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California’s Community Choice Agencies Celebrate Success

Zoom

Across California, 24 Community Choice Agencies provide clean power to more than 14 million customers. Community Choice Agencies are local, not-for-profit government agencies that empower communities to purchase electrical power on behalf of their residents. In this webinar, we’ll celebrate the successes of California’s Community Choice Agencies and Sonoma Clean Power’s tenth anniversary. Sonoma Clean … Read more

Ana Rosa Rizo-Centino

Environmental Justice Workforce Alliance Coordinating Team. Ana Rosa’s work focuses on community co-empowerment, government transparency, environmental justice issues, and support for working families. Ana has served as Network Manager of the Central Coast Climate Justice Network (C3JN), Central Coast Senior Organizer for Food & Water Watch, Mayor and Planning Commissioner for the City of Maywood, Executive Director for PUEBLO & PUEBLO Education Fund, California Lead Organizer for the National Farm Worker Ministry, and the National Coordinator for the Student Labor Action Project for the United States Student Association and Jobs with Justice. She currently works for the United Farm Workers. 

Joanne O’Neill

Joanne serves as the Director of Customer Programs at Clean Power Alliance, leading a mix of programs promoting electric vehicles and buildings, demand response, energy resiliency, and low-income community solar. She has over 15 years of experience delivering customer programs within the utility and consulting space. This includes over 5 years of leading the California operations at CLEAResult, the largest provider of emission-reducing energy solutions across North America, and more than 10 years at Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E). When at PG&E, Joanne designed and implemented numerous customer programs and led the strategy for the implementation of time-of-use rates.

Hydrogen in California: Production, Delivery, and End Uses

Today, more than 95 percent of hydrogen is produced from natural gas, a fossil fuel, local air quality pollutant, and climate-wrecker. Hydrogen combustion produces significant amounts of nitrogen oxides that are directly harmful to human health and contribute to the formation of smog. Although hydrogen is not a direct greenhouse gas, it is considered an … Read more

Sneha Ayyagari

Sneha Ayyagari (she/her/hers) utilizes her background in engineering, policy analysis, and capacity building to help advocate for more climate resilient and equitable policies, organizations, and technologies. She focuses on policy advocacy and implementation efforts for topics including equitable building decarbonization, energy equity, and clean energy workforce and entrepreneurship. She has a background in policy advocacy and analysis across a range of energy topics including distributed energy resources, energy efficiency, and environmental justice climate mapping tools. Most recently, Sneha was a Senior Associate at RMI where she supported government agencies and advocates in creating equitable energy efficiency and housing policies.

Steven A. Nissen

Steve Nissen is the President and CEO of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, which promotes the business, cultural and civic well-being of Hollywood and among other activities confers the Stars on the world famous Hollywood Walk of Fame. Simultaneously, Mr. Nissen maintains a consulting practice as head of the Nissen Consulting Group. Prior to taking his current positions, from 2008-2020 Nissen was a Senior VP at NBCUniversal, responsible for state and local government affairs— from intellectual property protection, First Amendment and film production to land use and government compliance. Mr. Nissen has been the Chair of several civic organizations in L.A., including the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, Central City Association, Los Angeles Economic Development Corp., FilmLA and the L.A. BioMed (now known as The Lundquist Institute). Nissen also is one of 10 Board Members of one of California’s largest charitable foundations, the Ralph M. Parsons Foundation. He has also served on the Executive Committees of the L.A. Police Foundation and Valley Industries and Commerce Association and is a Board Member of the Metropolitan YMCA.

Investing in Climate Despite Budget Uncertainty

Zoom

California’s legislative climate champions are going to be tested as this year’s estimated state budget deficit ranges from $38 to $53 billion according to the California State Senate’s Early Action Budget report. As the fifth-largest economy in the world, California must lead on climate investments, but Governor Newsom’s current climate budget proposal includes a whopping … Read more

Amy Costa

Amy Costa is Founder and CEO of Full Moon Strategies. She is a public policy, public affairs, and organizational strategist with over two decades of experience in an array of senior strategic and executive roles. Costa’s experience includes serving as top leadership at the highest levels of California government, leading public affairs strategy for one of California’s largest employers, teaching and coaching organizational decision-making for Fortune 100 companies, overseeing public affairs strategies for one of the world’s largest higher education systems, and running one of California’s largest counties.

Chris Chavez

Chris Chavez is the Deputy Policy Director for Coalition for Clean Air. Chris joined Coalition for Clean Air in 2017, and works on the state budget, local advocacy, and issues involving low-income and disadvantaged communities. Previously, Chris served as a Legislative Aide for State Senator Fran Pavley (ret.), staffing her on transportation, local government, and the Senate floor. Additionally, Chris served as a Senate Fellow for then-State Senator Alex Padilla and staffed legislation that improved rail service in Southern California. Prior to his time at the Capitol, Chris was a student advocate for California’s public higher education system. Chris has a BA in Political Science from California State University, Long Beach, and is a member of the City of Long Beach’s Parks, Recreation and Marine Commission.

Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan

Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan was first elected to represent Assembly District 16 in the California State Assembly in 2018, which includes Alamo, Danville, Dublin, Lafayette, Livermore, Moraga, Orinda, Pleasanton, San Ramon, and Walnut Creek.

Rebecca is an accomplished attorney, environmental advocate, community volunteer, law professor, and mother. As an attorney, Rebecca specialized in ensuring major corporations complied with environmental laws and regulations by leading internal investigations to improve their environmental practices, while maintaining profitability. She also worked with major tech companies on intellectual property cases involving such topics as copyright, trademark, and trade secret theft. Rebecca oversaw and grew her office’s pro bono program and, under her leadership, the office expanded its efforts to include civil rights, immigration, homelessness, and domestic violence.