Local Clean Energy Alliance of the Bay Area

(06/2023) East Bay Community Energy (EBCE), our Alameda County and City of Tracy not-for-profit electricity agency, has proposed a budget for the 2023-2024 fiscal year, which will be voted on by the Board of Directors on Wednesday June 21, 2023. This year’s proposed budget is notable for the estimated $177 million net increase in position (or surplus), about $1 million more than last fiscal year. The Local Development budget has grown from $5.1 million in 2019-20 the first operational year, to $25.9 million for 2023-24.

East Bay Clean Power Alliance (EBCPA) of which Local Clean Energy Alliance (LCEA) is a part of, celebrates some wins in the latest version of the proposed local projects budget, but continues to note that the amount that will benefit customers in low income communities of color falls very short of the $10 million that would meet the 40% for equity urged by President Biden known as “Justice 40.”

On May 24, LCEA hosted a webinar: Lithium Mining Behind the Curtain: What is Equity in an Extractive Energy Transition with Johanna Bozuwa, Leslie Quintanilla and Mariela Loera on the lithium extraction implicit in the energy transition. We were joined by over 140 attendees spanning environmental and energy justice movements. This turnout points to the necessity and under-representation of resource extraction as a topic in our movement for energy democracy. LCEA looks forward to hosting and participating in many more of these conversations!

You can watch the webinar at: https://drive.google.com/file/d/10gOOUx-gx3ROkmJjRRTritnwCVP6YP7T/view?ts=6489bcb0

(05/2023) This episode of the Just Solutions podcast speaks with energy justice expert Jessica Tovar, LCEA's Energy Democracy Organizer.
Jessica shares what exactly is community choice and what others can learn from her community’s implementation of this model.

 You can listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts or  LISTEN HERE to Episode 3: Understanding Community Choice Utilities with Jessica Tovar

(05/2023) East Bay Community Energy (EBCE) Board of Directors and the public got their first look at the agency’s 2023-2024 draft budget at the Executive Committee meeting, Wednesday, May 3. That budget will be discussed at the May 15 meeting of the EBCE Community Advisory Committee, and May 17 by the full Board of Directors. The final budget will be approved at the June 21 Board meeting.

LCEA encourages all EBCE communities to attend the budget meetings to see how their energy dollars are being spent. The Alliance will be pushing for more equitable financing of local projects, recognizing the long history of injustice in how infrastructure money is spent and the urgent need for increased energy resilience in frontline communities.

On Tuesday, April 18th, Local Clean Energy Alliance staff visited Castlemont High School to view Castlemont students’ final resilience hub designs  for the Lion Creek Crossings. Last fall, LCEA facilitated workshops with the Castlemont Students and youth at Lion Creek Crossings on resilience hubs and microgrids to support them in their projects.

(04/2023) Have you ever wondered why utilities are so against distributed, renewable energy like rooftop solar?
Then join us next Thursday, April 13th at 1pm PT/4pm ET, for an exciting briefing on the Center for Biological Diversity’s new report Rooftop Solar Justice.  Click here to register

(04/2023) It's good to be back in person in the LCEA office! Please let us know if you'd like to stop by for a meeting.

We've done some remodeling and could use some funds to further fix up the office furnishings and power our work.
Click here to DONATE. 

On Wednesday, March 15th, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD) voted to pass regulation on phasing out gas water and space heating appliances by 2027 and 2029 respectively. These appliances release NOx (nitrogen oxides) which contribute to particulate matter and greatly affect air quality. The Local Clean Energy Alliance, along with several other community based organizations, has been active in the pre-implementation working group held by Emerald Cities Collaborative in order to advocate for equitable implementation of this rule. There are still several active concerns!

On Tuesday March 7th, 2023, Local Clean Energy Alliance joined Reclaim Our Power (ROP) coalition members in protesting outside of the Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) San Ramon Conference Center. PG&E was holding a conference with Governor Gavin Newsom and his regulators in discussion about wildfire mitigation. The governor’s regulators have time and time again made excuses for the destruction that PG&E has caused, instead of actually holding them accountable.

To find out, check out this article What’s Going on with California’s Rooftop Solar Battle published in Non-profit Quarterly in February 2023.  The article mentions the work of the Local Clean Energy Alliance and quotes LCEA’s lead organizer, Jessica Tovar.

See also the article What Did California Miss with Its Recent Slashing of a Key Solar Incentive? published in Non-Profit Quarterly in March 2023.