Sunrise from the West

David Hochschild was appointed by Governor Jerry Brown to the California Energy Commission in February 2013 and fills the environmental position on the Commission. In 2001, as Special Assistant to San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, he launched a citywide $100 million initiative to put solar panels on public buildings. He went on to co-found the Vote Solar Initiative, an organization advocating for local, state, and federal solar policies. In the private sector, he served as executive director of a national consortium of leading solar manufacturers and worked for five years at Solaria, a solar company in Silicon Valley. In 2007-2008, he served as a commissioner at the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission.