Electrify Everything

350Marin is proud to be a part of the Clean Energy movement happening around the country and in all local groups of 350 Bay Area.   In California, it is now up to Governor Newsom to step up to the challenge of civilization and prioritize a kind of Green New Deal for California. Our campaign is focused on getting to that 100% carbon-neutrality goal for all of California even faster than the 2045 date that the Governor Brown set in his Executive Order at the same time SB 100 was passing in 2018. We also want to protect the community choice energy efforts in the state that began with our own MCEcleannergy (MCE).  While we help maintain the health of our own community choice energy program, we encourage other programs now in existence like Sonoma Clean Power and CleanPowerSF, or which have more recently formed locally as in Alameda, San Mateo, and Santa Clara Counties, from the inevitable attacks by the investor owned utilities and the CPUC which seems collude with the IOU’s.  We helped in the successful effort to get each City and Town in Marin, and the County to choose “Deep Green” with MCE for their pubic/municipal energy. Marin is now 100% for cites and the County so we are urging residents and businesses to also opt-up. Join the movement in Marin that all cities and the County have opted-up to and sign-up yourself today for Deep Green 100% Renewable Energy. You can help us! You can join the 350 Bay Area regional 100% Renewable/Clean Energy campaign by getting involved in our various efforts, discussed HERE. Contact Ken Jones at Ken@350BayArea.org if interested.

Another way to support the move to local clean energy that is reliably there in the way we want it as fast as can happen in CA is to support the thrust of CalCCA, the CA industry advocacy group, by joining and getting updates from BrightEnergyFutrureCA

We had some great success in 2015 with the passage of the landmark bill, SB 350, which has as its goal getting to 50% renewable energy and doubling energy efficiency by 2030. And then again in 2016 with the passage of SB 32 that set a goal of getting greenhouse gas emissions to 40% below 1990 levels by 2030.  And then, of course, in 2018, passing SB 100 that set the goal of 100% renewable for electricity by 2050 and some goals for years prior. But this only means there is so much to do to get to these goals.  We are fighting Big Oil and the big Investor Owned Utilities and need help. Last year the battle was mostly fought against those that want to slow down or even stop the Community Choice Energy program growth that has sped up the move for control of energy generation builf out to be local, renewable energy and 350 Bay Area did a good job of blocking that with our stands on bills.

And we were actively involved in the successful fight to protect rooftop solar in California back in late 2015 and early 2016 at the CPUC. We won for now!  Here is one link to read about it. And in the SF Chronicle here. 350Marin members gave public comment throughout the process. 350 Bay Area (thus 350Marin) was a “party” to this relatively contentious policy battle and filed detailed written comments with the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC). The CPUC finally did the right thing, on a close vote, by continuing the net-metering policy for two more years so expect, on this issue. We have been expecting to see a battle there on renewing the incentives but as yet that rule-making has not begun.  We continue (as 350 Bay Area) to be a party of various rule-makings that relate to community choice energy and incentivizing distributed energy resourses (DER) which are the more local renwable ones that are less dependent on expensive, problematic transmission lines.

Big utilities want to block rooftop solar by making it more expensive and taking the benefits of solar away from most Californians as it challenges their business model. We need all the clean energy we can get to stop climate change, clean the air and strengthen our local economy, keeping in mind the protection of communities most affected by the pollution from fossil fuel infrastructure. 350Marin, through 350 Bay Area, joined with Environment California, Vote Solar, the Sierra Club and others in the Coalition for Solar Rights to ask the CPUC to make the right decision for California and expand, not limit access to rooftop solar. This battle will likely continue in the state legislature as will much more related to the pace of renewable energy development and community choice energy programs, which are happening everywhere in CA now.  We will be following this closely and be in Sacramento fighting as we will be locally.  Please join us in these efforts.

Our campaign is dedicated to energizing ourselves and our state about possibilities expressed in this video:

It was created by a group that includes Mark Jacobson (more below), Mark Ruffalo (actor), and Josh Fox, (Gasland director).  We consult with them at times and The California Plan (part of their 50 state plan) is something we are actively involved in promoting.

We are mobilizing the energy of labor, youth, faith groups, environment and conservation interests, and clean energy businesses to advance groundbreaking state legislation to generate clean, local, renewable energy, while protecting our health and the air we breathe.  The answers to those who say we need fossil fuels are there.

United with all our 350 Bay Area local groups’ Clean Energy campaigns, we will galvanize support for the following policies:

  • Strengthen our state’s commitment to clean, renewable energy by pushing the state to increase its Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) to 80% by 2030. We were encouraged by the passage of SB 350 and Governor Brown signing it into law and particularly the way it incorporated some of the goals of SB 32, but all the goals fall short of what is needed and what we are fighting for. SB 100 was a step further in this direction by moving the 2030 goal to 60%.
  • Monitor CPUC for policy changes and fight against any that do not support a strong move towards local, community-based renewable energy.
  • Promote legislation that moves us as quickly as possible to 100% “carbon-free energy in California. In 2018, SB 100 was the best example of that kind of bill as it has as its goal 50% Renewable by 2026, 60% by 2030 and 100% “carbon-free” by 2045.
  • Make it easier to generate local power by cutting the red tape on roof-top solar hook-ups and microgrids

We will also work with our other campaigns to coordinate and come up with more innovative ideas.

While our focus is primarily on statewide policy, we also advocate for clean energy projects locally.

We were inspired by Stanford University Professor Jacobson’s keynote address (watch video) at our 350 Bay Area Climate Conference in May 2014. (While long, it’s very worthwhile.)

The panel discussion, moderated by Climate One’s Greg Dalton, that same night was also quite good (watch video) and you can read The California Plan written by Mark Jacobson and others.

Professor Jacobson’s ideas are also incorporated in the films like Green World Rising, featuring Leonardo DiCaprio.

For more information or to join us, email Ken.