Local Clean Energy Alliance Accomplishments

The following list highlights some of the main achievements of the Local Clean Energy Alliance by year since 2008, presented in rough chronological order within each year.

2021 [.pdf]: 2021 Highlights

• Countering Utility Attacks on Community Energy

In response to the growth of on-site solar generation in California, notably in the form of rooftop solar on homes, businesses, schools, churches, and government buildings, California’s monopoly utilities launched an effort in 2021 to roll back the Net Energy Metering (NEM) policies under which this growth has taken place. Claiming that rooftop solar customers are shifting infrastructure costs onto non-solar customers, the utilities have used this false “cost-shift” argument to push for drastic reductions in on-site solar benefits. This has taken the form of AB 1139, a bill to gut Net Metering, and similar proposals in a NEM 3.0 proceeding at the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC).

LCEA and the California Alliance for Community Energy played an active role in the broad coalition that defeated AB 1139 in the State Assembly in June. We exposed the threat posed by on-site solar to the utilities’ business model and the many benefits that distributed, community-based solar provides to our communities. We published a paper critiquing the Avoided Cost Calculator tool used by the CPUC to justify its undervaluing of on-site solar and other distributed energy resources. And we have called for an expansion of on-site solar into low and moderate-income.

• Demanding Accountability for PG&E’s Safety Failures

LCEA has been working within the Reclaim Our Power Campaign—the main organized force in California demanding that the CPUC take action to protect the people of California by holding PG&E accountable for its wildfire safety failures.

The CPUC has done little to enforce measures in PG&E’s bankruptcy exit plan meant to address the utility’s neglect of safety, a neglect that continues to cause devastating wildfires in California. Despite a PG&E Safety and Accountability Scorecard issued by the Campaign in April, petitions and mobilizations directed by the Campaign at CPUC since then, and continued PG&E culpability for causing wildfires, the CPUC has failed to act.

The Campaign is calling on Governor Newsom to deny PG&E the safety certificate (the “License to Burn”) which allows the utility to cause wildfires while bearing no financial liability for the billions of dollars of damages that result.

• People’s Utility Justice Playbook

LCEA collaborated with other organizations in the Energy Democracy Project to create the People’s Utility Justice Playbook. This new, comprehensive guide exposes utility tactics to defeat community opposition. It also shares the methods communities have used to fight back. The Playbook is meant to support community and ratepayer advocates, energy democracy activists, and others confronting energy utilities.

The Playbook was released in October and is being used to arm activists fighting against utilities across the country.

• Community-Driven Energy Resilience

In light of the increasing frequency of power outages caused by both climate disasters and utility shutoffs, many communities now see the value of community resilience hubs—critical facilities that utilize solar and battery storage to remain in operation when grid power shuts down. These microgrid-enabled facilities are urgently needed by our most vulnerable populations.

Nevertheless, there are currently many barriers to developing such microgrids in frontline communities. LCEA, has been working with both the California Alliance for Community Energy and the Reclaim Our Power Campaign on two fronts to remove those barriers. The first front is to promote and assist community-based organizations in the development of demonstration resilience hubs in frontline communities. An initial cohort of organizations has recently completed a ten-session series of presentations to learn what it takes to build such projects.

The other front is to engage in regulatory and legislative initiatives to create a policy environment that advances community-based microgrid development. This has included establishing and participating in a Microgrid Equity Coalition to advocate for equity in a 2021 CPUC microgrid proceeding. The group has endorsed a Reclaim Our Power letter to the CPUC calling on the Commission to include community voices in determining equitable rules for microgrid development and to support the needs of frontline communities for a sustainable and resilient energy future. The Coalition has also put forward equity-based proposals within the microgrid proceeding.

• Utility Debt Relief

LCEA joined with Reclaim Our Power and collaborators from the national Energy Democracy Project and dozens of other organizations on June 15, 2021, in a Cancel Utility Debt National Day of Action! The event brought together the voices of low income, Black, Indigenous, and other people of color communities across the country who are facing massive utility bills and potential shutoffs, largely due to the economic impacts of the COVID pandemic.

Following this event, we sent over 350 emails and mobilized dozens of callers to demand that the CPUC extend its moratorium on shutoffs, cancel utility debt, and force the shareholders, not the ratepayers or the taxpayers, to pick up the tab. After this outcry, the commission voted unanimously to extend the moratorium until September 30—a big victory. The fight continues to ensure that no one's power is taken away for lack of ability to pay.

In the East Bay as well, LCEA advocated for utility debt relief locally and succeeded in getting East Bay Community Energy, the East Bay’s public energy services provider agency, to provide more information about existing debt relief programs and provide funds for non-profit organizations to assist in helping those with utility debt to navigate and enroll into such programs. In addition, the agency was to explore a possible utility bill relief credit program.

• Promoting a Vision of Energy Democracy and Energy Justice

LCEA has been at the forefront of promoting a vision of energy democracy that is centered on environmental, economic, and social justice. These issues have come into stark relief in 2021. On the one hand, the Biden administration has explicitly recognized the importance of racial justice in announcing the federal Justice40 initiative—a plan to deliver 40% of the overall benefits of climate investments to disadvantaged communities. On the other hand, the growing power of white supremacy in the U.S. threatens to unravel progress toward energy equity and further entrench institutionalized racism in the energy economy.

Early in 2021, the LCEA led the East Bay Clean Power Alliance, which had been responsible for establishing East Bay Community Energy, in an effort to get the agency to follow the Biden Administration’s equity lead. In June, the agency’s Board passed a 2020-2021 budget that included a Local Development Business Plan (LDBP) budget in which less than 10% of proposed residential program investment was specifically targeted to low-income customers.

The Alliance argued that this allocation reinforced status quo disparities and a greater portion of the LDBP budget should go to programs that would address equity for customers in BIPOC communities. This effort included a letter signed by community-based organizations asking the Board to direct staff to allocate at least 40% of the LDBP budget for programs that would primarily benefit low income customers.

These efforts reflected an action at the federal level on April 20, 2021, in which the Energy Democracy Project hosted an Energy Democracy Congressional Briefing to educate congressional staffers and national movement allies by bringing together the Project’s perspectives on energy democracy and energy justice solutions. This Congressional Briefing—attended by 140 people—brought critical community knowledge, leadership, and an energy democracy perspective to he numerous climate and clean energy legislative proposals being advanced at the U.S. Congress. 

2020 [.pdf]: 2020 Highlights

• Keeping East Bay and Other California Community Choice Programs Nuclear Free!

We defeated PG&E’s attempt to dump nuclear power on East Bay Community Energy (EBCE), twice! LCEA’s efforts in the East Bay focused in 2020 on community organizing and advocacy to keep EBCE—the public energy services provider for Alameda County cities—nuclear free. On the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day, the governing board of EBCE, under community pressure, voted 10-5 to keep PG&E’s dangerous Diablo Canyon nuclear energy out of EBCE’s 2020 power mix. The vote represented a big victory for the LCEA-led East Bay Clean Power Alliance, which mobilized community opposition to a scheme by which PG&E intended to dump nuclear power on EBCE, an agency launched in 2018 to develop local renewable energy to benefit East Bay community residents and businesses. Despite the April victory, the nuclear issue came up again this fall. This time the proposal was an attempt to rescue EBCE’s Brilliant 100 product (100% carbonfree), by including in it PG&E’s cheaper nuclear energy. Two cities in EBCE utilize that product to reduce their City’s claimed GHG emissions. However, EBCPA mobilized to defeat this proposal as well, with LCEA hosting a webinar panel about the battles against the hazards of nuclear energy from East Bay to New Mexico. LCEA inspired other communities in Sonoma, Monterey Bay and San Francisco to successfully fight this nuclear scheme.

• Launching People Power for Utility Justice: “Reclaim Our Power” Campaign Fights PG&E Bailout

In February, LCEA worked with grassroots environmental justice allies, to launch the Reclaim Our Power Campaign, a frontline community-led utility justice initiative to restructure California’s energy system. Despite the limitations imposed by the pandemic this year, the Campaign fought the bankruptcy exit plan of PG&E, and pushed for a utility based on principles of justice. In March, the Governor, who had been critical of PG&E’s bankruptcy exit plan, suddenly flipped and agreed to a deal with PG&E that would leave all of us holding the bag on a dangerous PG&E bailout. The Reclaim Our Power Campaign rapidly moved into action. Over the months of April, May, and June the Campaign went into high gear to put pressure on the CPUC to reject the exit plan and to call for changes that would address community needs, especially those communities most impacted by wildfires, utility shutoffs, rising utility bills, and the health and economic effects of the current pandemic. Despite two petition efforts, street protests, a Facebook Live press conference, organized phone-in comments at CPUC meetings, filing of briefs in the CPUC bankruptcy proceeding, and meetings with Governor Newsom’s top energy staff, the Campaign failed to modify PG&E’s bankruptcy exit plan. However, it established the Campaign and put it on the political map. This effort culminated in September in the Reclaim Our Power Summit, which brought together over 50 organizations in support of the Campaign efforts to restructure both PG&E and the energy system more broadly.

• Moving Towards Community-Driven Energy Resilience: Equity is Essential 

In August 2020, an LCEA statewide initiative, the California Alliance for Community Energy, published a position paper on Community-Driven Energy Resilience, launching a campaign to advance community-based microgrid deployment, while advancing the critical engagement of the communities most at risk and most impacted by power shutoffs. The paper calls on Community Choice energy agencies to take a leading role in community energy resilience solutions. In addition, LCEA has been engaged a number of related initiatives to put equity at the center community energy resilience. We co-hosted a webinar about community-driven energy resilience, featuring a diverse group of local grassroots organizers who discussed the many challenges faced by their communities in building community-based microgrids. We are working with the Reclaim Our Power Campaign to promote community-driven energy resilience and with other organizations at the CPUC to remove the barriers to community-based microgrid deployment.

• Establishing the National Energy Democracy Project: Broad Collaboration to Democratize Energy

In 2019, LCEA brought together 36 organizations from across the U.S. for a Strategic Convening on Energy Democracy, the outgrowth of which has been the establishment in 2020 of the national Energy Democracy Project. The Project is a collaboration of mainly locally-based organizations working to democratize energy in their communities and to strengthen the emerging energy democracy movement in the U.S. At its 2020 Strategic Convening in November, the Project focused on building organizing capacity, strengthening organizational relationships, developing collective resources, and exploring strategies and tactics. Two main initiatives of the Project are the development of a Resource Hub (to connect organizations to existing energy democracy resources) and a Utility Justice Playbook (to strengthen organizing against private utilities).

2019 [.pdf]: 2019 Highlights

•    Boosting Alameda County’s Local Green New Deal
The East Bay Community Energy (EBCE) Board of Directors, on June 19, after hearing from community organizations mobilized by LCEA, approved a $1.5 million increase in the agency’s Local Development Business Plan budget. This was a significant boost for EBCE’s groundbreaking local Green New Deal. That $1.5 million means a total EBCE expenditure for local clean energy projects for 2019-2020 fiscal year of $5.1 million. While the Green New Deal is being held hostage at a national level, EBCE, the East Bay Community Choice energy program LCEA led in establishing, is setting a precedent for community-based energy development. This local Green New Deal is allocating millions of dollars toward programs and projects that reduce energy waste, install solar energy and storage, electrify vehicles and buildings, create jobs, engage our community, and build community resilience. As of November 2019, the budget was increased by another $500 thousand to develop a program to meet the needs of medical baseline customers during PG&E power shutoffs.

•    Taking On PG&E
Amidst the PG&E electricity shutoffs and wildfire threats that endanger northern California, especially our most vulnerable communities, LCEA has been busy fighting back against the state’s bailout of PG&E. Most recently we have initiated and are incubating a new project: the California Utility Justice Campaign. The Campaign builds upon our work with the No PG&E Bailout protests of the last year to mobilize social justice forces and their allies to oppose billion dollar bailouts of PG&E, achieve a publicly accountable utility model, and begin restructuring California’s energy system to be more equitable, sustainable and resilient in the face of the climate crisis. The Campaign prioritizes the leadership of frontline communities and workers impacted by pollution, wildfires and shutoffs. When Governor Newsom recently called for restructuring PG&E, we sent him a letter outlining a set of core principles to guide an energy transition that benefits all Californians, not just the wealthy few. The letter was co-written by the Campaign and the California Environmental Justice Alliance to urge the Governor to include frontline communities at his restructuring table. We’re also developing educational materials like The PG&E Bailout & What It Means For You to deepen community understanding of what is needed to take on PG&E.

•    Building the National Energy Democracy Movement
As an outgrowth of the publication of Energy Democracy in 2017 and the organizing of the Energy Democracy National Tour in 2018, LCEA brought together 36 organizations for a Strategic Convening on Energy Democracy in 2019. The outcomes of this Strategic Convening will be carried forward as a national “Energy Democracy Project.” The Project is envisioned as a mutual aid structure that serves as a collaborative resource and strategy center for organizations across the U.S. working to democratize energy. In particular, it would serve to create programs and initiatives that advance the work of these organizations and strengthen the emerging movement to democratize energy.

•    Advancing Community Choice Energy Statewide
The LCEA has been actively working to defend and strengthen Community Choice energy programs statewide through the California Alliance for Community Energy, which we initiated in 2015. The Alliance has been busy in 2019 fighting both regulatory and legislative attacks on Community Choice. This involved a major campaign to fight dramatic increases in a fee imposed by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) on Community Choice customers—the PCIA. The campaign to Roll Back the CPUC Attack on Community Choice exposed and opposed the efforts of the CPUC, on behalf of the state’s monopoly utilities, to undermine Community Choice programs like EBCE. We also saw almost a dozen bills in the 2019 California Legislature that would imperil Community Choice energy programs. We launched a campaign to Stop the California Legislature’s Coup against Community Choice, which built opposition to these measures and helped defeat or neutralize a majority of them. We also stepped up to oppose AB 1054, Governor Newsom’s wildfire utility bailout bill. Our opposition paper and an online letter writing campaign exposed how the bill supported PG&E at ratepayers’ expense.

•    Kudos to the LCEA Team

• A 2019 Environmental Champion Award to Jessica Tovar and LCEA from the League of Conservation Voters, for our EBCE work.

• Another Roddenberry Fellow! In 2019, Roddenberry Foundation recognized Jessica Guadalupe Tovar and LCEA for our groundbreaking work in establishing EBCE. For 2020, the Foundation is recognizing Crystal Huang, LCEA team member, for her work building the People Power Solar Cooperative.

• Op-ed in Newsweek magazine: Billionaires Won’t Save California from PG&E Disasters, Jessica Tovar of LCEA and Sylvia Chi of Asian Pacific Environmental Network on why it’s time we own our power.

2018 [.pdf]: 2018 Highlights

•    Community Choice Best Practices Guide
In January, under the leadership of the Local Clean Energy Alliance, the California Alliance for Community Energy released its 25-page Guide to Creating State-of-the-Art Community Choice Programs. Written for local activists and Community Choice practitioners, the Guide puts core principles at the center of efforts to achieve the community benefits that a well-designed Community Choice program can deliver. The Guide also covers program structure and operational best practices that are important for local decision-makers to think about. The Guide has become a key reference for Community Choice practitioners across the state.

•    Launch of East Bay Community Energy
In spring of this year, East Bay Community Energy, a Community Choice energy program established through Local Clean Energy Alliance’s ten-year community organizing and advocacy effort, began supplying electricity to commercial and industrial customers. Full roll-out of the program to residential customers took place in November. The agency was created to address the environmental, economic, and social justice needs of East Bay communities.

•    Adoption of Groundbreaking Local Energy Plan
On July 18, the Board of East Bay Community Energy adopted—after a more than year-long effort by the Local Clean Energy Alliance to support and assure its completion—a groundbreaking plan for local clean energy resources development in the East Bay. The Local Development Business Plan, as it is called, is a roadmap for providing local clean energy benefits in the East Bay by investing in the development of local renewable energy resources. The Plan spells out actions and strategies for promoting local clean energy and addressing the environmental, economic, and social justice needs of the East Bay community.

•    Defeat of AB 813
AB 813, the bill to create a new Western regional authority to control the energy market of eleven Western states died on the last day of the legislative season, August 31, 2018. The bill, promoted by big transmission line and fossil fuel interests and supported by Governor Brown, was bitterly opposed by the California Alliance for Community Energy, led by the Local Clean Energy Alliance, and hundreds of grassroots and advocacy organizations who value local and state control of energy resources and policies.Thankfully climate and energy activists prevailed against this institutional onslaught.

•    Community-Owned Shared Solar Model
This fall, the East Bay Shared Solar Collaborative, an initiative of the Local Clean Energy Alliance, proposed a community-owned shared solar program model to East Bay Community Energy. This model, which took over a year to develop, is designed to enable low-income communities and communities of color to build and own shared solar facilities and to benefit from that ownership.

•    The Energy Democracy National Tour
The Tour, organized by the Local Clean Energy Alliance as a follow-up to the book, Energy Democracy: Advancing Equity in Clean Energy Solutions, concluded at the end of October, having highlighted seventeen alternative, frontline-led and justice-centered renewable energy efforts in communities across the country. The Tour brought national attention to these efforts to democratize energy: to empower these communities and to meet their needs to survive and prosper.

2017 [.pdf]: Ground-breaking High-impact Advocacy, 2017

•    Facilitated the East Bay Clean Power Alliance
Organized and facilitated monthly meetings of the East Bay Clean Power Alliance general membership, maintaining communication between the general membership and the Coordinating Committee, and has helped set the political and organizing agenda for the Alliance as a whole. We organized 30 organizations to formally sign on to the Alliance in 2017.

•    Provided leadership to the Coordinating Committee of the East Bay Clean Power Alliance
Our leadership has resulted in a politically unified Coordinating Committee, which takes collective responsibility for guiding the East Bay Clean Power Alliance in carrying out the multitude of tasks aimed at shaping the Alameda County Community Choice program, East Bay Community Energy, established in January 2017. This included forming a strong Community Advisory Committee; requiring the CEO to engage the community and governing board in transparent contracting processes; elevating the importance, profile, and community engagement in the Local Development Business Plan effort, and keeping community benefits at the center of East Bay Community Energy.

•    Convened and led the East Bay Shared Solar Collaborative
The goal of the Collaborative is to propose a community shared solar program to East Bay Community Energy and develop one or more demonstration projects. The Collaborative developed an overview document of community shared solar principles, goals, and concepts; shared this document with over 20 experts nationwide, and incorporated the feedback in its program design efforts; and was awarded a $10,000 Technical Assistance grant from the U.S. Department of Energy SunShot Initiative’s Solar in Your Community Challenge. The grant was used to develop a financial model for community shared solar projects, formulate a tax equity flip ownership model to enable community ownership of solar projects, and engage with potential investors.

•    Organized a series of 5 public education and outreach events—Local Clean Energy Alliance Presents—each attended by about 25 persons:
- April 6, 2017 - Electrifying! Toward Fossil Fuel Free Homes
- May 11, 2017 - Community Choice 101
- June 8, 2017, - Everything you wanted to know about…Going Solar!
- August 10, 2017 - What’s Up with Utility Bills
- September 25, 2017 - Public Banks Power Local Renewables  

•    Coordinated the California Alliance for Community Energy
We continued to provide leadership to the Steering Committee of this statewide alliance of Community Choice advocates, which defends and supports Community Choice programs to advance local clean energy for the environmental, economic, and social justice benefit of California communities. This included statewide conference calls, position papers, legislative advocacy, and regulatory actions.

•    Published Energy Democracy: Advancing Equity in Clean Energy Solutions in October
The Local Clean Energy Alliance partnered with collaborators of the Energy Democracy Project to publish (through Island Press) an edited volume that describes the vision, strategies, principles, and transformative energy model of the energy democracy movement, as told by the leaders of that movement. The book has received acclaim from Naomi Klein, Mustafa Ali, Manuel Pastor, Angela Glover Blackwell, Gerry Hudson, Gar Alperovitz, and Bill McKibben

•    Hosted an Energy Democracy book release party and 10-year anniversary celebration of the the Local Clean Energy Alliance.
This event, supported by a high-profile host committee of 30 people, drew over 200 people to celebrate ten years of accomplishment of the Local Clean Energy Alliance—highlighting the release of Energy Democracy and the establishment of East Bay Community Energy, Alameda County’s Community Choice energy program.

•    Hosted the Clean Power, Healthy Communities 2017 Conference
The sixth annual conference consisted of morning plenaries and afternoon breakout sessions focusing on the theme of Bringing Energy to the Movement for Justice. Attended by about 200 people, and supported by 64 financial and 14 in-kind sponsor organizations, the conference raised a total of $53,000 in sponsorship and registration revenues.

•    Developed the infrastrucutre, internal capacity, and methodology to cultivate a sustainable donor base.
We used the Network for Good platform and fundraising coaching to conduct two special fundraising appeals—spring and end-of-year—and two “Plug in to Local Clean Energy” house party events to cultivate prospective major gift donors, raising $13,351, a nearly six-fold increase over the previous year’s donations

2016 [.pdf]: Year-End Report 2016

•    Facilitated the East Bay Clean Power Alliance.
Organized and facilitated monthly meetings of the East Bay Clean Power Alliance general membership, maintaining communication between the general membership and the Coordinating Committee and helped set the political and organizing agenda for the Alliance as a whole.

•    Provided leadership to the East Bay Clean Power Alliance Coordinating Committee.
Organizing within the Coordinating Committee has resulted in a politically unified Committee, which takes collective responsibility for making decisions and carrying out the multitude of tasks aimed at shaping the Alameda County Community Choice program. In 2016 the Coordinating Committee worked collaboratively to produce several important documents and communications related to Alameda’s Community Choice program: Program Vision: A Community-Development Focused East Bay Community Energy Program and Proposals for Alameda County’s Community Choice JPA Agreement.

•    Organized a strategy session in early February in Washington, DC of energy democracy leaders from across the country.
The Local Clean Energy Alliance partnered with collaborators of the Energy Democracy Project to convene a day-long exploration of energy democracy issues for a group of about two dozen leaders of energy democracy projects from across the country.

•    Coordinated the California Alliance for Community Energy.
The Local Clean Energy Alliance chaired the Steering Committee of this statewide alliance of Community Choice advocates, which conducts monthly conference calls on issues of concern to incipient and established Community Choice programs and takes stands to defend and support Community Choice programs that advance local clean energy for the environmental and economic benefit of California communities. In March the Alliance took a strong position on stranded utility contract fees charged to Community Choice customers.

•    Organized and hosted a March 15 Public Event: Clean Power to the People.
This event was held to deepen the community’s vision of a Community Choice energy program in the East Bay and to focus on program goals that advance economic, environmental, and racial justice. The event emphasized the critical moment for East Bay community energy, as the County was fast-tracking the establishment of a program that could leave our communities out in the cold.
 
•    Organized and hosted a May 25 Public Event: Strategy Session.
This event was held to engage community organizations in the East Bay and solicit ideas for community action to support the call for a JPA agreement that includes direct community involvement in the governance of the program and a stated commitment to community benefit goals. Participants suggested a press conference, getting attention to the issue through social media, and rolling out a letter-writing campaign using and online platform for generating letters to the Board of Supervisors.

•    Organized a Democratizing Energy workshop track at CommonBound 2016.
This workshop track at the New Economy Coalition’s CommonBound 2016 conference in July, was organized by a coordinating committee led by the Local Clean Energy Alliance. The track included ten sessions on topics of importance to energy democracy: community engagement, the role of race in energy democracy, energy policy, confronting utility power, energy development models, financing, and labor.

•    Signed up fifty-six organizations to call on County Supervisors to “Put Our Communities in Community Choice.”
This accomplishment was the result of an intensive, months-long outreach effort to engage community organizations and requesting that they sign on to a call for a joint powers authority (JPA) agreement that includes direct community involvement in the governance of the Community Choice program and a stated commitment to community benefit goals put forward for the program. Fifty-six organizations signed on by July 27.

•    Organized a successful Web-based Letter Campaign to County Supervisors.
This campaign, organized with other members of the East Bay Clean Power Alliance, reached out to community members to write to Supervisors using a web-based letter-writing platform calling on the Supervisors to make sure our communities are at the center of the Alameda County’s Community Choice program. The campaign resulted in 343 letters to County Supervisors as of August 1.

•    Achieved a Solar Siting Survey for Alameda County.
Prior to securing the commitment to prepare a business plan for the development of local renewable energy resources (see next bullet), Alameda County staff agreed to an important first step: an investigation of the technical potential for local solar development—a solar siting survey, which will be conducted at County expense.

•    Secured commitments to local renewable development and community benefits in Alameda County’s Community Choice program.
On October 4th, the Alameda County Board of Supervisors, responding to community advocates, approved a Joint Powers Authority Agreement that includes a commitment to maximizing community benefits and including community input in the governance of the program. Specific achievements formalized in the JPA agreement include (a) a commitment to developing, within witht months of agency formation, a business plan for achieving local renewable energy development, union and family-supporting jobs, and other community benefits and (b) setting a new precedent by establishing a Community Advisory Committee whose chair sits on the JPA Board as a non-voting member.

2015 [.pdf]:

•    Formally launched and provided staffing for the East Bay Clean Power Alliance.
The Alliance is an organization advocating for a community-development-focused Community Choice energy program in the East Bay, one that serves to spur equitable economic development and family-sustaining clean energy jobs, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, stabilize or lower the cost of electricity, improve community health and social equity, and provide other community benefits.

•    Provided leadership to the East Bay Clean Power Alliance and its successful advocacy.
This included advocating for: 1) strong Community Choice program goals, 2) a more diverse Alameda County Community Choice steering committee structure, 3) a feasibility study RFP that reflects stated program goals and a prioritizing of local renewable energy resource development, 4) a vision of what a community-development-focused program would look like, 5) a commitment to local build-out planning, and 6) an overall strong community presence before the Alameda County Board of Supervisors.

•    Convened the fifth annual Clean Power, Healthy Communities Conference on March 5, 2015.
This year’s conference focused explicitly on energy democracy and community-based decentralized renewable energy as a path to community empowerment. Drawing leaders from around the U.S. as conference speakers, the conference was an unprecedented exploration of strategic perspectives on energy democracy. Videos of the presentations are posted on the conference web site, in particular, Envisioning Energy Democracy.

•    Organized and led a successful March 5, 2015 labor workshop on local clean energy development.
The workshop brought together about 15 unionists and about twice as many energy activists to discuss local clean energy development and family-sustaining, clean energy jobs. The workshop drew union members and officials from across organized labor, from public service workers, nurses, warehouse workers, private sector services, and building trades. Labor participants were deeply engaged in the discussion and in pursuing the issues of climate and social justice within their unions.

•    Published and began distribution of Toward a Climate Justice Energy Platform: Democratizing Our Energy Future.
This paper presents a vision of a democratized energy future. It explores the strategic relationship between energy and climate justice and identifies principles of democratized energy development. The paper discusses issues, criteria, and models relevant to a climate justice energy platform and proposes a set of policies and programs to advance energy democracy.

•    Hosted a convening in early March in Oakland of energy democracy leaders from across the country.
The Local Clean Energy Alliance partnered with the Center for Social Inclusion and the Climate Justice Alliance to organize a day-long exploration of energy democracy issues for a group of about two dozen leaders of climate justice initiatives based in low income communities and communities of color from Jackson, Mississippi to Detroit, Michigan.

•    Wrote and won unanimous passage on June 16, 2015 of an Oakland City Council resolution.
The resolution called for an East Bay Community Choice program shaped by the community benefit goals and vision promoted by the East Bay Clean Power Alliance.

•    Organized and hosted a July 24 Roundtable on Labor, Climate, and Energy.
This roundtable drew about 25 labor activists from a variety of local unions. The workshop focused on the impact of climate on all workers, the need for solutions that promote social justice, and for energy models that build resilience in our communities. In particular, it highlighted the emergence of a Community Choice program in the East Bay.

•    Created a statewide Community Choice advocacy alliance, the California Alliance for Community Energy.
The Alliance consists of advocates from Community Choice initiatives across the state. The Local Clean Energy Alliance organized and chaired the Alliance’s Steering Committee, began conducting statewide conference calls, and engaging in state policy and program issues.

•    Collaborated with organizations across the country to create and lead the Energy Democracy Project.
This project brings together organizations and individuals across the country to popularize and advance energy democracy as a key strategic perspective within the climate and new economy movement, and which seeks to replace our current corporate fossil-fuel economy with one that puts racial, social, and economic justice at the forefront of the transition to a 100% renewable energy future.

•    Local Clean Energy Alliance Steering Committee members were appointed to community advisory and oversight bodies for establishing and shaping Community Choice energy programs in Alameda County and San Mateo County.

•    Hosted and organized a December 15 community discussion, Putting Our Community in Community Choice Energy.
This event was a discussion among community organizations in the East Bay to promote a Community Choice energy program in the East Bay that advances economic, environmental, and racial justice. The discussion drew 25 community leaders, mostly individuals of color from base building, clean energy, social justice, religious, and union organizations in Oakland and neighboring communities.

•    Created an online directory, Resources on Energy Democracy.
This resource directory includes the most important documents, videos, and articles about democratizing the energy system.

2014 [.pdf]:

·      Published and distributed East Bay Community Choice Energy: From Concept to Implementation. This report is the A to Z of Community Choice energy programs for policy makers and stakeholders in any community, and strongly impacted thinking about Community Choice in the East Bay.

·      Organized Growing Clean Energy Jobs in Oakland on behalf of the Clean Energy & Jobs Oakland Campaign to educate residents of East Oakland on the potential of Community Choice energy as a vehicle for creating local clean energy jobs. The event, on April 5, 2014 at Youth UpRising, drew approximately 100 attendees, approximately three-fourths of whom were people of color, including youth, representing four different high schools.

·      Mobilized to achieve a successful vote on June 3, 2014 of the Alameda County Board of Supervisors to spend $1.3 million to take initial steps toward establishing a Community Choice energy program in the county.

·      Organized a sprited noon-time rally of over sixty people on June 19, 2015 outside PG&E’s payment center in downtown Oakland to protest PG&E's backing of AB 2145, legislation meant to prevent the establishment of new Community Choice energy programs in California.

·      Formed the Coordinating Committee and provided crucial leadership to the opposition coalition,  Californians for Community Choice, which defeated AB 2145 in the 2014 legislative session, despite the bill's backing by both the state’s investor-owned utilities and the California Labor Federation.

·      Played a leading role in creating the East Bay Clean Power Alliance in fall 2014, whose mission is to advocate for Community Choice energy programs in the East Bay that serve to spur equitable economic development and family-sustaining clean energy jobs, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, stabilize or lower the cost of electricity, improve community health and social equity, and provide other community benefits.

·      Using the paper Expressions of Energy Democracy, initiated a discussion among climate justice organizations across the country toward the formation of a National Energy Democracy Network and consolidation of those organizations around a climate justice energy platform.

·      Released the promotional  video, Community Choice, Community Power, which highlights the Local Clean Energy Alliance’s perspective on Community Choice energy programs and the broader democratization of energy.

·      Conducted policy briefings and made presentations for the Good Jobs Green Jobs Conference, Growing Clean Energy Jobs in Oakland Forum, 350 Bay Area's Dirty Energy/Clean Solutions Conference, Left Forum in New York City, Sierra Club Loma Prieta Chapter, International Visitor Leadership Program, People's Climate Justice Summit, and others.

·      Anchored the Oakland Climate Action Coalition, a nationally-respected example of cross-sector climate justice organizing and community engagement. Played a major role in securing and carrying out grants to strengthen community resilience in the face of climate change.

  2013:

·      Hosted the fourth annual Clean Power, Healthy Communities Conference on October 17 featuring keynote speaker Tom Steyer, climate mover and shaker, and 150 diverse clean energy advocates, including 39 sponsoring organizations, to build a political constituency and overcome financing barriers for local renewable energy development.

·      Convened the community advocacy group of organizations that pressed the CleanPowerSF program to honor its commitment to the development of local renewable energy resources (and jobs), despite political setbacks to CleanPowerSF stemming from the influence of PG&E in city government. LCEA chaired meetings of stakeholders with SF Public Utilities Commission staff.

·      Expanded the Clean Energy & Jobs Oakland campaign of the Oakland Climate Action Coalition to establish a Community Choice energy program in the East Bay, garnering support from twenty-seven community organizations.

·      Conducted policy briefings and made presentations for the Economic Roundtable of San Francisco, First National Adaptation Forum, Good Jobs Green Jobs Conference, Spring of Sustainability Roundtable, Sierra Club Loma Prieta Chapter, International Visitor Leadership Program, and the California Chapter of the American Planning Association.

·      Wrote and distributed a highly-acclaimed paper on renewable energy certificates, which is cited around the country: What the Heck is a REC?

·      Organized four educational program events on topical energy subjects: fracking in California, intelligent grid, California’s valuation of solarPV, and 350 Bay Area campaigns.

·      Anchored the Oakland Climate Action Coalition, a nationally-respected example of cross-sector climate justice organizing and community engagement. Played a major role in restructuring Coalition operations to win key grants to further its work on behalf of Oakland’s Energy and Climate Action Plan.

      2012:

·      Organized the third annual Clean Power, Healthy Communities Conference

·      Led a coalition of groups that succeeded in passing a September 18 resolution at the San Francisco Board of Supervisors that launched the CleanPowerSF program, and which included a commitment to development of local renewable energy resources

·      Organized the Clean Energy & Jobs Oakland campaign to establish a Community Choice energy program in the East Bay and won support from seventeen community organizations and several City Council members in the closing months of the year

·      Organized a successful campaign to pressure Governor Brown to veto AB 976, a stealth anti-Community Choice bill that sailed through the state legislature

·      Conducted policy briefings and made presentations for the Progressive Opportunities Conference, Good Jobs Green Jobs Conference, People Organized to Defend Employment Rights, Economics of Happiness Conference, San Francisco Environment Commission, Alameda County Planning Department, Sierra Club Loma Prieta Chapter, City of Alameda Democratic Club, Berkeley Climate Action Coalition

·      Wrote and distributed two papers on decentralized energy: Will SB 843 Promote Community Solar Gardens? (January) and Labor’s Stake in Decentralized Energy (October)

      2011:

·      Organized the second annual Clean Power, Healthy Communities Conference

·      Conducted policy briefings for Asia Pacific Environmental Network, California League of Conservation Voters, and the California Environmental Justice Alliance

·      Led a coalition of groups that obtained commitment from San Francisco Public Utilities Commission to develop local renewable energy resources in its CleanPowerSF program

2010:

·      Organized the first annual Clean Power, Healthy Communities Conference

·      Played a leading role in the successful grassroots effort to defeat Prop 16: the PG&E power grab

·      Published Community Power: Decentralized Renewable Energy in California

·      Conducted a workshop on Community Choice energy for Oakland City Council

2009:

·      Successfully advocated for the City of Oakland to develop a process for citizen input on the Climate Action Plan

·      Successfully advocated for Oakland Public Works to propose an aggressive greenhouse gas reduction targets to the City

·      Successfully advocated for Oakland, Berkeley, and Hayward to join other Alameda County cities in the stopwaste.org comprehensive energy efficiency program, "Green Packages"

·      Successfully advocated for Oakland and Berkeley to pass resolutions supporting SB 279, needed for robust financing of energy efficiency and renewable energy in the East Bay

2008:

·      Developed a policy document – The 21st Century Greenprint for the East Bay – that was subsequently introduced as a source document for potential actions into Oakland’s Climate Action Planning Process

·      Supported the first use of redevelopment funds in Alameda County for installing sustainable energy technologies on low income and nonprofit homes to improve affordability

·      Proposed a locally-focused Community Choice energy program and successfully advocated for City Council workshops on such a program in Oakland and Berkeley