed was there were people that were solidly in each camp but a lot of undecided voters and it really put us in a dead heat in terms of the people that were decided. And what I think is interesting is folks are not being swayed by Central Maine Power and Versant ads mainly because we don't trust them. They have not been good faith actors.David RobertsAre they creating fake groups like "Mainers for puppy dogs and grandma"?Nicole GrohoskiYes, Maine Affordable Energy is one of them. Yeah, so they sound pretty good, but all you have to do is google that and you find out pretty quickly, because of our disclosure rules, that's 100% utility funded.David RobertsTo the extent that the public supports this, are they viewing it as primarily a green thing, a thing about clean energy? Or is it primarily " Screw these out of state —," you know what I mean? Like a Maine pride kind of thing. Is it a reliability? Do you know what it is about this that the public has taken from it? What it is the public is supporting when the public supports it?Nicole GrohoskiThat's a great question and it does vary depending on the person and their interest and maybe even where they live in the state because the utility rates are the worst where I live compared to all the other districts in the state. So it depends. I think if you're a person who tried to interconnect and you got told you have to wait two years and $10,000, then it might be about greening the grid. But I think for a lot of folks underlying whatever their specific reason might be, it is that question of trust. I think about this all the time we have aggressive clean electricity goals, but 50% of our carbon emissions in this state are coming from vehicles and we are the most heating oil dependent state in the country.So we've got to get people onto the electricity grid in order to have any hope of cleaning it up. But it's really hard for me to knock on someone's door and say, "I really hope you'll consider changing your whole house over to heat pumps, even though we have below zero temperatures sometimes. Or I know that the power went out for a week last year, but would you consider an EV?" So I think that in order to make this transition work, we have to have utilities that people trust and that are providing just basic service. People should not have to think as hard as they're thinking about if their electricity is going to be there for them.David RobertsYes, that's such an important point. And so generalizable too, like if electrification is the thing, then people have got to trust the institutions in charge of electrification and they do not have much public trust these days. So that's an interesting argument in favor, I think, of making utilities more accountable, more public. What about the other big argument against one of the big scare things is you have to buy all these assets, which is like a big bill, a big one-time bill. The other scare story is that utilities are going to immediately sue, that this is going to get mired in the courts, and that it's going to take 4, 5, 6, 7 years to even get it all settled, and until then it will be chaos and no one will know what's going on and blah, blah, blah.So realistically, what's your view of, say, voters approve this in November? What is your view of sort of how that plays out and when and how the inevitable legal wrangling gets resolved?Nicole GrohoskiBasically, the Pine Tree Power Board will offer a certain amount for the utility infrastructure. I don't expect that the utilities will accept that on first pass you're buying a used car, you don't just take the first price. Right. So we would expect some negotiation, but if that doesn't work, then it will go to the courts. And there is a refereed process that's spelled out in the legislation in the Superior Court that then can be appealed to the Supreme Court in the state of Maine. But there are timelines set up. So it cannot go on for years and years and years, because at some point, if you lose or win a case, that's it.You have one appeal. I think it's funny that this argument is coming from the utilities because if there are any lawsuits and if it got dragged out, as they say, even though we've protected against that to the best of our ability, that's coming from them. That is a choice that they are making.David Roberts"Don't make us do this."Nicole GrohoskiYeah, so it's kind of ironic but additionally, one of the things that comes up is how do we know the utilities will continue to invest in the meantime? And it's like the best parallel I could say to that is if I'm going to sell my house, I don't just stop fixing things before I sell it. I keep it up in really good shape. And in fact, utilities would have an incentive to invest more because usually they don't just sell it for exactly what it's worth. There's usually a multiplier. We expect it to be like 1.5 times.So we actually have increased the oversight capacity of the Public Utilities Commission to ensure that there isn't any of that sort of last-minute gold plating going on, because that is actually what we'd expect, not the further disrepair scenario.David RobertsOh, so you think if this goes through, they'll plow a bunch of money into high dollar upgrades just to boost their price that you have to pay for them?Nicole GrohoskiThat's what I would do if I were them. Fortunately, we're going to keep an eye on that on behalf of Maine people. But if you are able to invest a million dollars here and in two to three years time make $1.5 million because that's the multiplier that the courts assign, that's pretty good.David RobertsYeah. So what's your timeline in your head then? What do you envision? At what point is there just the one public utility operating and all this is behind us? Were you willing to predict?Nicole GrohoskiYeah, we're looking at fall 2027, so four years from now, and that includes having the elections for the board members next year. So that's the first major hurdle, which I think is exciting, especially because living in one of the more rural parts of Maine, we don't always feel here that our interests are represented at the Public Utilities Commission, which is folks from southern Maine. And I think this geographic component is really compelling to, you know, so that's our first step. And then basically we have to get a lot of information. I mean, the board would have to get a lot of information from the utilities in order to know what purchase price they should put forward, what's the business plan, what does the revenue bonding look like, and make sure they can secure that financing through a large municipal bond market.So that takes time and we want to make sure we do it right. On the other hand, doing nothing is also a risk that I think sets people in my generation and folks younger than me behind economically and environmentally for decades. So a couple of years to do it right is definitely worth it.David RobertsOkay, final question then. I can see lots of Maine-specific reasons why one might argue that this is a good deal; these utilities are particularly bad, Maine has a particular set of problems, it has a particular sort of public culture, a culture of participation and a culture of civic engagement, et cetera, et cetera. Lots of Maine-specific reasons why you could make the case for this. I wonder, to what extent do y'all have your eyes on other states and trying to make this the beginning of something bigger? Like, do you believe that taking private utilities public is a good idea across the board?Is that something you'd like to see become a national trend or are you just purely focused on Maine? How do you think about the influence this may or may not have on other states?Nicole GrohoskiI think that all the issues we've had in Maine are what led us to looking around for solutions, but it is a structural imbalance that we have with the regulated monopolies when they're for profit. So, I do think it is something that is exportable to other states. We people in our coalition have been working with and talking to people elsewhere in the country who are looking to make a similar transition also elsewhere in the world. It's kind of interesting. The Scottish power is also owned by Avengrid, which owns Central Maine Power, and they are looking to become a public, truly public utility over there.So, in doing this work, we've found a lot of interest for that business model change. And I think as we become another case study, we are standing on the shoulders of other case studies that have happened in this country. And as we become another one for folks, I think that we'll see some opportunities arise. And I would like to see that because I want every American to be able to afford their electricity and to be able to have clean energy and not a lot of hurdles to getting there, because we are literally all in this together as a country and as a world with our climate crisis.David RobertsThat seems like a wonderful note to wrap up on. Nicole Grohoski, thanks so much for coming on and walking through this with us. It's super fascinating and I think it will be an example to the rest of the country one way or the other. However it plays out.Nicole GrohoskiWe're hoping that we're a positive "yes" example. We're working every day toward that. And I want to thank you, David, for having me on and talking about this topic, which is, I think, endlessly important and fascinating.David RobertsAgreed, agreed. OK. Thanks, Nicole. Thank you for listening to the Volts podcast. It is ad-free, powered entirely by listeners like you. If you value conversations like this, please consider becoming a paid Volts subscriber at volts. WTF. Yes, that's volts.WTF so that I can continue doing this work. Thank you so much and I'll see you next time. Get full access to Volts at www.volts.wtf/subscribe
Organizadores esperam manter ou até superar os números de 2022, quando a Expointer bateu recordes de público e de faturamento. Com mais de 370 espaços, Pavilhão da Agricultura Familiar bate recorde de expositores neste ano. Setor de máquinas projeta repetir recorde de R$ 6,6 bi em vendas. Expointer 2023 contabiliza 4.275 animais de argola e rústicos inscritos. 34 cidades do Paraná têm Valor Bruto de Produção Agropecuária acima de R$ 1 bilhão. Baixio do Irecê, na Bahia, poderá contar com até R$ 555 milhões para investir em infraestrutura de irrigação. Agrotempo: Massa de ar frio derruba as temperaturas no Sul. Chuvas são esperadas no Centro-Oeste.
Rufus, the pet and mascot of a solar installer, is dognapped out of the installer's truck while on the job. A chase ensues, but we learn that the dog, the solar installer, and the dog napper aren't quite what they seem. True Solar TakeawaysAs of 2020, there are 20,000 military veterans in the solar industry, making up about 9% of the solar workforce.IREC, the Interstate Renewable Energy Council, supports veteran training programs. Get more information on these programs here.The Solar Ready Vets Fellowship connects mid-to-senior level transitioning service members with on-the-job training in leadership and management roles in the civilian solar workforce.The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) has more information for solar veterans.GRID Alternatives is another solar job training organization that supports both veterans and non-veterans.The U.S. Department of Energy also has job training information and programs for military veterans.Here's a photo of the original Rufus with my real cat--for size comparison. Visit ProbablyTrueSolar.com to sign up for the newsletter to learn about new episodes and live solar storytelling events. Support the show by visiting the merch store and buying a tee shirt! Learn how sponsors can be a part of Probably True Solar Stories and tell their own creative stories. Follow @SolarFred and/or @ProbTrueSolar on Twitter to discuss episodes Don't forget to: Subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast streaming service Rate Review, and Share!
Mari Hernandez explains why we need transparent and efficient interconnection standards, how the regulatory landscape can adapt to new technologies, and where IREC's Freeing the Grid initiative can help.… Read More
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Lo de "Los buitres han matado una oveja" se escucha con bastante frecuencia, pero ¿Qué de verdad hay en esto? ¿Pueden los buitres atacar al ganado? . Nos lo cuenta Antoni Margalida⭐ *// * ⭐ * * ⭐ PATROCINADO POR GEOINNOVA, PROFESIONALES DEL TERRITORIO Y DEL MEDIO AMBIENTE - https://geoinnova.org ⭐ *// * ⭐ * * ⭐*** Antoni Margalida (Invitado) ***Biólogo y Científico titular CSIC, en el Instituto de Investigación en Recursos Cinegéticos (IREC) y actualmente en el IPELinkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/antoni-margalida-310b9894/ https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Antoni-Margalida *** TEMAS TRATADOS****No necesariamente en este ordenConflicto¿Existen ataques?Etología de los buitresAlimentaciónPercepción socialSituación actual de los carroñeros ibéricosMuladares y linces¿Quién consume las carroñas?*** Enlaces comentados en el programa ***El experimento con buitres durante años que desmonta las quejas de ganaderos españoles - https://www.elconfidencial.com/tecnologia/ciencia/2023-05-12/buitres-ibericos-espana-ganaderos-ataques-carrona_3626337/ Analizan el complejo conflicto de los supuestos “ataques” de buitres a ganado - https://www.irec.es/publicaciones-destacadas/analizan-conflicto-supuestos-ataques-de-buitres-a-ganado/ *** SECCIÓN DE GEOINNOVA ***La sección de Geoinnova nos la trae Luis Quesada, su director.
On the show today we welcome guest Chris Waldron, Director of Parks and Recreation, City of Fulton NY. We get an April 1st tweet about rain and dynamic weather. We'll show you were you can learn to edit your own video on iRacing and how to learn all about the new Late Model car. So sit back, relax and join us on the iRacers Lounge Podcast. iRacers Lounge Podcast is available on iTunes and Apple's Podcasts app, Stitcher, TuneIn, Google Play Music, Spotify, Soundcloud, Podbean, Spreaker, Podbay, PodFanatic, Overcast, Amazon, and other podcast players. Sponsors: Hosts: Mike Ellis – twitter.com/MikeDeanEllis David Hall – www.twitch.tv/mixmage Greg Hecktus – twitter.com/froozenkaktus – www.twitch.tv/froozenkaktus Brian Maccubbin – www.twitch.tv/MacRubbinsRacin Kyle Pendygraft – twitter.com/LoudPedalGaming Tony Groves – www.twitch.tv/SirGroves Adam Josselyn- twitter.com/Jossad83 Tony Rochette – twitter.com/TonyRochette Tom Dreiling – Donnie Spiker – twitter.com/Spikerman19 Bobby Jonas – MacKenzie Stevens – Justin Pearson – Links: Facebook – www.facebook.com/iRacersLounge/ Twitter – twitter.com/iracerslounge Instagram – instagram.com/iracersloungepodcast/ Web (Show Notes) – iracerslounge.com/
We know that the world needs to rapidly transition from burning fossil fuels towards renewable energy to address the climate crisis. This includes in our homes: switching to electric appliances instead of using natural gas or oil to heat our spaces and cook our food. David Smedick from RMI explains how we have great technology in heat pumps and induction stoves and a pathway of incentives and rebates from the big climate bill, the Inflation Reduction Act, to make this transition happen. But there's a big missing piece—the people to actually do these electrification installations. Dan and Emma speak with Dr. Janell Hills from the Interstate Renewable Energy Council and Vaughan Woodruff from ReVision Energy about the challenges and opportunities of growing this critical workforce in an equitable way. Shownotes: - Inflation Reduction Act incentives article: https://www.eesi.org/articles/view/new-climate-law-expands-household-efficiency-and-electrification-incentives - Reflection on switching to an induction stove: https://www.eesi.org/articles/view/i-made-the-switch-from-gas-to-electric-cooking-heres-why-i-love-my-new-induction-stove - Clean energy educational resources: https://sustainableenergyaction.org/clean-energy-clearinghouse/ - IREC's Clean Energy Career Maps: https://irecusa.org/career-maps/ - ReVision's Electricians Will Save the World video: https://www.revisionenergy.com/solar-company/solar-careers-and-training/electricians-will-save-world
El programa semanal en el que repasamos la actualidad cinegética. En el episodio de hoy… Los pescadores jubilados, ¿cómo pueden pescar en el mar?; La sobrepoblación de jabalíes en Aragón, Cataluña y España según el IREC; Rasher y sus buenos consejos para salir seguros al campo; Modificación del Código Penal, algo incomprensible en el sector; Final del Campeonato de España de Galgos en Campo copa S.M. El Rey; Noticias, pesca, forestales y suelta de conejos.
En los últimos años se han multiplicado las zoonosis, enfermedades que se transmiten de animales a humanos como el ébola, el dengue, la viruela del mono o el coronavirus. El aumento generalizado de las temperaturas está favoreciendo la dispersión de posibles transmisores de enfermedades infecciosas en latitudes donde nunca estuvieron presentes, aunque también influyen factores como el aumento de la población, del comercio y de la movilidad en un mundo global; los cambios en el uso de la tierra; la destrucción de los ecosistemas o el comercio de especies. El IREC, el Instituto de Investigación en Recursos Cinegéticos lidera un proyecto de la Autoridad Europea de Seguridad Alimentaria con el fin de recopilar información sobre la distribución geográfica, la abundancia y los agentes patógenos que transmiten diferentes especies de fauna silvestre. Y ha elaborado una lista con los diez prioritarios. En “Más cerca” (Radio 5) hemos entrevistado a Joaquín Vicente Baños, investigador del IREC y coordinador del consorcio ENETWILD que participa en el proyecto. Escuchar audio
Podcasts do Ministério da Agricultura, Pecuária e Abastecimento do Brasil
Apresentação de resultados no âmbito do Plano Agronordeste em Juazeiro e Irecê, na Bahia, foi o compromisso do ministro da Agricultura, Pecuária e Abastecimento (Mapa), Marcos Montes, nesta quinta-feira (20). Em três anos, o Agronordeste promoveu ações de assistência técnica, capacitação, apoio à inovação e ao empreendedorismo, crédito, organização e formalização da produção, impactando a atividade de cerca de 30 mil pequenos e médios agricultores. Na Bahia, o AgroNordeste atua em três territórios: Irecê, nas cadeias produtivas de olericultura e caprinovinocultura; Jacobina, nas cadeias produtivas de bovinocultura de leite e caprinovinocultura e Feira de Santana, nas cadeias produtivas de bovinocultura de leite e caprinovinocultura. Além disso, em Juazeiro, o Mapa, em parceria com o BID, desenvolve projeto de criação da área livre da mosca das frutas no Vale do São Francisco, beneficiando 3.500 fruticultores. Marcos Montes destacou que a assistência técnica oferecida por meio do AgroNordeste dá ao produtor rural da região a oportunidade de poder produzir dentro de suas terras com dignidade. Durante o evento, o Senar premiou os produtores destaques em Assistência Técnica Gerencial com o Certificado de Mérito da ATEG do Senar AgroNordeste. O Banco do Nordeste assinou contratos de financiamento rural nas categorias Agroamigo e Agronegócios. Também foi anunciada a revisão da IN 37/2000, que define os parâmetros de qualidade do leite de cabra, com o objetivo de atender à demanda dos produtores do setor de ovinocaprinocultura. Em Juazeiro, foi assinado um protocolo de intenções entre o Sebrae, a Faeb/Senar e Abrafrutas, com o objetivo de fomentar ações conjuntas voltadas ao controle da mosca-das-frutas e promover a redução do ataque em frutos hospedeiros nos pomares, atendendo a fruticultores da região do Vale do São Francisco. Em Irecê, foi realizada a entrega da carta-consulta aprovada para a empresa vencedora do leilão B3, a Equipav, para realização de projeto de investimento em infraestrutura de irrigação e beneficiamento agrícola das etapas 3 e 4 do Baixio de Irecê, para as culturas de soja, milho e feijão, nos municípios de Xique-Xique e Itaguaçu.
As more and more leading companies, governments, and other large buyers of electricity pledge to procure 100% carbon-free energy (CFE), markets are in need of better, more granular information on the time, location, and emissionality of every megawatt-hour that is produced and consumed. To this end, EnergyTag – an independent, non-profit, industry-led initiative – is developing the standards and markets for Granular Certificates (GCs) that enable energy consumers to verify the source of their electricity and carbon emissions in real time. In this episode, Chad Reed sits down with Toby Ferenczi and Killian Daly, the Founder and General Manager, respectively, of EnergyTag. They discuss the cruel irony at the center of deploying more and more renewable energy on local grids, the nuances differentiating 24/7 carbon-free electricity claims from emissionality considerations, and how Granular Certificates can both drive the next generation of carbon accounting (or Carbon Accounting 2.0) as well as accelerate the growth of new markets such as green hydrogen and battery storage. Links:EnergyTagGreenhouse Gas ProtocolWattTime: Avoided Emissions / Emissionality Episode recorded: September 8, 2022
There's no such thing as a free lunch, right? Well, maybe there is in solar. Cities participating in the free Solsmart program have been shown to have almost 20% more solar installations than cities that don't. We interview Theresa Perry, Solsmart Program Director at the Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC) about some of the hidden and soft costs around solar deployments and how Solsmart helps cities address them and make solar easier. ResourcesSolsmart websiteSolsmart case study and analysisIREC website
Hello Welcome to this episode of the podcast On this episode We chat to founding member of the Angels John Brewster Iva Quarisa from IREC chats about their upcoming event Trevor Long fro mEFTM.com saves us some money Barry Morgan Returns Starry & Matt play a Rat Trap Challenge And Shane A Bassett talks movies and Starry doesn't listen Enjoy See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
In this Green Light episode, Catherine is joined by Andrea Luecke, Executive Director of Cleantech Leaders Roundtable (CTLR) and former President and Executive Director at the Solar Foundation (now IREC). While at the Solar Foundation for ten years, Andrea grew it from zero staff & budget to a $6M organization at its peak, as well as initiated and implemented the first ever Solar Jobs Census. Andrea also speaks about her new role at CTLR, angel investing in cleantech and how CTLR is supporting underrepresented founders and CEOs.In addition to talking about her new role at CTRL, Andrea also speaks about how she transitioned from the Peace Corps in Morocco to cleantech, as well as what it was like to spearhead Clean Energy for America's (CE4A) Inaugural Ball, which had 3,000 attendees & raised $200,000 for environmental justice organizations. Are you looking for your next role in climate tech? Join the largest growing network of cleantech professionals and be the first to know about when industry leading cleantech companies first post new job openings, from development to finance to marketing, by checking out our website: dylan-green.com/latest-jobs.
El programa semanal en el que repasamos la actualidad cinegética. En el episodio de hoy… La pesca, ¿es cuestión de técnica o suerte?; Manual de Extremadura para el cazador; Mamíferos carroñeros, con Jorge Tobajas, del IREC; Receta para el jabalí con el chef Francisco José; Consejos del armero: el calibre 7 mm.; El veterinario: ¿cómo elegir el mejor cachorro de una camada?
Pra ficar por dentro da semana na Bolsa, você precisa saber dessas 4 novidades! Em segundos, você se atualiza sobre o mercado. Vem com o Minuto B3
In this episode, the Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC) talks about the work it's doing to build solar apprenticeships in the U.S. Sponsored by Scanifly, American Wire Group and DCE Solar. Note: To collaborate with IREC on the Solar Installer apprenticeship standard development process, fill out this form: https://bit.ly/solar-apprenticeships
While the world has mostly gone digital, key financial markets for managing, purchasing, and selling assets remain outdated. This is particularly true in the commercial real estate market, where the investment sector is extremely illiquid and out of reach for the majority of the population. Our guest expert Michael Flight, a real estate entrepreneur and blockchain real estate evangelist that when blockchain technology and real estate is merged, it could create an impact and take the industry to a whole new level! It's another value-bomb episode in today's show so be sure to tune in till the end. [00:01 - 07:05] The Basic Concept of Blockchain Welcoming Michael to the show A quick backstory of how Michael's real estate investment journey began What is a blockchain [07:06 - 13:21] How Blockchain Technology is Changing Real Estate The connection of blockchain technology with real estate property Bitcoin and blockchain explained What role does blockchain play in commercial real estate Why Michael favors security tokens [13:22 - 23:06] Tokenizing Real Estate Assets on Blockchain Where the blockchain technology is going and its impact on the real estate industry More volatile Liquidity How safe is a cryptocurrency and how could you protect yourself from the possible dangers of blockchain [23:07 - 30:38] Closing Segment The future of blockchain technology and commercial real estate Watch out for the blockchain real estate summit this September to be held in Austin, Texas! Tweetable Quotes “I believe that if you take blockchain technology, which allows value transfer, and you combine that with real estate, you can open up real estate to liquidity, you can open up real estate to people that right now can't get into real estate, and you can open up, you know, just worldwide capital because real estate is the world's largest asset class, it's $280 trillion.” - Michael Flight ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Connect with Michael if you're curious about blockchain and real estate investment: https://michaeljflight.com and https://libertyfund.io/ Connect with me: I love helping others place money outside of traditional investments that both diversify a strategy and provide solid predictable returns. Facebook LinkedIn Like, subscribe, and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or whatever platform you listen on. Thank you for tuning in! Email me → sam@brickeninvestmentgroup.com Want to read the full show notes of the episode? Check it out below: Michael Flight 0:00 One of the really nice things about blockchain is it's going to be better for title. Because everybody right you know, right now title records are stuck in, you know, the basement of the courthouse and you need a title company. I think you're still going to need title company to verify stuff. But at some point, all that title is going to be sitting there on a blockchain that somebody can just publicly go and verify. Intro 0:24 Welcome to the How to scale commercial real estate show. Whether you are an active or passive investor, we'll teach you how to scale your real estate investing business into something big. Sam Wilson 0:35 Michael Floyd has been a real estate professional since 1986. He founded Concordia Realty in 1990, and partner but institutional and individual investors and over $600 million worth of commercial real estate. He is also an expert on retail real estate and blockchain, which is really what we're going to get into on today's episode. So if you're looking for kind of the premier expert on blockchain and real estate, Michael is your go to guy. I've had the pleasure of meeting him at the IREC conference in Los Angeles here this past January. And I'm really just excited to jump in today. Michael, welcome to the show. Michael Flight 1:09 Sam, I have been looking forward to this podcast ever since we met in California. And, you know, we just talked about a huge range of topics and even covered a little bit of real estate, but your other interests were just really fascinating. So I love talking to you. I'm looking forward to talking to you some more Sam Wilson 1:29 Well, and taking the time and we were out there you were super generous. Also, you know, in the time you gave so many of us with 1000s of questions that we threw at you as it pertains to blockchain, real estate and those, you know, that topic in general, I'm outside of my league on this conversation. So I'm gonna have to really rely on you heavily on this show, not to sound like a complete idiot. I mean, you can't submit written that entirely, but maybe just a little bit. So I guess you know, there's three questions, though. Before we get into that, Michael, that I asked every guest who comes to the show in 90 seconds or less? Can you tell me where did you start? Where are you now? And how did you get there, Michael Flight 2:02 I started at a nothing down seminar in 1984 1985, I can't remember which it was my brother and I went to a nothing down seminar. Then we went to a real estate broker, and he said, You guys can't buy anything because you don't have a job. So I went and changed from being Lutheran pastor, because Greek and Hebrew were also a sign from God that I should probably go into something else. And I switched to business and went into real estate. So I became a real estate broker. 1986 had been licensed since 1986. never sold a house because I'm in commercial real estate. And it is a long, winding path, you know, so I'm not sure that we could get it done in the amount of time we have, but went to work for a syndicator went and met a lot of people at that company, they ended up in really good positions in institutional insurance companies and publicly traded companies and all the rest of it partnered with those people that I met in the 1980s through the 1990s. And 2000s, pioneered de-malling, which is tearing down malls and creating something else in the late 1990s and hung around with a lot of smart people who are talking about Bitcoin and blockchain, you know, 2015 through 2017, and said, I want to create a real estate stable coin. So that's how I'm here. Sam Wilson 3:32 Okay, man, that's great. I love that. That's a lot of moving pieces there. So 2015 2017, you became interested in blockchain in you know, in this whole space? So tell me, where are we today? And where do you see it going? Michael Flight 3:47 I say we are like, at before the dot-com bubble, if you were around in you know, 1990s were before the bubble. There is all kinds of stuff in what I like to explain blockchain as is just like the internet was a way for instantaneous communications anywhere in the world. Blockchain is a way to transfer value money or assets anywhere in the world. And it's not using a banking system. So it's basically like the internet for the financial system. And so, at some point, you know, people aren't even going to know that there's a blockchain, they're just going to know that I want to send money here, or I want to, like buy a piece of property in Africa, or I want to buy a piece of a resort in El Salvador. And they're just going to like, you know, open up their phone, their phone is going to have a wallet, and they're going to use their money of choice. They're going to own all their assets. They're going to control all their money. It's not going to be in a bank, and they're just going to be able to trade hopefully frictionless worldwide. Now, a lot of things called government instead are putting up impediments to doing that. And there's things called regulations that make that a little more difficult. But that's, you know, kind of, at some point, you won't even care that there's a blockchain, you'll just do a transaction. Sam Wilson 5:13 How is so you say, this is pre dot-com bust. I guess, do you see a bust happening in the Bitcoin Ethereum… Michael Flight 5:24 I don't necessarily see a bust. So but saying that, you know, there was all this activity, there was all this, you know, entrepreneurial stuff, there was like, what we like to call creative destruction, there was people putting money into stuff that should have never happened. And it's the same thing, it's like, Bitcoin started out in, I'm going to, you know, lose the year, but like, 2009 2010, and people saw that this was, you know, going, and then all sudden, you know, around 2015, to 2017, there was just like, really, you know, Cambrian explosion of all these things called ICOs, which were initial coin offerings, and anybody with a website, and you know, a white paper was raising billions of dollars. And, you know, you had all these coins out there, and then everything crashed. And so, now we're back to people have been actually building out the rails of the system. And it's exactly like the 1990s, where they built out, you know, fiber optics they built out, you know, TCPIP, they built out all these data centers, and it's the same thing. Now, there's the rails of the financial system are slowly being built up, there's people putting huge amounts of capital and in banks, and, you know, governments are putting money into this. And, you know, it's where you will have digital money, and we can get into that later about, you know, how scary that is when a government, you know, controls your digital money, and why you might want something that, you know, you have more control over? Sam Wilson 7:06 So that's kind of the where we are right now, how does this intersect with real estate commercial? Michael Flight 7:15 That is a great question. That's why I'm here. So I asked the question of very smart people around me that now are, like, really, really wealthy, who were doing blockchain and investing in, you know, coins and things, you know, in the early years. And I kept saying to them, I don't understand why isn't Bitcoin just fiat currency? Because all that's behind it is an algorithm. And number one, I went to a public school, so I don't do math. So I didn't understand, you know, how that whole but I'm like, isn't it just basically a software project? And why wouldn't you just take it and tie it to gold or real estate, that way, you get a stable coin that was actually based on a tangible asset, that, you know, like, I always tell people, it's like, real estate has the world's most proven track record, you know, it's been around, you know, and they've been trading it, they've been fighting over it. And people generationally have, you know, stored wealth in real estate. And that's, you know, not going to go anywhere. The only way they're making new stuff is they're either doing it in Dubai with, you know, pumping sand into the ocean, or volcanoes. So, I believe that if you take blockchain technology, which allows value transfer, and you combine that with real estate, you can open up real estate to liquidity, you can open up real estate to people that right now can't get into real estate, and you can open up, you know, just worldwide capital, because real estate is the world's largest asset class, it's $280 trillion. Sam Wilson 8:59 That's really I mean, I love the idea conceptually, I love the concept. But what does that mean, practically? How does this get built out how to real estate investors get in front of this? This is 1997 for email, how do we get in front of it? Michael Flight 9:15 Right. Well, that is an excellent question. And that's why it's taken me and our company so long to get you know, things launched because the technology can do certain things, but they didn't built it. So But conceptually, the technology can do certain things. And then the technology can do certain things, which are illegal, like, you know, it ends up being money laundering, or, you know, it ends up being a security which is regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Right now, though, if you're doing normal syndications, or you're doing private real estate investment, you can do a normal real estate syndication and just buy Adding language to your offering memorandum or requesting that your general partner who you're investing with, say to them, you know, is there the language in here that makes this number one, you can issue it to a blockchain in number two, makes it tradable. So just by having that in the offering memorandum, it doesn't ever have to be issued to a blockchain, but it's at least ready to go. And then when the trading systems and a lot more of the technology is built out, which has been happening, and we'll be happening within the next few years, your particular you know, investment will have another opportunity, you can either refinance it, or you can sell the property or you can issue the you know, the tokens and then your investors have the opportunity to trade out of the deal. Sam Wilson 10:55 Right? Can you just for our listeners sake, maybe they haven't listened or studied this as much break down differences between say, a Bitcoin and blockchain? Michael Flight 11:05 Sure. So a bitcoin is issued on a blockchain. So the Bitcoin each individual bitcoin is part of the blockchain, so it makes a blockchain, there are other blockchains out there that are just set up so that they do have, you know, a monetary unit like a Bitcoin, but they are more set up to do transactions, whereas bitcoin is kind of like a store of value. And because it's, I'm gonna get into some things, it's mined by proof of work. So the computers have to solve these algorithms, and you have to expend energy to solve the problems. That's called Proof of Work mining, there's other blockchains out there that are much faster, and, you know, much less energy intensive. And that's called Proof of stake. So just like if you're in a poker game, you put up your stake, if you're going to validate on these chains, you need to put up so these blockchain, you know, things they're basically I like to call the layer one blockchains, a combination of the AT&T telephone company, and, you know, a banking system or, you know, like a actual communications network. So, but it's communications network for financial systems. But in order to validate that the transactions went through, people put up money, and if they're a bad actor, or they come up with the wrong, you know, the wrong answer, they actually lose their money. That's why it's proof of stake. So they have something at risk. So the incentive is to do it correctly, and then you get, you know, money for validating the transaction. And those transactions end up being less expensive, then sending a wire transfer, and they end up being confirmed within a minute or two, versus if a bank sends a wire, you don't know that the wire has gone through, especially internationally, you know, for seven days. Sam Wilson 13:14 Right? Right, which is just astoundingly slow. Right? How is blockchain currently being leveraged in commercial real estate? Michael Flight 13:22 Blockchain is currently being leveraged in commercial real estate in a number of ways. So there's the low hanging fruit and you would initially when we are offline, you'd ask about, you know, NFT's and security tokens. I'm more interested in security tokens, which are tradable, you know, legal securities in the United States, and they're tradable legal securities, you know, in different parts of the worlds that have, you know, regulatory. So securities everyone, you know, the difference between a non-fungible token is every one is unique securities, they're all pretty much the same. So, if you have 10 shares of, you know, you do self-storage, correct. Sam Wilson 14:09 I have done some of that. Yeah, I do. Okay, my hands a lot of an asset classes, but it doesn't matter. Michael Flight 14:13 Yeah. So if you do 10 shares of, you know, a self storage, you know, partnership, those shares are all basically the same, except if there's different classes on a non-fungible token. Each one is unique. So I like to say, you can invest in shares in a commercial real estate project, or each individual house in the United States could each be its own individual non-fungible token. So because each one is a little bit different, a little bit unique. So that's, you know, how we like to differentiate there. I think, you know, one of the things that's going to happen in surprisingly here in Chicago Cook County is doing an experiment where they're putting titles on a blockchain because blockchains are kinda like a fly in amber type of thing. You can't go back and change it. So it's, you know, distributed ledger. And there's a lot of people verifying it. So if you go back and try to change that one block that's already backup 100 blocks. It's kind of like a jigsaw puzzle fitting together, it has to fit together. Exactly. And if it doesn't fit together, exactly, then everybody else that's validating on the blockchain realizes that somebody's trying to commit fraud or do something bad. So one of the really nice things about blockchain is it's going to be better for title. Because everybody, right, you know, right now, title records are stuck in, you know, the basement of the courthouse, and you need a title company, I think you're still going to need title company to verify stuff. But at some point, all that title is going to be sitting there on a blockchain that somebody can just publicly go and verify. Sam Wilson 15:57 Right and access to information on that side. I mean, the archaic, it's so county by county, the archaic title system. I mean, that's one of things. I'm excited about my cut my teeth in this business in the foreclosure markets. Right. And I knew the county title office really, really well. I mean, every county we had our own system for getting in and going, Okay, what is because we were reviewing hundreds of deals a week, and it's like, oh, my gosh, yeah, just a very clustered up. So it's good to, you know, think in the future that this will be so easy, you know, to access. What about so you're talking about security tokens, which I think is really interesting. So if I understand this correctly, you're taking, you're gonna put this language in your offering memorandum says, hey, you know, this can be issued to the blockchain, in the future, this will become a security token, I mean, everybody sets their own dollar amount for what you know, a share is worth, it's either $1 or 1000 bucks or 50,000 bucks. I mean, it doesn't really matter. One of the things that has been that's interesting to look at in this space is that potentially, you can now trade fractions of those shares, you know, to where you're not necessarily finding a replacement buyer for 50 grand to take your spot, you could sell it for 100 bucks, I mean, is that kind of where we're going with this is a really… Michael Flight 17:08 Theoretically, but it really also depends on the issuer. So if you are the issuer, or I'm the issuer, and I'm issuing shares and in our funds, so, for example, in our fund, the minimum investment is $50,000. And we made the shares $10,000 of piece, because it just, you know, makes it easier to do. But the really cool thing is after one year from being issued to a blockchain, they become fully tradable. And so, for example, our fund is a 506-C, but you could also do this with a 506-B, but it'd be a lot more difficult because you could, you'd have to have a pre existing relationship, I don't really want to get into securities laws, but our fund is a 506-C. And after one year lockup period, those shares can trade. So let's say a person buys $100,000. And they want to divide up like myself, I've got two sons, so I'm gonna give 30,000 to one son 30,000, to the other son, and keep 40,000 for myself. So one of my sons decides that he's going to trade those after a one year lockup period, those shares can trade to an accredited or non accredited investor. So it can get non accredited investors into quality real estate that's already been seasoned for a year. So they can see that there's a one year track record. Sam Wilson 18:36 That's interesting. I hadn't really thought about that. I mean, the thing is, for most of us, though, when we get in a deal, we get in a deal with the intention of writing it out, most of us actually really want to trade I mean, you get, I've got plenty of deals I'm in right now. And you asked me to exit I'm like, No, Michael Flight 18:51 Right. So there's like several really cool things about security tokens. So number one, you've got the ability to potentially access it if you have a life situation that you need to, or otherwise you just stay in it like your normal, you know, three, five or seven or 10 year, you know, real estate syndication. But the other really cool thing is that and this is really going to depend on who the issuer is. But for example, in our token, you can get paid in not only dollars with a ACH payment directly into your bank account, but you could also take your money in what's called a USD stable coin. So it's US dollar denominated, so it's one for one with the dollar, but it's actually cryptocurrency, so you're actually not getting it into a bank account. You're getting it into your own wallet, so you can control that. And number two, you can also take your money in Ethereum or another cryptocurrency and so you're actually dollar cost averaging out of the dollar banking system, and then you control your own and assets. So let's say you're still invested in our deal, but you decide that you're gonna like winter in Costa Rica, you don't have to worry about, you know, trying to like get the money out of your bank and transferring and everything else because your wallet is right on your phone or your wallet is right with you all the time. So your money is with you crossing international borders and stuff. So that's one really cool thing. The other really cool thing is, and we've talked to different companies like Blockfi and Compound and Aave, if they get comfortable with the net asset value of the fund, instead of you having to sell your shares, you can actually borrow against your shares. So you can actually open up some liquidity and some leverage on something that you normally can't do with a normal syndication. Sam Wilson 20:53 That is a game changer. I mean, it's kind of bringing it out of my league a little bit here. But bringing the ability to leverage against stocks and bonds is kind of like go into your exactly, Hey, man, you know, whatever they call that buying on margin. Michael Flight 21:07 Right, you know, borrowing on margin, and but it's, you know, it's exactly the same thing. And then that's where the third part, when I said that, Blockchain is probably going to change data, there's companies out there right now, that are putting large institutional portfolios, I was just at a conference down in Miami last week, within Inveniam, and Inveniam them is taking large institutional portfolios, these are some of the biggest portfolios in the world. And they're taking all the data and putting them onto the blockchain. So that not only is the data feeding into what, so for example, I'm just going to back way up when we started out partnering with institutional investors. And we were doing we had to go out and buy this giant mainframe to do the, you know all the bookkeeping on it. And then we had to print out every month, a three ring binder, that was the literal either two or three inch, three ring binders, of you know, rent rolls of balance sheets of all the rest of this stuff. And so now we're not doing that we're just sending it electronically in a PDF, but at some point invenio them and there's another company called earn.re, they are feeding that information onto a blockchain. So that is building up onto the blockchain so that you know tracks with the portfolio or tracks with the individual property. And then they've actually got data. So all they have to do when they update their net asset values, it's much easier to do it on a quarterly basis. And at some point, they'll be able to update the values of the properties, perhaps on a weekly or daily basis, which is a huge game changer for all this illiquid private real estate because you're going to have better data out there that certified data because it's going into the blockchain and it's you know, for it can't be tampered with once it's there. Sam Wilson 23:07 That'll be really interesting to see what that does to the ultimate pricing, that real estate, where do you think that goes? Michael Flight 23:14 it could make real estate a little bit more volatile than it is right now. Because you know, right now, you only get a real number, if I mean, because even you know, an appraisal from an MA appraiser, it's not a real number, it really depends on you know, if you're financing it, it's going to be one number, if you're doing a net asset value on it, it's another number. And if you you know, you're doing it for an estate, it's gonna be a very low number, or if you're, you know, appraising it for your real estate taxes. So you might actually end up paying more in real estate taxes, because you know, the numbers will be more bigger, verifiable, and you might have more volatile real estate, because you've got better data, but you're also going to have more liquidity, because people will trust the data more. And so they'll be able to say, Yeah, that's a good number, you know, let's do it. So I'll just, you know, take my $10 and buy this piece of, you know, London office building, because I know that, you know, all the buildings around it, you know, are valued at this. Sam Wilson 24:19 I think what that will ultimately do with a further you know, with a higher liquidity, more transparency, it'll function more like the stock market, which would be, you know, in the sense that you can trade it, you know, in and out, but that would also typically be a compression of returns, as you know… Michael Flight 24:36 I also look at it as an opening up of these liquidity pools that are just like right now, just locked in. So I look at it like, and I use this example all the time since 1990. Because of free markets, and because of, you know, people investing in things, they have come out of abject Poverty living on $1 a day to there's billions of people that are now in the middle class, right? How did those billions of people in the middle class, they're not all going to invest in the stock market? So how do they get, you know, generational wealth that they can transfer onto their kids? I mean, that's going to be the biggest thing out there. So I believe it's going to be an opportunity for a lot of those people, those billions of people to get into assets that you know, because there's only so many stocks to go around, but there's a ton of real estate to go around. Sam Wilson 25:33 That's true. That's a very, very valid point. Yeah, I think it's gonna be this will be an interesting, you know, next wave to really watch and see how this affects real estate as a whole. Are there any security concerns you have with this are there things people should be looking out for, you know, you have coins getting stolen, your wallets getting taken, you hear of, you know, lots of things going on, but talk to us on the security is a great. Michael Flight 25:58 so cryptocurrency, there is a real issue, if you lose your passwords, you've lost your passwords, or I had a friend who, you know, he had this Dogecoin, he had like 30,000, Dogecoin. And then all sudden Doge took off because Elon Musk was like pumping it. And you know, he went to get it, but it was on a laptop that was broken. So get the Dogecoin off the you know, the laptop so, but with security tokens, since they are securities and since you do have to go through a KYC, which is a no your customer and anti money laundering checks, and you have to be verified, the security token, if it is lost, or stolen, can be you know, brought back by the issuer and in re in, you know, what they call burned, and then reissued. So as long as you can prove that you are who you are, which you already had to do that when you did you know the KYC. So they know who you are your you know, registered. And so if something does happen, where somebody steals your stuff, or you know, it's basically probably more secure than even stocks, because most of the time, if you're in the stock market, you never actually have your stock, your broker controls your stock, or it's with a custodian, or all the rest of it. So you never actually have the stock physically or electronically anywhere. So this is actually a much better and more secure system than that. Sam Wilson 27:34 I absolutely love it. Michael, thank you for taking the time to come on the show today and just give us a brief I mean, glimpse into where we are going with, you know, blockchain technology, commercial real estate, I think this is gonna be a fun thing to watch. You guys have a conference, I think here later this year, do you want to talk about that. Michael Flight 27:54 Yes, started it for the very reason that we realized we had to do a lot of education on this, especially with real estate investors. They're typically a little more conservative. And real estate sponsors are also like, I know real estate. But you know, there's this scary thing out there called cryptocurrency. And what we wanted to do is do a lot more education on security tokens and say, this is potentially and we firmly believe that this is a better way to issue syndications and to do syndications with real estate, and all kinds of other private assets that aren't really, you know, easy to get into. So what we did was the blockchain real estate summit in Austin, Texas, the first one was in September of last year, we're going to do it again September of this year in Austin, Texas. And the reason why we put it together is we are putting together from beginning to end it's like how do you like you know, so we brought on in the attorneys we brought in the accountants we brought in, you know, the people that do the legal stuff so that it can legally trade we bought it brought in the tokenization platforms from beginning to end, you get this education as to you know, what this is and how do I do this? And so you can start really, you know, it gets your gears clicking as to, you know, okay, so I know these people are doing this, this and this, and I can see how this happens. And now I'm ready to like you know, dip my toe in the water or move forward full on with, you know, issuing a security token offering. Sam Wilson 29:31 Absolutely awesome. Michael, thank you for your time today have learned an absolute ton. If our listeners want to get in touch with you or learn more about you what is the best way to do that? Michael Flight 29:39 They can contact me at our website, which is Libertyfund.io, or they can if they're interested in the blockchain real estate summit go to blockchain realestate summit.com If they go to our website, Libertyfund.io They can go and click on the report and they can get an actual information And as to blockchain real estate 2022. So it just gives a pretty good overview of you know what it is, how it happens and how it works. Sam Wilson 30:09 Michael, thank you again for your time. Have a great rest of your day. Michael Flight Thanks, Sam. Outro Hey, thanks for listening to the how to scale commercial real estate podcast if you can do me a favor and subscribe and leave us a review on Apple podcast, Spotify, Google podcasts, whatever platform it is you use to listen, if you can do that for us. That would be a fantastic help to the show. It helps us both attract new listeners as well as rank higher on those directories. So appreciate you listening. Thanks so much and hope to catch you in the next episode.
TRE Bahia - TRE em Todo Lugar - atendimento em Irecê
Welcome to a new episode of our podcastWhat is the relation between wildlife and domestic animals when it comes to infectious diseases?Rodrigo Nova, EuFMD Training Technical Coordinator, discuss with Christian Gortazar, Veterinarian and Professor at the IREC about wildlife infectious diseases and how to reach disease control addressing multi-hosting pathogens.Christian Gortázar is a veterinary and doctor from the University of Zaragoza. In 1999, he became Associate Professor in the Instituto de Investigación en Recursos Cinegéticos (IREC, Universidad de Castilla La Mancha). Since 2003, he is responsible for the Animal Health Unit, currently Research Group in Health and Biotechnology (SaBio). His research activity combines tools of ecology, veterinary science, and biotechnology. This includes viral, bacterial, and parasitic diseases with an emphasis on control of shared problems between wildlife, domestic animals and man, such as tuberculosis or vector-borne infections. Rodrigo Nova is a veterinarian working at the EuFMD as Training Technical Coordinator for Pillar I activities. His work focus on providing training for Member Nations and supporting the development of veterinary capacity in countries the EuFMD supports. He studied veterinary medicine at the University of Concepcion, Chile, where he later worked in official controls in red meat industry and later on, as a veterinary consultant in food safety for dairy and meat industry. He was awarded a PhD in Food Microbiology from the University of Nottingham (UK) and a Post Graduate Certificate in Veterinary Public Health from the University of Ulster (UK). There, he was appointed as a member of the academic staff at the School of Veterinary Medicine and Science University of Nottingham, where he developed the veterinary public health curriculum.
El programa semanal en el que repasamos la actualidad cinegética. En el episodio de hoy… La pesca de invierno desde el Mar de Aragón; Se han creado dos grupos operativos: AGROCHEF y PREVPA. Productos del campo y la peste porcina; Informe del IREC sobre la muerte de perdices por ingestión de semillas blindadas; La Mujer Cazadora: Eva y Karla Anguiano; Noticas, Premios Mutuasport, caza en Fabara, precios carne silvestre y la ley aprobada sobre los animales de compañía.
Welcome to the Workology Podcast, a podcast for the disruptive workplace leader. Join host Jessica Miller-Merrell, founder of Workology.com as she sits down and gets to the bottom of trends, tools, and case studies for the business leader, HR, and recruiting professional who is tired of the status quo. Now here’s Jessica with this episode […] The post Episode 313: Richard Lawrence, Program Director & Megan Howes, Program Manager at IREC appeared first on Workology.
Saiba como investimentos estaduais mudam a realidade de milhares de baianos que vivem na região de Irecê.
Governo Bolsonaro projeta nova reforma ministerial para os próximos dias, prefeitura de Irecê sanciona projeto de lei que impede cargos públicos para condenados pela Lei Maria da Penha, tensão e problemas no apagão de energia em Morro de São Paulo - e outras notícias desta quarta-feira, 21 de julho
Da Rússia a Irecê, passando pela Cordilheira dos Andes, Franciel Cruz não come reggae, bebe cafezito e segue traçando as hipóteses sobre o passado e as previsões para o futuro feitas no episódio anterior. Neste Episódio: Lionel faz fact check, Jotazêr mostra seu lugar de fala geográfico, Xarope dispensa o editor e Franciel se inscreve no Dendê Voice.
Fundada em agosto de 2000, o projeto nova Canaã, localizado no município de Irecê, vem plantando esperança e fazendo a diferença na vida de centenas de famílias do sertão da Bahia. O grupo que nasceu com o objetivo de prestar assistência às pessoas que viviam em condição de extrema pobreza e vulnerabilidade, se tornou um modelo de desenvolvimento social e mudou, ao longo destes quase 21 anos, a realidade da população Irecense. Hoje, o Balanço Geral recebe a Glauciene Alves, mãe de um aluno do projeto Canaã, para saber dela como vem sendo a experiência do seu filho com o projeto.
Fundada em agosto de 2000, o projeto nova Canaã, localizado no município de Irecê, vem plantando esperança e fazendo a diferença na vida de centenas de famílias do sertão da Bahia. O grupo que nasceu com o objetivo de prestar assistência às pessoas que viviam em condição de extrema pobreza e vulnerabilidade, se tornou um modelo de desenvolvimento social e mudou, ao longo destes quase 21 anos, a realidade da população irecense. Hoje, o Sociedade Urgente recebe a Jéssica Belo, mãe de um aluno do projeto Canaã, para saber dela como vem sendo a experiência do seu filho com o projeto.
O projeto nova Canaã é sediado em Irecê, no sertão da Bahia; tem como objetivo promover o desenvolvimento social e ajudar quem mais precisa, hoje chegando em mais de 600 crianças e suas famílias. As crianças que fazem parte do projeto, tem acesso a atendimento médico, atividades educativas e inventivo à pratica de esportes. Além disso, o grupo nova Canaã promove a campanha "SOS famílias do sertão", que busca ajudar famílias do sertão nordestino a enfrentar este momento de pandemia – e especialmente a crise que se estende com ele – com algum recurso e dignidade. Hoje vamos conversar com a Clesiane nunes, manicure e mãe de aluno do projeto nova Canaã
Fundada em agosto de 2000, o projeto nova Canaã, localizado no município de Irecê, vem plantando esperança e fazendo a diferença na vida de centenas de famílias do sertão da Bahia. O grupo que nasceu com o objetivo de prestar assistência às pessoas que viviam em condição de extrema pobreza e vulnerabilidade, se tornou um modelo de desenvolvimento social e mudou, ao longo destes quase 21 anos, a realidade da população ireceense. Hoje, o Balanço Geral recebe a Gedeane Moitinho, mãe da Noemy, aluna do projeto Canaã, para saber dela sua experiência com o projeto.
O projeto nova Canaã é sediado em Irecê, no sertão da Bahia; tem como objetivo promover o desenvolvimento social e ajudar quem mais precisa, hoje chegando em mais de 600 crianças e suas famílias. As crianças que fazem parte do projeto tem acesso a atendimento médico, atividades educativas e inventivo à pratica de esportes. Ao todo, são servidas mais de 3.000 mil refeições diárias. Além disso, o grupo nova Canaã promove a campanha "SOS famílias do sertão", que busca ajudar famílias do sertão nordestino a enfrentar este momento de pandemia – e especialmente a crise que se estende com ele – com algum recurso e dignidade. Hoje vamos conversar com a nutricionista Lorena Nunes Mota, responsável pela parte alimentícia do projeto
El programa semanal en el que repasamos la actualidad cinegética. En el episodio de hoy… La pesca de primavera en el Mar de Aragón; Caza con arco, ¿hay competiciones y entrenamientos?; Semillas tratadas, la muerte para las aves granívoras según el IREC; Para cazar seguro hay que llevar una póliza como la que ofrece RASHER; Noticias y vídeos en amplitud de caza y de pesca.
Students for the Exploration and Development of Space has a chapter at University of Central Florida, and they've entered the Intercollegiate Rocket Engineering Competition. They had a successful failure last year, and now they're here to talk about their run up for next year.
In a rocket building competition, you can only back one team, and we made our choice. Also, 3D printed combustion chambers and on-orbit window replacements!
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