After his 2008 summer fellowship with the Breakthrough Institute, Chris moved to Washington, D.C. where he interned with the New America Foundation and took a research assistant position with the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy. With ACEEE economist Skip Laitner, Chris co-authored multiple papers on the application of information technologies in energy efficiency policy. He also wrote a paper on U.S. solar photovoltaic policy that was published in 2010 as a chapter in a Paradigm Publishers book edited by UC Davis Sociologist Fred Block. He presented the findings of this paper at a conference in Lyon, France hosted by the UCSB Center for Nanotechnology in Society. He returned to California to earn his teaching credential and just finished his first year teaching math at an urban charter high school.