☀️ AUGUST 2023

Hi everyone,

This month there’s been lots of activity across the organization, even as many have enjoyed well-earned summer vacations. CATF headed to Iceland to seek out new opportunities for superhot rock energy implementation, celebrated the one-year anniversary of the Inflation Reduction Act with a suite of strategic communications engagement across Comms, Advocacy, and Programs, and continued to take CATF global with methane pollution prevention engagements from Australia to Colombia. August has also been a month of intense preparation as we head into a jam-packed Fall that includes strategic CATF engagement at regional Climate Weeks, major thought leadership, the launch of new internal systems, and more. Take a look at the events line-up below to find out more!

If last month’s newsletter got lost in your inbox, you can find a copy here. And if you have any comments, questions, or feedback, please reach out to Kara Hunt.

HR, Ops, IT, and Project Management
News & Updates

Human Resources

New Staff This Month

❗Check out the staff directory! You can find your coworkers’ information by last name, team, or vertical.

Present Your Work!

Please sign up to present on your work at an all-staff watercooler! These presentations can range from overviews of your team’s work to deep dives into a specific solution, to an explanation of the policy landscape in a specific region, or anything else you think may be interesting to staff. They do not need to be long or formal. It’s all about sharing your expertise and work with the CATF community! The link to sign up can be found in the CATF Team General channel under the “Forms” tab, and please free to sign up well in advance of your planned presentation date.

If you missed this month’s Watercooler featuring a deep dive into our monumental work on Section 111 Power Plant CO2 Regulations, you can watch the recording at this link. The password is F^b9$k5C.

Project Management

• CRM/Salesforce for Programs, a project jointly run by the Project Management Team and IT, is getting closer to its planned October launch!
  • Where we are: The draft system is nearly complete and ready for testing. Testing commences in early September. Participants include CATFers who participated in our CRM Power Hours and CRM Working Group sessions.
  • Next Steps: After testing is complete, our consultant will conduct a final pass and configuration of the system. From September to October, we will hold trainings and finalize processes and documentation. More information to come on user roles and types!

Looking for project management resources and templates? Check out our Project Management Resources Library! This month we’re highlighting the meeting organization and information sharing folder, which includes templates for meeting agendas, notes, and follow-up/recap emails.

IT

• We are implementing Microsoft InTune in a phased approach for all Windows users. If you use Windows, expect a request to meet in the coming weeks to get the software installed and computer changes made. More information is available here (Mac users will come after we complete Windows system enrollment).
• We have a new Microsoft Learning Pathways SharePoint site coming online. This will have some revisions made to outline the more useful training pages, but it’s already a good resource if you need help with any Microsoft products.
• We have completed the new CATF phone system – calls to our primary number are now handled by a modern automated attendant to direct the call to the appropriate places. If you need a custom phone setup for your team, we can accommodate that request (send an email to [email protected]).

Accounting, Financial Planning and Analysis, and Ops

The Accounting, Financial Planning and Analysis, and Operations teams came together for the first time, with several of us meeting for the first time! The meeting proved to be a productive, team building experience that we plan to build on virtually until we meet again.     

Administration

Which Executive Administrators work where? We're glad you asked!

Executive administration teams and their partners can be found here: Administrative Team and Business Partners.

View all organizational updates →

Events & Meetings

What's Happening at CATF? 

Find out more by viewing the 2023 Events Master Calendar

• Reminder: Please add your speaking engagement, sponsorship, exhibit, webinar, or CATF-hosted event or meeting to the calendar. All staff should have access. 
• To start planning a new event or meeting, please review the Intake Form and FAQ. 

Events Spotlight

In August, CATF hosted supporters, donors, and staff on a trip to Iceland to bolster funding, learning, and partnership opportunities for superhot rock energy implementation. The trip included meetings with government officials, investors, and scientific experts; and a visit to the Hellisheiði Power Station to view the Geothermal Energy Exhibition and Climeworks operations.

Would you like an event featured in Task Force Times? Email [email protected] with a description and photo.

Event Operations Updates

Please work with your EA partners on internal team meetings (staff only) and with the Events team when it involves external stakeholders (non-staff in the audience). Read the FAQ for more info.

Q3 and Q4 are by far the busiest event months at CATF! Our calendar is already packed. If you are planning an event, please consider 2024 so that we don’t cannibalize our audiences and so that we can adequately support your event outcomes.

We’re flexing our global influence muscles a lot over the next few months. Highlights include:

• New York Climate Week, Africa Climate Week, Latin American and Caribbean Climate week, MENA Climate Week, and the Doha Forum
• COP28 in Dubai, UAE
• An invitation-only gathering of African thought leaders – to incubate a larger event in 2024 to foster Africa-centric energy transition strategies

CATF’s thought leaders will be influencing climate narratives at large industry gatherings this fall. Some examples include:

• Superhot Rock Energy team’s leadership presence at the Geothermal Rising conference
• Methane Pollution Prevention team’s leadership at the International Solid Waste Association World Congress
• Carbon Capture team at EU Industry days

We’re also conducting a lot of deep-dive workshops to tackle important technical challenges, including:

• Science of Siting workshops to advance the best thinking on overcoming social barriers to siting renewables
• Gathering top academics and practitioners to assess forestry carbon credit protocols and drive rigor into these processes
• A carbon capture and storage workshop in association with Imperial College London for journalists, policymakers, and staff

Upcoming Events

⚠️ The events tracker has been moved to Monday.com! View it here.

External

• September 4-8: Africa Climate Week (Nairobi, Kenya)
• September 6: The Role of African Power Utilities in a Just Energy Transition (Nairobi, Kenya)
• September 6: Towards an EU Methane Import Standard – Opportunities for global climate leadership ahead of COP28 (Virtual)
• September 7-8: CATF and Imperial College London Carbon Capture and Storage Initiative (London, UK)
• September 7-8: Fusion Safety Workshop (London, UK)
• September 11: Science of Siting Workshop (Ann Arbor, MI)
• September 13: Final Regional Conference of the CCS4CEE Project (Prague, Czech Republic)
• September 15-17: World Geothermal Congress Conference (Beijing, China)
• September 17-24: New York Climate Week (New York City, New York)

Internal

• September 15: CATF Third Quarter Board Meeting

Upcoming CATF Holidays

See here for the full holiday lists for all countries.

• Monday, September 4: Labor Day (U.S., Canada)
• Tuesday, September 26 – Wednesday, September 27: Eid Milad ul-Nabi (Nigeria)
• Wednesday, September 27: Mawlid (UAE)
• Thursday, September 28: St. Wenceslas Day (Czech Republic)

Program & Regional Advocacy
Team Updates

Highlights

• The U.S. Advocacy team celebrated the one-year anniversary of the Inflation Reduction Act with a slew of insightful materials and engagements highlighting where things stand and what needs to happen next at the federal level, in the states, and across clean energy technologies, including:
  • An Implementation Resource hub that provides information for state and local officials, communities, businesses, and other stakeholders to track IIJA and IRA implementation and learn how to apply federal funding to achieve their decarbonization goals. This hub includes an interactive map, as well as an industrial decarbonization program tracker.
  • Blogs on unlocking historic climate funding, opportunities for bipartisan policymaking, how the Inflation Reduction Act is making an impact one year later, and the state of carbon capture and storage in the U.S. after the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act.
  • Two new videos – one featuring Lindsey Baxter Griffith discussing the impact of the Inflation Reduction Act one year later, and one featuring a discussion with Princeton University’s Jesse Jenkins and Rhodium Group’s John Larsen on the deployment of clean energy technologies.
  • A media briefing, “One year later: How the Inflation Reduction Act is delivering on its promises,” featuring experts on implementation, federal policy, state policy, carbon management, zero-carbon fuels, and infrastructure.
• In a large cross-programmatic effort, CATF submitted public comments to support and strengthen the U.S. EPA’s proposed carbon pollution standards for the fossil fuel-fired power fleet. The comments were submitted with the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and joined by The Nature Conservancy. Watch: Watercooler presentation on CATF's work around these regulations. The password is F^b9$k5C.
• Methane Pollution Prevention team staff traveled to Bogotá Colombia this month to host the first external waste-focused workshop as part of the larger Waste MAP initiative to reduce methane emissions from the waste sector. The workshop was attended by national and subnational government representatives, stakeholders from the civil sector, representatives from 17 municipalities, and other international groups.
• CATF debuted its new Land Systems program page on the CATF website, providing an overview of the program goals, scope of work, and ongoing projects.
• The Methane Pollution Prevention team traveled to Australia to document methane emissions from coal and gas sites. In partnership with the Australian Conservation Foundation and Sunrise Project, CATF documented 35 instances of methane emissions from 101 sources. In addition, James Turitto and Felicia Ruiz briefed the Australian Parliament on the issue and best practices for policy development to reduce methane emissions from coal and gas sites in the country.
• The Energy and Climate Innovation in Africa team hosted a two-day roundtable in Accra, Ghana that brought together 10 utilities from five countries in West Africa. The convening focused on the mechanisms through which the sub-region could strengthen utility markets, promote greater regional integration, and adopt innovative strategies to improve utility performance and financial health.
• CATF released a new program video from the Zero-Carbon Fuels team, showing how we're working toward accelerating the development and deployment of hydrogen and ammonia.

All program & advocacy updates →

Full List of Publications This Month

Blogs

• America, We Have Liftoff! What IRA and IIJA applicants should know about DOE’s Pathways to Commercialization — Jess Wymer
• Unlocking historic climate funding from IRA and IIJA is critical to maximizing emissions reductions — Holly Reuter and Jeremy Tarr
• Keeping up the momentum: Opportunities for bipartisan policymaking on the heels of the Inflation Reduction Act — Evan Chapman
• Lessons from Europe from the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act — Lee Beck and Sonia Stoyanova
• One year later: How the Inflation Reduction Act is making an impact
• From Act to action: How the Inflation Reduction Act is accelerating decarbonization in the United States with carbon capture and storage — Eliza Sheff and Darryle Ulama
• Climate Pollution Reduction Grants: 10 considerations for states — Jeremy Tarr and Angela Seligman
• Training the future carbon capture workforce: An interview with Vernon Travis, Vernon Parrish School Board Member, on the Capturing Better Futures Initiative — Benjamin Longstreth 

Press Statements

• More for Less: Strengthening EPA’s proposed carbon pollution standards can achieve greater emissions reductions at a lower cost
• DOE announces first recipients of DAC hubs in an important step toward accelerating CO2 reductions

Letters, Comments, and Testimonies

• Joint Letter to President von der Leyen on the Importance of Highlighting the Methane Regulation in the State of the Union Address
• Joint Letter: Organisations call on UK leaders to ban venting and flaring of methane in the oil and gas sector by 2025 

VIDEOS

• One year later: How the Inflation Reduction Act is making an impact
• The Inflation Reduction Act One Year Later – Deployment of Critical Clean Energy Technologies: A conversation with Princeton University’s Jesse Jenkins and Rhodium Group’s John Larsen
• Accelerating the development and deployment of zero-carbon fuels

Comms Corner

CATF in the News

• Bruce Hill was quoted in a New York Times geothermal feature on the potential of superhot rock energy as a zero-carbon energy source available anytime, anywhere.
• CATF’s joint comments to EPA on the proposed 111 power plants rule were noted in an S&P Global article on carbon capture and storage and hydrogen co-firing feasibility.
• The Methane Pollution Prevention team traveled to Australia to document methane emissions from coal and gas sites, and were featured in multiple news outlets including The Guardian Australia, Yahoo News Australia, ABC News, Renew Economy, Bendigo Advertiser, Carbon Pulse, National Tribune, and Daily Motion.  
• Lily Odarno spoke with African Arguments ahead of Africa Climate Week on the need for realism and commitment to tangible results. 
• John Thompson provided important perspective in a story from The Advocate on direct air capture in Louisiana.
• Angela Seligman was quoted in a Minnesota Star Tribune story on carbon storage potential in the Midwest, and specifically on U.S. forest land.
• Canary Media included CATF’s NDC gap analysis report as well as perspective from Conrad Schneider on how communities can take advantage of funding from the Inflation Reduction Act in a one-year anniversary story on the law.
• GreenBiz featured CATF’s Transportation Deep Decarbonization Initiative Synthesis report in an article on zero-emission maritime shipping.
• John Thompson spoke with Bloomberg about the need to build the accompanying infrastructure for carbon capture to help decarbonize hard-to-abate sectors like steel and cement.
• Energy Intelligence quoted John Thompson on how direct air capture hubs in the U.S. will create a roadmap for commercialization of this critical climate technology.

View all press coverage →

Staff Pet Photo of the Month

Meet Kiki, an 8-year-old orange cat who belongs to Mary Louks, Director of Events and Engagement. Kiki was a surprise Grandma present to Mary’s daughter as a rescue from the family farm. She came to her family as a kitten in a snowstorm (Khione is the Greek goddess of snow). She likes to sunbathe, chirps “bless you” when you sneeze or cough, scarfs and barfs nearly every meal, and poses majestically at the window while judging the outdoor cats (see second picture of Gordon, her frequent suitor).

If you have a pet you’d be willing to share, please submit a pet photo for the newsletter! You can do so by filling out this Teams Form.

That’s all for this month. If you made it this far — thanks for reading!