Contact your local government officials about Stimulus

Current Status: Over

Results: Appear Favorable

Based on preliminary indications, it appears that almost all cities in Alameda County will be contributing towards the development of stopwaste.org’s “Green Packages” program. This is county-wide program for improving existing buildings and landscapes that maximizes the long-term benefits from Federal Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) ‘formula’ distributions to Alameda County jurisdictions, and increases competitiveness for additional funding. The project will promote a comprehensive green approach (energy, water, waste, health, resources) even if only a portion can currently be financed. It will promote these packages as a regional and statewide standard.

The project will also develop a Technical Advisory Group to help make specifications widely accepted and useful; conduct extensive outreach to help property owners know their retrofit options; perform training, verification and tracking to help property owners and funders maintain quality; and leverage funding for implementation from multiple sources.

The campaign below was started May 18, 2009

Now is the time to let our local government officials know that a comprehensive building retrofit and solar program will generate thousands of new long term jobs while maximizing quantified energy, water, and carbon reductions.

While we applaud Berkeley for their work on sustainable energy financing districts, financing alone will not get the East Bay anywhere close to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) 2020 target of a 40% energy reduction on average for all homes. We recommend that East Bay Cities set aside a small portion (e.g., 10%) of their stimulus funds for the administration of a county-wide program that coordinates workforce development, outreach, and quality assurance on a regional basis while enabling cities to address their city-specific needs.

Investing in a comprehensive community-scale building retrofit program would provide much greater returns than putting solar on municipal buildings. Benefits include increased sales tax revenue, new long term jobs, and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

Our Recommendation

We recommend that local governments invest 10% of their Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) formula dollars to help build program infrastructure and necessary program elements (e.g. workforce, marketing & outreach, quality assurance, administrative, etc.) needed for successful implementation of sustainable energy financing district. Furthermore, we further recommend that cities in Alameda county work together to apply for the competitive EECBG grants.

Organizations supporting comprehensive AB811 type programs and the idea of setting aside some stimulus funding for such a program include:

County of Los Angeles
Alameda County
CDA
StopWaste.org
City of Irvine
City of San Rafael
City of Santa Rosa
City of San Leandro
City of Calistoga
Green Capital Alliance in Sacramento Region
Sonoma County
California Center for Sustainable Energy
Build It Green
Local Clean Energy Alliance
Bay Localize
Emerson Environmental
Environmental Building Strategies
Renewable Funding
Sun Light & Power
Stone & Youngberg LLC
BKi

 

Act Now!

Please send an email or call the key influencers in your locale. Contacts for Oakland, Berkeley, and Hayward are below. Please also email dave@baylocalize.org to let us know who you contacted so we can track the outreach.

Talking points

  • A community-scale building retrofit and solar program will generate thousands of career-track new jobs while maximizing quantified energy, water, and carbon reductions.
  • This program can leverage multiple funding sources to encourage high participation while building the necessary workforce capacity and quality assurance to ensure success
  • Minimal local governmental staffing is required for program implementation
  • Aggregating cities voluntarily at the county or Council of Government (COG) level will promote consistency and drive down program costs.
  • East Bay cities need to leverage some of their EECBG formula dollars so that they are perceived to have some skin in the game for the competitive grants

 

Overview of the Recommended Program

Voluntary AB811 or Mello Roos special districts are the centerpiece of the program because they remove the high first cost barrier by providing low-interest long-term financing to building owners via annual property tax payments that transfer with the building when sold. However, in order to ensure significant market penetration and program success several supporting program elements are required. These include consistent and credible program standards for energy efficiency with clear verification protocols, training to ensure a robust and capable workforce, an effective marketing and outreach strategy offering bundled incentives to attain high participation, and a strict quality assurance program to protect consumers and reduce local government liability. In addition, ongoing tracking, measurement, and reporting is required to ensure program effectiveness and to quantify energy, water, and carbon reduction benefits.

A portion (10%) of each participating local government’s ARRA Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) funding would be committed to help build program infrastructure and necessary program elements (e.g. policy, workforce, marketing & outreach, quality assurance, administrative, etc.) needed for successful implementation of an AB811 or Mello Roos special assessment district. The California Energy Commission (CEC) is exploring the potential of matching that amount if local governments join larger county or COG-level aggregations for greater efficiency. AB811 or Mello Roos special assessment districts and new mortgage instruments such as FHA 203K loans would provide the financing to building owners. New and expanded 2009-11 utility-funded programs will add cash incentives for both broad building retrofits and renewables. NSP funds also can be utilized to retrofit foreclosed properties and incorporate green improvements.

 

 

Oakland
Key Stimulus Advisors from Council and the Mayor's Office
Ada Chan Councilor Kaplan's Policy Aide email 238-7083
Margaretta Lin Mayor's office email 238-3141
Zach Wald Councilor Brunner's Chief of Staff email 238-7001
Key Policy Shapers
Susan Kattchee Environmental Services Manager email 238-6382
Garrett Fitzgerald Sustainability Coordinator email 238-6197
Scott Wentworth Energy Engineer email 238-3984
City Council
Jane Brunner 1st District email 238-7001
Pat Kernighan 2nd District email 238-7002
Nancy Nadel 3rd District email 238-7003
Jean Quan 4th District email 238-7004
Ignacio De La Fuente 5th District email 238-7005
Desley Brooks 6th District email 238-7006
Larry Reid 7th District email 238-7007
Rebecca Kaplan At-large email 238-7008

 

Berkeley
Key Stimulus Advisors
Julie Sinai Mayor's Office Chief of Staff email 981-7100
Nils Moe Mayor's Office email 981-7100
Key Policy Shapers
Neal DeSnoo Energy Officer email 981-7439
City Council
Linda Maio 1st District email 981-7110
Darryl Moore 2nd District email 981-7120
Max Anderson 3rd District email 981-7130
Jesse Arreguin 4th District email 981-7140
Laurie Capitelli 5th District email 981-7150
Susan Wengraf 6th District email 981-7160
Kriss Worthington 7th District email 981-7170
Gordon Wozniak 8th District email 981-7180

 

Hayward
Key Stimulus Advisors
David Rizk Director of Development Services email 583-4004
Erik Pearson Senior Planner email 583-4210
Mayor and City Council
Michael Sweeney Mayor email 583-4340
Olden Henson Councilman email 583-4353
Bill Quirk Councilman email 583-4355