Volunteers in action
Making San Francisco a clean-energy, well-lighted place

When we talk about the San Francisco Bay Chapter's accomplishments, we're really talking about the efforts of volunteers. If the Sierra Club has played a major role in getting San Francisco to make a clear commitment to clean energy, we're talking about the contributions of hundreds of volunteers - and especially the activism of a handful who have devoted substantial time and outstanding dedication to this goal.

In this article we honor four who have been mainstays of this effort.

What has been accomplished?

San Francisco has committed itself to using at least 51% renewable and clean energy sources by 2017. Well before then, individual San Franciscans will no longer have to rely on fossil fuel and nuclear energy.

Community Choice Aggregation (CCA), the unwieldy label for this alternative-energy proposition, was created as an option by a law, AB 117, passed in 2002. The preceding year, San Francisco voters had approved a $100 million solar bond - but most of the funding has yet to be utilized. Finally, last summer, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and mayor passed and signed legislation which assures San Francisco of clean, green power.

How did San Francisco CCA go from possibility to probability?

Who are these Sierra Club volunteers who have made such a difference?

Bruce Wolfe

A former New York cop with an unusual background in audio engineering, horse wrangling, life coaching, burglar alarms, and martial arts, Bruce Wolfe joined the San Francisco Group's Executive Committee during the genesis of CCA. In 2004, when Chapter conservation organizer Cathleen Sullivan, who had been the Group's main liaison with the City Council, moved on to work with Greenpeace, Bruce leapt into the gap. Because he had worked on the campaigns of several of the city supervisors, he knew that even though they might not agree with his views, they would be willing to meet with him.

The supervisors, the Public Utilities Commission, and a coalition of those committed to a better and greener San Francisco sat at the table and scrutinized the particulars. They agreed on most issues, but reached an impasse on others. Even though they had OKed the concept, many supervisors were still leery about the nitty-gritty detail of how CCA would work. Instead of a close-knit coalition, Bruce says, they became an alliance, open to working together even while expressing divergent views.

Every week they met with different energy experts - such as Paul Fenn, another Sierra Club member who had first formulated the concept of CCA and had gone on to found the advocacy group Local Power.

"Bruce played a big role in negotiations," says Chapter conservation organizer Brad Johnson. "He guided the others through the process." Marshalling public opinion (through letter-writing and media reporting) "he ratcheted up the pressure" on the decision-makers. On April 17, Supervisors Tom Ammiano and Ross Mirkarimi introduced a draft implementation plan for CCA to the rest of the board. CCA was at last a number-one legislative priority.

The alternative-power stage was set. Three other players now expanded their roles in the drama.

John Rizzo

Like Wolfe a former New Yorker, John Rizzo moved to the Bay Area about 22 years ago and found work in technology and technical writing. That's just his profession, however; his real work seems to be community activism. Chair of the Bay Chapter in 2004 - 5, he is an appointed commissioner on the Golden Gate Park Concourse Authority, and since January an elected member of the San Francisco City College Board of Trustees, chairing its Technology Committee and serving on its Legislative and Policy Review Committees.

About 10 years ago, John, horrified by clear-cut logging, became an environmental advocate. He has been involved in the CCA struggles since the beginning. Having participated in several supervisors' campaigns, he started lobbying and educating the supervisors he knew. Johnson marvels at the number of meetings that John arranged and facilitated. John learned the technological aspects of CCA from Fenn. He hammered out technical details with the supervisors, and offered technical testimony at many hearings. "I'm the technical guy," he says - able to discuss the particulars with the city attorney, the city Public Utilities Commission (PUC), and the supervisors.

John admits to disappointments along the way - the constant delays and roadblocks. The PUC, PG&E, and the public all have to be pacified. The PUC could kill the plan by putting out weak requests for proposals to energy service providers. PG&E has feared the loss of customers - though it will still be distributing the power, and distribution accounts for most of its income. The public hasn't understood the implications of the program.

But the disappointments were eclipsed on June 19, when the supervisors voted on a specific, workable plan to implement CCA for San Francisco.

Aaron Israel

Aaron Israel's father was a Sierra Club outings leader in Virginia, where Aaron grew up before his westward migration. Aaron studied environmental economics at the University of Utah. About 10 years ago he took a job as a business consultant in San Francisco - an area he had long admired for its environmental leadership. "I got my feet wet going to San Francisco Group meetings," Aaron says of his Sierra Club involvement. "I got a sense of what issues they were working on and took on more and more responsibility," including co-chairing the Chapter Energy Committee, representing the San Francisco Group on the Chapter Executive Committee, and sitting on the PUC's Power Subcommittee.

In 2004, Aaron, like Wolfe and Rizzo encouraged by Fenn's example, joined the fight to make CCA a reality. Israel found himself both a student and a teacher. CCA is complicated. He worked to learn the specifics himself and then to make them understandable to the general public, the media, and, of course, the city officials. He helped gather the support of neighborhood, public-health, political, and environmental groups. "If you agree with these values," he would tell the participants, "then join us."

It has taken much effort to keep the participants engaged. Brad Johnson describes Aaron as consistently able to coordinate the supporters and keep them updated. Aaron underscores the importance of communication among all the players: "Things are decided by who shows up." Average people can do extraordinary things, he adds, with curiosity, a strong sense of personal responsibility, and a loyalty to basic principles.

He sees his role as to doggedly remind paid officials that we pay them for sorting out details, to help them learn how to do this, and to reinforce the commitment to clean energy. The rewards are enormous. "CCA is a real game-changer," Aaron says. "It provides dramatic, significant results - it's not just a feel-good gesture."

Rick Galbreath

As a member of the San Francisco Group's Executive Committee, Rick Galbreath had been following CCA for quite a while. "In May," he says, "I jumped in with both feet, when the ordinance started moving through City Hall."

A former Texan with a degree in government, about 20 years ago Rick moved to Los Angeles, and then, realizing his mistake, north to San Francisco. Having done some volunteer work for Supervisor Chris Daly, he became familiar with City Hall, and quickly recognized a way to be useful. Supervisors have little paid help. If Rick wanted supervisors to spend time fashioning legislation that would put teeth into CCA, someone needed to volunteer to do a lot of their office work. Rick essentially went to work full-time - gratis - for Supervisor Mirikarimi. In this capacity he was able to craft some of the compromises that made the June vote possible. Johnson describes Rick as "the ultimate volunteer".

Rick's work in politics gave him some understanding of what was needed. "I did a lot of hand-holding," he says. Patience is also required; the pace of government is very slow. Rick quotes Churchill's famous appraisal of democracy: "the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time." He stays motivated by remembering that he is working to reduce a very large carbon footprint.

The remaining work

The work, of course, is not done. Rick outlines the work ahead: making sure that the PUC continues to work in good faith to implement the plan, seeking a responsible contractor, and finding locations for wind generators and solar facilities.

Still, because of their relentless persistence and exertion, Bruce Wolfe, John Rizzo, Aaron Israel, and Rick Galbreath can see the light at the end of the tunnel - and it's a clean light, and renewable.

Karen Rosenbaum

Speaking of renewable, volunteers are a renewable resource too. To add your vigor to the Chapter's efforts for CCA - in San Francisco, Marin, and the East Bay - contact or call (510) 848-0800, ext. 316