Haydenville, Massachusetts, United States
In 2018 Bloomberg said Fenn “may be the utility industry’s enemy number one.” In 2021, the American Solar Energy Society gave Fenn its award “for leadership and significant contribution to the widespread adoption of solar and renewable energy technologies." In 2017, the Peruvian intellectual, journalist, writer and poet César Lévano said Fenn's theoretical writings "are in the tradition of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon and Manuel Gonzales Prada." Fenn is known for creating landmark “Community Choice Aggregation” (CCA) energy laws and business models, co-authoring a Municipal Aggregation law in Massachusetts in 1995. In 2025 these laws covered half the U.S. energy market and provide electricity to 40 million Americans by 2000 cities. In 2023, CCAs represented 60% of all Americans choosing renewable energy supply. Fenn also created the world’s original “Green Bond” to augment CCA impact in 2001 – now a trillion-dollar industry transforming energy finance worldwide. Fenn co-founded Marin Clean Energy, Sonoma Clean Power CleanPowerSF and other "CCA 2.0 programs" that build new local renewables. By 2024 2.0 programs there had issued $20B in Green Bonds in California- the nation's largest issuers - larger than China. Since 2014, Fenn has developed a "CCA 3.0" model to facilitate community wide energy transitions by engaging users to own onsite power, heat, transportation, and waste systems, launching a pilot in New York State in 2025. Politically, Fenn led the campaign to defeat utility giant Pacific Gas and Electric Corporation's 2010 initiative to stop CCA, Proposition 16. The San Francisco Bay Guardian called this win “possibly the greatest progressive victory in San Francisco history." In 2001, Fenn led the campaign for voter approval of his landmark Green Bond authority, San Francisco Proposition H. In 1998 Fenn drafted Jerry Brown's Oakland mayoral platform. Fenn staffed Ralph Nader's original run for President in 1992. Fenn's new book, The Localist Manifesto, follows Enlightenment in an Age of Destruction (Palgrave, 2018) and Spectacle of Enlightenment (2016), co-authored with philosophers Eduardo Subirats and Christopher Britt Arredondo; This is Not a Theory (2011). He was editor of Why Are We Losing Our Freedom? (1997); Deep Style (1995), and America in Decline (1992), and authored “Positive Dialectics” (1991), “The Christian is Gaunt in the Light” (1989), and The Whip and The Teacup (1988). Born in Oakland, Fenn received a PhD fellowship and AM in History from the University of Chicago and a Dean's PhD Fellowship in Philosophy from the New School.
• CCA Implementation City of Ithaca, New York, 2021-4 • CCA Operations and Performance Audit, Orange County, California, 2022 • Sustainable Energy Utility strategy, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 2021 • CCA 3.0 Consultant, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2020-1 • CCA 3.0 Project, Urban Sustainability Directors Network & 12 cities, 2019 • Consultant to microgrid-, DER companies/investors, 2017-21 • Member, NY State Clean Energy Advisory Council CCA Working Subgroup, 2017 • CCA 2.0 Advisor, NY State Energy Research and Development Authority, 2016 • Special Advisor, California Clean Power, 2016 • Consultant, LA County CCA, CA, 2015-16 • Author, NY State CCA bill (S08887, 2014) & advisor on rules (PSC Case 14-M-0224), 2014-16 • Engineering Services, San Francisco CleanPowerSF In-City Buildout: cost & financial models, policy & regulatory, permitting, risk analysis, budget estimate, contract analysis, phase-in schedule, 2011-13 • City of Boulder Localization Portfolio Standard – Natural Gas & Electricity, CO, 2011 • Renewable Energy Secure Communities, CA Energy Commission PIER program, Sonoma/San Luis Obispo Counties: DER/storage design, data collection, analysis, GIS, 2010-13 • CCA Lessons Learned & Best Practices, City of San Francisco, 2010 • Technical Services, CCA Program Report – Options for In-City DERs, San Francisco, 2009 • Consortium leader, first turnkey CCA 2.0 bid (Marin Clean Energy), CA, 2009 • Energy Element, Sonoma County Community Climate Action Plan, CA, 2007 • San Francisco CCA Program Design, Draft Implementation Plan & H Bond Action Plan (ord. 447-07), 2007 • Green Energy Options in San Diego County, 2006 • Community Solar Shares program design, Sacramento Municipal Utility District, 2005 • Intervenor, California PUC CCA ruling (R.03-10-003), 2004-5 • Author, landmark CCA 2.0 law (CA AB117), 2002 • Author, landmark Green Bond (San Francisco Charter 9.107.8), 2001 • Advisor, CCA laws in OH, 1999 & NJ, 2003 • Co-founder, Marin Clean Energy, CA first CCA, 1998
Bloomberg Businessweek (2) - The New York Times - Mother Jones - The Wall Street Journal (2) - Forbes - Fox News (national) - Los Angeles Times - The Nation - Fast Company (2) - San Francisco Chronicle (5) - EnergyWire - CleanTechnica - Truthout - San Francisco Examiner (4) - California Energy Markets (2) - Utility Dive - San Francisco Daily Journal (2) - Clean Power Exchange - The Portrero View - The Desert Sun (3) - Clean Energy Finance Forum - CleanTechnica - Pt. Reyes Light (2) - Renewable Energy World (3) - East Bay Express - TriplePundit - Grist - Saugerties Times - Santa Rosa Press Democrat - North Bay Business Journal - San Francisco Bay Guardian (8) - Renewable Energy Focus - Huffington Post (2) - ABC News 10 San Diego - San Francisco Weekly (2) - San Francisco Examiner (2) - Eureka Times-Standard - Sacramento Business Journal - Marin Independent Journal (12) - San Francisco Business Times - KQED San Francisco - East Bay Express, The Arcata Eye, The Pacific Sun (2) - The Daily Northwestern (Chicago) - North County Times (San Diego) - Earth Techling - Renew Grid (San Francisco) - The Bohemian (2) - The Anderson Valley Advertiser (Mendocino) - Good Magazine (2) - National Renewable Energy Laboratory Blog - The Boulder Daily Camera - North Bay Business Journal - San Francisco Bay Citizen - Clean Tech / EnvirTrade - Terrain - Berkeley Daily Planet - Sierra Club Yodeler (2) - Easy Bay Business Times - Solar Access - Progressive Newswire - Power Marketers - San Luis Obispo New Times - Contra Costa Times - Contra Costa Sun - Electric Power Alert - Bates Magazine Links: http://localpower.com/News.html
Cambridge University Press, MIT Press, Palgrave Macmillan, UCLA, University of New Hampshire, Energy Research and Social Science, Global Environmental Change: 1. David J. Hess, (Vanderbilt University, US), "Coalitions, framing, and the politics of energy transitions: Local democracy and community choice in California" Energy Research and Social Science (50), 2019 (38-50). 2. Ida Dokk Smith, Energy Transition and Social Movements: The Rise of a Community Choice Movement in California, in Kurochkin D., Shabliy E., Shittu E. (eds) Renewable Energy. Palgrave Macmillan, 2019. 3. Carvalho and Lazzerini (European Union Energy Commission, Vienna), “Anchoring and Mobility of Local Energy Concepts: the Case of Community Choice Aggregation,“ Innovating Climate Governance: Moving Beyond Experiments, Cambridge University Press, 2018. 4. Gabrielle R. Lichtenstein and Indiana Reid-Shaw, “Community Choice Aggregation in Massachusetts,” University of New Hampshire Sustainability Institute, 2017. 5. Chantal Ruppert-Winkel, Waqas Hussain, Jürgen Hauber (University of Freiburg, Germany), “Understanding the regional process of energy transition in Marin County, California,” Energy Research & Social Science Volume 14, April 2016, Pages 33–45. 6. Julien Gattaciecca, J.R. DeShazo, and Kelly Trumbull, “The Promises and Challenges of Community Choice Aggregation in California,” University of California, Los Angeles, Luskin School of Public Affairs, 2016. 7. David Hess, Industrial fields and countervailing power: The transformation of distributed solar energy in the United States, Global Environmental Change, 2013 8. David Hess, Localist Movements in a Global Economy: Sustainability, Justice, and Urban Development in the United States, MIT Press, 2009. 9. Dina Mackin, Using public/private partnerships to develop renewable energy : an economic development analysis for the Cleantech Cluster in San Francisco, MIT Press, 2009
- University of Staffordshire Business School: Empowering Local Communities for Net Zero (Keynote), Stoke-on-Trent, United Kingdom, 2024 - University of Massachusetts Amherst Energy Transition Institute, National Science Foundation NSF 2026: Priorities and Research Needs for an Equitable Energy Transition, Workshop Participant, 2022-3 - Birmingham City University, Business School - Visiting Lecturer, "Countervailing Power," United Kingdom, January 2020 - University of Massachusetts Amherst, Department of Economics and School of Public Policy, "Community Choice Aggregation in Massachusetts," Research Collaborative, 2019 - Caro y Cuervo Institute, Bogota, Visiting Lecture, "Enlightening Power," Colombia, 2017 - Univ. of Bucaramanga Department of Philosophy, Visiting Lecture, "Enlightening Power," Colombia, 2017 - La Casa de la Literatura Peruana, "Enlightening Power," Lima, Peru, 2017 - Ohio University, College of Arts and Sciences Forum and Lectures, "The Community Choice Movement," Athens, Ohio, 2017 - University of Sofia Department of Philosophy, Bulgaria, 2016 - University of Montana, Visiting Lecture, Missoula, Montana, 2014 - Project Director, California Polytechnic University (led 3-year research project managing undergraduate and graduate engineering students conducting countywide renewable energy resource survey), funded by the California Energy Commission in a partnership between Local Power Inc. and San Luis Obispo County, 2011-13 - California College of Art, Lecture on Public Art, Oakland, California, 2007 - Lecture on Energy and Water integration, College of Marin, California, 2006 - San Francisco Stat University, Adjunct Professor, Energy Engineering 220, 2005-6 - University of California, Berkeley Energy & Resources Group, Visiting Lecture on Green Bonds, California, 2003 - Sonoma State University, lecture on climate policy, Sonoma County, California, 2002 - Pomona College/Harvey Mudd College, lecture on energy crisis, Pomona, California, 2001
Drafted the "Platform in Progress" for Jerry Brown's campaign to become Mayor of Oakland, and produced Brown's political mail campaign, including the organizing, editing, printing and distribution of two editions of a campaign newspaper, "Oaklanders First," each issue mailed to 120,000 voters. Also contributed to the drafting, campaign strategy and political mail for the Measure X ballot initiative to create a "strong mayor" system in Oakland, a charter amendment approved by voters in 1999.
Advisor in drafting and mail campaign for mayor-elect Jerry Brown's ballot campaign for a charter amendment in the City of Oakland to create a "strong mayor" system of government, subsequently approved by voters. Authored first article calling for the charter amendment, as well a short history of Oakland explaining why it was needed - both published and mailed to 100k households.
Helped design a $150M national 3G network in Slovenia (Northern Yugoslavia). Conducted a national permitting and site acquisition survey of several hundred identified sites for towers and building-mounted antennas; trained and managed database mapping engineers to map sites sites (ArcInfo/ARCGIS), interviewed local planning officials in 55 cities; negotiated frame agreements for site leasing with half a dozen large multi-site real estate and infrastructure owners; produced a multi-candidate network siting design to minimize local health and aesthetic impacts.
Created database mapping system (MapInfo) to track and manage a nationwide build-out of a national 2G network by 750 Motorola/Deutsche Telekom subcontractors across the Czech Republic.