EESI at 40: EESI President Daniel Bresette on Working and Learning at EESI

What brought you to EESI?

I first got to know EESI when I worked on Capitol Hill in the early and mid-2000s. My boss, the late Sen. Jim Jeffords (I-Vt.), was a big booster of EESI, and I remember attending the annual Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency EXPO and Policy Forum a few times. When the EESI board of directors announced a search for a new executive director after Carol’s decision to retire, I thought, “Oh, that would be really fun.” So I tossed my hat into the ring. About six months and several rounds of interviews later, I got the call.

Working at EESI is basically the best of all possible worlds. First and foremost, I have great colleagues, a group of professionals who share a deep commitment to advancing equitable climate solutions. If you attend an EESI briefing and stay until the end, you might hear me say something like, “And now let me thank all the people on Team EESI who do all the work.” That is not me being facetious. That is me recognizing the incredible amount of effort it takes to make EESI successful and giving credit where it is due.

And second, I find Capitol Hill to be an endlessly interesting place. It can be frustrating and slow, but it is rarely boring. I would never describe myself as an expert on Congress, but I am an avowed student of its workings and peculiarities. When I worked for Sen. Jeffords, I decided that working in a Congressional office was the best place to be curious. I stand by that today. Members of Congress and their staff have near-instantaneous, overwhelming access to limitless information from public, industry, and countless other sources at their fingertips. So it is very rewarding when they use our nonpartisan, educational resources about climate solutions.

 

What have you learned about EESI through exploring the archives and meeting EESI alumni during the reception in honor of the organization's 40th anniversary?

Well, I was in kindergarten in 1984—and I have my diploma to prove it. And about a decade before EESI was formed, its predecessor, the Environmental and Energy Study Conference, was very active. So I am only a relatively recent addition to the party.

EESI’s 40th anniversary has been a great opportunity to learn about the early days of the organization. Thankfully, we have very complete archives. So complete, in fact, that we uncovered a very interesting tidbit: EESI was actually formed in September 1983, and its board of directors was active by the end of that year. But, as we see it, our work really started in 1984, which is why we decided to celebrate in 2024.

EESI President Daniel Bresette (left) and EESI Founder former Rep. Dick Ottinger.

It has also been fun to learn from people active in the early days, like our co-founder, former Rep. Richard L. “Dick” Ottinger (D-N.Y.), who still serves on our board of directors. Congress has changed a lot since he served in the House of Representatives. And the political landscape is different, of course, for a long list of demographic, economic, and cultural reasons.

Stories from 1984 are instructive. EESI must understand how Congress has changed if we want to continue meeting the informational needs of policymakers. Compared to 1984, members of Congress spend less time together in committees and in social settings, which makes it harder for them to cultivate friendships and respect. Fundraising prowess has become a—if not the—key competitive advantage because running for office is more expensive than it used to be. And as more Congressional districts are considered “safe” seats, primary voters have more influence, and they do not always look favorably on outreach across the aisle.

Yet, despite all the changes, Congress can still get stuff done. The Energy Act of 2020, Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021, and CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 all passed on a bipartisan basis. The Inflation Reduction Act was not bipartisan, but its impact will make it harder for its opponents to ignore the benefits of investing in climate solutions. Whenever Congress decides to take big action, it is essential for EESI to be there with new educational resources about non-partisan, science-based solutions.

 

How has EESI’s Congressional education evolved to meet the needs of today’s Congress? With the 119th Congress kicking off in January, how is EESI preparing?

Frequent attendees of our Congressional briefings will recognize how I like to describe our educational resources: timely, relevant, accessible, and practical. To live up to these qualities, we try to do a few things. First, information has to be ready before Congress needs it, so that means we are always planning ahead. We like to plan on a six- to nine-month time horizon, and we think about how different resources, especially our newsletters, fit together.

Next, information has to relate to the Congressional agenda. Now, we are not able to predict what Congress is going to do. But we have a really good idea about when Congress will be working on appropriations, or preparing recurring reauthorizations like the Farm Bill or transportation bill. There are also annual or seasonal considerations to take into account, like the end-of-year international climate negotiations or the increased likelihood of extreme weather during hurricane season.

Third, information has to be easy to access. Our biweekly newsletter, Climate Change Solutions, is our most critical outreach tool. And our website is constantly being updated with the latest and greatest educational resources. Everything is free and online—just a search or click away.

And lastly, information has to be usable. Our fact sheets and issue briefs, for example, are substantial and geared toward a Congressional audience curious about legislative activity and what different states are doing. Maybe our most practical resources right now are the Farm Bill “side-by-side-by-side” comparison charts. We identify and highlight almost two dozen Farm Bill provisions using a format that helps Congressional staff easily spot differences between existing law and current proposals. Plus, by including both the House and Senate proposals, our charts will be really useful when the two chambers (eventually) start to hash out their differences.

For the 119th Congress, our Congressional education programming will start in January with outreach to introduce ourselves to every House and Senate office, followed by four briefings in our Congressional Climate Camp series. Our Resilient and Healthy Rivers briefing series will continue through the middle of 2025, which is when our focus will turn to the upcoming surface transportation reauthorization bill. A third major emphasis will be the next round of international climate negotiations in Brazil late next year.

In addition to briefings, we will continue to publish new articles, fact sheets, podcasts, legislative trackers and more. Briefings are our highest-profile resource, but our portfolio has expanded to reach more audiences, including the media, in more ways. While everything we produce is always available online, there is no substitute for in-person meetings and hanging around the House and Senate buildings. It feels a little old-fashioned, but random encounters in the Longworth Dunkin’ can be really productive and a fun way to keep up with our networks.

 

What’s the latest with EESI’s technical assistance work? What are the connections between this technical assistance work and EESI’s Congressional education efforts?

I think our Congressional briefings are our calling card on Capitol Hill. But for a lot of people working in rural policy, EESI has a sterling reputation for our knowledge of innovative and inclusive clean energy financing programs and steady advocacy for the Rural Energy Savings Program (RESP). Actually, our policymaker education and technical assistance for on-bill financing programs have a lot more crossover appeal than you might think.

Our technical assistance work has been in especially high demand over the past few years. Almost half of all RESP loans approved since 2016—about $200 million out of more than $500 million total —have been made in the past two years. EESI has supported 60% of RESP applications to date. This means we have helped secure more than $300 million for on-bill financing programs in 24 states that have already provided $90 million in financing to help 4,100 households and small businesses install energy efficiency, renewable energy, and beneficial electrification projects.

The coincidence of higher demand for RESP loans and debate about the Farm Bill has given us a chance to leverage our experience with technical assistance, especially with rural electric cooperatives and green banks, to inform proposals like the bipartisan Rural Energy Savings Act. We talked with allies and stakeholders across our networks to collect ideas about how to make RESP more accessible. When Congress returns to work on the Farm Bill, many provisions from the Rural Energy Savings Act that we helped develop could be in play.

Years of working with rural electric cooperatives has led to some very strong relationships, especially in South Carolina. We have access to quality data about the impact of on-bill financing programs like Help My House, which has helped more than 1,000 households in the Palmetto State invest in energy efficiency and lower their monthly energy bills. With help from noted economist John A. “Skip” Laitner, who is a member of the EESI Advisory Board, we recently published an article about the job-creation impact of RESP. This new analysis found that RESP has created almost 700 net jobs in rural areas through 2023 and is on track to sustain about 15,000 by 2040. This will be part of our advocacy for the Rural Energy Savings Act and annual appropriations for RESP. Without technical assistance experience, we would not have been able to gather the data necessary to conduct the analysis or tell the story of RESP from a job-creation angle to our policymaker audience.

 

EESI is proud to host undergraduate college interns year round. What advice do you have for young people interested in working in climate, energy, and environmental issues?

Daniel and his doppelgangers Zoe Antonoff, Maggie Christianson, and Laura Gries (left to right).

All the credit for our amazing internship program goes to my colleagues, who work really hard to make sure that the college students who spend a semester with us have the best possible experience. I think EESI is at the head of the class when it comes to D.C.-based internships in climate policy. And our interns reward us with invaluable contributions to our communications, policy, and development efforts.

My first internship—in the Montpelier, Vermont, office of Sen. Jeffords all the way back in 1999—was one of my most formative professional experiences. (It was also critical for me at the time that I was a paid intern because I could not afford to work for free for an entire summer.) Sen. Jeffords was extremely kind and welcoming to me, and his staff was tremendous. At the end of my first day, which took place at the Veterans Administration hospital in White River Junction, he asked me what I thought. I told him point-blank that I would work for him for as long as he would have me. Jump cut to seven years later when I left his Senate office to attend business school a few months before he retired.

I reflect back on some lessons I learned during my internship and early days on Capitol Hill whenever I talk with EESI’s interns. I encourage them to learn how to network, which is really mostly just being curious and courteous and asking people about their work and interests. Relationships are a currency in the policy community. But networking can feel very awkward at first. Better to get started early, and my colleagues and I are more than happy to initiate introductions and help our interns gain networking skills. It certainly took me too long to figure out that networking was an opportunity rather than a chore. We are lucky at EESI to have so many great people in our orbits–from briefing speakers to network partners to Congressional staff–who our interns have a chance to learn from and, often, meet and get to know. And, actually, developing relationships with the hundreds of people we work with each year is a benefit I certainly appreciate and, I think, extends to everyone at EESI.