Marin County aims for cheaper, cleaner energy

Marin County has taken first steps towards cheaper, cleaner energy through Community Choice Aggregation.

On April 5 the Board of Supervisors voted 3 - 0 (with two members absent) to inform the California Public Utilities Commission that the county intends to study the adoption of Community Choice, under which the county would purchase its power from sources other than PG&E (although PG&E could still be one energy provider).

A feasibility study by Chicago-based Navigant Consulting concluded that Marin could have more than half of its electricity from renewable sources such as wind, solar, geothermal, and biomass by 2017, while saving 3% of its current power costs - savings of $6 - 8 million a year. The current PG&E mix for Marin customers contains about 14% from renewable sources.

"It's not every day that doing the right thing vis-à-vis Community Choice and renewable energy comes with such a cost savings," says Supervisor Charles McGlashan. "This is a classic win-win."

Some of the win-win comes from the fact that a Community Choice purchasing authority, as a public entity, can fully finance the development of clean energy sources with public revenue bonds, and does not need to return a profit to shareholders. Investor-owned utilities like PG&E must charge rates with the intent of a profit margin, and typically fund clean energy with a more costly combination of equity and debt financing.

Many hurdles remain. In addition to a county ordinance, to be practical, Community Choice will require a critical mass of support among the county's cities and towns. Not every community must join the effort, but the participation of Marin's largest cities, San Rafael and Novato, is critical.

County planning officials plan a public outreach campaign in the spring and summer to educate the public and local officials to enlist their support. If all goes well, Community Choice supporters believe the program in Marin could start being phased in some time in 2006.

WhatYouCanDo

Marin residents can support the county's Community Choice initiative in many ways:

• contact your county supervisor to express your support and urge prompt action;
• attend and speak at Supervisors' meetings when Community Choice is on the agenda. The Board meets Tuesdays at 10 am and agendas are posted on the Supervisors' section of the county web site at www.co.marin.ca.us
• attend and speak at community forums on the issue, which will be held in upcoming weeks.

Clint Wilder, member, Marin Group Executive Committee; and co-chair, Group Energy Committee