Rewiring America, systems change & electrifying everything, Ep #28

11/08/22 • 47 min

Have you come across the idea yet that we need to electrify everything? It's the concept that we need to replace gas appliances with electric ones and power those with renewable energy. It's a simply idea really, and yet it's crucial to eliminating pollution, protecting the environment, saving a whole lot of money and eliminating the illnesses caused by burning fossil fuels. The benefits are massive – but so is the complexity of decarbonizing billions upon billions of buildings.

At the forefront of the movement to electrify everything is Rewiring America, an ambitious organization focused on the systemic change needed to make clean, electric appliances the default. For this episode, I spoke with Rewiring America’s CEO Ari Matusiak. We spoke about the organization's approach to systems change, the implications of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), their work to aggregate demand for electrification and much more. I learned a ton and am excited to share this episode as there are many ways we can all help make the mantra “electrify everything” a reality. Enjoy.

In today’s episode, we cover:

[3:36] What is Rewiring America & the problem they’re aiming to solve
[5:05] The criticality of electrifying buildings in the United States
[7:17] The scale of change that Rewiring America is working towards
[9:50] User experience considerations & opportunities for electrification
[13:50] Thinking about systems change to address the magnitude of scale
[18:12] How to aggregate local demand in a systematic way
[22:43] Signs of increasing local demand & progress
[25:04] What the IRA means for individual consumers
[27:41] The national level impacts of the IRA
[31:02] The follow on effects of the IRA
[33:14] The flywheel for electrification & systems change
[37:01] Advocating for local policy change & accelerating electrification beyond homes
[41:45] Raising awareness & urgency to decarbonize the built environment
[44:56] What next year holds for Rewiring America & how listeners can help