Organization: Geothermal Rising
Position Title: Government Affairs Policy Manager
Location: Remote

Organization Overview
Geothermal Rising (GR) is the largest and oldest geothermal membership organization in the world, founded in 1972. GR serves to build community and empower the geothermal industry by aligning all geothermal technologies and applications including geothermal ground source heat pumps, geothermal direct use applications, and geothermal power production. GR is a nonprofit educational association, community organizer, and research organization. GR actively seeks to amplify its role as a primary professional and educational association for the geothermal community and serve as a focal point for continuing professional development for its members and external audiences through its outreach, education, information transfer and education services. Geothermal Rising is a 501(c)(3) with a companion 501(c)(4) structure.

https://www.geothermal.org/

GR team members believe in the power of community and seek to build, empower, and sustain the
geothermal community.

Job Summary
GR’s Government Affairs Policy Manager will focus on project management and lead policy development of the geothermal industry supported by the vision of the GR Policy Committee. The Government Affairs Policy Manager will report to the GR Executive Director and will help advise the Executive Director, Chair of the GR Policy Committee, and chairs of the various subcommittees (e.g., appropriations, permitting, tax, regulatory, state policy, innovation) on key federal and state policy initiatives. The GA manager will develop and execute strategies to help the team run at the highest operational efficiencies. This person will interact with the broader GR team and geothermal industry to support the mission.
● Direct and lead meetings with members of the GR Policy Committee, coordinate action items and follow up across the entire GR organization. Track and maintain that all action items are executed.
● Coordinate and execute GR’s engagement in the Congressional Appropriations process. This will include composing formal communications to congressional staff including correspondence, meetings, and memos.
● Logistically set up, strategize on engagement, and participate in educational events for congressional offices and staff and generate memos and briefs for GR and GR Policy Committee members team ahead of the events.
● Amplify the GR Policy Committee by creating presentations materials, background briefs, thank you letters, memos and other written communications.
● Track and analyze congressional hearings, briefings and other relevant events and lead coordination with the GR Policy Committee. Update the team with relevant notes, questions, etc.
● Be the main point of project management and coordination for the GR Policy Committee making sure all items are logistically sound- for example managing ensuring that our entire target audience is included in upcoming events.
● Prepare the agenda for the monthly GR Policy Committee meetings and draft the quarterly report on GR Policy Committee activities to the GR Board.
● Enable the GR Executive Director, GR Policy Committee Chair and subcommittees to maintain organization and follow through on policy impacting the geothermal industry.
● Build, update, and track geothermal energy projects by congressional districts and states.
● Manage the submission of lobbying disclosures and other compliance reporting as needed.
● Monitor internal editorial calendar to flag relevant content for GR to share with Congress, state governments, and other external stakeholders for engagement on key priorities. Coordinate lists and content for distribution to various relevant audiences.
● Support GR marketing and community outreach efforts in execution for upcoming events hosted and sponsored by GR or GR members, including compiling guest lists, draft invitations, checking guests in/out, setting-up, flagging compliance or related ethics items, etc.
● Support GR team members at conferences and events
● Moderate travel is expected

Preferred Qualifications

● Six plus years of blended experience in legislative processes and energy policy; familiarity with legislative and/or grassroots advocacy; familiarity with membership organizations.
● Experience in government relations, public policy, federal agency, Capitol Hill, clean and renewable energy.
● Excellent communicator, including strong writing skills.
● Proficient in Microsoft Office Suite and Google equivalents.
● Ability and willingness to work nontraditional hours based on events.
● A professional and personal commitment to the mission of Geothermal Rising.
● Bachelor’s degree

Capabilities

● Service Focus – Place emphasis on creating team and guest loyalty by continually enhancing the office experience. Capacity to identify and understand the needs of the team, manage expectations, and prioritize meeting and exceeding those needs.
● Accountability – Take responsibility for your own performance and accept full ownership of issues, problems, and opportunities, regardless of the source.
● Composure and Resiliency – Ability to deal effectively with pressure, maintain focus and intensity, and remain optimistic and persistent, even under adversity. Ability and propensity to recover quickly from setbacks, rejections, and conflicts and to maintain self control in the face of challenges.
● Professionalism – Set high standards and serve as role models for work performance, ethical conduct, and respect for others. Consistently conduct yourself in a manner that is aligned with Geothermal Rising values and within the guidelines and best practices of office management.
● Time Management – Focus on completing all work tasks in a timely manner, while remaining responsive enough to react to competing demands and shifting priorities. Able to manage multiple responsibilities while being organized, keeping on top of important time sensitive tasks, and performing all work accurately.
● Self-starter – Anticipate and aim to proactively address hurdles. Seek to identify opportunities for GR Policy Committee engagement and be proactive to avoid a reactive work culture.
● Communicating – Provide the information required by others in a concise, direct, and unambiguous way.

Values

● Teamwork: Be fun, fast, collaborative, and supportive.
● Dedication: Be here because you want to change the world.
● Ownership: Think and act like an owner.
● Adaptability: Be humble and agile.
● Integrity: Believe individual and organizational credibility is everything.
● Curiosity: Voracious learner eager to engage with the substantive details of our work.

Compensation & Benefits

● Competitive salary commensurate with experience and location ($115,000 to $125,000)
● Attend GR conferences and events
● Comprehensive health, dental, vision, and life insurance
● Employer covers 100% of employee insurance premiums
● Health savings account for medical expenses
● Retirement Benefit offering an employer matching contribution of employee contributions $1 for $1 on the first 5% of pay you contribute
● No vacation policy - take what you need whenever workflow allows
● Computer and Zoom VOIP phone
● Remote work environment
● Twelve paid holidays (e.g., Day after Thanksgiving, Juneteenth, Labor Day, Memorial Day)

Closing Date of Position: Open Until Filled

Please send resume and cover letter to Anita Collins at anita@geothermal.org.

At Geothermal Rising, we value a diverse and inclusive workforce. Community and service underscore our values as we seek to equitably and justly transition to a clean energy economy. Geothermal Rising is an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.

On March 20, 2023, Geothermal Rising submitted letters to the House and Senate appropriations committees with recommendations for FY 2024 appropriations in support of the geothermal industry.  The recommendations were listed by government agency, and in some cases, by specific program.  In total, we requested just under $1.2 billion in appropriations, of which almost half would be in the form of types of financing (e.g., loan authority, venture capital) which could allow the government to recover (or exceed) its investment, and made other recommendations which could further unlock additional funds.   This summary organizes the different recommendations thematically.

Many of our requests do not seek additional appropriations for FY2024 and acknowledge that federal budgets will be tight this year. One option for the Congress can assist the geothermal industry using no additional appropriations includes releasing report language urging DOE’s new Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED) to specifically incorporate geothermal heat pumps, geothermal direct use (thermal energy networks), and geothermal power production into grant and demonstration programs using funds appropriated from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 and Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. Additionally, the Congress should strongly encourage DOE and OCED to incorporate geothermal resources into one of the hydrogen hubs.

There is a lack of recent data about federal incentives provided to each energy technology. We request the Congress update reports from the Congressional Research Service and Energy Information Administration that report on federal programs, subsidies, and other incentives received by all energy technologies from 1950 to 2022. This updated information will illustrate and underscore that energy policy is not technology agnostic in the United States.

Beginning with RD&D, we recommended that the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Geothermal Technologies Office (GTO) get $300 million for geothermal RD&D activities in FY 2024, an increase of $70 million from FY2023.  With respect to demonstration projects, we requested that OCED dedicate funding to geothermal projects from its existing $20 billion in appropriations.  In addition, one or more of the national labs should get $100 million to establish a public-private Geothermal Center of Excellence (GeoExcel).  Finally, we asked that DOE allocate $36 million to a geothermal Public Private Partnership Venture Capital fund.

On the development side, our largest single appropriations request was for a total of $500 million in loan authority for DOE to use for risk mitigation programs for district cooling/heating and electricity drilling, exploration, and deployment projects. Following a model used successfully in other countries, one objective would be to provide loans for exploration which are converted to grants in the event that the exploration is unsuccessful.  At the Department of the Interior (DOI), we seek to speed up permitting by spending $15 million to create a National Center to Review Geothermal Permit Applications. 

With respect to market development, we recommended that DOE’s Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains (MESC) get $100 million to secure the domestic supply chain for Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) or turbine manufacturing.  DOE’s Building Technologies Office (BTO) would get $50 million to promote the deployment of geothermal (ground source) heat pumps. We also requested $12 million for DOE’s Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM) to provide grants to repurpose oil and gas assets such as abandoned wells. We also requested $10 million in loan authority for the U.S. Export-Import Bank to support export of geothermal products and services.

As a consumer of energy, we recommended that the Department of Defense get $20 million for geothermal power and cooling/heating projects on military installations across the United States and abroad.  Other agencies would get grant programs to support project development and procurement by non-governmental entities: $15 million at the Department of Agriculture to transition agricultural and industrial cool/heat applications to geothermal resources; $10 million at the Department of Commerce Economic Development Administration to support partnerships with municipalities, electric or energy cooperatives, community choice aggregators, and public utilities; and $5 million at the Bureau of Indian Affairs for development by tribal nations. 

Finally, there were some requests focused on education and communication.  To support student education on geothermal power, we requested that the Department of Education receive $9 million for technical and vocational programs in community colleges.  And for improved public knowledge of the history and applications of geothermal power, the Smithsonian Institution should receive $3 million for exhibits across multiple museums.

Overall, these appropriations requests sought to address all stages of the geothermal industry’s expansion needs, and to provide innovative mechanisms by which the government could obtain direct value from our successes.

Our busy office had several staffers regularly looking for funding opportunities including a project manager that brought me a file and said that his project owner had just inquired about a 30% federal tax credit for his new home geothermal heating and cooling system. I laughed and said that I would eat my hat the day the federal government pulled off any such tax credits for the geothermal heat pump industry. Our project manager persisted, so I said that if you would bring we written proof that there was such a program, I would listen.

The next day, he brought me the proof and I was amazed! We had no idea at the time how it would change our business operations over the next 14 years. Through a charmed sequence of events since then, Egg Geo went through a metamorphosis that propelled us into nationwide and worldwide operations that include education, code writing, consulting engineering, advocacy, legislative development, and the writing of two geothermal engineering textbooks for McGraw-Hill education. Here we are with another round of impressive incentives coming from the Federal Government under the new IRA and ITC packages. Let’s delve into those.

The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA) provides $369 billion for energy spending and climate change measures. It's interesting to note that this time, these provisions are intended to increase employment, and provide real and measurable support toward achieving a net zero nation by the year 2050.

Besides helping to ensure that the tradespeople that install our decarbonization measures receive a true living wage, the funding mechanisms allow not only for tax credits, they also direct payments of incentives to tax-exempt and government agencies in lieu of just a simple reduction of tax liability through credits. Additionally, the program provides funding for climate grants and assistance for technical education.

• The incentives have been increased for use of US made materials and heat pump equipment. Additionally, funding is available for siting facilities in economically-disadvantaged areas.
• Project funding is uncapped when the project meets the requirements for paying prevailing wages and employment of qualified trade apprentices.
• The investment recovery act provides energy tax credits that are for a longer term than those in the past. Previously, energy credits were authorized for a limited number of years and then received periodic extensions. The IRA provides for some short term extensions to many of the specific tax credits until 2025. The geothermal exchange systems are the exception, receiving full credits through 2034.
• There are many tax incentives included in the investment recovery act that allowed direct payments in lieu of tax credits for tax exempt and governmental organizations.
• Entities with low tax liability have the option to monetize these credits by transferring them to an entity with larger tax burdens, such as an Energy Services Company (ESCO).

There is particularly relevant verbiage that provides investment tax credits for ground-coupled & groundwater projects. Similar to solar power generation, energy storage, and combined heat and power, the IRA also includes incentives for nuclear power and hydrogen production. It's understood that these incentives primarily reduce the cost for Needs+1 applications that utilize hybrid fuel input.

This is a good segway into a little known resource that hit our radar in 2009, the Database of State Incentives for Renewables & Efficiency® (DSIRE) https://www.dsireusa.org/ DSIRE is the most comprehensive source of information on incentives and policies that support renewable energy and energy efficiency in the United States. Established in 1995, DSIRE is operated by the N.C. Clean Energy Technology Center at N.C. State University. The navigation is not entirely intuitive, so here’s a navigation video: https://youtu.be/__iCPPF8rcE

The IRA includes extensions for the investment tax credit (ITC) and for the production tax credit (PTC). Any projects that want to take advantage of these extensions must begin construction before January 1st, 2025, unless it's for geothermal exchange systems, which have been extended to January 1st, 2035. Geo exchange systems are low temperature, shallow exchange systems that serve building heat pumps and thermal energy networks. Because of the massive push toward distributed thermal energy, or Thermal Energy Networks (TENs), disadvantaged communities will have access to clean heating, cooling & domestic hot water (DHW) with a simple utility connection.

Thermal Energy Networks (TENs) are utility-scale infrastructure projects that connect multiple buildings into a shared network with sources of thermal energy like geothermal boreholes, surface water, and wastewater. Utilization of these energy networks seems to be the final frontier for community renewable energy systems. Because buildings are responsible for 40% of carbon emissions, the answer to eliminating those lies in distributing the thermal energy using hydronic pipelines through our cities and allowing energy and other utilities to maintain and bill for the services of these TENs.

The greenhouse gas reduction fund has been established with $27 billion to provide grants and technical assistance to dot-orgs, tribal governments, and other nonprofit organizations. Notably, $15 billion is set aside for financial and technical assistance to disadvantaged and low-income communities.

During the vetting. For the 2009 stimulus package, we were able to determine in practice that the tax credits applied to 100% of the new construction and retrofit costs involved in a geothermal upgrade to a facility or home. This included electrical, controls, pumping, piping, heat pump and chiller equipment, labor, permits and everything else with the exception of the forced air distribution system, or in other words the duct work. So far, it looks as though the IRA will be similar in its extent for incentives going forward.

Kristy Egg holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Public Health with two areas of focus: health science and epidemiology. Over the past decade Kristy studied and developed competency in the public health issues of opportunistic waterborne pathogens and biofilms in water systems, including Legionellosis. For the past two years she has dedicated most of her time to helping educate and bring about workable solutions for disadvantaged communities. Her strengths are research, Indoor Air Quality (IAQ), Ambient Air Quality (AAQ), & management of community projects, team cat herding, some balloon animals, and marketing. She can be reached at kristy@egggeo.com

Jay Egg is a geothermal consultant, and President of Egg Geo, LLC. He has co-authored two textbooks on geothermal HVAC systems published by McGraw-Hill Professional. He can be reached at jegg@egggeo.com