New J.O.B.

Well, not exactly a new employer since I still technically work for DOE, but I started a six month detail with the White House Council on Environmental Quality yesterday.  I'll be working with Van Jones primarily on energy efficiency and what he calls 'green jobs'.  Van Jones is an amazing speaker and pretty visionary person so I should hopefully learn a lot from him.  Plus I'm pretty excited for a glimpse at a whole different area of the government.   And, since I'm used to talking about renewables, I'm also looking forward to learning more about energy efficiency, which usually provides huge immediate payoffs both for return on investment and climate change goals.  It feels a little strange to be pulled completely away from what I've been doing for the past nine months, but I'm sure I'll get used to it eventually.  I'll really miss working with all the people from the geothermal industry outside of DOE, that was one of my favorite parts of my job.  It's amazing to think about how much I've learned in such a short time there, and this makes me look forward to how much more I'll have learned from being somewhere totally new for that period of time.  

I moved offices over to the old townhouses at Jackson Place, and share an office with three nice people.   I just started sharing an office back at DOE last week too, but I'm finding that I really enjoy it.  I feel like I'm in grad school again: I can sit and read something and then immediately have someone to discuss it with.  Then this person can tell you if you've got it right or you're way off and have no idea what you're talking about, which will help since I don't know anything yet! 

So, that's where I'll be for the next 4, 6, or 12 months... who knows.  Apparently this means I can give tours of the West Wing so maybe this will encourage more people to come down and visit me?? ;)