ICF Podcast

Tune in to Energy in 30 hosted by Joan Collins and David Meisegeier. On our sixth episode, "Breaking down the Inflation Reduction Act," hear from ICF thought leaders Justin Rogers, Maci McDaniel, Mark Pignatelli, and Erica Larson as they offer an initial breakdown of the recently passed Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA) as it relates to the energy, climate, and utility industries. While our experts comb through all of the details, the team is here to provide a high-level overview of some of the act’s most impactful facets to these industries.

Topics in today’s special flash episode include:

• High-level overview: Understanding the IRA
• Comparing the IRA to previous federal legislative efforts
• Leveraging tax credits that impact midstream programs and utilities
• The impact of the IRA on home construction and new homes
• Pushing efficiency into the electrification space: Understanding the role of gas utilities

Tune in to Energy in 30 hosted by Joan Collins and David Meisegeier. On our fifth episode, "Addressing energy efficiency in Indigenous communities,” hear from Yasmin Abraham and Karim Abraham, the brother-and-sister founders of Kambo Energy Group. Their organization focuses on equity-based social enterprise that designs solutions to reduce energy poverty and improve housing in underserved communities. Specifically, they work directly with Indigenous Nations, lower-income households, and new Canadians.

Yasmin and Karim are joined by ICF Senior Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Specialist Dany Kahumoku. The three recently teamed up to present at the 2022 NEUAC Conference in New Orleans. There, they presented “A Holistic Approach of Addressing Climate, Weatherization, and Capacity Needs through Housing Programs in Tribal Nations,” sharing their experiences and learnings of working in this sector and the historical context of why this work should be prioritized as part of the energy transition.

Some of the topics discussed in this episode include:

• Holistic approaches to serving Indigenous communities
• Prioritizing funding and building capacity to address the specific needs of Nations
• Fostering relationships to bolster a community’s vision
• Forging an entrepreneurial spirit with a community-minded focus
• Supporting Indigenous leadership to focus energy-efficiency implementation
• Decentralizing energy efficiency programs to bolster stakeholder designing and funding

Editor’s Note: The following content deals with the sensitive topic of mass violence. Some listeners may find it distressing. This podcast was recorded in April 2022. ICF has been providing immediate assistance to communities after a mass violence incident (MVI) for over 30 years. In this podcast we share guidance and advice on how communities can create a plan to respond to MVIs and identify and develop strategies to address the short- and long-term needs of the people they serve.

We invite you to listen to the second episode in a new series discussing large-scale violence and domestic terror—a sensitive topic that impacts us all.

In this conversation, Corina Solé Brito, an ICF director of Public Health Preparedness and ICF’s Deputy Director of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services ASPR TRACIE, joins victims support services experts Diane Alexander, with OVC TTAC, and Tara Hughes, who is also the director of Improving Community Preparedness to Assist Victims of Mass Violence and Domestic Terrorism Training and Technical Assistance Project (ICP TTA).

Together, they explain the critical need for pre-event collaboration and communication between jurisdictional incident response team members, the various and significant effects of mass violence incidents (MVI) can have on survivors, responders, and communities as a whole, and the importance of supporting responder resilience before, during, and after an incident.

Some of the topics discussed in this episode include:

• The importance of establishing intercommunication between first responders and service providers in an incident response
• Understanding the role of state victim assistance and compensation services
• Expanding the scope of preparedness to all types of health care providers—not just hospitals
• Identifying the incident response team
• Recognizing the emotionality of an event of mass violence
• Providing short- and long-term care for first responders
• Information distribution and the importance of Public Information Officers (PIO)
• Separating the location of the incident location from victim’s services
• Creating plans that take vulnerable populations into consideration
• Establishing personal and professional contingency plans
• Taking the next steps toward mass violence incident preparedness

Community planning

• OVC TTAC Mass Violence
• ICP TTA
• Victim Services Exercise Guide & Scenario Templates
• ASPR TRACIE
• Mass Violence Resources
• Disaster Behavioral Health Resources

Personal and Family Planning Resources

• Ready.gov
• Be Red Cross Ready
• Medical Reserve Corps - Core competencies for leaders and volunteers
• Behavioral health PPE pre-deployment checklist for responders
• Mini Modules to Relieve Stress For Healthcare Workers Responding to COVID-19
• SAMHSA DTAC resources for responders

Tune in to Energy in 30 hosted by Joan Collins and David Meisegeier. On our fourth episode, "Scaling an affordable clean energy transition,” hear from Jigar Shah, Director of the Loan Programs Office at the U.S. Department of Energy. Throughout his career, Shah helped pioneer climate solutions at scale and low-cost infrastructure. This includes founding SunEdison, which led the way in pay-as-you-save solar financing, serving as the first CEO of the Carbon War Room—founded by Sir Richard Branson—and co-founding and serving as president of Generate Capital.

Shah is joined by Patty Cook, ICF Senior Vice President of Market Development, Distributed Flexibility Solutions, who designs innovative customer programs that support electrification, resiliency, and flexible load management. Together with our hosts, this episode takes a look at some of the current and future energy trends piquing their interest.

Some of the topics discussed in this episode include:

• Scaling the industry toward renewables and distributed energy resources
• Making space for energy equity through accessible financing options
• Improving service and affordability through energy-as-a-service models and leveraging third-party capital

This podcast series was recorded in April 2022. ICF has been providing immediate assistance to communities after a mass violence incident (MVI) for over 30 years. In this podcast we share guidance and advice on how communities can create a plan to respond to MVIs and identify and develop strategies to address the short- and long-term needs of the people they serve.

Editor’s Note: The following content deals with the sensitive topic of mass violence. Some listeners may find it distressing.

Topics covered in this episode include:

• How are mass violence and domestic terrorism defined?
• What are some of the negative ramifications of not preparing for a incident of mass violence in your community?
• How mass violence response planning is different from planning for other “big things”
• The three things that affect a mass violence response plan
• Robust victim assistance and first-responder care services and psychological first-aid measures

Community planning

• OVC TTAC Mass Violence
• ICP TTA
• Victim Services Exercise Guide & Scenario Templates
• ASPR TRACIE
• Mass Violence Resources
• Disaster Behavioral Health Resources

Personal and Family Planning Resources

• Ready.gov
• Be Red Cross Ready
• Medical Reserve Corps - Core competencies for leaders and volunteers
• Behavioral health PPE pre-deployment checklist for responders
• Mini Modules to Relieve Stress For Healthcare Workers Responding to COVID-19
• SAMHSA DTAC resources for responders

Tune into our third episode of “Energy in 30: Pressures are motivating tectonic regulatory shifts,” to hear from Cameron Brooks, president of E9 Insight, an information service focusing on regulatory actions and trends that have an impact on clean energy and consumer technologies transforming the electric utility industry. Cameron is also instrumental in creating the coalition Think Microgrid, which provides political leaders with the resources they need to understand how microgrid technologies work, what role they can play in achieving policy goals, and how regulatory reforms can proactively address barriers that exist today. With nearly two decades of experience in public policy, capital markets, and electricity regulation, Cameron brings a unique perspective to this conversation.

Join us as we discuss issues in the regulatory environment. Topics in today’s episode include:

• The decisions policymakers make today lay the foundation for the market designs of tomorrow
• Policymakers bear a great responsibility to keep pace with other states and new technologies
• Utility markets need to be resilient, clean, and equitable
• Rgulatory innovations such as open access to the distribution grid and a grid designed around the flows—not the storage—of energy

Tune in to Energy in 30 hosted by Joan Collins and David Meisegeier. On our second episode, "Customer co-creation advances clean energy future,” hear from Paul De Martini, executive director of the Pacific Energy Institute, more commonly known as PEI. He recently published white papers that are must-reads for anyone in the energy industry. Paul draws insights from what’s happening at the forefront of distributed power systems, including an evaluation of customer choices around energy and resilience.

Today, we’ll dive in and talk about the rise of customer-driven utility offerings and how these play a critical role in advancing a sustainable future.

In this episode, we will cover such topics as:

• Building a next-generation energy grid and viewing customers as partners
• Using design thinking as a fundamental path to customer evolution
• Adopting to prosumerism and how consumer-centric products and services are on the rise
• Tipping over the midpoint in this transition to a more distributed future

Traditional utility pilots have delivered mixed results. They can be slow to get off the ground and take years to complete. But as utility leaders know, today’s most pressing energy challenges—meeting decarbonization goals, ensuring grid resilience, and delivering solutions that satisfy evolving customer needs—demand a faster and more effective way to test new ideas.

Innovation is essential, but it's also important to avoid “death by a thousand pilots.” How can you move beyond ad hoc piloting and learn to innovate quickly?

Tune into our inaugural episode of “Energy in 30”, hosted by Joan Collins and David Meisegeier, to hear from Kevin Duffy, an ICF energy innovations guru who leads boundary-pushing pilot programs that pave the way for the utilities of the future. The conversation covers topics such as:

• How embracing an Agile approach to pilots allows you to shorten timeframes, accelerate ideas, and capture learnings to let data drive decisions
• An overview of ICF’s Innovation Incubator, a data-driven utility pilot accelerator that contains 360 ideas and 40 in-flight projects
• Creative ways to navigate funding challenges and identify small-scale, inexpensive tests to learn from and pursue
• Examples of emerging technologies that utilities are using to innovate programs and advance their goals

The pandemic has helped shed light on serious gaps in rural broadband access and how these gaps can pose significant challenges for rural education.

Experts from the Academic Development Institute, Appalachian Regional Commission, Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development, and our Child Welfare and Education division discuss how to overcome broadband and educational gaps in rural communities to promote economic and workforce development.

We cover:

• Understanding the tensions rural students face when contemplating higher education
• Expanding the occupational opportunities within a rural community while elevating the educational prospects of students
• Recognizing the importance of broadband accessibility
• Building strategies for rural communities to promote economic and workplace development

In this podcast, Kelli Reddick of ICF is joined by Josh Overmyer, a certified floodplain manager for a coastal county in Florida, and Eddy Bouza, deputy state floodplain manager for the State of Florida, to discuss floodplain management and changes coming to FEMA's National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP).