Privacy Policy

Who this policy covers

This policy applies to ascendantenergyadvisors.com, to email we send from that domain, and to information we receive in the course of an audit engagement. In this policy, "we" and "us" mean Ascendant Energy Advisors; "you" means anyone who submits information to us or receives email from us.

Information we collect

Information you submit through our forms

Our site has three intake forms — broker referral, business account submission, and cultivation operator assessment. Depending on which one you use, they collect some combination of:

• Your name, job title, and company or firm name
• Your business email address
• State of operation, utility provider, and approximate monthly utility spend
• For cultivation operators, facility type and canopy square footage
• Any notes you choose to add

These forms are for business contact and account information. Please do not submit personal financial details, government identification numbers, or health information through them — we do not need any of it.

Utility account records

Once an engagement begins, we receive utility statements, account numbers, meter numbers, service addresses, tariff and rate class designations, consumption and demand history, and related billing correspondence. We may also be authorized in writing, through a Letter of Authorization, to request these records directly from your utility on your behalf.

This is the most sensitive category of information we hold, and it is the reason this policy exists.

Email correspondence

We retain business correspondence with clients, prospective clients, brokers, and utility representatives as a normal record of our work.

Server logs

Our hosting provider records standard web server logs — IP address, browser type, pages requested, and timestamps. We use these only for security and troubleshooting.

How we use it

• To respond to your inquiry and determine whether an audit is worth pursuing
• To perform the audit — reviewing statements, testing tariff and rate class assignment, verifying meter data, and identifying billing errors
• To prepare findings, refund demands, and correspondence with your utility or a regulatory commission on your behalf
• To send you business email about our audit services, subject to the opt-out described below
• To keep records of completed engagements and meet our own legal and tax obligations

Who we share it with

We do not sell personal information, and we do not rent, trade, or otherwise disclose it for anyone else's marketing purposes.

We share information only in these situations:

• With your utility or regulator, on your authorization. Recovering an overcharge requires presenting account records to the utility, and sometimes to a state public utility commission. This happens under a signed Letter of Authorization that you control and can revoke.
• With service providers who operate our systems. Our website, email, and campaign delivery run on Hostinger infrastructure, including Hostinger Reach, which delivers email through MailChannels. These providers process data on our behalf and are not permitted to use it for their own purposes.
• With a referring broker or partner, where you came to us through one and only to the extent needed to administer that referral.
• Where the law requires it — a subpoena, court order, or comparable legal process.

Email from us, and how to stop it

We send business-to-business email about utility audit services to commercial operators, brokers, and facility owners. Every commercial message we send includes a working unsubscribe link and our physical mailing address, as required by the CAN-SPAM Act.

If you unsubscribe, we stop sending commercial email to that address promptly and in all cases within ten business days. We may still contact you about an active engagement you have with us — an audit in progress, a refund claim, or a contractual matter.

You can also opt out at any time by writing to the address at the bottom of this page.

How long we keep it

Inquiries that do not become engagements are retained for up to two years, then deleted.

Engagement records — audit files, utility statements, findings, and correspondence — are retained for seven years after the engagement closes. Utility refund claims and regulatory disputes can be reopened or audited long after the fact, and the underlying records are what substantiate a claim. If you want your records deleted sooner, write to us and we will tell you what we can remove and what we are obligated to keep.

How we protect it

Our site is served over HTTPS. Access to audit files is limited to personnel working on the engagement. We keep utility account data on access-controlled systems and do not store it on public or shared drives.

No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, and we do not claim otherwise. If a breach affects your information, we will notify you as required by applicable law.

Your rights

Whoever and wherever you are, you may ask us to:

• Tell you what information we hold about you
• Correct anything that is wrong
• Delete information we are not required to retain
• Stop sending you commercial email

Write to the address below and we will respond within 45 days. We will not treat you differently for exercising any of these rights.

California residents

If you are a California resident, the California Consumer Privacy Act, as amended, may give you the right to know what personal information we have collected, to request its deletion or correction, and to opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information.

To be direct about the last one: we do not sell or share personal information, as those terms are defined under California law, and we do not use it for cross-context behavioral advertising. There is nothing for you to opt out of on that front. The other rights are available to you through the contact information below, at no cost.

Other sites

Our site and our email may link to utility websites, regulatory commission filings, and other third-party pages. We do not control those sites and this policy does not cover them.

Children

Our services are for commercial businesses. This site is not directed to anyone under 18, and we do not knowingly collect information from minors.

Changes to this policy

If we change this policy, we will post the revised version here and update the effective date at the top. Material changes to how we handle information already collected will be communicated to affected clients directly.