Community Choice energy updates

News from Marin, Oakland, and San Francisco

San Francisco

Big news! On June 19 the San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted 9 - 2 to start the process of implementing Community Choice Aggregation (CCA)! It is now up to Mayor Gavin Newsom to sign the legislation.

The near-unanimous vote was the result of strong leadership from Supervisors Tom Ammiano and Ross Mirkarimi, the mayor's office, and the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. We also wish to applaud Supervisor Bevan Dufty, who came out strongly for CCA, recently becoming a co-sponsor of the legislation. Sierra Club staff happily delivered another 1,000 letters from Club members and the public, urging continued pursuit of energy independence through clean, local energy.

The city will now work in a multi-staged process to choose a contractor to execute this very significant progressive public-works project. Special thanks go to Sierra Club San Francisco Group leaders Bruce Wolfe and Rick Galbreath and to Chapter staff for this milestone victory.

Contact Mayor Newsom at (415) 554-6141 or email gavin.newsom -at- sfgov.org and urge him to sign the CCA legislation and to work for its prompt, effective implementation.

Marin

Marin County is moving steadily toward a draft CCA business plan, scheduled for consideration by early 2008. At a productive working group meeting of city and county officials and Navigant Consultants on May 31, overall consensus was reached that the plan should maximize renewable power, conservation, and efficiency as fast as possible consistent with meeting or beating PG&E rates.

Using an extremely conservative assumption of yearly PG&E rate increases, Navigant still finds that a Marin CCA can hold parity with PG&E rates while achieving more than 50% renewable power within a few years. The county has set up subcommittees of expert technical, legal, and public-finance advisors, a stakeholder subcommittee, and a special group to organize a Marin Power Authority.

It is important that the public now emphasize to Marin elected city officials the advantages for carbon reduction and the local economic benefits a CCA will provide, as well as the need to proceed with urgency.

For information on how clean-energy advocates can get involved in Marin's CCA public-education campaign, contact Marin's newly appointed CCA environmental ombudsman (and state Sierra Club leader) Ed Mainland at (415) 902-6365 or email emainland -at- comcast.net

For more information, visit www.marinsustainability.org (click on "Community Choice Aggregation").

Oakland-Emeryville-Berkeley

East Bay efforts to design a shared Community Choice plan for Oakland, Emeryville, and Berkeley recently took a significant step forward. On June 12 the Oakland City Council Public Works Committee recommended allocating $490,000 for the next phase in the design process. (This money, interestingly, comes from the Williams-Reliant Energy settlement, going back to the 2000 - 2001 energy crisis.) The committee recommendation goes to the full City Council on June 19, where it will be debated and hopefully, approved. An overdue and more specific draft plan is expected in August.

This is an important moment for CCA in Oakland. The Oakland City Council has shown tentative support for CCA. Please take a minute to contact councilmembers to express support for CCA. Council members who have not publicly supported CCA yet are Larry Reid, Jean Quan, and Ignacio de la Fuente. Mayor Ron Dellums has seemingly been absent from the debate about sustainability and clean-energy issues. The Sierra Club is unsure of his position. We encourage you to write to his office as well. Urge them to focus on bold and meaningful plans for clean energy and local green jobs. Contact them at:

One City Hall Plaza
Oakland, CA 94612

or:
Mayor Ron Dellums
officeofthemayor@oaklandnet.com
(510)238-3141

Board President Ignacio de la Fuente
idelafuente@oaklandnet.com
(510)238-7005

Larry Reid
(510)238-7007
lreid@oaklandnet.com

Jean Quan
jquan@oaklandnet.com
(510)238-7004

Pat Kernighan
pkernighan@oaklandnet.com
(510)238-7002

Jane Brunner
jbrunner@oaklandnet.com
(510)238-7001

Desley Brooks
dbrooks@oaklandnet.com
(510)238-7006

Henry Chang
cityochang@aol.com

Nancy Nadel
clstarks@oaklandnet.com
(510)238-7003

Public workshop

Our Chapter's Northern Alameda County Group and fellow CCA advocates are preparing to hold a public workshop in September on the CCA concept and the forthcoming draft plan and feasibility study. They need your help. To assist in preparing this workshop, contact Kent Lewandowski at kentlewan -at- yahoo.com or call (510) 625-5831.

For a broad overview of Community Choice energy, visit www.CommunityChoiceEnergy.org