[Sustain] Groups Cheer Historic CleanPowerSF Launch!

[Eric Brooks]

Hi all,

After a 12 year battle, the first contracts for the CleanPowerSF 
community choice program have at last been signed, ensuring that 
CleanPowerSF will enroll its first customers on May 1, 2016!

Below and attached is a press release on the victory. Feel free to 
forward it widely.

For Immediate Release:   January 13, 2016             Contact: Eric 
Brooks, 415-756-8844

CLEAN ENERGY & COMMUNITY ADVOCATES CHEER LAUNCH OF CLEANPOWERSF!

San Francisco, January 13, 2016 – After 12 years of diligent advocacy, 
local environmental and community groups today cheered the San Francisco 
Public Utilities Commission’s (SFPUC’s) launch of the CleanPowerSF 
community choice energy program.

Shortly after 4 PM on Tuesday, January 12, 2016, following the 
Commission’s unanimous approval, SFPUC General Manager Harlan Kelly 
signed the first power purchase contract to officially launch the 
program. CleanPowerSF will have a cleaner energy mix and lower rates 
than those of Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) and begins service to 
customers on May 1, 2016.

The program will provide the option for both commercial and residential 
customers to begin receiving 35% clean renewable electricity at a 
slightly lower rate than PG&E, or instead opt up to 100% clean energy 
for a slightly higher price. PG&E’s energy mix is currently around 27% 
renewable. SFPUC Assistant General Manager for Power Barbara Hale 
announced at Tuesday’s meeting that both commercial and residential 
customers can now pre-enroll to join CleanPowerSF at http://cleanpowersf.org

Outstanding issues with program implementation include the speed at 
which the program will be expanded citywide to provide savings to all 
residents and businesses, as well as the timeline and robustness of 
plans for comprehensive citywide and regional installations of local 
renewables. Advocates noted that this buildout must be engaged much 
sooner than currently planned in order to provide greater savings to 
residents and secure the program’s workforce development objectives of 
creating thousands of new jobs in the near term.

Rebecca Evans, Chair of Sierra Club’s San Francisco Bay Chapter said, 
“This action by the SFPUC to sell greener energy at lower rates is truly 
groundbreaking in a major city the size of San Francisco. Sierra Club’s 
members, and the planet, thank the SFPUC for launching this program and 
boldly leading the rest of the nation into a clean energy future. We 
call on other cities to quickly follow San Francisco’s lead.”

Jed Holtzman, Co-Coordinator of 350 San Francisco, said, “This crucial 
step forward for San Francisco comes at a key moment in the history of 
our planet. The international community agrees we need to move to 100% 
clean energy as soon as possible. If fully implemented, CleanPowerSF can 
take us there, provide a model for cities all around the world to 
follow, and play an outsized role in making our global renewable energy 
future a reality.”

Bruce Wolfe of the Haight Ashbury Neighborhood Council said, “The strong 
inclusion of commercial customers from the start in CleanPowerSF is so 
vital. San Francisco’s small businesses have been crying out for relief 
from PG&E’s high priced polluting electricity for decades. Now they are 
finally getting the choice of a cleaner and lower priced alternative.”

Eric Brooks, Campaign Coordinator of Our City SF, said, “The gas 
disaster in Southern California sounds the death knell of fossil fuel 
energy. San Francisco just made a decisive move toward ending dependence 
on such disastrous fossil fuels. Now it’s time to hire thousands of 
local union workers to build an infrastructure to deliver 50% of the 
City’s electricity from clean local sources by 2025, and 100% by 2035.”

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