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Home > Ongoing Areas of Activity > Energy Issues Energy IssuesVolunteer opportunity: ** HELP LAUNCH ENERGY COMPETITION** We are looking for volunteers to help us launch a competition to save energy. Needing folks interested in rounding up sponsors and prizes or to help outreach to community groups and schools. To volunteer or inquire, contact Aaron at izzinsf(at)gmail.com. More info about the SF Climate Challenge, a project of the Sierra Club SF Bay Chapter, the SF Department of the Environment, One Atmosphere and the good folks of Publicis Dialogue, at www.sfclimatechallenge.org
May 2007 News Great news for Community Choice energy in San Francisco!San Francisco leaders joined Sierra Club, Greenpeace, Local Power, Our City, and dozens of local organizations and Democratic Party groups to announce the introduction of the long-awaited plan to build the largest alternative-energy network in the world. Known as Community Choice Aggregation, this program will make San Francisco a world leader in the effort to address global warming, bringing the city's energy supply to 51% renewable by 2017. While we have lots of work left to make sure the plan passes the Board of Supervisors, the city has now taken a critical step in the right direction. Many thanks to all you volunteers and activists who have worked so hard to get us to this point. WhatYouCanDo Call your supervisor at (415)554-5184. Urge them to give high priority to implementation of Community Choice energy. Be sure to visit the revamped and expanded Community Choice energy web site. To get involved in our efforts for Community Choice energy, contact Brad Johnson or (415)200-8975
Community Choice Aggregation - the renewable energy revolution. San Francisco is considering an energy plan that would quickly ramp up the use of clean energy technologies and be a national model for other communities to follow. Through a plan called Community Choice Aggregation, the City would take control of where our energy comes from, leverage our collective buying power and public financing to bring prices down and build the country's largest solar network. The plan currently aims to require that a 1/3 of our energy be clean within 3 years, and over 50% by 2017. The plan also has been carefully designed so that our energy bills will "meet or beat" what we currently pay PG&E and without putting the City at financial risk. The City Board of Supervisors and the Mayor will be voting on this plan soon, and they need to hear from green energy advocates NOW.
To learn more about "Community Choice Aggregation" go to www.CommunityChoiceEnergy.org or read from our archived stories in the Chapter newsletter, the Yodeler: http://sanfranciscobay.sierraclub.org/yodeler/html/2006/05/conservation3.htm
Press release from the Mayor's office - May 2006 MAYOR NEWSOM ANNOUNCES NEW FUNDING FOR COMMUNITY CHOICE AGGREGATION Proposal would create largest municipal alternative energy program in US San Francisco, CA - Mayor Newsom today proposed $5 million in funding for San Francisco's "Community Choice Aggregation" (CCA) program in this year's SF Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) budget. CCA is the largest municipal alternative energy program proposed in the US to date. It allows local government to procure electric power from sources such as solar and wind power and then sell that power to local residents and businesses. The $5 million in funding will allow the City to move forward assessing this landmark environmental program. Mayor Newsom explained his commitment to advancing the CCA program: "Community Choice Aggregation has the potential to provide clean, reliable and reasonably priced energy to local consumers. It's time that US cities step up to fill a leadership vacuum that exists in Washington DC and move aggressively toward expanding renewable energy." CCA offers several potential benefits to local consumers and the environment. First, CCA would provide San Franciscans greater consumer choice by allowing each electricity customer to choose between purchasing City-generated electricity â€" generated primarily through environmentally friendly sources â€" or privately-generated electricity. CCA would also allow the city to procure expand energy efficiency and conservation programs for local consumers. The SFPUC, together with Mayor Newsom, Supervisor Tom Ammiano and Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, is crafting an implementation plan for the CCA program. That plan will go before the Board of Supervisors in the coming weeks, and after additional analysis, a final plan will be submitted to the California PUC for formal approval. The $5 million allocation that the Mayor announced today will allow the City to complete critical pre-implementation steps for the CCA program: A Request for Information (RFI) and then a Request for Proposals (RFP) that the City will issue to international energy companies. The City will then receive and evaluate proposals from these companies. The City's advance toward CCA began with a Board of Supervisors-approved ordinance in May 2004 establishing support for a CCA program. Supervisor Tom Ammiano, one of the early proponents of CCA, states, "With this investment in start-up funds, San Francisco puts money on the table to answer the voter mandate for solar power. The Community Choice program is an ambitious effort to achieve no less than energy independence and renewable energy for the entire community, and has required the prolonged, dedicated efforts of experts, advocates, Supervisors and the Mayor's office. I look forward to voting on our Community Choice Implementation Plan in coming months, and negotiations with competitive energy service providers later in the year." Supervisor Mirkarimi, another champion of CCA continued, "As long as this nation is disproportionately reliant on oil and fossil fuel technology, we stand vulnerable. San Francisco needs to mount a smart energetic counterattack designed to protect our environment, safeguard against energy market fiascoes, and by putting the utility customer's well-being first; and we do this by empowering the public with Community Choice Aggregation." As a result of the scale of this environmentally friendly energy program, CCA has drawn strong support from national environmental groups such as Greenpeace and the Sierra Club. Cathleen Sullivan of Greenpeace, a member of the Community Choice Energy Alliance (including the Sierra Club and Local Power) explained environmental support, "As our nation grapples with the reality of global climate change and soaring energy costs, San Francisco's Community Choice program will be a model that city's across the country can follow. Supervisors Tom Ammiano and Ross Mirkarimi, Mayor Newsom and SFPUC General Manager Susan Leal have shown true leadership to make San Francisco a world leader in energy independence and we look forward to working with them to make this a reality." TAKE ACTION! We are not there yet and we must keep up the encouragement of our city leaders and build the momentum that will spill out into other Bay Area and California communities watching, waiting to replicate our efforts. There are a number of ways to help. Phonebanking: Easy and critical task of alerting fellow clean energy supporters among us. Letter-gathering - we are out in targeted communities, farmers markets and parks, collecting supportive written letters. Easy, fun and actually very helpful. Write a letter - a short hand-written note to your Supervisor and the Mayor speak volumes. For help, suggestions, info and tips, go to: http://sanfranciscobay.sierraclub.org/chapter/campaigns/alerts/cca.asp Educate Yourself - visit www.CommunityChoiceEnergy.org More Dates and Events to be scheduled soon!
To read more about "Community Choice Aggregation" go to www.CommunityChoiceEnergy.org or www.local.org or articles in our Chapter newspaper, the Yodeler at http://sanfranciscobay.sierraclub.org/yodeler/html/2005/05/featuretoc.htm
General Energy Inquiries For general inquiries about the Sierra Club's local work on local energy issues in the San Francisco area, or to inquire about our chapter's energy committee, contact Aaron Israel of the Bay Chapter's energy committee at (415) 515-2683. Or contact Mike Daley at mdaley@sfbaysc.org or (510) 848-0800 x304. Subscribe to our energy committee listserv: for meeting and event announcements, send an email to sfbayenergy@googlegroups.com or go to the Google Groups page to see recent posts at http://groups.google.com/group/sfbayenergy Be sure to check out the Chapter energy committee webpages at http://www.sfbayenergy.org for news, action alerts, in-depth articles and information. For nationwide Sierra Club energy work, information and campaigns, go to http://www.sierraclub.org/energy/
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