February 2010 - Sustainability

[Sustain] Deadline: 2009 Housing Element Comments Feb 27
by Eric Brooks 24 Feb '10

24 Feb '10

Judith Berkowitz wrote: ...the deadline for comments on the 2009 Housing Element is February 27. If you think Planning's DR proposal is bad, you should see this piece of crap!

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[Sustain] Event! Getting 50 Percent Local Clean Energy In 10 Years!
by Eric Brooks 24 Feb '10

24 Feb '10

Hi all, please forward widely! Next Tuesday! Learn how San Francisco (as well as Berkeley, Oakland, Marin and Sonoma) can be powered on 50% clean electricity within the next decade; and at the same or lower rates than PG&E! WHAT: Harvey Milk Club Clean Energy Forum WHEN: Tuesday March 2nd, 6:45pm WHERE: SF LGBT Community Center 1800 Market St @ Octavia (4th Floor Ceremonial Room) TRANSIT: From SF Civic Center take historic 'F Line' street car to Market & Octavia WHO: Former State Senator Carole Migden, Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, Supervisor David Campos, Sierra Club's John Rizzo, and others COST: FREE! BACKGROUND: In July 2007 the San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously passed an ordinance establishing the Clean Power SF project in San Francisco. Clean Power SF will gather San Francisco electricity consumers together in a cooperative that will use our collective buying power to build enough solar, wind and efficiency projects to run the City on 50% clean, renewable energy within the next decade. And because renewables and efficiency save money compared to fossil fuel power, our electricity rates will be kept low and stable. Similar projects in the East Bay, Marin and Sonoma are also getting underway and need a strong San Francisco program to anchor Bay Area clean energy efforts. But the private monopoly PG&E corporation wants to kill this new clean energy program and force us all to stay addicted to its dirty and expensive fossil and nuclear power. PG&E is attacking Clean Power SF with millions of dollars of negative advertising and ballot campaigns. Over the next weeks and months, PG&E will be using these deceptive campaigns to try to trick San Francisco electricity consumers into opting out of Clean Power SF. Come to the Clean Energy Forum next Tuesday to learn about this groundbreaking new program and how you and fellow Bay Area residents can stay in it and keep it strong! WHAT: Harvey Milk Club Clean Energy Forum WHEN: Tuesday March 2nd, 6:45pm WHERE: SF LGBT Community Center 1800 Market St @ Octavia (4th Floor Ceremonial Room) TRANSIT: From SF Civic Center take historic 'F Line' street car to Market & Octavia WHO: Former State Senator Carole Migden, Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, Supervisor David Campos, Sierra Club's John Rizzo, and others COST: FREE! For more information call: 415-756-8844 Thanks for your continued action and support, Eric Brooks Campaign Coordinator Our City

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[Sustain] Join Web-FaceBook-Twitter Sites vs PG&E Attack On Clean Energy
by Eric Brooks 20 Feb '10

20 Feb '10

Hi all, Here are some key sites that you can link to, join and share to help fight PG&E's Prop 16 attack on Community Choice and public power. Please join and share/post them so that we can light up California with a million points of opposition to the attack. - Stop The PG&E Power Grab http://powergrab.info/ http://twitter.com/Powergrabinfo - No On Prop 16 (FaceBook) http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/group.php?gid=331641877109&ref=nf - Our City http://our-city.org/campaigns/index.html http://www.facebook.com/pages/OurCitySF/95953018269 http://twitter.com/OurCitySF - StopProp16 (twitter) http://twitter.com/StopProp16 peace Eric Brooks

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[Sustain] Act now: Stop $54 Billion Nuclear Loan Guarantees
by Eric Brooks 18 Feb '10

18 Feb '10

web banner 6930 Carroll Avenue, #340, Takoma Park, MD 20912; 301-270-6477; nirsnet(a)nirs.org <mailto:nirsnet@nirs.org>; www.nirs.org <http://org2.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=H1VS9ZBIuUOzWnbLtCwzU…> *HELP STOP TRIPLING OF NUCLEAR LOAN GUARANTEE PROGRAM! WRITE YOUR REPRESENTATIVE TODAY AND JOIN IN ON NATIONAL CALL-CONGRESS DAY WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 24!* February 18, 2010 Dear Friends, By now you probably know that on Tuesday President Obama personally announced conditional approval of an $8.3 billion loan guarantee for the construction of two new reactors at the Vogtle site in Georgia. And you also probably know that Obama has proposed tripling the loan guarantee program for new reactors in his FY 2011 budget, to $54 billion. *What you may not know about the Vogtle deal is that we taxpayers are not just providing loan guarantees, _we're providing the actual loans_, through the Federal Financing Bank.* And you also may not know that the Southern Company has not yet accepted the conditions of the loan--and for various reasons, it may not. In other words, it's not a done deal. *And neither is a $54 billion loan guarantee program a done deal.* Congress has to approve this proposal. Twice last year, with your help, we beat back efforts to increase the loan guarantee program. We can do it again! **The first step is to send a letter to your Representative now. <http://org2.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=%2Fy3Mx096dOsJAhLLJUu…> *The second step is to spread the word and encourage as many people as possible to send in letters*. We need to speak very LOUDLY on this one! **The third step is to get ready for National Call-Congress Day on Wednesday, February 24.* We've done this before and thousands of you have called. This time it will be even bigger, because this is a coordinated effort with many groups: NIRS, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, Beyond Nuclear, Friends of the Earth, and you! So prepare yourself (and we'll send some new talking points early next week), activate your e-mail lists and phone trees, tell your friends and family members. Let's keep the phones ringing in both the House and Senate all day long next Wednesday. Reaction to the Vogtle loan guarantee, and to the proposed tripling of the program, already has been strong. You can see NIRS' press releases, and statements by Ralph Nader, Sierra Club, PSR, etc. on the front page of our website: www.nirs.org <http://org2.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=9tUxwdsz3PwzrY%2F6J3M…>. Here is a link to a story in today's New York Times <http://org2.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=qPXCtf551eyh3DI4DexB6…> titled/ Environmental Advocates Are Cooling on Obama/. Here is a link to a story on the Facing South <http://org2.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=cINl4hBkbXP9FD5FQ0Fh3…> site. And here is a very good piece from Time Magazine <http://org2.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=vkFgVnLz4pyFr9JkcnWzO…>. These are typical of the kinds of stories we've been seeing. Now we need to follow up the strong reaction to Obama's nuclear plans with strong action: *P**lease write your representatives here.* <http://org2.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=IfNyXx%2FznRqjCfkqtLz…>* Plan to be part of National Call-Congress Day Wednesday, February 24.* And if there is anything we can do to help you, let us know. Thanks for all you do, Michael Mariotte Executive Director Nuclear Information and Resource Service nirsnet(a)nirs.org www.nirs.org *P.S. Some big THANK YOUs!* Thanks to _everyone_ who contributed for my 25th anniversary outreach fund. We're using those funds to supplement and support this Alert and Call-Congress Day with Google adwords and an action ad on Alternet.org (where coincidentally I've also started a new blog called Energy Progress <http://org2.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=dAiaujpRtnMKF9CVrXMKT…>) to bring more people to this effort. You can still contribute to this fund here, <http://org2.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=StobwDR2PifsuyRRpe9hq…> and we'll thank you just as profusely. We'll use your donations to continue expanding our outreach efforts. And thank you to everyone who filled out our questionnaire on our Alerts. As soon as things slow down just a little, we'll post a summary of your responses (without your names of course!). Winners of /The Critical Question/ (10 of you chosen at random) will receive your books soon. In the meantime, several people said they don't forward our Alerts to others. Most said this was due to privacy reasons and/or not wanting to be perceived as a spammer. We can respect that, and we do want to make clear that we do _NOT_ ask anyone to forward any of our materials to anyone you _don't_ know. But we also know that the only way to build an effective movement is with outreach. Thus, we ask grassroots groups with mailing lists to please forward our Alerts to your lists. And we encourage people to forward our materials to people you do know who might be interested and to post our Alerts on Facebook and other social networking sites (after all, what is a social networking site but a form of outreach?). If you don't feel like forwarding our entire Alert, we'd suggest just sending your friends/family/colleagues a link to our action page, with a sentence saying something like, "Here is an issue I really care about. If you do too, I hope you'll take action." For this action, the action page link is: http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5502/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=18… <http://org2.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=Q9OsB8wmaxI1gHMWauber…>

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[Sustain] Action: Stop EU Calling Palm Plantations 'Forests'
by Eric Brooks 05 Feb '10

05 Feb '10

info(a)regenwald.org wrote: Stop the EU Commission from forcing biodiesel from palm oil on EU countries. Dear friends, A leaked draft EU document shows that the Commission would like to rename palm oil plantations as “forest” in order that biodiesel from palm oil plantations can still meet EU biofuels sustainability criteria. Palm oil expansion is a major cause of tropical rainforest destruction and biodiesel from palm oil can easily cause more greenhouse gas emissions that the fossil fuel it is meant to replace. Please email the new energy and environment Commissioners and ask them to amend this document to give a clear message to member states that biodiesel from palm oil has no role to play in a sustainable EU energy mix. The alert can be found at http://www.rainforest-rescue.org/protestaktion.php?id=514 Many thanks. Best regards, Reinhard Behrend Rettet den Regenwald e. V. Friedhofsweg 28 22337 Hamburg Germany info(a)regenwald.org http://www.rainforest-rescue.org

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[Sustain] Vote Now! Chronicle Poll: Clean Power or PG&E!
by Eric Brooks 04 Feb '10

04 Feb '10

Hi all, Today's Chronicle has a poll asking whether San Francisco and Marin should move forward with Community Choice/CleanPowerSF. (In the poll, they call it "public power".) Of course choose the third option: "Yes, and San Francisco should too". Vote Now at: http://www.sfgate.com/polls/qlist.shtml?/polls/2010/02/04/public , or below in the article's left sidebar. Make your voice heard! Please Vote now and forward on to others that want a clean energy future and local green jobs! In addition to any computers you have, you can also vote from smart phones and PDAs; one vote per machine. PS: PG&E will probably ask their employees to vote from any computers they have so its really important that we show strong support for Community Choice/CleanPowerSF and Public Power today! PPS: The article has great news about Marin Clean Energy moving forward. Marin County to provide power, oust PG&E David R. Baker, Chronicle Staff Writer <mailto:dbaker@sfchronicle.com> Marin County is poised to jump into the public power business, despite fierce opposition from Pacific Gas and Electric Co. The Question Should Marin County begin providing public power? Yes, way out of the PG&E monopoly No, it will wind up costing more And San Francisco should too View Results <http://www.sfgate.com/polls/result.shtml?/polls/2010/02/04/public> Disclaimer <http://www.sfgate.com/polls/disclaimer.shtml> More Polls » <http://www.sfgate.com/polls/> GET QUOTE Symbol Lookup <http://finance.sfgate.com/hearst?Account=sfgate&Page=LOOKUP> MORE BUSINESS * House Democrats challenge Comcast, NBC on deal <http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2010/02/04/financial/f0322…> 02.04.10 * World markets plunge on European debt fears <http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2010/02/03/financial/f1905…> 02.04.10 * Shell to cut more jobs as earnings disappoint <http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2010/02/03/financial/f2341…> 02.04.10 In a series of votes tonight, officials with the Marin Energy Authority are expected to take some of the last key steps necessary to start providing electricity to many of the county's residents and businesses, taking over a role now filled by PG&E. The organization is a joint-powers authority formed by the county and all of its cities except Corte Madera, Larkspur, Novato and Ross. The authority's board is scheduled to vote tonight on a proposed contract with Shell Energy North America to line up wholesale electricity supplies from power plants, wind farms and solar facilities. The board also is scheduled to set the authority's electricity rates, matching PG&E's rates for most customers. "This is the final seal on a lot of the work we've been doing," said Dawn Weisz, the authority's interim director. "We've been working on this for seven years." If all goes as planned, the Marin Energy Authority would start supplying electricity to some customers in May. It would be state's first example of a new kind of public power, known as community choice aggregation. Created by a state law in 2002, community choice allows towns, cities or counties to buy electricity for their residents, while traditional utility companies such as PG&E continue to own and operate the electrical grid. San Francisco is developing its community choice aggregation system. "I'm just totally thrilled that it's finally happening," said Paul Fenn, who drafted the law and now helps communities adopt community choice aggregation. "This is a very big thing." But Marin's plan still faces hurdles placed in its path by PG&E. The utility, based in San Francisco, argues that Marin residents will end up paying more for power in the long run if the authority moves forward. PG&E also has complained that, under California's laws, the authority should have performed an environmental impact report before setting up its system. PG&E has funded an initiative on the June ballot that would make it far harder for anyone to adopt community choice aggregation in the future. Although the initiative would come too late to stop Marin, it could complicate any efforts by the Marin Energy Authority to expand. Finally, PG&E has threatened not to deliver electricity to the authority over the utility's power lines. "We are obligated to not deliver power if we believe that (the authority) is not complying with (community choice aggregation) tariffs and the law," said PG&E spokeswoman Katie Romans. But the community choice aggregation law explicitly requires utilities to cooperate with communities that adopt the system, said Marin County Supervisor Charles McGlashan, who also serves as the energy authority's chairman. PG&E's threat, he said, "is patently illegal, but they don't seem to care." E-mail David R. Baker at dbaker(a)sfchronicle.com <mailto:dbaker@sfchronicle.com>. This article appeared on page *D - 1* of the San Francisco Chronicle Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/02/04/BUN81BS696.DTL&… <http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/02/04/BUN81BS696.DTL&…> When this email was sent, we were ahead. The Question Should Marin County begin providing public power? Yes, way out of the PG&E monopoly (143) 35% No, it will wind up costing more(93) 23% And San Francisco should too(170) 42% Total Votes: 406 Refresh Results <http://www.sfgate.com/polls/result.shtml?/polls/2010/02/04/public> Return to Vote <http://www.sfgate.com/polls/qlist.shtml?/polls/2010/02/04/public>

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