Local Clean Energy Alliance 2010 Campaigns and Priorities

The Local Clean Energy Alliance is mainly focused on local and regional policy but we also take stands on state energy policy as appropriate. Our state policy priority for 2010 was defeating Proposition 16 - the PG&E Power Grab. Mission Accomplished!  We are also on the steering committee for the Communities United Against the Dirty Energy Prop (Prop 23).

Our three main policy priorities for 2010 are:

  1. A broad based campaign advocating for a comprehensive and equitable Energy Reduction Managament program that reduces overall energy use as well as how much spend on energy, while creating local jobs. The campaign will include public administration of Energy Efficiency funds collected in the public goods charge, a point of sale ordinance, and on-bill financing of energy efficiency retrofits.
  2. A campaign to enroll Bay Area cities in a advocacy campaign to convince the CPUC to adopt a “High Distributed Generation” scenario in which PG&E would be ordered to procure a substantial portion of it’s renewables from distributed generation sources. Bay Area cities would benefit from renewable projects sited in their limits that would be subsidized through ratepayer recovery (as all generating facilities are). This would create jobs and revenue for cities, while helping them meet their greenhouse gas reduction goals.
  3. Defend Community Choice Energy programs.  Despite the defeat of Prop 16, Community Choice initiatives still face an uphill battle against PG&E, which is using its financial power and its leverage with the CPUC to try to undermine existing Community Choice programs and prevent establishment of new ones. While each Community Choice initiative is local in nature, broad regional coordination and support can be decisive in the success of each effort.  This effort will be to build a Bay Area wide political base for promoting and defending local Community Choice initiatives. One particular objective is to create a Community Choice program in Oakland.

Many options are available to Bay Area cities for developing a clean energy system, with some already underway. The Local Clean Energy Alliance has identified the following portfolio of tools as holding the greatest promise for increasing local clean energy generation and energy efficiency in our region:

Other tools include:

Community Choice Energy could be the mechanism to implement all of these highly effective and mutually reinforcing programs in the most cost-efficient manner. Full details on each of these tools are found in our policy platform document: The 21st Century Energy Greenprint for the East Bay.

Other Years' Policy Priorities: