Renata Okoye wants YOU (to electrify your block)

In an interview with COLDFRONT, the former state senator talks about walking away from campaign work, and into the unglamorous business of heat pumps.

Okoye spent eleven years reading polling crosstabs. These days she reads utility bills — a change she describes, without much affection, as "the least romantic decision I have ever made on purpose."

Her group, Blockwise, does one thing: it walks a single street at a time and replaces whatever burns gas inside it. No pledges, no summits. Last winter the crews finished 214 homes, and the neighborhood's January load dropped by 31.4 percent against the previous year.

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.