 If you're all I care for Franklin matters Franklin public radio anywhere on the internet Wfpr.fm and in the local Franklin mass FM radio dial one oh two dot nine in the car at home Had a another making sense of climate session with my guide Ted McIntyre Ted. How are you doing today? I'm just doing peachy keen Steve. So good to be here. Oh good and we've got a guest today Dave written house Dave. How are you doing? I'm doing very well. Thank you so much for having me This is good. You're going to help us energize Franklin or we're going to help you energize Franklin, something like that. There's a collaborative piece there, right? Yes, that's what we're trying for so walk us through energize Franklin is effectively part of a bigger website. Yes, energize Franklin is a subset of massenergize.org and that is a nonprofit organization designed just for the state of Massachusetts and We proposed back in April of 2022 to the town council that we have this site added for the town of Franklin and I found out that funding can be a little tough to get quickly. So we went on a Campaign to raise funds and we got trained. It was pretty arduous raising funds, but we got trained in November of last year and the site went live March 28th via Franklin matters newsletter Oh So this is just to be just I got to jump in just to be clear So energize Franklin is a website that people can go to on the web and we will of course we will mention the link but you go to this website and Basically do stuff that we'll hear about right Dave. Yes, and in the not so Distant future you should be able to go to energize franklin.org and get there That link hasn't quite been set up yet But should be set up in the next couple of weeks and the current path is community dot massenergize.org slash Franklin MA, which is a certainly a mouthful, but If you just go to massenergize.org and you look for the communities page, you can find Franklin listed there and that might be You know, that's a Nicely good way to get there. Yeah, and for the listeners in the show notes will include the link so you don't have to scramble with pen and paper now For the regular listeners and don't subscribe us to Franklin matters You could also go to Franklin matters.org a little bit easier quicky You know that one and then scroll along down on the right column under other resources and In the alphabetic order and like energize Franklin should be in that list as well. Click on that link and you'll come to the page Yes, all good ways to get there Yes, so Dave getting there is half the fun, right? Once you get there. What's up? What goes on? right well We have you know, we may have a version of this on YouTube That's the hope with the video and we're showing us sharing a screen right now, which is the home page for us and The way it's set up is there's a little more stuff if you scroll down, but the main action is under the three photographs Where you have four buttons one is take action One is join us one is testimonials and one is events So those are the things but the basic idea here is you know, Dave Can I jump in Dave before you before you go on? Let me just let me just describe the page right for our people listening on the podcast We're looking at a web page But it is beautiful web page across the top across the top banner of the energized Franklin web page is a picture of the Ray library with of course the statue of Benjamin Franklin shrouded in snow on the left-hand side on the right hand side is One of the schools I think not parm enter, but it is parm enter With solo panels on top of it Okay In smack in the middle is a picture of Franklin common on a what looks to be a blustery winter day Right, so there's these three pictures across the top that let you know You are very much in Franklin and this is a local a local thing, right? And below that of the four sort of buttons that you just mentioned that people can jump to right and the idea the whole idea of this is to Allow people to think about ways that they can help with the climate and and taking personal responsibility for you know emitting less carbon and going into the decarbonization area and You know, there's the green communities which there's 351 towns in Massachusetts and I think they're all green communities in one way or another But there's only 21 cities and towns right now that are part of mass energized So this is a very kind of a leap thing for Franklin to be a part of And and and this network is Basically a nonprofit network. It's not a government-funded thing at all, right? This is this is people getting ready to taking action on their own Right the mass energized sort of umbrella that this website sits under. Is that true? Yes, the whole thing is nonprofit currently there is an Interest in getting the town of Franklin to help with the annual funding. It's just a $950 a year at this point So pretty modest cost for a town like Franklin, but we'll see how that plays out that was presented to the town council earlier this month for their consideration But yeah, that's far all the money that's been raised has been through private donations, although two of the town counselors have actually Donated to help bring the site to where it is today And Dave when I don't mean to grieve you here, but there's all interesting questions You said a word that always makes my ears perk up and it is It may be for people that are just coming to this issue Can be intimidating. So can you tell me when you say to decarbonize that sounds like I don't know what right? It sounds like a medical procedure. Tell me what when you say decarbonize. What do you what do you mean by that? Well, there's there's many different ways Choosing, you know the transportation that you take there's a lot of incentives right now for people to get Vehicles that either use less gasoline or no gasoline And Then there's also things that you can do for your home to use electric Fire devices to heat your home rather than burning oil and gas which has been the traditional way of heating I mean, it sounds like decarbonization means basically stopping the Stopping the production of carbon dioxide from your house and the way you drive and the way you live so to decarbonize is to Get rid of the co2 emissions that was result from you burning Burning stuff, right? Yes, the the safe carbon dioxide level was 350 parts per per billion and we're well over 400 right now So we need to find ways to burn less stuff. That's kind of the the simple story on this matter Right So on that point the 350 so that's where the 350.org comes from. It's the 350 parts per billion per million per million Okay, thank you Ted. I wasn't sure which one it was No, it's so Steve. There's a whole there's a whole subtext of that So 350 is of course the famous the famous Bill McKibben organization. Yes, right and there has spawned Other organizations like almost every state now has a 350 with the state initial So there's a 350 mass, right? In fact, there are we can put up links. There's a 350 mass Organization node right here in Franklin Franklin. Yeah, the Franklin node of 350 MA, but the 350 comes from the fact that Science in quotation marks the scientists have have sort of Come to the conclusion that 350 parts per million is the level at which you do not melt the ice caps and you don't ruin the world and in particular That kind of level is something that would tend to preserve Coral reefs and islands and all kinds of good stuff, right? So 350 is minimization of the damage from climate change, right and It's a political number in a sense that I mean who's deciding how much damage is acceptable, right? That's a very thorny issue, right? But the 350 number is where they think we could be Stably and the scary part is that as of today or as of earlier this week the actual carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere were 424.8 parts per million in the air. So we're pretty much 75 Parts per million above where scientists think it's safe So it's a screaming house on fire kind of emergency. I mean, we're already overshot what we thought we is safe but that's where the 350 comes from and that's where the The call for decarbonization, which is a fancy way of saying stop burning stuff Yeah, so I think that helps us to the extent that for the listeners if you're new here Thank you for joining us if you're regulars. This is a Continuation series of helping me make sense of climate and to the extent that the IPCC the International In the government intergovernmental panel on climate change. Thank you for helping me out now and I started going into that I said no, that's not right But it's an organization of the United Nations and they've been producing reports of which then The state of Massachusetts in particular has produced a roadmap upon which the state at that level should be able to you know Mitigate and start changing the way so that we can come back to 350 over some period of time and our Discussions the series of discussion says if I've been how do we do that Dave? I think this is giving us a key piece to the puzzle. It's like okay We talk about internet we talk about you and we talk about mass But this is you and I and others our neighbors in Franklin, this is things that we individually and take action with right and maybe this is a good chance to talk about one of those four buttons that we have is the called take action and Currently we have 21 things that you can do One of the early things to do is we're asking people to register on the site basically giving us your email address and Once you do that, you know in the future if we have a newsletter, we might send you that once you say you don't want it, but Mainly we're not going to bother you but being registered on the site gives you the chance to check off the 21 different actions as you complete them so This is actually a View of the site with me being registered on it myself and I happen to have solar panels on my house and I have a plug-in hybrid vehicle It's not a full electric vehicle, but it's one of the things you can do I used to get 20 miles per gallon now by plugging in I'm getting Close to 90 miles per gallon in a Prius Prime So that's you know more than four times reduction in the amount of gasoline that I am using per mile anyway and So it's it's a nice Way to see what kind of options you have and they're not all big-ticket items like cars and solar panels There's plenty of other smaller things you can do using LED light bulbs Massave since Franklin is a national grid Community and and ever source for gas now Will Subsidize the cost of insulating your home and I've taken advantage of that and that's a really nice service and I Just actually on Tuesday had a heat pump installed to replace my central air conditioning and that Is going to be partially funded by the Massave program so Money out there to help you Become more climate friendly Yeah, and that's a good point. I think to help reinforce because Ted and I I think have talked about this a couple of times where Massave will and I think it's every three years do an energy audit of Your house your abode and if you haven't done in your case a insulation Etc. They'll come in do an assessment and give you some options in many cases with either grant and or you know Advantages pricing in order to take those steps yeah one of the action items that we haven't added here yet is a Lawnmowers they actually for $300 last year anyway, you could get a push lawnmower with battery by Ryobi that I bought one and been very happy with it It goes for almost an hour on a single charge and then a recharge in like an hour or so You're not down for long once the battery wears out So, um, you know instead of David, I can't I can't move from more than an hour anyway An hour is a nice time limit. Yes nice to give yourself a break So yeah, there's you know little things that you can do to you know, $300 is It's it's more manageable for a lot of folks than You know a very you know like a solar system. I was guys Dave I mean, can you you said there are there are small items? I'd be interested because yeah I mean on this list all of a sudden we talked we're talking about you know money I but there are things besides money. I think if you back up to the top of the list There's something as simple as there's an earth day festival coming up Saturday you could join You could join 350 ma or at least register with them you could eat a plant-based There's one of the actions is to eat a plant-based diet I think but you could That sounds like asking people to become vegan, but all basically you if you eat less meat You're taking a climate action. So there's lots of stuff here on this list that is Regrets right zero investment and you've actually started to do things Absolutely. Yep, the yes the earth day festivities right now will be the usual Trash cleanup at beaver pond and I suspect this podcast will be coming out after earth day so probably not going to Change anybody's path with this announcement, but they do a real nice job the DPW has no one's Someone hasn't participated in it before they give you a t-shirt if you're one of the early people arriving there They give you some trash bags and you you go out and pick up trash for you know An hour or however long you have the energy for Leave the trash bags on the side of the road and the DPW comes and picks them up later because you went to a designated area So they know where to look for the trash bags later and really does a great job of Getting the the town looking ship shape And it's coordinated also with recreation department and Ryan Jetty So we'll give them a plug because they annually have been running this event And clearly while it's one day realistically, it should almost be any day But then if you do pick up trash and I've seen there's even I think a Facebook page You know one bag where people along different trails whether the SNAT or Delcart or whatever just along the street Pick up some of the bottles the nips whatever you see pick it up put it in a bag And you've done your piece and if you don't have that particular button on the page Then at some point in time that might be a suggestion that you know You help reinforce that kind of cleanup action on you know any day as opposed to just Earth Day Yeah, there's another event that's going to take place. It's been scheduled. It looks like it's going to be there may 6th or 20th An event on the town common called the environmental extravaganza hosted by the Franklin area moms Will be you know a first-time event but energized Franklin plans on participating at that and hopes to see people from the town there so we can Tell them a little bit more about our site and get to meet people and Enjoy the beautiful day. Hopefully we'll have I mean, I think this guy this I am big on these low threshold kind of actions, right because I just think People can be intimidated by the idea that they have to go go buy an electric vehicle Right and you want to emphasize that that's not where you want to start right you start with the simple things Which is just like going to an Earth Day festival and sort of admitting to yourself that you care And then things would flow from that Absolutely So so David I Related question means suppose I go to this go to an Earth Day Festival so I sign up on the website. I register on the website. I take an action What happens? I mean, do I get it? Do I get a score? Do I get a star in my forehead? What what's the consequence of that? Well, a couple of things you you can mark off an action as completed as I showed earlier You know and the other thing that you can do is that that action will be tallied in our goals for you know Cleaner environment less carbon and so forth So every action has its consequences and we are keeping track and as the sites gets more action It's going to really add up Does that imply that so that in a way, you know, there's the famous saying about you you don't You can't change what you don't measure right here in some sense you are now tallying actions to see how How active Franklin is right Yes, yes, we we have goals We go down a little bit below the action buttons we talk about individual actions completed and Number of households participating and so forth and some of these things because the site is so new are actually come from statewide databases as far as how many homes in town already have solar panels installed So they may not be registered events that happened on the website here but they are registered in kind of the big statewide picture of People taking positive actions either through buying EVs or solar panels. Those are things that the state is aware of and that but the the message is that by taking action by By taking an action by putting you you basically sort of concretize So we say reify the good thing that you did it goes on a list and it shows that that Franklin is a leader right is that fair to say Yes, and you know, I think that people, you know feel once they Start acting they feel like, you know, they're participating and they're gonna feel better about just progress and that You know, they're they're participating Yeah, we spent some time in one of our earlier podcast episodes talking about kind of the climate grief and that it can be overwhelming and demeaning and you know disturbing but Action is a great antidote by doing something you get that Self-reinforcement and if it's just the one little step just clicking in to sign in That's one good thing participating in an earth they participating and just picking up some trash on the street any one of those little things do add up and here you're able to we're able to Acknowledge that and participate so that yeah, there may be some, you know A little competitive friendly competition if you will over time as to which community is doing more etc But the more people in there, I think the better off we're going to be anyway Yeah, some of the communities have Events planned like EV test drive things and you know, we hope to bring some of those kinds of things To the event page hopefully in franklin or maybe in a nearby town So that people can explore You know options that are climate friendly So the SNET trail the franklin belligham rail trail Committee has a fundraising race in may Would since they're a rail trail as an outdoor activity It's somewhat related to this would that be an event you'd consider? We're happy to You know, there's there's a team several volunteers Kate marissa and I and and ted as well are out trying to you know get the word out about the site and Yeah, we'd be very happy to participate in that And I think I steve I think that's a good point because the The breadth of things that we should be thinking about as climate related are huge and that the The entree the thresholds for people to To begin to see themselves as people that care Is pretty low and so going there you go. There's the franklin belligham franklin rail trail committee is on the site No, it does less than monthly meetings, which coincidentally are at 67 degrees a good local Watering hole and you can certainly have some good conversations there Yes, and they're opening a place over at rent them out. Let's say here too. Yes. They are yep I haven't heard the official open day yet, but they did say they were going to be open in april So stay tuned they'll be open there soon And you'll be able to at least get instead of the normal 67 degree hours across on their grocery location From what I understand when the rent some village place opens They'll be open during the rent and village hours, which that gives us much more access For those who need a little piece of libation from here and there Pick up our force park IPAs. Yes By local Yes, so but yeah, we're we're already have the the franklin belligham rail trail committee Thing on our so they're on our sites some of our participants our our team like to use the trail and It's a it's a great thing And I would note the the franklin garden club Do a listener if you're not watching this on a youtube video is a bee pollinating a plant and of course the survival of bees is a pretty important Sustainability climate related issue. So again, all these things fold into each other Yeah, that's been one of our common threads is where do we draw the line as what's not climate? We start going down an end. It's like, oh, wait a minute. Yes, it is in some cases, well, maybe not so much but More often than not there's something climate related So so david back in the homepage. There's a the Testimonials tell me what that means Yes, I was just thinking it would be a good time to go to that. Uh, so here's some you know, marissa's testimonial about joining the website and Then my testimonial on solar I mean the solar system has been great. I I I find you know, my quick math on this is After eight years, I'm going to be getting free electricity for 17 years. So Solar it is an expensive investment, but if you can swing it it really You know, it makes financial sense And that's the kind of thing that You know people might be thinking about it. There's a lot of Things with solar people say well, if my roof doesn't point due south, you know, it doesn't make financial sense to have solar That's not true at all. It might have been true when the panels were less efficient. Nowadays You know, my my panels face mostly east You certainly don't want to put them on the side that faces north other than that. It's all good Um, we have, um Mark put in a testimonial about his, uh Heat pump hot water heater. So that is a a way to Heat your water with electricity, which you've always been able to do But this is like uses like a third the electricity that a regular electric hot water heater uses. So really A smart investment and not you know, not as expensive as You know solar panels on your roof. Um We have helbo with this solar journey. We have paul with his solar journey. I talk about the little prius prime um and windows and food waste recycling One of the things that i'm thinking more and more. I probably want to join is there's a Is it black earth composting ted that does the the pickup? I am not sure I think it's something close to that and I know it's also been with as we're getting into kind of may In the budget hearings on the town side I know there had been a proposal that between dpw for their trash and solid waste plan They were considering At least a pilot of that. I know the company does at least visit franklin But the town was looking at um, and I don't know what the current status is So people can check through the normal channels through solid waste the beaver street recycling center, etc And at least advocate for because I think that's a a key step, especially with The new regulations that mass is introduced. So the food waste should not be part of trash It gives us an opportunity to do some composting Yeah, I think the the statistics are that by weight in your trash Compostable materials at least 25 percent if not a third of the volume by weight In most homes. So that you know, essentially is turned into really great dirt That's organic and can be used to grow vegetables and Just a real great way. Otherwise, if it ends up in a landfill, it's just going to generate methane Which is going to hurt the atmosphere Is way worse than carbon dioxide does so and you're paying 25 percent of your trash removal fees to get rid of it I mean it's just yeah, I mean it's like sort of an all-around Wind to do composting. Yeah, you can you know, it's not just Like uh, banana peels it's things like Chicken bones and any kind of bones and anything really organic they can take so Egg shells coffee grinds and all that's good stuff. Yep. Yep So, uh, yeah, that that's our testimonies. We only have 10 testimonials at this time, but uh We're expanding rapidly on those so So David, I have a couple a couple questions one is if someone were to join The energy energize franklin website They would be able to post a testimonial about what they did And why they did it. Is that true? That is correct. They are um checked over by uh, someone on you know on our team just to make sure that it's uh All PG and stuff and and uh, we're not getting But I mean Someone write something a good yes It would go up and yeah, and usually it goes up, you know the same day that they submit it So and I guess the other point I would make is that if people are the reason these testimonials are so great Is that if someone is wondering about Taking an action any one of these actions they can go read someone else's experience right and again You have this sense of connection and a little foretaste of what you're trying to do. So it simplifies the The path that people are on when they start thinking about doing stuff. Is that would you agree with that? Absolutely, and what what I wanted to do To is show you that under each of these areas You know solar is a big one, but let's let's start there because uh, you know, it can't have such a positive impact on the climate each of the actions has a Four tabs to it. Um a general description and then steps to take Uh, if there's testimonials for that That is also listed and then a deep dive. So there's a wealth of information there And there's uh, there's various links When I was doing my solar journey This site called energy sage, which is pretty much based in the northeast if not in England itself Is a tremendous resource for evaluating solar bids And getting information on the different Companies who make solar panels and the inverters that convert the dc power from the roof to the ac power that you use in your home Um really great stuff. So there's a lot of you know Knowledge base that we're trying to accumulate here and then it's already here actually right Yeah, I mean that sense you could the site is educational in that you can go learn about how to do These things that seem overwhelming right if for someone who hasn't thought about it to say I want to put pv on my roof is uh, you know Without some further guidance, uh, that's not going to happen and here you can go and learn about What it takes and actually see people that have done it right absolutely and if we go back to the one about, uh Cars uh, they're You know people Don't have to take the full thing and buy an electric car right away. I mean even if you just buy A hybrid car you're probably going to get 50% better Mileage and you never have to charge a hybrid car. You just get way better mileage because there's a battery there and uh, so if you go to a stoplight the the engine turns off all that stuff leads to better mileage and uh you know, it'll I think that people I think you're right, david I think that this kind of information allows people to educate their intuition because Buying a new car is a pretty big decision right you only do that once in a while So the more that you've thought about your options beforehand the better off you are and people that are approaching the time when they got to buy a car Couldn't read this and figure out what all the the the greener options are and what the vocabulary is and how to approach the question right And uh, you know some some new terminology. I'm I'm an engineering person by education and background. So This comes more naturally to me perhaps but the you know PHEV if you've never heard of that that just stands for plug-in hybrid electric vehicle This stuff is all explained ice. What's ice? Well, you don't know frozen water But also it's an acronym for internal combustion engine. So that's essentially what cars have been working on um Until the the electric electrification that we see going on right now That's great stuff. That's great stuff very useful Yeah, and like the energy sage with the uh Solar panel install There's a couple of great websites here one's called drive green And it kind of lays out some of the financial incentives that you can get for different buying cars and programs before another one's called plug star and There are buying options and there are leasing options. I have a brother who Leased an all electric car and he just totally fell in love with it And uh, it was he leased it, you know before the really car the crunch came on new car values skyrocketed So when he leased it he locked in a great buyout price Uh, and so when he came to the end of his lease it just Would have made no sense at all not to buy it out the lease and you know He also had the three years to decide that, you know, this was a livable solution for him. So It really worked out great leasing first So i'm sure you've leaned on him to write a testimonial Well, he does not live in franklin. He actually lives in california. So We're trying to keep it local here Yes, yeah With the resources at least available on this page if somebody else has another question or Is there kind of a help function or a search function to say hey, I'm looking for something more on this How else can I get some help? Well, that's a great question and um When i'm meeting people i'm giving them my email address so that they can you know get a hold of me with questions and so forth I think we might have uh Go to about us contact us So, uh, yeah, so there's a contact form. So yeah, that would be set that could be used for if you got a question Or you found a problem on the website, etc Then you could utilize that. So at least you have a methodology of yeah, that that goes right to my email and hopefully I picked that up and get right back to you. Sure Well, that's I so so so I guess Dave tell me your thoughts about um Should I say I mean I'm always sort of interested in the the meta Things that surround stuff like energize franklin website I see this as encouraging um Encouraging people to act encouraging people to recognize that there are other people in franklin who care and it In a sense begins to make discussions about these things part of everyday conversation Do you think that's happening is that part of what you hope happens? I sure do. I you know, I think um We need to feel good and and feel like this is Not the aberration but the norm to Learn how to create a you know a better world for for our kids and to You know stop burning stuff By using electricity using renewable power I mean the solar panels on my roof that makes all the electricity that I use in the course of a year So because of net metering Um, I don't have to have a battery. It's just part of the deal with the electric company. I uh Don't pay an electric bill anymore And uh, they're my battery the the grid is my battery as it were so It's uh, it's it's a great deal for residential customers for sure and Yeah, but the the norm You know can be a future where we're using renewable energy. We're using wind and we're using solar electricity And uh, there's there's more than enough wind and solar out there to Power everything we do from transportation Heating and grueling our homes, etc. So we don't have to burn stuff the I guess the other the other thing that is A topic that I spend time Thinking about is the and Is the distinction between personal action personal virtue as uh, dick cheney once said right Saving the earth is maybe a personal virtue Uh versus the systemic things, you know, the things that have to happen on beacon hill the things that have to happen in washington How do you how do you see david? How do you see these things into playing? right the idea that people Would want to take a small Action in their own home, right? Probably something that doesn't cost any money, but they do it Does that influence the debate at a larger? scale or do you think that the sort of personal action and public action are separate Well, there's a lot of interplay, you know, really that has made the progress possible you know, for instance You know under current tax law When you buy solar panels put them on your roof You can deduct 30 of the cost of that from your federal taxes And with with mass save in massachusetts So there's state and federal programs, but the first one was on the federal level mass massachusetts also gives you $1,000 off For solar panel install a one-time tax deduction. So that doesn't hurt either but for doing You know like heat pumps, uh, you can get a little bit of a federal thing, but the the statewide program is up to a $10,000 Funding for your heat pump renovation for your home And it's actually if you do geothermal, which is a much more expensive investment, but that is a $15,000 investment or Pay it back from mass save. So There the money that is available to you know help, uh, you know, there's a $7,500 potentially Federal tax credit for the purchase of an eb. I mean, that's real money. I mean eb's are not inexpensive, but those uh state and federal programs really help a lot I I agree through those are good things I guess what I was What I am feeling is that the the local action that people do that eat one less one less, uh Meat meal a week does not Does not mean that we don't need to take systemic action and do much bigger things I do think that the the action of people Eating one less meat meal a week is a very positive thing because it's synergistic with the idea that We begin to recognize that at a collective level. We all need to do more things We all need to be more involved. So for my money the this website is a great thing in the sense of allowing people a path to become aware of What the issues are what they can do? but also at another level a sort of uh, I don't know what the right I mean it it enables the the political or the the Atmospheric to develop among voters that this is an important thing that we all need to think about collectively I think the two sides are the same coins. And that's why I think this website is a addresses both sort of personal Personally doing good things that make you feel better, but also supports the larger things that we need to do yeah Uh on a little bit of a different note The one of the testimonials that the other 21 Cities and towns I don't think I found one other town that had one on new and replacement windows and a couple of people who had been Uh helped fund the creation of the site said that's what I really want to do to um, you know the first thing on my checklist and I think for a lot of people, you know, they may have been in their home for a long time and um, they they want to do that and uh um Those can be expensive to replace But there was a homeowner Under that section of the new and replacement windows who not only did he Fix his windows, but he more or less did a whole home energy makeover of a 50 year old house for under $30,000 so Um, he did the windows and it was very creative with windows He actually did storm interior storm windows. So rather than replacing the windows He put in a quarter inch thick plexiglass Pain on the inside To make sure there was no wind and to create an extra air gap to provide insulation and he also it was a an electric heat home with electric baseboard, which is very expensive and and uh, he put in several mini split heat pumps and Really, uh did an awful lot with a short amount of money that's great I think in some of our conversations with our state rep Jeff Roy Who leads one of the key committees and has worked on the legislation last year and we'll have him again in a future podcast episode to talk about what's on the table for future Uh legislation There are significant efforts underway in order to help frank franklin in particular, but in helping mass overall So additional programs on mass save whether they're you know credits or subsidies or things of that sort as well as training for individuals to One of the key pieces is as we make this entire changeover from fossil fuel to More of an electric based weather solar wind geothermal power We need a lot more technicians electricians and otherwise To do that. So there'll be some additional job training job transition efforts underway And all of that that I think Is one of the key places that the government funding can incent our behavior according And I think that's that's part of the good thing and then having this place to Oh, I can come here and then find out what I need to do and how to do this step or that step That I think will be a good thing One of the things that uh, you know, if you if you're a homeowner and you have a central Compressor that's running central air conditioning goes out Chances are it's going to make more sense to replace that Air conditioner with a heat pump When it goes because of the rebates on the heat pumps I just had the rodent hyzer of a local contractor install My heat pump and very happy with that job they did And they were very accommodating when I said, you know, I really need a bigger circuit breaker box in my garage because I I need to Have the capacity to change out my gas range to an inductive cooktop And charge an electric car From the sub panel. So they took care of that and they ran a huge 100 amp wire from the far end of the house to the other end of the house You know, there was an adder for that but it was all You try to work all these things together in tandem when you have the opportunity You're gonna be running cable anyway. Why not future proof your house a little bit? Well, I think that's one of the things that I'm intrigued by this kind of work is because This is sort of the connection between the micro and the macro in that things like that where you say I want to Put the pvm I roof but oh then you realize that the electrical system in the house isn't quite adequate Well, that presents a problem to be solved that can be solved as you just did David but also suggest that at the Policy level at the state level There needs to be easier ways to address that and more help to do that kind of thing Right because we just we're on a learning curve here of trying to get I think it's we need to Upgrade 500,000 houses by the end of the decade Right, that's a tall order and finding out ways to do that Uh I guess the energize franklin website puts us on that learning curve to figure out how best to do those things That's right. There's uh, there's a lot of good tools there and uh, You know, it's all stuff that you you can't get it all done at once, but you uh, I think we need an elephant one bite at a time Good Yeah, I think that's a good overview. Uh, we can kind of take it a break at this point I think um and for the listeners will include in the show notes as I mentioned before the link to the energize franklin page As we've discussed you've got some actions you can take You've got some uh feedback and testimonials to be able to provide. There's a contact linked as well so Dave and or others on the team can Help you as you navigate through this, you know road to a new climate world And if you want to support our work, we even have a donate page We are looking for a couple more hundred dollar checks to round out our list of founders. So Please don't be shy if you can support us. We certainly appreciate it Oh Well, thank you for sharing today and Ted. Thanks for helping us with some of the questions. I think uh This has been beneficial and I think as we we continue and then the listeners continue to use this This will come back to this potentially in the future and check on how many more people are there and how many more testimonials are there and Yeah, and if you have any other significant enhancements, Dave, then let us know and uh, we can bring you back in a future episode as well Really appreciate this opportunity at great spending time with you, Steve and Ted and uh Ted maybe I'll talk to you tonight at the 350 mass meeting Maybe yes indeed multiple connection points So the listeners, thank you and a quick reminder. We do this because Franklin matters