Breaking a cycle

When Greg Miller leaves his home in the Avenues, he often turns heads. This has less to do with Miller—though he cuts a distinctive frame: tall, lean and youthful at 70—than his modes of transportation.

To get around Chico, he likes to hop into his Blue Velo velomobile, a human-powered vehicle that looks like a cross between a cigar and a soap box derby racer. For longer trips, he’ll slide into the driver’s seat of the 2014 Tesla sedan he bought from the electric-car company in 2016.

Miller and his wife, Lea McCleary, have a half-dozen bicycles they use regularly. He also has the velomobile, tri bikes, trikes and various bikes he’s collected, repairing or restoring. (Miller also makes cycle frames, which he trades for parts.) Then there’s the Tesla—garaged next to a 1930 Chrysler from Miller’s late father. He keeps the classic car primarily for sentimental reasons, taking it out only on rare occasions.

The couple are committed to lessening their dependence on fossil fuels. Not only have Miller and McCleary chosen pedal- and electric-powered transit, they’ve also made a series of upgrades to their 65-year-old house. From photovoltaic panels to solar water heating to efficiency measures, the steps they’ve taken have made them, in Miller’s estimation, 90 percent fossil-fuel free.

“We love our environmental life,” Miller said, at ease in their living room. “Your electricity is provided by the sun. Your hot water is provided by the sun. Your transportation cost is provided by the sun. Yes, it’s a little harder to get [into] initially, but once you do that, it’s really amazing—and the costs each year come down.

“I think it’s a no-brainer. I don’t understand why everybody doesn’t do it.”

Doing so has not caused compromises in lifestyle or finances for Miller, a retired engineer, and McCleary, a nurse practitioner with Planned Parenthood. Quite the opposite: McCleary, who just turned 64, finds convenience in cycling and savings in solar.

“It’s just a sensible way of life,” she said by phone during a quick break at work. “We grew legs for a reason … and the body is meant to move around. It just doesn’t make sense to dig things out of the ground to burn them, pollute everything, when you can get it clean and free from the sun.”

Miller and McCleary started renovations in 2004, the year after they wed and consolidated their households into the home she owned in Chico. First came solar panels on the roof. Two years later, they added the water heating system and a more efficient swamp cooler. Insulating exterior walls entailed sealing openings at the bottom—a feature of “balloon framing” construction. They also insulated the garage.

Finally, they built a detached garage, installing rooftop panels Miller picked up from the Bay Area. Electricity generated in that setup powers the Tesla.

The couple still use “a little bit” of natural gas. Other than that, energy-wise, they’re pretty much self-sufficient.

“Our electric bill last year was $14,” Miller said. “For the year.”

His concern about fossil fuels predates his relationship with McCleary, whom Miller met while living and cycling in Oroville. A Vietnam War veteran, he used his GI Bill benefits to study engineering at Humboldt State, with a focus on energy resources. He worked in the energy and environmental realm for the Navy and in the private sector until 1991, when he joined the environmental flight at Beale Air Force Base. He retired as head of the compliance branch in 2010.

“Originally when I went to school, we were going to change the world,” Miller said. “We were going to build electric cars, build solar panels, get us off fossil fuels.

“As time went on, the environment got worse, more polluted, we were dumping more and more carbon [into the atmosphere], and finally I realized: They’re not going to do it; they’re making too much money on it … they can’t let it go. That’s when I thought, ‘We’re going to have to do it. You’ve got to do it on your own.’

“That’s when I started.”

Miller found a willing partner in McCleary. Born in England, she grew up walking, biking and riding public transit. Hers was “a bit of an unusual family” for having a car; her father, a physician, used it strictly for work. She became unusual for the opposite reason—cycling for daily transportation—when she moved to the U.S. in her late 20s. McCleary says she still feels like a rarity in that regard after nearly 33 years in Chico.

Her desire to transform the house stems from summer days. Sitting inside, thinking of heat hitting the roof, McCleary pondered the means to “convert” that energy. Miller’s plan for solar systems resonated. Once they’d saved enough money, they invested in improvements.

People periodically ask about the Tesla. More often, the Blue Velo gets attention.

“I was having coffee with a friend who didn’t know Greg,” McCleary relayed, “and the friend looked and said, ‘Sorry, I’m not focusing on you; I’m staring at that guy there.’ I looked around, and that guy was my husband, coming in [via the velomobile]. It just looks so strange.”