From City Hall to Clean Energy: Mike O’Brien’s Journey From Climate Legislator to Clean Energy Installer

Jul 01, 2023

by Alex Garland

It wasn’t an extremely hot day, but Mike O’Brien was sweating as he climbed up a ladder at a home in Georgetown, carrying hoses for heat pump installation. Trading bow ties and button-ups for faded flannel and Blundstones.

O’Brien is still the affable, friendly, and chatty guy from City Hall. At 55, and four years retired from politics, O’Brien’s youthful enthusiasm carries him through a job requiring more manual labor than his role on the Seattle City Council. “Yeah, it’s hard work. It’s exhausting, but good exhausting.”

Does he miss the City Council? “Mostly not.” Not much has popped up that makes O’Brien think he should have been there fixing things. “No, they’re still doing good work. You know, I don’t obviously agree with everyone on the council, but there’s still a lot of really good people.”

O’Brien found that while enjoying his position on the council, and being “all in,” he missed out on life. “I forgot about a lot of other things in life that I wasn’t doing. I knew there’s other stuff going on in the world, and I was missing out but I was fine with it. It’s been really nice to just rediscover that stuff. Suddenly it’s like, you know, we’re going on a three-week rafting trip in Alaska.”

While on the council, O’Brien missed out on vacations but also missed helping friends with projects because “people assumed I was too busy. Now I have a little more free time in my life.”

After 10 years of pushing for progressive climate legislation, O’Brien left Seattle politics in 2019 and spent some time volunteering with the Sierra Club, where he’s still co-chair of the Western Washington chapter, before starting his current venture.

Taking the issue of replacing fossil-fuel-powered heating and inefficient cooling with heat pumps into his own hands, O’Brien teamed up with a former legislative aide for his City Council office, Josh Fogt, and created EcoSpark Heating & Cooling.

Their new HVAC company focuses on removing fossil-fuel-based heating systems or inefficient air-conditioners in favor of the more efficient and environmentally friendly heat pump system.

While on the council, O’Brien helped pass the Green New Deal legislation, which states, “This bold leap towards a climate pollution-free city aims to create jobs and advance an equitable transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy by prioritizing investments in communities historically most harmed by economic, racial, and environmental injustices.”

While O’Brien had attempted legislation limiting natural gas appliances and heating, it never made it to a vote. However, in 2021, Seattle voted to ban natural gas in new buildings and while the state also has legislation in place regarding natual gas as a primary source of energy in new construction, the ban is facing a lawsuit.

Regardless of the legislation in place, O’Brien knows people are ready to make the switch, with some experiencing wait times of up to six months for heat pump installation.

O’Brien wants to shorten wait times and lower the price, and his idea about how to change that is to encourage more people to get involved in the heat pump business. “We need more people doing this, and why aren’t more people doing this? Part of it is just, you know, we have an education system that kind of shuns the trades … there’s good money to be made doing this work. Could like two guys who are halfway intelligent just kind of start a company and figure it out and do it? And yeah, we’ve had dozens of hiccups along the way, sure, but want to kind of prove the concept that this could work and tell other people, you should start an HVAC business.”

While he’s not part of the council, he still pays attention. “Hopefully the City will pass its building energy standards or building emissions performance standards legislation sometime in summer. That legislation will require all existing buildings to transition out of fossil fuels. And then the third piece we’re missing is how to get residential buildings off gas. And so that’ll be the next piece of legislation.”

There are several choices of HVAC companies, but not all of them are run by a former City Council person, and as a quote on their Facebook page says, they aren’t like the other guys: “We started EcoSpark with one goal: replace every gas and oil furnace in our region with an energy efficient, fossil free heat pump. We’re not like other HVAC companies, because we only do heat pumps. Ducted, ductless, or a combination of the two.”

According to Mike O’Brien, a heat pump is about three times as efficient as heating air by burning or compressing gas.

“A really efficient gas furnace would be like 98% efficient, meaning 98% of the energy is actually going to heat. In contrast, heat pumps are 300% efficient, which might raise the question of how you can be more than 100% efficient, but it’s because it’s not actually making heat. It’s removing heat from one place to the other, resulting in significant energy savings.”

O’Brien emphasizes that heat pumps are not only highly efficient, but also offer additional advantages. “They’re lovely, quiet, and provide comfort in Seattle. And they’re electric, and as Seattle’s electric grid is carbon neutral, this is moving us away from fossil fuels.”

According to an International Energy Agency (IEA) report, “Heat pumps, powered by low-emissions electricity, are the central technology in the global transition to secure and sustainable heating.”

“The Future of Heat Pumps,” a special report in the IEA’s World Energy Outlook series, provides an outlook for heat pumps, identifying key opportunities to accelerate their deployment. It also highlights major barriers and policy solutions, and explores the implications of an accelerated uptake of heat pumps for energy security, consumers’ energy bills, employment and efforts to tackle climate change.

Around 10% of space heating needs globally were met by heat pumps in 2021, but the pace of installation is growing rapidly, with sales at record levels. Government policy support is needed, though, to help consumers overcome heat pumps’ higher up-front costs relative to alternatives. Financial incentives for heat pumps are already available in over 30 countries, which together cover more than 70% of heating demand today.

The IEA estimates heat pumps globally have the potential to reduce global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by at least 500 million tonnes by 2030 — equal to the annual CO2 emissions of all cars in Europe today.

O’Brien’s hands-on approach shows that despite stumbling blocks in legislation, enterprising individuals can see positive impacts through financial incentives based in business. In O’Brien’s view, small businesses whose ethics are based in environmentalism have a chance in creating lasting positive environmental change. But as usual, that change is longer lasting, more significant, and more sustainable when paired with effective climate legislation.

This article is funded in part by an Environmental Justice Fund (EJ Fund) grant through the City of Seattle’s Office of Sustainability & Environment (OSE).

Alex Garland is a photojournalist and reporter. With a degree in emergency administration and disaster planning from the University of North Texas, Alex spent his early professional career as a GIS analyst for FEMA. Follow him on Twitter.

📸 Featured Image: Since’s left politics, Mike O’Brien’s taken a hands-on approach to climate change by running his own business installing climate-friendly HVAC systems. (Photo: Alex Garland)