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Hi all,<br>
<br>
The following crucial report (in the traditionally pro-PG&E San
Francisco Chronicle) is a *huge* step forward for CleanPowerSF and
all other Community Choice energy programs in the state. This report
will end the nonsensical PG&E posturing that Community Choice
somehow will not bring jobs, and the report will make the launch of
CleanPowerSF very likely within the next couple of years, because
the unions which San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee and PG&E have
previously manipulated against us will no longer be able to be able
to justify opposing CleanPowerSF to their rank and file members.<br>
<br>
This profoundly groundbreaking change in Chronicle news coverage is
a key validation that the establishing of extensive local clean
energy and efficiency installations as the foundation of Community
Choice programs, is vital to the next stages of our local and
statewide Community Choice efforts in California. <br>
<br>
It was the diligent work of San Francisco Green Party, Local Clean
Energy Alliance, 350 SF,
Sierra Club, Our City, Haight Ashbury Neighborhood Council (HANC),
and in the mid 2000s Greenpeace, which brought about this incredible
victory.<br>
<br>
Here is the report:<br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/S-F-clean-energy-program-could-generate-8-100-5897392.php">http://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/S-F-clean-energy-program-could-generate-8-100-5897392.php</a><br>
<h1 class="headline entry-title">SF clean energy program could
generate 8,100 jobs, report says</h1>
<h5 class="byline"><span class="name">By Marisa Lagos</span></h5>
<h5 class="timestamp" title="2014-11-16T19:19:40Z"> Updated 7:19 pm,
Sunday, November 16, 2014 </h5>
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<p>A renewable energy program in San Francisco could create more
that 8,100 construction jobs by building $2.4 billion worth of
proposed solar, wind and geothermal projects, a new report says.
That refutes many criticisms made by Mayor <a
href="http://www.sfgate.com/search/?action=search&channel=politics&inlineLink=1&searchindex=gsa&query=%22Ed+Lee%22">Ed
Lee</a> when the city killed a previous version of
CleanPowerSF, supporters of the plan say. </p>
<p>The proposal, which has wide support among the city’s
supervisors, would allow San Francisco to generate or purchase
its own clean energy and deliver it to consumers through Pacific
Gas and Electric Co.’s existing transmission network. The idea
is to offer a cleaner alternative to PG&E. </p>
<p>Because CleanPowerSF could shake the company’s decades-long
monopoly over delivering energy to San Francisco, it has met
stiff opposition — including from Lee and his allies. But the
program is overwhelmingly supported by the <a
href="http://www.sfgate.com/search/?action=search&channel=politics&inlineLink=1&searchindex=gsa&query=%22Board+of+Supervisors%22">Board
of Supervisors</a> and the city’s left, which has long sought
an alternative to PG&E. </p>
<p>The study by energy consultants EnerNex was commissioned by the
city’s <a
href="http://www.sfgate.com/search/?action=search&channel=politics&inlineLink=1&searchindex=gsa&query=%22Local+Agency+Formation+Commission%22">Local
Agency Formation Commission</a> and states the city doesn’t
need to contract with an outside company and could easily
administer CleanPowerSF through the <a
href="http://www.sfgate.com/search/?action=search&channel=politics&inlineLink=1&searchindex=gsa&query=%22San+Francisco+Public+Utilities+Commission%22">San
Francisco Public Utilities Commission</a>.</p>
<p>The often-fractured Board of Supervisors has coalesced around
the program, known as community choice aggregation, or CCA, and
continued to push for some iteration of it even after the <a
href="http://www.sfgate.com/search/?action=search&channel=politics&inlineLink=1&searchindex=gsa&query=%22PUC+commission%22">PUC
commission</a> last year refused to set rates and bring in
Shell Energy North America to be the city’s power broker for at
least five years. The PUC commission is appointed by the mayor.</p>
<p>Supporters said the EnerNex report sketches out a plan that
avoids many aspects of the earlier proposal criticized by the
mayor and others — that it wouldn’t create local jobs, that the
power wouldn’t be renewable or cheap enough, and that it would
be run by an out-of-state corporation best known for its oil
division.</p>
<p><strong>Report affirms job creation</strong></p>
<p> </p>
<p>Supervisor <a
href="http://www.sfgate.com/search/?action=search&channel=politics&inlineLink=1&searchindex=gsa&query=%22London+Breed%22">London
Breed</a> said the report affirms what she and other
supervisors “have been saying all along, and what Marin and
Sonoma have already demonstrated: that a robust clean power
program will not only provide cleaner air and competitive rates
— it will create jobs and benefit the local economy.” Marin and
Sonoma counties already have CCAs.</p>
<p>Supervisor <a
href="http://www.sfgate.com/search/?action=search&channel=politics&inlineLink=1&searchindex=gsa&query=%22Scott+Wiener%22">Scott
Wiener</a> said the study “demonstrates a clear path for
CleanPowerSF, in terms of clean and renewable energy generation,
and that it could happen with or without the Shell contract,”
and “does a great job talking about all the different
opportunities to increase the generation of clean and renewable
energy — solar, wind, geothermal, hydro power.”</p>
<p>A spokesman for Lee, who has always insisted he does not oppose
the CleanPowerSF program itself, seized on the report’s findings
that a Shell contract was unnecessary. </p>
<p>“After months and months of study, public power advocates have
finally concluded that a contract with Shell Oil was never an
appropriate way for San Francisco to make progress on our
environmental goals,” spokeswoman <a
href="http://www.sfgate.com/search/?action=search&channel=politics&inlineLink=1&searchindex=gsa&query=%22Christine+Falvey%22">Christine
Falvey</a> said in a written statement. “This latest report
confirms that a real clean energy program should include real
local jobs and real clean energy ... which is something we can
now all agree on. In recent years, these critical elements were
nowhere to be found.”</p>
<p><strong>Lee opposes opt-out method </strong></p>
<p>Falvey said the mayor still has concerns over whether a program
would rely in part on transferable renewable energy credits
rather than 100 percent clean energy generation, and he
continues to oppose the opt-out provision that, under state law,
automatically enrolls customers who could opt-out if they’d
rather stay with PG&E.</p>
<p>To ensure that rates are competitive with PG&E’s, the
report says the city will have to determine generation prices
ahead of time and build a program backward from there. The Local
Agency Formation Commission, which commissioned the report, is
an agency of the board of supervisors.</p>
<p>EnerNex also recommends focusing on local employment, in part
by giving “a preference for projects that are physically located
within the city and county of San Francisco.” The report lays
out at least five large-scale solar projects that could be built
in San Francisco and would create about 1,000 local construction
jobs. Other potential projects identified in the report would
create local jobs, because they are close enough to San
Francisco to fall under it’s “local hire” ordinance. EnerNex
anticipates the program would create 180 permanent operations
jobs.</p>
<p>The report notes the program could help the SFPUC stabilize its
power division, which has serious budget challenges because most
of the hydropower it generates through its Hetch Hetchy water
system is sold to city agencies or wholesale at deeply
discounted rates. The report recommends using CleanPowerSF to
help fund a pet project of Lee’s, GoSolarSF — which provides
incentives for property owners to install solar panels. </p>
<p><strong>More local jobs</strong></p>
<p>Those sorts of private renewable energy projects on homes and
businesses within the city also stand to help CleanPowerSF
improve its green portfolio, lower costs for consumers and
create even more local jobs, the report states — up to seven
construction jobs for every $1 million spent on build out. </p>
<p>The report isn’t the only angle supporters are taking.
Supervisors earlier this year approved legislation directing the
city to study the option of joining Marin County's renewable
power program. Wiener and Breed have also authored what he
called “complimentary” legislation that stands to significantly
expand the PUC’s power customer base by giving the agency the
first crack at providing hydropower to nearly all new
developments in the city. Currently, the PUC must compete with
PG&E. The legislation is expected to get its first public
vetting Nov. 24.</p>
<em>
<p>Marisa Lagos is a <a
href="http://www.sfgate.com/search/?action=search&channel=politics&inlineLink=1&searchindex=gsa&query=%22San+Francisco+Chronicle%22">San
Francisco Chronicle</a> staff writer. E-mail: <a
href="mailto:mlagos@sfchronicle.com"
title="mlagos@sfchronicle.com">mlagos@sfchronicle.com</a> </p>
<p> Twitter: @mlagos</p>
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