Rhonda @RhondaBuild

Congress just passed the largest federal housing bill in decades, and it barely made a ripple in the news cycle. The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act touches three things we care about at Rhonda: building codes, zoning, and environmental review. A few highlights: Section 102 pushes HUD to issue guidance on six-story "point access block" buildings, the single-staircase style that's common in Europe but capped at three stories in most of the US since the 1940s. More efficient floor plans, bigger units, and easier to build on smaller lots. Section 107 gives HUD three years to develop model zoning frameworks covering everything from parking minimums to by-right duplex and triplex construction to reforming how neighbors can protest projects. Section 206 reclassifies housing activities into three tiers of reduced NEPA review, which matters a lot when a full Environmental Impact Statement can take close to five years and cost millions. None of this fixes the housing crisis overnight. Most of these are guidelines that states and cities still have to adopt, not mandates. But it's a real shift in how the federal government is approaching the regulatory side of housing supply, and worth understanding if you're building anything that touches these rules. We broke down all three sections in detail on our blog: rhonda.build/blog/road-to-h…

Full list: David Roberts (Volts) - volts.wtf Jigar Shah (Energy Empire & Open Circuit) - wri.org/profile/jigar-… Saul Griffith (Rewiring America) - rewiringamerica.org Sammy Roth (Climate-Colored Goggles) - climatecoloredgoggles.com Jason Grumet, CEO, American Clean Power Association - cleanpower.org Emily Kirsch (Powerhouse, Watt It Takes) - linkedin.com/in/kirschemily Engineering with Rosie - youtube.com/c/engineeringw… Tim Montague & John Weaver (Clean Power Hour) - cleanpowerhour.com Michael Barnard (CleanTechnica) - cleantechnica.com Rob Gramlich (Grid Strategies) - gridstrategiesllc.com

We put together a list of 10 people/platforms worth following on clean energy development in the US, rated by how technical their content is. These writers, YouTubers, and podcasters explain what's going on before it shows up anywhere else, do great research, and share diverse perspectives on the industry. There's a good mix of technical deep-divers and high-level summarizers, so you can find who's helpful to you, whether you're brand new to this, still getting your footing, or already an expert. A few of our favorites: → David Roberts' Volts podcast is the one I never skip. He recently did a whole episode just pulling together clips from that month's interviews (an Arizona utility election, a tax fight in Spokane, smart meters in Minnesota), because they kept landing on the same point: the thing stopping energy projects from getting built is usually legal, not an engineering problem. → Rob Gramlich is the person most people quote when they talk about the interconnection queue crisis. If you want to understand why projects sit in line for years, start there. → Sammy Roth left the LA Times to go independent and is still one of the best energy reporters out there. Full list of all 10 (with links to follow each one) is down below. Who am I missing? Tag who you read or listen to in the comments. #CleanEnergy #EnergyPolicy #Solar #EVCharging #BESS

Solar and EV charging permits in Colorado go through two reviewers. Battery storage adds a third. Cross 20 kWh of lithium-ion capacity, which almost every commercial BESS project does on day one, and a fire marshal is now part of your permitting timeline. Not just a roof access check like solar gets, but a full evaluation of thermal runaway, off-gas venting, and whether a fire crew can safely approach a burning enclosure. We pulled the 10 corrections that show up most on Colorado BESS plan checks. A few that catch developers off guard: → Unit-level UL 9540 listing isn't enough once you cross the threshold. Fire marshals need large-scale propagation test data showing the system won't spread thermal runaway between units, and that data package is often what actually holds up the permit, not the building or electrical drawings → The fire code requires two separate permits, a construction permit and a separate annual operational one. Teams that treat it like a single filing miss the second one → Almost every commercial project blows past the utility's simplified interconnection threshold and lands in a full engineering study instead Find all ten, with the actual code citations, in the carousel. Full breakdown with every jurisdiction, code reference, and fire authority here: rhonda.build/blog/bess-perm… Save this one or send it to a developer you know. #BESS #BatteryStorage #Permitting #CleanEnergy #Colorado

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Texas doesn't have a statewide building code. For EV charging developers, that's the first thing to understand, not something to contend with after building your plan set. We pulled the 10 corrections that show up most on Texas EV charging permit applications, and the pattern is different from every other state in this series. It's not one inconsistent code... it's three separate permitting layers that don't talk to each other: TDLR electrical licensing, your local jurisdiction's building permit, and a separate TDLR registration required before a public charger can go live. A few that catch people off guard: → ERCOT runs the grid, but they're not who you call for a service upgrade. That's the Transmission and Distribution Utility, Oncor, CenterPoint, AEP Texas, or TNMP, depending on where you're building → Houston has no traditional zoning at all, so the building permit becomes the primary land-use instrument, not a separate approval step → A 2% grade error on an accessible parking space can fail inspection outright - ADA enforcement is real and specific here Find the ten most common corrections for EV infra project submissions in Texas, with the actual code citations, in the carousel. Full breakdown with every jurisdiction, code reference, and utility territory here: rhonda.build/blog/ev-chargi… Save this one or send it to a develop Texas won't feel like one state once you're permitting in it. #EVCharging #EVInfrastructure #Permitting #CleanEnergy #Texas

12 out of 13 EV charging developers didn't see this one coming, and ate 7 weeks of delay because of it. Avoiding mistakes like these means knowing all the hoops you have to jump through early in the permitting process. Ideally, before even committing to a site. #EVcharging #EVinfrastructure #greenenergydeveloper #cleanenergydeveloper #cleanenergy

Here's what we got WRONG about building Rhonda... #solarenergy #renewableenergy #evchargingstation #batterystorage #solarpower

Developers who want to build fast walk into the permit office ready to run the conversation, be the educator, and ask the right questions. #solarenergy #renewableenergy #evchargingstation #batterystorage #solarpower

How many agencies does it take to approve 1 solar project? #SolarEnergy #BESS #EVCharging #CleanEnergy #Permitting #RenewableEnergy

The reason housing is unaffordable isn't because of landlords -- it’s because of NIMBY's. These are the people who restrict new supply. They protest new developments. Impose zoning restrictions. Enact density caps. Require large minimum lot sizes for SFR's. Restrict multifamily. Most landlords are YIMBY's. We advocate for MORE supply, not less. We want multifamily construction, density, faster permitting, less red tape. It's not landlord vs tenant, it's YIMBY vs NIMBY.