Thanks for recently honoring the life of Ed Maschke as one of Santa Barbara’s past pivotal community leaders. While the piece discusses his role in shaping local politics and growth, his impact was far greater than just politics, and just Santa Barbara.
During the late ’70s and ’80s, the country was in an energy crisis and looking for sustainable answers. Ed was then executive director of SUNRAE, a local nonprofit grassroots environmental group that focused on educating the public and the government about solar energy. His efforts, along with Alan Mirviss and many others, helped write and pass many bills in Sacramento to promote the use of solar energy — none more important than AB 1778, the nation’s first solar tax credit.
A couple of years later, President Jimmy Carter used this model to create the first federal solar tax credit. Both still help consumers today convert to clean renewable energy here in Santa Barbara, and throughout the U.S. Next year marks the 50th anniversary of that bill, and a look around makes me proud knowing the solar’s place in Santa Barbara, California, and the country is probably in part due to Ed’s efforts to promote sustainable energy.
I was fortunate to work at SUNRAE with Ed, demonstrating solar’s capabilities and potential, building a myriad of solar systems for UC Santa Barbara, apartments in Isla Vista, the county, and throughout the state. During this time, SUNRAE also ran the Isla Vista Recycling Center, collecting recyclables from UCSB and I.V. that turned returned bottles, cans, and newspapers into donations to support the “solar movement.”
So yes, Ed’s “gleefully pugilistic,” manner certainly helped keep our community politicians in check for several decades, but his impact on solar energy is still present, and I know he is smiling at the progress we have made.
Peter Alpert was the SUNRAE Solar Workshop Coordinator from 1979-1984.
