with Panama Bartholomy.
Founder and Executive Director of the Building Decarbonization Coalition, Panama Bartholomy, pops by to talk with Jeff about the shift to an all-electric future. Panama outlines why building electrification is inevitable, and argues that how we get there matters as much as whether we do. Drawing on his experience across government, utilities, and nonprofits, Panama emphasizes that the current property-by-property approach to decarbonizing buildings is too slow, too expensive, and inequitable to meet climate targets.
Instead, he advocates for a managed, neighborhood-scale transition, led by utilities and enabled by regulators, that systematically electrifies entire communities while winding down the gas system in a deliberate, cost-controlled way. The conversation reframes electrification not as an environmental sacrifice, but as a superior, more efficient, and ultimately cheaper energy system that benefits customers, businesses, and utilities alike.
A central theme of the episode is what Panama calls “militant incrementalism”: building broad coalitions around the 80% of solutions most stakeholders already agree on, creating market momentum and political durability, and then using that momentum to tackle harder issues like gas system retirement, equity, and labor transitions.
Despite political uncertainty, he remains optimistic, pointing to how rapidly markets, contractors, and consumers have embraced electrification. For Panama, the speed of this shift—and the clear benefits it delivers—offers real hope that the building sector can meet both climate and affordability goals if the transition is managed thoughtfully.
During the discussion, Panama makes some references and claims regarding energy markets, Including the US as the global leader in heat pump adoption.
Details and source info:
In 2024, the U.S. reported 4.1M heat pump shipments to distributors according to AHRI data (assumed to equal installations). Europe installed 2.3M in 2024, and 3M in both 2023 and 2022, according to the EHPA. China deployed 2.2M heat pumps in 2024, per IndexBox.
The Reframe podcast is hosted by Jeff Nichols and presented by Pilotlight. If you have questions or feedback for the Reframe team, please email us: reframe@pilotlight.ai
