Brennan Breen, campaign coordinator for Energize Bend, was named this year’s Young Hero, according to an April 15 announcement. At age 26, Breen has become a prominent advocate for local climate action and electrification efforts in Bend.
The recognition highlights the importance of grassroots efforts to address climate change at the community level. Breen’s work focuses on reducing reliance on natural gas and promoting policies that support electrified homes.
Breen brings experience from both environmental compliance in a missile factory and work in the renewable natural gas industry. “I’ve yet to encounter somebody else in the advocacy space who’s worked in the natural gas industry,” Breen said. “I can sit across the table from a natural gas lobbyist and, most likely, I’ve been on more natural gas sites than they have.” He said these experiences led him to focus on local solutions with Energize Bend: “There are problems locally, but we can fix them. At Energize Bend, we have capacity and platform to get people engaged locally. We can make governments work for us. We need to push them in the direction we want to see.”
In recent months, Breen has supported a proposed fee on natural gas appliances used in new home construction—an initiative discussed by city councilors with rates around $2,000 per home under consideration for adoption this June. Although he and other advocates preferred higher fees aligned with federal estimates of carbon costs, he sees any progress as positive toward discouraging fossil fuel use.
Breen explained that funds collected from such fees could be used for weatherizing rental homes or installing electric heating pumps—measures intended both to cut emissions and reduce energy costs for residents: “We can meet both climate-change and housing affordability goals at the same time,” he said. “The longer that we wait, the more it’s going to cost us. If we really care about affordability, let’s put our money where our mouth is and start investing in clean things that are more affordable.”
