I’m writing to express my support for Chris Greacen for the Lopez School Board. Many fine and true things have been written by supporters of his in this race, and I cannot improve on them and will try not to repeat them. I will say that it seems that Lopez School has been a springboard for him that launched him onto a successful academic career at UC Berkeley and a very interesting and successful career working on clean energy and rural electrification. I had the fun of working with some of the Berkeley students Chris brought here when they were working on a community solar study in the County a few years ago.

I have also had the pleasure of working with Chris on the Islands Energy Coalition working on various ways to deploy renewable energy throughout the County, OPALCO rate structure and permitting of renewable energy projects. All of these projects are difficult and take a long time to come to fruition and I have always observed Chris as tenacious, patient and easy to work with. He absorbs information, explains things well and listens closely to others. Both he and Chom have been an on-going inspiration for me in my own work. I think it’s great that he’s willing to put himself forward for this challenging and difficult position. I also think it’s pretty cool that he’s coming back to work as a Board member for the school that got him started. That can’t help but be a good model for the students. I’m sure he will do a good job, and I commend him to you as very worthy of your vote and support

Rick Strachan

Lopez Island