Rewiring America is a left-of-center group that advocates a massive government mobilization of society, on par with World War II, to dramatically remake the American economy and end the use of oil and natural gas, replacing them with environmentalist energy sources. Rewiring America is a project of the Windward Fund, a nonprofit managed by the left-of-center consulting firm Arabella Advisors, which controls a $731 million “dark money” network. ^[1]

Founding and History

Rewiring America was founded in 2020 by Saul Griffith and Alex Laskey. The organization works to promote the ideas laid out in the book Griffith coauthored, which was also named Rewiring America. Griffith argues that the key to reducing carbon emissions is to essentially abolish all forms of energy other than renewable powered electricity. Griffith urges the government to undertake a society-wide mobilization that will triple American energy production by approaching the situation with an attitude of total war, similar to U.S. industrial mobilization during World War II. ^[2]

Finances

Rewiring America is a project of the Windward Fund, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit headquartered in Washington, D.C. As a project, it does not file Form 990 filings with the IRS and its funds are controlled by the Windward Fund. In October 2020, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund reported a $300,000 grant to the Windward Fund for Rewiring America. ^[3]

Priority Issues

Rewiring America promotes the a massive new federal government program that would reach into every aspect of American life in order to reduce carbon emissions. The organization envisions massive government spending to incentivize communities to replace older appliances and equipment with new more energy efficient ones, and government financing and rebates to subsidize electric updates for lower earning households. It also advocates the formation of a national standard for electrification projects. ^[4]

Saul Griffith is explicit that his vision can only be achieved via government mandate and direct involvement and control of industry. He has referred to government mandates during the Great Depression and the mobilization of production during World War II as the ideal model. ^[5]

Griffith has noted elsewhere that he is an engineer, not an economist, but implies that because of the “climate emergency,” engineers, rather than economists, should be consulted when formulating policies, such as government involvement in “climate loans”. ^[6]

Leadership

Adam Zurofsky is the executive director of Rewiring America. He previously worked as the director of state policy and agency management for New York State. He was also previously the deputy secretary for energy and finance in New York State. He teaches climate policy at Columbia University. ^[7]

Saul Griffith is the co-founder and chief scientist at Rewiring America. He is also the founder and chief scientist of Otherlab, a research and development firm that has done work with many government agencies, including NASA and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. ^[8]

He is the primary thinker behind the organization’s work and promotes the idea of electrifying everything. He frequently cites the total war model of World War II as his vision of U.S. climate policy. In the fall of 2020, he wrote that “some corner of the Twitterverse” had nominated him to be the energy secretary in the Joe Biden administration. However, Griffith declined, saying that he is not a naturalized U.S. citizen and that he would prefer a “bigger role” than that of a cabinet official. He went on to describe a role that does not currently exist, but that he calls “climate liaison” that would be responsible for directing the U.S. economy towards his preferred vision of development. As inspiration he cites the role of Henry Knudsen at the Office of Production Management and the National Defense Advisory Commission during World War II. ^[9]

Alex Laskey was the founder and president of Opower, a software company that worked with the utility industry. The company was later purchased by Oracle. He is also a board member of Advanced Energy Economy, a left-of-center environmentalist group. He has also worked with a number of environmentalist groups including The Nature Conservancy, the Trust for Public Land, and the League of Conservation Voters. ^[10]