With a view of the future? This past weekend I had the opportunity to visit the ranch of Steve Heckeroth, architect, legendary clean energy pioneer, inventor, former contributing editor for Mother Earth News, and in this instance, creator of the Solectrac electric drive tractor. Steve’s ranch, and e-tractor manufacturing operation, is located along the Mendocino Coast … Read more
On Tuesday, January 29, PG&E filed for protection under Chapter 11 bankruptcy law. The broad outline of the story, as most The Climate Center e-news readers are probably aware, is that as a result of utility equipment being pinpointed as a cause of many of the wildfires over the past two years, PG&Es’ liabilities outstrip … Read more
On August 1st the California Public Utilities Commission issued the long-awaited Proposed Decision* on the “exit fees” that Community Choice customers are charged for power that was purchased by private utilities on their behalf before they left (exited) to become Community Choice agency (CCA) customers. This is a pass-through charge because these fees are charged … Read more
Karen Barnes handles Development for The Climate Center. This summer we continue to work on our newest project, to bring Community Choice Energy to California’s Central Valley. All regions in our state should have access to clean power. Climate and environmental impacts are magnified and debilitating for disenfranchised communities that are disproportionately impacted by higher … Read more
CPUC adopts a favorably amended resolution, initially a big problem for emerging Community Choice agencies Clean energy advocates, local government elected officials, and Community Choice agencies (CCAs) scored a partial victory at a voting meeting of the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) in San Francisco on February 8th. Inundated by “thousands of emails” according to … Read more
by Ann Hancock, The Climate Center | March 10, 2016 In October 2014, at our first Business of Local Energy Symposium, only two operational Community Choice programs existed in California: Marin Clean Energy and Sonoma Clean Power. A mere sixteen months later, Community Choice is taking off across the state. We reported this story in … Read more
A two-year struggle to defeat an insidious piece of legislation in Sacramento, Assembly Bill 976, has come to a happy conclusion. On September 27 Governor Brown vetoed AB976 and added a brief signing statement (see below). In this statement the Governor echoed what community choice proponents drove home repeatedly in committee hearings and elsewhere. The … Read more
