Webinar: Investing in Clean Community Energy Resilience

This webinar is the fifth in The Climate Center’s Investing in Climate Action for Jobs, Health, and Equity webinar series.

This webinar addresses the challenges of securing clean, resilient, and reliable energy for California communities. Panelists discussed both current state programs for funding community energy resilience, as well as how to secure the additional investments required to ensure that all Californians can keep the power on during extreme weather events without increasing reliance on diesel generators. Attendees learned about public and private funding opportunities for communities interested in enhancing energy resilience with clean energy. 

Esta videoconferencia ofreció interpretación al español por parte de Lingüística Interpreting & Translation.

Esta videoconferencia aborda los desafíos de asegurar energía limpia, resistente y confiable para las comunidades de California. Los panelistas discutieron los programas estatales actuales para financiar la resiliencia energética de la comunidad, así como también asegurar las inversiones adicionales requeridas para garantizar que todos los californianos puedan mantener el suministro eléctrico durante los eventos climáticos extremos sin aumentar la dependencia de los generadores diésel. Los asistentes conocieron las oportunidades de financiación pública y privada para las comunidades interesadas en mejorar la resiliencia energética con energía limpia.

Presentations

Other Resources

Ali Chehrehsaz

CEO, TerraVerde Energy

Ali Chehrehsaz is a founding partner at TerraVerde Energy and serves as the Chief Executive Officer. Over his years at TerraVerde, Ali has spent much of his time leading the development of TerraVerde’s approach to project analysis, engineering, development, and implementation. Prior to joining TerraVerde, Ali managed development and implementation of utility scale solar projects, as well as working as a project engineer in the oil sands upgrading industry.

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Saharnaz Mirzazad

Chief Deputy Director: Policy and Planning, California Strategic Growth Council

Saharnaz was the Deputy Director of Community Investment and Planning at California Strategic Growth Council overseeing more than 3 billion dollars of investment in infrastructure programs and community-driven policy solutions. She worked with local and regional governments to pilot new initiatives for bridging climate and equity goals including the Transformative Climate Communities program. Saharnaz has over fifteen years of experience working in the public and private sectors on infrastructure development, climate resiliency, and community development.

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Jaime Alonso

Executive Director, Grid Alternatives – Inland Empire

Jaime Alonso is the Executive Director at Grid Alternatives, Inland Empire. Jaime Alonso was born and raised in the Coachella Valley. Like many in the region, he came from a family of Mexican migrant farmworkers. Raised in a trailer park in an unincorporated area of Riverside County, Jaime recognized early on that access to adequate housing, safe drinking water and reliable energy sources were not readily available. This recognition motivated him upon his return to the Coachella Valley after graduating from the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) in 2005 to become active with Inland Congregations United for Change (ICUC).

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Destiny Rodriguez

Destiny Rodriguez has worked on air quality, health, and environmental issues in the Central Valley for over a decade. Destiny has worked for the Central California Asthma Collaborative, Central Valley Air Quality Coalition, Coalition for Clean Air, National Parks Conservation Association, and the San Joaquin River Parkway and Conservation Trust. Destiny has a B.S. in Mass Communications Journalism with an emphasis on Public Relations, and Chicano Latin American Studies from California State University, Fresno.

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