And say what you will about the climate-industrial complex, Honnold's approach is actually refreshing. Rather than lobbying for another government subsidy or demanding taxpayers foot the bill, the world's most famous rock climber has been putting his own money and reputation on the line to fund clean energy projects. That's the kind of skin-in-the-game entrepreneurialism we can respect.

Honnold's foundation and personal investments have focused on practical energy solutions — solar installations in developing communities, efficiency projects that actually pencil out — rather than the kind of pie-in-the-sky boondoggles that San Francisco politicians love to greenlight with other people's money. The man who famously trusts his own two hands more than any safety net seems to apply the same philosophy to energy markets: do the work, prove the concept, then scale it.

San Francisco, to its credit, appears to be helping Honnold take his fundraising efforts to the next level. If that means the city is connecting him with private capital and opening doors rather than writing checks from the general fund, great. If it means another round of taxpayer-backed "public-private partnerships" where the public takes the risk and the private takes the profit — well, we've seen that movie before.

But here's the bottom line: clean energy doesn't need to be a partisan issue. When someone funds innovation with voluntary dollars, proves a business model works, and scales it through the market, that's capitalism doing what capitalism does best. The fact that the guy doing it also happens to hang off 3,000-foot granite walls without a rope just makes the story better.

Naturally, Honnold also squeezed in a climb while he was in town. Because of course he did.