Tom Soto, Founder, Latimer Partners, LLC
By: Tom Soto, Founder, Latimer Partners, LLC
As California faces significant setbacks under a second Trump administration, which is expected to continue rolling back climate protections, the state’s green initiatives become even more crucial. With federal regulations under threat, companies like SAS Earth Energy Services provide an effective solution by turning wildfire fuel into clean energy, creating green jobs, and supporting local communities. This recently formed venture is founded and lead by long time impact investor Tom Soto. These efforts ensure that California’s commitment to renewable energy and decarbonization continues, regardless of federal policies.
SAS is a decarbonization platform that uses advanced technologies like pyrolytic gasification to convert high-hazard forest and agricultural waste into clean energy, carbon-consuming biochar, and carbon credits. This not only provides a sustainable power source but also addresses the growing wildfire risk by removing the fuel that contributes to catastrophic fires. By focusing on renewable, net carbon-negative power, SAS is advancing the energy transition, reducing reliance on fossil fuels, and ensuring communities have access to reliable, affordable renewable energy.
In addition to its environmental benefits, SAS’s localized approach creates green jobs and stimulates economic growth in underserved regions, such as California’s Central Valley and Sierra Nevada communities. Through its holistic model, SAS is helping to reduce wildfire risks, provide clean power, and promote a sustainable energy future, all while strengthening California’s energy resilience and furthering its green mission.
Beyond its environmental impact, SAS’s localized approach creates a more resilient energy system by reducing dependence on long-distance transmission lines, which have been tied to recent wildfires. This focus on sustainability also extends to the local community where SAS is creating green jobs that offer economic opportunities and hands-on experience with renewable technologies.
Alongside creating green jobs, SAS benefits from the Inflation Reduction Act, which provides federal tax credits that further support the project’s growth. This financial backing, paired with additional revenue streams from biochar production and potential hydrogen manufacturing, strengthens the project’s long-term sustainability. Meanwhile, the carbon credits also enhance investment appeal to stakeholders. SAS plans to add seven new facilities in California, most of which are located in Opportunity Zones that promise special tax incentives to investors in exchange for attracting resources to underdeveloped regions. However, there is concern that if policies shift back to those implemented during Trump’s presidency, such as tax cuts for corporations and deregulation, these green incentives could be weakened, potentially undoing some of the progress made under the Inflation Reduction Act and challenging the project’s future growth.
As a California based Latino-owned venture, SAS prides itself on setting a standard for inclusive growth in the renewable energy industry. Through creating accessible pathways to green jobs and focusing on the community impact of their solutions, SAS demonstrates that climate action can be effective and equitable. This holistic approach offers a model for how the energy transition can be inclusive, ensuring that underserved communities are not only part of the solution but can thrive from it.
The SAS model is more than just about shifting energy sources– it represents a model for creating sustainable growth. As climate challenges intensify, so does the need for community-focused solutions. Now more than ever, supporting initiatives like SAS will help us take meaningful action towards a fully renewable energy future.
About Tom Soto: Soto is a seasoned impact investor and the Founder of Latimer Partners, LLC. Having owned and managed three private equity and impact funds, Tom has been a pioneer in the climate tech investment sector and is a leading national voice on investing in an era of climate change. SAS is his current effort to provide fully renewable, net carbon negative generation 24 hours a day. He is a two time Presidential appointee of President Bill Clinton and was Team Lead for the Executive Office of the Presidents White House Transition for the The White House Council on Environmental Quality for President Elect Barack Obama.
