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In Touch with Tennessee
In Touch with Tennessee
Tennessee Renewable Energy and Economic Development Council
Learn more about the history and mission of the Tennessee Renewable Energy and Economic Development Council (TREEDC). The guests are Warren Nevad, a management consultant and TREEDC co-founder, and Dwain Land, president of the council and former mayor of Dunlap, Tenn.
Audio file
Transcript
00:00:03 Susan Robertson
Hi and welcome to In Touch with Tennessee.
00:00:06 Susan Robertson
A podcast of the University of Tennessee Institute for Public Service.
00:00:11 Susan Robertson
The Tennessee Renewable Energy and Economic Development Council is a statewide network of 101 city and county mayors and businesses working together to create a path to fast track renewables in Tennessee.
00:00:26 Susan Robertson
Today's guests are Warren Nevad a municipal management consultant with the Municipal Technical Advisory Service, or MTAS, who co-founded the council in 2008 and serves as its director, and Dwain Land, President of the Council and Mayor of Dunlap, Tennessee. Thanks. Thank you both for joining us today.
00:00:48 Warren Nevad
Thank you for having us, Susan.
00:00:51 Dwain Land
Thank you, Sue.
00:00:53 Susan Robertson
Tell us a little about the history of the council, what led to the formation?
00:01:00 Warren Nevad
Well, Susan, if you recall, back in 2005, we had that terrible Hurricane Katrina came into the United States and as a result, energy prices, mainly gasoline and electricity shot up. And so after the the prices became extremely high, many states.
00:01:20 Warren Nevad
Like Tennessee partnered with their state universities to
00:01:25 Warren Nevad
Start up programs for biofuels, solar; and the federal government had the energy efficiency block grants for clean energy projects, so that was kind of a perfect storm for us to get started in promoting renewable energy.
00:01:45 Warren Nevad
Tennessee particularly had a $60 million solar project where UT and the state provided funding and developed a 5 MW project in West Tennessee is also an exhibit center.
00:01:57 Warren Nevad
Then we had the $40 million biofuels project, where the state was looking at developing feedstocks such as switch grass and garbage to make
00:02:09 Warren Nevad
Cellulosic next generation ethanol and then as I mentioned, we had the energy efficiency community development block grants that the government started.
00:02:20 Warren Nevad
So as a result, and I had the good fortune
00:02:24 Warren Nevad
Of working next to former UT president Doctor Joe Johnson at the Conference Center, and he knew one of my mayors, so we would go on some ride alongs and he kind of encouraged me to get something started because he saw it as an excellent opportunity for the university to promote economic development
00:02:44 Warren Nevad
For the communities because he realized and he made me realize that without the support of the rural communities, that it would be difficult to develop the feedstocks and to bring buy-in to the program.
00:02:57 Warren Nevad
So we started with four mayors.
00:03:02 Warren Nevad
They're in my consulting territory and they're about 60-70 miles apart, one of the cities had a port they were looking at reopening, a couple other cities had ample land to develop the switch grass, and then the other city, Crossville, was promoting sustainability fairs and getting the word out
00:03:21 Warren Nevad
For clean energy.
00:03:23 Warren Nevad
Today we've evolved into 108 city and county mayors. We've since the beginnings we tried to connect the dots and had forums across the state, and today our first chairman was Dr. Joe Johnson and today our chairman is Dr. Keith Carver with UT Institute of Agriculture.
00:03:44 Warren Nevad
So that's kind of how we got started. We were a grassroots 501C3 organization that worked together and networked to bring in clean energy to Tennessee.
00:03:57 Susan Robertson
OK, so I know the mission of the council is to promote and connect renewable energy with economic development and energy efficiency for all Tennessee communities.
00:04:07 Susan Robertson
Explain how the network partners work together to fulfill that mission.
00:04:14 Warren Nevad
We kind of have our boots on the ground, we like to rub elbows together.
00:04:18 Warren Nevad
We're not an organization that just sends emails out to stir folks up, but we're not like that.
00:04:24 Warren Nevad
We're apolitical.
00:04:27 Warren Nevad
We're technology neutral.
00:04:30 Warren Nevad
There was a good story published about TREEDC several years ago about how we've taken the politics out of renewable energy.
00:04:38 Warren Nevad
You can Google TREEDC and Governing magazine and you can pull up the article.
00:04:44 Warren Nevad
So like I said we work together, we communicate together.
00:04:50 Warren Nevad
You look at what's best for the city or county, what type of technology, and then we will vet out some of the business members.
00:04:59 Warren Nevad
We're very selective on what business members can be part of TREEDC because our reputation is the most important thing we have in consulting.
00:05:08 Warren Nevad
So that's how we kind of get things going just by word of mouth and networking and keeping folks up to date on what's going on in renewable energy.
00:05:18 Susan Robertson
OK, so there have been, that I'm aware of, a number of success stories in the council's history. Can you talk about a few of them?
00:05:30 Warren Nevad
I I guess you know we were incorporated in O8 (2008), so a couple of years later we partnered with TVA on the Green Power Switch program and this was a program where we had forums at the large cities across the state like Knoxville, Memphis and Nashville.
00:05:46 Warren Nevad
And our objective was to have folks subscribe to buying renewable energy.
00:05:51 Warren Nevad
Blocks from TBA.
00:05:53 Warren Nevad
These were folks that
00:05:55 Warren Nevad
Maybe couldn't put a solar roof on their home because of zoning or other resources, so they were given the opportunity to subscribe to renewable energy blocks.
00:06:07 Warren Nevad
So we were very proud of that program we subscribed, I think a couple of 100 folks and then other.
00:06:16 Warren Nevad
And it's, you know, I talked about working with these large cities, but we've also worked with these small rural cities over the years like the little city of Sunbright in Morgan County of 400 folks. We helped them install a solar array at City Hall under the energy Efficiency Block Grant.
00:06:36 Warren Nevad
And then city of Graysville, a town of probably 900 folks, we have sustainability fairs for its.
00:06:43 Warren Nevad
Operators and then most recently in 2022, we started a Community resiliency program with Woodland Mills, which has about 500 folks in West Tennessee and this was a program where we converted their Civic Center into a emergency shelter using a Bronco power
00:07:04 Warren Nevad
Generator, which operates off a battery so it doesn't emit emissions, make noise, and it's safe to use.
00:07:12 Warren Nevad
And then also with Woodland Mills, we're working on preparing a climate action plan and and so we think this could be a model whenever we work on a project, we're always thinking how can we replicate this project across the state? The the last part of the accomplishments is the international exchange program, which was started in 2012.
00:07:34 Warren Nevad
And and this was a project where we looked at five countries, looked at their energy profile, how much they spend and what are the shortcomings and and so forth.
00:07:45 Warren Nevad
And we selected the film.
00:07:47 Warren Nevad
So in 2013, we had a sister exchange program where we partnered our City and County members in Tennessee with cities
00:07:58 Warren Nevad
And provinces in the Philippines and we partnered some of our universities that are in our network like Tennessee Tech with Pasig City University and so forth.
00:08:08 Warren Nevad
So this led to providing scholarship to needy students in the Philippines.
00:08:15 Warren Nevad
The Council was able to develop a solar project.
00:08:18 Warren Nevad
In Port Puerto Princesa which is a resort town in
00:08:23 Warren Nevad
Philippines that’s very popular and we're and President Land is a great speaker and he has spoken to thousands of students across the country.
00:08:34 Warren Nevad
So we're really proud of that.
00:08:35 Warren Nevad
It's again, it's a project where we could replicate elsewhere and we could also help the Philippines.
00:08:42 Warren Nevad
Set up a similar TREEDC network and then lastly we've been working
00:08:49 Warren Nevad
with the state to help them with flood mitigation to look at coming up with a plan maybe at state revolving fund and a resiliency office there.
00:08:59 Warren Nevad
So that's about in a nutshell, our accomplishments in the last 15 years.
00:09:04 Susan Robertson
Wow. Wow, that's pretty impressive.
00:09:07 Susan Robertson
Mayor Land, how
00:09:08 Susan Robertson
Did you get involved with the council?
00:09:12 Dwain Land
Well, I became mayor in May of 2009 and you know how the economy was back then, with that recession, but Warren stopped by. He made one of his calling visits I call it and introduced himself.
00:09:31 Dwain Land
And he started talking about TREEDC and what all they were doing. And I said OK, I knew that this, you know, let lme get my feet wet and come back and see me and whatever and
00:09:45 Dwain Land
In a few months, he's
00:09:46 Dwain Land
Calling me saying he wants me to go to Washington, DC with three or four other mayors and
00:09:53 Dwain Land
Talk to the.
00:09:55 Dwain Land
Congressional men up there, you know, and ladies and and I said, well, OK.
00:10:01 Dwain Land
And I guess they found out.
00:10:03 Dwain Land
I knew Senator Corker
00:10:05 Dwain Land
Pretty well.
00:10:06 Dwain Land
And Senator Lamar Alexander and a
00:10:10 Dwain Land
Couple of the.
00:10:10 Dwain Land
Congressman, you know, Chuck Fleischmann and
00:10:13 Dwain Land
(Scott) DesJarlais
00:10:14 Dwain Land
And anyway, and I said OK, I'll go
00:10:22 Dwain Land
You know and then
00:10:23 Dwain Land
But it got our foot in the door
00:10:24 Dwain Land
And I appreciate those guys uh letting us in, you know, and we got to talk to them and tell them.
00:10:30 Dwain Land
What we were
00:10:31 Dwain Land
Doing and got their interest in.
00:10:33 Dwain Land
I guess it just at that moment it seemed to me, well, this must be pretty important.
00:10:39 Dwain Land
So I dug deeper and became a member.
00:10:43 Dwain Land
And then in 2015, I believe they wanted me to be the President. I don't know why, but anyway, I accepted it and
00:10:52 Dwain Land
Gladly did, and I appreciate the offer.
00:10:55 Dwain Land
You know, and it's a great bunch of guys that I'm on the board with and they just they do all the work, it seems like, but I appreciate them and
00:11:07 Dwain Land
President Joe Johnson just gosh, such a great guy and he believed in it so much and still does to this day.
00:11:17 Dwain Land
He's still a member and
00:11:20 Dwain Land
President Keith Carver at the time at UT Martin and now he's there at UTIA, you know, got a promotion to that and.
00:11:28 Dwain Land
It's just, I don't know.
00:11:30 Dwain Land
It's just a great thing for the whole world and.
00:11:35 Dwain Land
It's common sense.
00:11:37 Dwain Land
I don't know.
00:11:37 Dwain Land
I anytime you can save money on energy.
00:11:40 Dwain Land
I think and
00:11:42 Dwain Land
It’s clean, it makes it even better.
00:11:47 Susan Robertson
So how has being a member of the Council benefited the city of?
00:11:51 Susan Robertson
Dunlap?
00:11:52 Dwain Land
Well, I've, I've been retired since 2021, but what we did again. Hey, go back to the economy. But you know how it was.
00:12:04 Dwain Land
And we needed four new roofs, one on City Hall, one on the City Annex Building, one on the Police Department and one on the fire department.
00:12:13 Dwain Land
It's just like, you know, I guess they were all put on at the same time and they wore out, they were leaking and I couldn't stand that so.
00:12:21 Dwain Land
Uh, I was looking at ways to save money and be able to do it without
00:12:27 Dwain Land
a tax increase.
00:12:30 Dwain Land
So with the help from
00:12:34 Dwain Land
MTAS and everybody else that just.
00:12:38 Dwain Land
It happened and what we did, we incorporated
00:12:42 Dwain Land
The solar project that we put into Dunlap, we put solar at City Hall, at the annex at the Police Department, at the Water department at the sewer department,
00:12:53 Dwain Land
At the maintenance facility at is, we solarized it all and changed out LED lighting.
00:13:00 Dwain Land
We put in water meters
00:13:05 Dwain Land
They're radio read, so and they're a lot more accurate than the old manual meters.
00:13:11 Susan Robertson
Oh wow.
00:13:11 Dwain Land
And by doing that, we incorporated the roofs into that project.
00:13:18 Dwain Land
And that way we didn't have to raise taxes or anything, and the project was going to pay for itself in like 12 years, things like without the roofs.
00:13:28 Dwain Land
But we incorporated the roofs and it ran it up to like 17 years.
00:13:33 Dwain Land
But we put 30 year roofs and the solar was guaranteed for 20 years.
00:13:37 Dwain Land
So it seemed like the right thing to do, and we did it and glad we did.
00:13:43 Dwain Land
And it's it was just a great thing.
00:13:49 Susan Robertson
Both of you could answer this question.
00:13:53 Susan Robertson
What would you say to other organizations about becoming a member of TREEDC?
00:14:01 Dwain Land
Warren, do you want me to go first or you want to? I mean, OK, well, #1 the leadership.
00:14:10 Dwain Land
That we have, it starts from up top again.
00:14:12 Dwain Land
Like I said, we've got Keith Carver, he's our chairman and then the board members are just unbelievable and.
00:14:20 Dwain Land
The head of.
00:14:20 Dwain Land
MTAS Margaret Norris
00:14:22 Dwain Land
She keeps us updated regularly on projects and renewable energy and
00:14:30 Dwain Land
All that and Warren there, he knows everybody
00:14:32 Dwain Land
In the whole state.
00:14:34 Dwain Land
Does he knows?
00:14:35 Dwain Land
Everybody trust me and then we can't go anywhere that they don't know Warren.
00:14:40 Dwain Land
What happens is it just it.
00:14:43 Dwain Land
It gives us an edge.
00:14:45 Dwain Land
I like to call it being able to.
00:14:48 Dwain Land
To join people together, like if you owned the company and let's say that you've done roofs, OK and you're a member, then we can attest to the job that you did because of what you did for the city of Dunlap.
00:15:01 Dwain Land
And even though it's TREEDC involved and we see that.
00:15:08 Dwain Land
So we can help weed out the possibility of not so good companies.
00:15:13 Dwain Land
You know what I'm saying?
00:15:16 Dwain Land
Just it's like we can put companies with cities because again, Warren knows every mayor across the state and and we can put those people together and then they can... It cuts out a few steps for them and it really works out.
00:15:31 Susan Robertson
All right.
00:15:34 Susan Robertson
Right.
00:15:35 Warren Nevad
Right.
00:15:35 Warren Nevad
And to add that you know more and more people are sending more and more emails, you know, hey, e-mail, I'm interested in this, that and
00:15:45 Warren Nevad
People don't respond and it all goes back to developing relationships.
00:15:50 Warren Nevad
Dr. Johnson always told me that there's really five steps involved when you're working with a nonprofit, and that's to invite somebody to an event.
00:16:00 Warren Nevad
Involve them.
00:16:01 Warren Nevad
Maybe have them speak or something like that
00:16:03 Warren Nevad
Inform them of your mission.
00:16:06 Warren Nevad
Then cultivate the relationship and then then you ask for assistance.
00:16:10 Warren Nevad
It's very methodical and in our business, as you well know, Susan, we work with local governments.
00:16:15 Susan Robertson
Right.
00:16:18 Warren Nevad
And names and faces are always changing, so we're trying to get the word out there and to advance renewable energy.
00:16:27 Susan Robertson
Right.
00:16:28 Susan Robertson
So again, this question is for both of you.
00:16:31 Susan Robertson
Where do you see the Council, 5 or 10 years down the road?
00:16:37 Dwain Land
Well, I'll go first again, Warren, if that's OK.
00:16:39 Warren Nevad
Yes, of course.
00:16:40 Dwain Land
As Warren knows, I'm no spring chicken now, Warren.
00:16:44 Dwain Land
He's still a spring chicken.
00:16:46 Dwain Land
You know he's working and I'm retired, except for helping with TREEDC and doing a few little projects.
00:16:53 Dwain Land
On my own but
00:16:54 Dwain Land
You know, we have younger members and board members, and we just hope and know that they will continue to grow greatly see because these younger people, they, they got a lot of knowledge and a lot of newness in their brains that they can bring to the table.
00:17:12 Dwain Land
So we just we'll stay on like.
00:17:15 Dwain Land
Dr. Joe, the prime example I.
00:17:17 Dwain Land
I mean, God, he's gotta be 90.
00:17:20 Dwain Land
Three or four now, Warren.
00:17:23 Dwain Land
I think.
00:17:24 Warren Nevad
He turns 90 in July.
00:17:26 Dwain Land
OK, OK, I knew it was around that 90 more.
00:17:29 Dwain Land
Anyway, I'm getting mixed up with my mother.
00:17:31 Dwain Land
But I tell you, you know, he's still active.
00:17:35 Dwain Land
He still supports us, he financially helps us.
00:17:40 Dwain Land
I mean, so Warren and I will be there.
00:17:44 Dwain Land
It's just I don't know how the boots on the ground.
00:17:46 Dwain Land
You'll be able to do and teach or whatever.
00:17:49 Dwain Land
I'll speak for me.
00:17:50 Dwain Land
But Warren, he's young.
00:17:53 Dwain Land
He gets
00:17:54 Dwain Land
things done.
00:17:54 Dwain Land
He can handle it and he can.
00:17:57 Dwain Land
Him. Uh leading these younger.
00:18:00 Dwain Land
Uh, it's gonna be alright and
00:18:01 Dwain Land
I'll be there for counsel if they need me.
00:18:05 Dwain Land
Where you're at.
00:18:05 Warren Nevad
Then basically looking at specific issues regarding 5 to 10 years from now, you know we see the
00:18:15 Warren Nevad
progression of the electric vehicle industry, with Ford developing a facility in West Tennessee and TREEDC has a West Tennessee coordinator.
00:18:24 Warren Nevad
Mayor Julian McTizic out of Bolivar.
00:18:27 Warren Nevad
He helped us out.
00:18:28 Warren Nevad
West Tennessee and then the current administration, our government, they've provided quite a bit of funds for clean energy and so there's opportunity there to kind of in a way go back to the future when in 2008 we had those energy efficiency, community development block grants with these type of.
00:18:48 Warren Nevad
Funding programs are coming back full circle.
00:18:51 Susan Robertson
Hmm, well, that's great. So.
00:18:53 Susan Robertson
How would someone find out more about TREEDC?
00:18:58 Dwain Land
Well, my phone number is 423-718-3435 and anyone's welcome to call me.
00:19:06 Dwain Land
Text me and my e-mail is mayorland@gmail.com and Warren you.
00:19:14 Dwain Land
Go ahead with that.
00:19:16 Warren Nevad
Yeah, my number is 865-809-2512
00:19:21 Warren Nevad
we have a website.
00:19:26 Warren Nevad
TREEDC.us
00:19:30 Warren Nevad
Where we have all our newsletters from the past 11-12 years, our annual report, information and membership information there.
00:19:43
OK, great.
00:19:45 Dwain Land
I'd like to say one other thing, if I may, is I'd like to encourage all the businesses to join and all the other mayors and county executives and county mayors of the state.
00:19:57 Dwain Land
And actually we have several out of state, so if they hear this, we encourage them to learn more about TREEDC
00:20:05 Dwain Land
Stay in the know
00:20:07 Warren Nevad
Yeah, and we also appreciate the steadfast support of the University of Tennessee Institute for Public Service and MTAS with the city.
00:20:16 Warren Nevad
CTAS with the counties we worked with, the Center for Industrial Services with manufacturers.
00:20:23 Warren Nevad
So this is really a win-win program for cities,
00:20:27 Warren Nevad
Counties and the university cause it's a good thing.
00:20:32 Warren Nevad
Cleaner energy while saving money.
00:20:35 Susan Robertson
Right, right. Very timely.
00:20:39 Susan Robertson
Well, thanks for joining us.
00:20:41 Susan Robertson
Today, both of you.
00:20:43 Warren Nevad
Thank you, Susan.
00:20:45 Dwain Land
Thank you, Susan, for having us.
00:20:47 Susan Robertson
And thank you listeners.
00:20:48 Susan Robertson
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