Just when we dared to hope we were out of the woods and onto recovery, variants, wildfires, and storms have reminded us that we’ll be facing ongoing “outbreaks” and the “long haul effects” – of both the pandemic and the climate crisis – for years to come. This paper is the first of a 3-part series exploring timely examples of how local governments can achieve energy and climate goals by forming or supporting collaborations across agencies, sectors, and jurisdictional boundaries. The three parts do so by evaluating three types of local energy and climate initiatives, all of which typically demand cross- agency and cross- sector collaboration.