Matthew Savage's Blog

So you may be wondering: what can I do to make a difference to the planet? (See below for the 5 THINGS THAT YOU CAN DO).

Well, besides changing your lightbulbs, consciously using less water and energy, buying a hybrid or installing solar power on your roof, there is something called Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) that could prove to be very promising for some areas. The problem is, not many people know about it. The two major sources of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions are from cars and buildings. Community Choice would focus on the buildings part.

Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) is a system that was made into law in the states of Massachusetts, Ohio, New Jersey, Rhode Island and California (AB 117) which allows cities and counties to aggregate the buying power of individual customers within a defined jurisdiction in order to secure alternative energy supply contracts.

Essentially, cities get together and form what’s known as a Joint Powers Authority (JPA) to buy renewable energy mostly from wind, solar, geothermal and biomass and your local utility would still transmit the power and maintain the lines. The best of both worlds, right? Therefore, you would still get your same utility bill, although the power would come from renewable energy instead of coal, natural gas and other non-renewable sources.

Marin County, CA – one of the most liberal and wealthiest counties in the nation – is looking at CCA in depth, calling it Marin Clean Energy (MCE) [www.marincleanenergy.info]. This could be a perfect test bed for CCA and serve as a successful example for other counties and cities in the five eligible states. There are successful models of CCA already in place in various counties and cities across the nation, with about 1 million people receiving their power this way already.

That’s not to say that only the wealthy could afford CCA. The prices for CCA would be comparable to the prices we pay currently, maybe slightly higher at first, but as the cost of natural gas and other non-renewable sources goes up, the fixed price of fuel that renewable energy affords will be stable and much cheaper than most alternatives in the long run. What’s more, it would encourage money to stay more in the local economies and would promote renewable-based businesses.

Marketing gurus know that the “It’s good for planet” ticket only gets you so far. Actually, money is the bottom line for mass adoption of almost any new product, service or structural change. It has to be as good or better than the current option. Luckily, CCA achieves both affordability and eco-friendliness.

The MCE plan could reduce CO2 emissions by 70,000 tons per year by 2010 and 350,000 tons by 2019! Compared to other reduction efforts like encouraging community car-sharing and improvements to public transportation, this would be THE single most important effort for a rapid reduction of GHG emissions in our local communties.

Time is of the essence. Most of our local energy utilities simply cannot meet their renewable energy goals or Renewable Production Standards (RPS) as quickly as we could under CCA. It is up to us to tell everyone we know. We must act now!

5 THINGS THAT YOU CAN DO:

1. GET INFORMED. If you live in Marin or in any of the other proposed CCA areas, find out when there is a presentation in your town or city. Sign up for the mailing list. If there is not an upcoming event, start one!

2. SPREAD THE WORD. Tell everyone that you know about CCA. Get excited and spread the enthusiasm to others!

3. GET INVOLVED. The most important step of all. Write or call your city council members or county supervisor to tell them that you support this initiative. This is the single most important thing you can do because they will vote on your behalf.

4. START ONE. If there is no CCA planned for your community and you are located within one of the five eligible states (Massachusetts, Ohio, New Jersey, Rhode Island and California), call your city council or mayor and get as many people as you know to do the same to show interest for Community Choice Aggregation.

5. FORM A COMMUNITY ACTION GROUP. Use meetup.com to meet people in your local area with common interests. The keys to forming a group are consistency and small group size. Download our action pack from cleanroots.com for help starting a group and for other ideas to work on in your local community.

California Communities currently considering CCA:

• Marin County, Marin Clean Energy (MCE)
• San Joaquin Valley CCA formed; Contract finalized
• San Francisco CCA business plan complete
• Oakland
• Berkeley
• Emeryville
• Chula Vista drafting CCA business plan
• West Hollywood
• Beverly Hills
• Pleasanton
• San Luis Obispo
• Davis actively considering CCA

More detailed feasibility studies can be found on the Local Government Commission website [http://www.lgc.org/cca/].