San Francisco Supervisors Approve CCA RFP

October 27 - San Francisco, California. Supervisors approved a major City document seeking a new, radically green supplier of electricity for San Francisco residents and businesses starting in 2010. Approving issuance of an RFP for the SF "Community Choice" (CCA) Program, commonly known as CleanPowerSF, Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi said it is a "benchmark occasion that we are advancing the RFP" to seek a new power supply for the seven-by-seven mile urban community of three quarters of a million people. For Local Power Inc., which over the past ten years has prepared the City’s H Bond Authority (2001), its CCA Ordinance (2004), CCA Implementation Plan (2007), and now the CCA RFP itself, the CCA RFP is the last, key stage of a decade long process bringing a revolutionary new energy concept to market. We are very pleased with the quality of the solicitation document, which will bring in a new power company to replace former monopoly Pacific Gas and Electric providing power to all San Franciscans under a new, innovative service intended to be 51% green (renewables and energy efficiency) by 2017 including development of 360 Mewawatts (about $600M) of new local green power facilities using financing from the City’s voter-approved green power revenue bond authority, Prop H. As reported in the San Francisco Examiner, this RFP has been made more flexible to bidders to in order to facilitate an accelerated RFP process to meet PG&E’s threat to block CCAs statewide through a $30M-$100M California initiative on the June 2010 statewide ballot. Given the importance of negotiating with prospective suppliers before the June 2010 deadline arrives, Local Power agreed that flexibility is needed, and we have worked hard to ensure that the CCA RFP remains substantively oriented towards the 360 MW rollout outcome, as well as the 51% by 2017 RPS outcome. For Local Power as a company, the issuance of this CCA RFP is a major event – the first official request for “Climate Works” by a U.S. City, according to Local Power’s “turnkey” or Design-Build-Operate-Maintain approach. The supplier would meet-or-beat PG&E’s rates now followed by a structured rate into the future that is intended to be competitive with PG&E – while providing benefits of much greener power and substantial localization of supply as well as demand technologies such as Smart Grid, demand reponse, and other decentralized power systems, including customer ownership. Prior to the Supervisors’ 1o-0 vote in favor of issuing the RFP, Mirkarimi restated the CCA program’s commitment to green power, promising "not just 15% renewables like other Californians get under state law, but towards a renewable standard of 50-plus-1 %” by 2017. Click here for a press release on the City's issuance of the RFP with the actual document and background article attached at PR.Com.

PG&E "Taxpayer Rights" Initiative Would Suppress Green City Movement

Bill, Initiative Would Block Climate Action Plans: “Taxpayers for The Right to Vote” Would Override City Governments' Authority to Negotiate With Green Power Suppliers

Facing energy mutinies by San Francisco, Marin County and potentially Sonoma County, Northern California energy monopoly Pacific Gas & Electric PG&E has filed a voter initiative posing as Prop 13 style taxpayer populism to require voter approval for San Francisco, Marin and other communities seeking to escape the mostly gas-fired utility utility by switching to and developing green power facilities. An opposition campaign has been formed by consumer and environmental organizations.

Shock Doctrine Populists: Orwellian “Right to Vote” PG&E Initiative Would Block Northern California Communities From Green Power & Climate Plans

PG&E has formed a committee and is now actively seeking to block the most bold, far reaching efforts of any entities in California or the U.S. to ramp up green power development and implement substantial greenhouse gas reduction plans. Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) has facilitiated visionary new projects in the Bay Area over the past decade, championed by the Sierra Club, Greenpeace USA and local groups. From the Morning Report, “Californians to Protect Our Right to Vote,” has major funding From Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E), calling itself "a coalition of taxpayers, environmentalists, renewable energy, business and labor." Sound populist to you?

David Room of the East Bay energy relocalization movement, said believes even East Bay Cities like Oakland and Berkeley might act to oppose threats to their rights to green their power under the state’s 2002 Community Choice law (Migden, 2002). Companies like Continental Wind Power have an interest in CCA so may support counter-campaign, but cities and counties like Marin and San Francisco will be approached for funding, according to CCA Advocate Tam Hunt in Santa Barbara.

For Inquiries about PG&E's initiative, contact “Taxpayers Right to Vote Act,” Robert Pence, Steven S. Lucas, 2350 Kerner Blvd. Suite 250, San Rafael, CA 94901, or Nance McFadden of PG&E – Board member, 77 Beale St, Mail Code B32, San Francisco, CA 94015.

To get involved, visit local.org/coalition.html and hook up.