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The Gist
The Gist is the monthly newsletter of The Ad Hoc Group that covers everything at the intersection of climate tech and policy. Subscribe at the link here to have The Gist mailed to your inbox each month.
The Ad Hoc Gist: Two Utility CEOs Spill the Tea
After a thought-provoking dinner conversation at last month’s Power Resilience Forum with Mari McClure, the CEO of Green Mountain Power in Vermont and Rudy Garza, the CEO of CPS Energy in Texas, that we asked them to do it all again for this month’s Gist.
In our interview, they break down the overly simplified narratives that have emerged about clean energy, resilience, data centers, and affordability. And they share what it’s really like to run utilities in two very different parts of the country right now; it turns out it’s neither monolithic nor simple.
The Ad Hoc Gist: Our 2026 Grid PredictionsÂ
We’re barely into 2026, and already it’s full of surprises. This month, Julia and I, along with two of our senior advisors, share our predictions for the year in energy.
We’re also proud to share a new Alliance to Save Energy report co-authored by our own Matt Anderson on how hyperscalers like Google and Microsoft can leverage investments in distributed resources and energy efficiency to create more capacity on the grid.
The Ad Hoc Gist: Four Things Our Team Thinks You Missed in 2025Â
As 2025 wraps up, we asked our team a simple question: What’s one development that flew under the radar this year—something overlooked in the usual energy market coverage—that you believe will have a significant impact in 2026 and beyond?
The answers surprised us. From the politics of electricity bills to a quiet federal tax provision that could reshape residential heating and cooling, this month’s Gist highlights four trends worth watching as we head into the new year.
White Papers
The Ad Hoc Group, in partnership with other industry thought leaders, publishes white papers that take a deep dive into the complex issues facing the energy industry and our clients.
Bridging the Load Gap: A Collaborative Path for Utilities, Hyperscalers and Customers
In this white paper, published in January 2026, the Alliance to Save Energy and the Ad Hoc Group explore whether a collaborative model – one in which a large load funds incremental, utility-directed demand-side management (DSM) investments that include both demand response (DR) and energy efficiency (EE) programs – could unlock new capacity, reduce pressure on infrastructure timelines, and support improved affordability and resilience for customers.
Blog
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People as Moat – Ad Hoc Expands into Search
In climate tech, we talk a lot about, well, technology. But talk with most CEOs and they’ll share that the hardest part of their job is figuring out how to hire and retain the right people. In my experience, a company’s ability to hire and effectively onboard the right people is what differentiates successful businesses from those that falter. Because, as a CEO, you can have a great vision, but if you don’t have the right people, you can’t execute it.
Press
C&IÂ customer needs are rapidly changing. How can utilities maximize their relationship?
In the blink of an eye, large commercial and industrial customers present big challenges and opportunities.
Commercial and industrial customers have historically been boring to utilities. As long as power was reliable and reasonably priced, utilities hardly ever heard from these customers. They were so boring that, according to a 2023 J.D. Power study, only 15% of C&I customers even had a utility account rep assigned to them. The feeling has been mutual. A representative from a major C&I customer with a large trucking fleet recently said “why would I want to talk to a utility? My job is to move boxes from warehouses to stores.”
Know thyself: Advice for climate tech founders
Building a climate tech company is not for the faint-of-heart.
No part of the process is easy; the tech is difficult, customers can be decidedly old-school, and regulation is often complex, for instance. And too often, the innate challenge for founders is compounded by the weight of high valuations, enormous growth targets, and limited exit options.
We don’t have all the answers for navigating what is an increasingly complicated market, but we do have some advice.
We need to rethink climate investing
For climate tech to scale, the collaboration between climate tech founders and capital providers will need to change. It will need to be a durable — and dare we say, sustainable? — relationship, and one designed for deep partnership.Â
To get a sense of what this might look like, it is worth looking backward: to the very first days of Silicon Valley venture capital and the case of Intel. The company was founded by Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore with an innovative capital model proposed by Arthur Rock. Intel was given a $2.5 million pre-money valuation in 1968 — the equivalent of $21 million today — and Rock invested $2.5 million.
Podcast
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