Get Smart about Energy™

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We do encourage all readers to step away from "green hyperbole" and to calmly evaluate what they think will deliver a long term solution to meeting the goals of AB32, and eliminating the waste of energy in our community. It is important that we each consider the issues and opt-out if we disagree, or do nothing to accept MEA as the new energy supplier to Marin County.

Links to Web Pages in Favor of CCA

Local Power
Local Power Inc. is an Energy Service Bureau helping cities adopt, implement and manage Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) energy networks.

Local Clean Energy Alliance
The Local Clean Energy Alliance (LCEA) is working to build support for clean energy development in our region. The LCEA is a growing coalition of local nonprofits, businesses, and community leaders working for a clean energy future in the East Bay.

San Joaquin Valley Power Authority
The San Joaquin Valley Power Authority (SJVPA), which members include Kings County and the cities of Clovis, Corcoran, Dinuba, Kerman, Kingsburg, Lemoore, Hanford, Parlier, Reedley, Selma, and Sanger, have been working together over the past several years to establish a Community Choice program for the region.

Solar Times
Independent energy news, analysis and opinion from a progressive point of view

Expert Opinion
Recent opinion by a selection of informed local authors, energy experts, and journalists.


Links to Web Pages in Opposition to Marin Clean Energy Plan

Common Sense Marin - Standing Up for Marin Consumers
The Common Sense Coalition was formed to educate voters about the risks associated with the costly energy scheme being proposed by a new governmental entity: The Marin Energy Authority. Marin voters will not have the opportunity to vote before hundreds of millions of dollars are spent on this new government bureaucracy.

Expert Opinion
Recent opinion by a selection of informed local authors, energy experts, and journalists.

Friends of Mill Valley
Friends of Mill Valley is a grass-roots community organization that works to add the voice of the community to the City’s decision-making process about planning, growth and issues of significant public interest, and to promote greater citizen participation in shaping successful solutions.

Marin County Civil Grand Jury - Report titled Pull the Plug
We do encourage all interested parties to read the report, prior to evaluating the opinions being expressed on it. The conclusion however is quite clear, in particular that the Marin Energy Authority abandon its efforts to compete with PG&E.

PG&E Clean Energy Solutions
PG&E serves 5 percent of the country's population, yet we emit less than 1 percent of the total carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions associated with the nation's electricity production. On average, approximately half of the electricity PG&E delivers to its customers comes from a combination of renewable and greenhouse gas-free resources.


What is Community Choice Aggregation

Community Choice Aggregation - from Wikipedia
Community choice, or aggregation, will create community pools of electricity large enough to command leverage on the market, and with sufficient legal authority and financial flexibility to demand contracts from energy suppliers that satisfy local economic and environmental goals.

Community Choice Aggregation - PG&E Publication
Community Choice Aggregation, or CCA, is a program available within the service areas of investor-owned utilities, such as PG&E, which allows cities and counties to purchase and/or generate electricity for their residents and businesses. Under CCA, PG&E would continue to deliver the electricity through its transmission and distribution system and provide meter reading, billing, and maintenance services.


California Assembly Bills 32 and 117

Assemby Bill 32 - Copy Senate Legislation
This bill would require the state board to adopt regulations to require the reporting and verification of statewide greenhouse gas emissions and to monitor and enforce compliance with this program, as specified.

Assemby Bill 32 - Wikipedia
The Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 is an environmental law in California, signed into law by Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger on September 27, 2006. The bill establishes a timetable to bring California into near compliance with the provisions of the Kyoto Protocol.

Assemby Bill 32 - Press Release 09/27/2006
Joined by national and international dignitaries who have been leaders in the fight against global climate change, Gov. Schwarzenegger signed AB 32 by Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez (D-Los Angeles), California's landmark bill that establishes a first-in-the-world comprehensive program of regulatory and market mechanisms to achieve real, quantifiable, cost-effective reductions of greenhouse gases.

Assemby Bill 117 - Copy Senate Legislation
This bill would authorize customers to aggregate their electrical loads as members of their local community with community choice aggregators, as defined.

Assemby Bill 117 - Opinion by Paul Fenn
Communities in California won the right to take control of their energy supply on Tuesday when Governor Gray Davis signed Assembly Bill 117 (AB117), the California Community Choice Law.


Web Sites of Affected Organizations

Marin Energy Authority (MEA)
The purpose of the Marin Energy Authority (MEA) is to address climate change by reducing energy related greenhouse gas emissions and securing energy supply, price stability, energy efficiencies and local economic and workforce benefits.

Marin Clean Energy Plan
Marin Clean Energy (MCE) is a renewable energy alternative to PG&E's electric supply that will soon be available to Marin customers. MCE is responsible for sourcing the power and purchases the energy supply while PG&E continues to deliver the energy, maintain and repair transmission lines, and provide customer service and billing.

PG&E - Commercial
We are taking a lead in various parts of our business, including: delivering some of the nation's cleanest electric power, advocating for regulation of greenhouse gases through partnerships, investing in renewables, and supporting our customers through one of the country's most successful energy-efficiency programs—and many other innovative environmental initiatives like ClimateSmart™, a first-of-its-kind voluntary climate protection program.

PG&E - Residential
As a provider of electricity and natural gas to approximately 40 percent of Californians and 1 in 20 Americans, we recognize that the way we produce and deliver our products and serve our customers has a direct impact on the environment. We understand that environmental excellence is necessary to be a leader in our industry and to the success of our business.