Home | Get Involved | Donate | Events | Action Alerts | About Us | Contact Us
Menu:
Click here for a downloadable printer-friendly PDF version of this page
GREEN ENERGY STRATEGY:
Bringing Community Choice Power to Sonoma County
The Challenges:
Climate Change requires that we drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions,
primarily from burning fossil fuels. Sooner or later reductions will be
mandated; those communities that act now will be ahead of the game.
Peak Oil requires that we find clean, renewable alternative energy sources as soon as possible. Oil & gas supply shortages will lead to price jumps and market instability. Those communities that shift to alternatives now will be insulated from financial hardship, economic recession, and budget shortfalls.
Energy Security requires that we know where our future energy will come from, and how we will afford it. Energy deregulation and resulting market instability has allowed large corporations like Enron to ‘game’ the system, price-gouging users and causing power outages. Those communities that act now to regain local control of their energy supply will best survive the coming market fluctuations and shortages.
We are approaching the end of cheap, fossil-fuel-based energy, and all
that depends on it, from agriculture to health care and high-tech manufacturing.
Our economic and environmental future depend on how rapidly and effectively
we can shift to clean, renewable, locally-controlled energy systems.
Where Do We Start?
The three biggest contributors to climate change are electricity, transportation,
and agriculture. We should begin working on all three now, but fully shifting
our transportation and agricultural systems to renewables will require billions
of dollars and years of work to replace fossil-fuel-based infrastructure
(refineries, freeways, fertilizer plants, factory farms) with sustainable
alternatives. They will also require major shifts in corporate practices
(automakers, corporate agriculture) and in consumer behaviors.
By contrast, electricity can be shifted immediately, with little or no cost
(in fact, renewables can save money), and no change in consumer behavior.
You can’t run your gasoline-engine car on hydrogen or electricity,
but your home or office will run exactly the same on clean electric power
as it did on dirty.
Electricity is the one area in which we can change quickly, reducing greenhouse
gas emissions and fossil fuel dependency and buying us much-needed time
for more long-term solutions. Community Choice is the most effective way
to make our electric system greener, more sustainable, more affordable,
more democratic, and less vulnerable to market volatility and manipulation.
What is Community Choice Aggregation?
Community Choice allows cities and counties to “aggregate” or
combine all the customers in their area in order to collectively purchase
clean, affordable electric power directly from their chosen energy provider,
rather than from PG&E. Community Choice combines the best features of
publicly-owned and utility-run systems: cities contract with an energy company
for the best rates and the right mix of renewables like wind and solar,
but PG&E still delivers the power and maintains the wires.
Community Choice allows us to democratically determine our own energy future, instead of being subject to short-sighted corporate decisions. Cities control prices through long-term competitive contracting, strengthening their local economy and protecting city budgets from costly rate hikes.
Community Choice increases the national market for green energy and renewable
technologies like wind and solar. Community Choice can also provide local
funding for major conservation and energy efficiency programs, the most
cost-effective way to reduce energy use and greenhouse gas emissions.
Moving Toward Local Sustainability
The biggest obstacle to creating a sustainable local power system is the
large capital cost. Community Choice allows cities to enact “solar
bonds” which provide a public revenue source to finance construction
of local ‘distributed generation’ systems such as wind farms,
rooftop photovoltaics, and solar concentrators. Making our power locally
saves money, cuts long-distance transmission losses, and reduces dependence
on vulnerable regional energy grid, making us more energy secure and independent.
Clean energy also reduces environmental damage and improves air quality
and public health.
Building a Green Energy Strategy
We believe Community Choice is the single most important and effective short-term
strategy to address climate change & peak oil, and to build local economic
sustainability. It is the ‘low-hanging fruit’, the big shift
that buys time for all the other changes we need to make.
San Francisco, Marin, and other California counties are already moving forward with Community Choice; now it’s our turn. To make it work here in Sonoma County, we will first need to persuade the County Board of Supervisors and the Santa Rosa City Council to do a feasibility study, and eventually to join together to enact it. The County and Santa Rosa represent 2/3 of the population, a big enough consumer block to make it worthwhile. It’s pretty certain that once these two give it a go-ahead, all the other cities will join in as well.
Community Choice is likely to be included in the “Community Climate Action Plan”, a set of recommendations on how our city governments can best meet their greenhouse gas reduction goals. The plan is being developed in a series of public meetings through the summer, and will go before the cities in the fall.
The Next Step is to educate environmental, business and community leaders about how Community Choice can help us take effective action on climate change, deal with peak oil, provide local energy security, and protect our cities, businesses, and consumers from spikes in energy prices. Rather than pressuring public officials directly (which can engender resistance), we intend to build a broad community-wide consensus, so that Community Choice becomes an easy and obvious political decision for all our policymakers.
ILED Director Daniel Solnit has made this his top priority for the year,
and is giving presentations on Community Choice to environmental, business,
civic, and community groups, and meeting with local leaders and activists.
How you can help bring Community Choice to Sonoma County:
• Learn more about Community Choice, and talk to your friends, neighbors,
and co-workers about it.
• Arrange for a talk at your church, school, club, professional association, workplace, or other group.
• Attend the Climate Protection Campaign’s public meetings to support Community Choice. These meetings will develop plans to help cities meet their greenhouse gas reduction goals; for more info, go to www.climateprotectioncampaign.org.
• Join the CCA action alert network to stay informed: when Community Choice is ready to go before a city council, we will contact you to write letters, make phone calls, or come to meetings to show support.
• Support ILED - the Institute for Local Economic Democracy - with a donation or monthly pledge. Your financial support helps us keep an experienced organizer working full-time on this issue!
For more information: Contact ILED at (707) 823-4480, or
www.iled.org.