Improving community resilience, increasing energy independence, increasing investment in local power, and reducing fossil fuel emissions in Hood River County. Helping Hood River County maximize economic benefits and improve community resilience by reducing emissions from the burning of fossil fuels.

Helping Hood River County maximize economic benefits and improve community resilience by reducing emissions from the burning of fossil fuels.

About the Hood River County Energy Council

The Hood River County Energy Council is an 11-member community-led advisory group that supports implementation of the Hood River County Energy Plan in collaboration with the governing bodies that have adopted the plan.

The Hood River Energy Plan was adopted in 2018 by the following governing bodies:

Council members work with partners throughout the County to advance the Energy Plan through subcommittee work, fundraising, and strategic planning.

Council Members & Bios

​Alexia Kelly

Council Member

Alexia Kelly has worked at the intersection of policy and finance for more than 15 years to accelerate the transition to the clean energy economy with government, non-profits, philanthropy and corporations.

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Matt King

Energy Council Co-Chair and Council Member

Matt King loves all things related to community energy, with extensive experience at the nexus of forestry, renewable energy, agriculture, and manufacturing. In his current role as the Director of Sales and Innovation at Heartwood Biomass, Matt’s work is focused on facilitating forest restoration, stewardship, and wildfire mitigation by converting woody biomass into a myriad of value-added products.

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Anna Dalbey

Student Representative Representative

Anna is a 15-year-old sophomore at Hood River Valley High School. This is her first position working in energy, and she is very excited to learn more about it. She enjoys being outside, hanging out with friends, and reading. She looks forward to being able to put student input and youth perspective into the energy decisions for the community. 

Alan Hickenbottom

Council Member

Alan is a 20-year veteran of the renewable energy industry and the Principal/Owner of Latitude45 Associates, a Hood River-based consulting firm providing business development, policy, grant writing and project management services in the cleantech and renewable energy space.

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Andrea Johnson

Council Member

Andrea Johnson is the Executive Director at Green Empowerment where she uses her diverse background to bring renewable energy and clean water infrastructure to rural communities across the globe. Andrea completed climate research during her undergraduate studies at Duke University and was a research fellow at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center before joining the Peace Corps.

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Councilor Pam Thweatt

Port of Cascade Locks Representative

Pam Thweatt brings a career’s worth of high-level administrative experience from various industries, including law, technology, healthcare, and environmental/engineering consulting. She has served global leaders with experience in C-suite operations and currently supports a large project for Maul Foster Alongi (MFA). 

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Port Representative Greg Hagbery

Port of Hood River Representative

Greg Hagbery, Land Development, Airport Manager and Property Manager for the Port, wears many hats in his role for the Port of Hood River.

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Councilor Tim Counihan

City of Hood River Representative

Tim is honored to be able to serve the Hood River community as a City Council Member working hard to improve the quality of life for all Hood River residents while promoting inclusive social and sound environmental policies.

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Eric Strid

Energy Council Co-Chair and Council Member

Eric Strid is a cofounder and retired CEO of Cascade Microtech, a global semiconductor equipment company in Beaverton, Oregon (now FormFactor, Inc.). He is named inventor on 67 US patents. Eric is now working only for our children on various climate mitigation research and volunteering efforts

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Jessie von Flotow

Council Member

Jessie is drawn to working with the Hood River Energy Council out of passion for sustainable energy and infrastructure innovation and an interest in local, community scale action. Her background in mechanical engineering is paired with strong critical thinking skills and an interest in applying technology toward mission-driven work.​

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Scott Reed

Council Member

Scott is a local builder licensed in Washington and Oregon whose work focuses on custom woodworking and finish carpentry. He has personal and professional interests in high-efficiency residential design, details and construction.

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Lindsay McClure

Council staff / MCEDD Energy and Project Manager

Lindsay joined MCEDD as Energy & Project Manager in the spring of 2022. She works with the Hood River County Energy Council to advance the goals of the Hood River County Energy Plan. 

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History

Hood River County has a long-standing history of energy efficiency and renewable energy development as a means to reduce energy costs, hedge our bets against future increases in energy costs, and increase our community’s resilience to changing temperatures and natural disasters, both natural and human caused.

The Hood County Energy Plan was developed in 2015-2016 by a group of volunteers and elected officials in Hood River County who saw an opportunity to be more strategic about helping the county meet its future energy needs.

The creators of the Energy Plan believed the community could invest in an energy future that would provide good local jobs, generate clean power, save taxpayers money, and set us up to be a refuge in times of emergency.

The plan was made possible through funding from Hood River County, City of Hood River, Port of Hood River, City of Cascade Locks, Port of Cascade Locks, Energy Trust of Oregon, The Ford Family Foundation, and the RARE Americorps Program.

Examples of early clean energy projects in Hood River County:

  • Hood River Middle School‘s Music and Science building is the first public school building in the United States to be net-zero-energy certified.
  • The Hood River County Parks and Recreation District solar water system at the pool was the largest grant-funded project of its kind in state history at the time of its construction.
  • The Tofurky food manufacturing plant located at the Port of Hood River is one of the few LEED Platinum-certified food manufacturing facilities in the world.
  • The Farmers and Middle Fork Irrigation districts’ community-owned and operated hydroelectric facilities generate approximately 17% of Hood River County’s electricity and bring $3 to $4 million dollars to the county each year.
  • At the Diamond Fruit Company Co-Op, energy-efficiency upgrades save the company more than $50,000 annually, improve its equipment performance, and make the company more competitive globally. Such projects allow Hood River Electric Co-Op to defer distribution system improvements by slowing load growth while continuing to serve growing customer needs.
  • The City of Hood River Public Works building’s rooftop solar project is one of the first community-financed renewable energy projects in Oregon, saving the City an estimated $97,000 over 25 years.