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[Sustain] Join Vital Rally To Stop Polluting Power Plants In SF! Next Mon, May 5, 9-10am, SF City Hall (Polk St. Steps)
by Eric Brooks 28 Apr '08

28 Apr '08

Hi all, This is an urgent moment in San Francisco and world history. Though nearly every major environmental and social justice group has voiced strong opposition to the building of new fossil fuel power plants in San Francisco, next Monday, May 5th, our Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) will outrageously seek permission to build a polluting natural gas power plant in San Francisco within the next year. Worse still, if approved, this plant will be built in our most environmentally damaged and vulnerable neighborhood, the Bayview Hunters Point. Meanwhile, new reports surface nearly every week that the Global Warming crisis is becoming much more serious, much more rapidly than previously believed, and our entire planet is in danger. Unfortunately, Mayor Gavin Newsom and our Board of Supervisors are wavering, and have still not come out in majority opposition to this disastrous power plant! This means that the plant construction could be approved as early as next week. It is absolutely critical that we turn out in huge numbers on the City Hall Polk Street steps next Monday May 5, from 9-10am, to show the Mayor and Board of Supervisors that San Franciscans will not tolerate further inaction, and that we demand that this unacceptable power plant project be stopped immediately. We must send a message to the world that San Francisco has decided to lead the planet to a clean energy future by permanently halting all plans to build fossil fuel power plants. COME TO THE RALLY! WHERE: San Francisco City Hall, Polk Street steps, (from Civic Center BART/MUNI at 8th and Market, cross United Nations Plaza to the City Hall steps) WHEN: Monday, May 5, 9-10am WHO: Join Our City, Sierra Club, The Ella Baker Center For Human Rights, Greenaction, The San Francisco Green Party, Brightline Defense, EDF, SPUR, The San Francisco Bayview, and many other groups, to demand an end to fossil fuel plants in San Francisco. BRING SIGNS!: If you can take a moment, also make your own sign that expresses how you feel about this alarming power plant project and its potentially terrible impact on our community and the world. BRING FRIENDS!: Bring everyone you know who cares about the future of San Francisco and the planet! ATTEND THE HEARING: Directly following the rally, a City Hall committee will likely vote on the power plant contract. Join other ralliers to attend this hearing and voice your opinion to the Board of Supervisors. (The hearing location and agenda will be announced at the end of the rally.) For more information, see http://our-city.org/campaigns/index.html Thanks for your action and support! Eric Brooks Campaign Coordinator Our City ////This alert sent by://// //Our City 1028-A Howard St. San Francisco, CA 94103 415-756-8844 For more information about Our City campaigns go to: http://www.our-city.org info(a)our-city.org <mailto:info@our-city.org>// -- "I am not a liberator. Liberators do not exist. The people liberate themselves." -- Che Guevara

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[Sustain] Reminder: Joint Meeting: Transportation & Sustainability - Tonight, Thu, Apr 24, 6:30-9pm, SFGP Office
by Eric Brooks 24 Apr '08

24 Apr '08

Joint Meeting: Transportation & Sustainability Working Groups When: Thursday, 4/24/08, 6:30PM-9:00PM Where: SFGP Office, 1028A Howard St NOTE: This will be a very important meeting because the final committee hearing on the polluting Combustion Turbine power plant proposal for the Bayview Hunters Point will be held at City Hall within 2 weeks, and we need to organize to attend that hearing in big numbers to demand a halt to the power plant project. Proposed Agenda Items - Assessing The Transit Effectiveness Project - McGoldrick's Elected MTA Charter Amendment - Peak Oil Taskforce Update - Critical Combustion Turbine Update - Update On Mayor's Solar Programs and New Sandoval Solar Proposal - Update On Community Choice Energy project

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[Sustain] PG&E Sponsored Fundraiser For Mayor's Solar Supporters
by Eric Brooks 22 Apr '08

22 Apr '08

Hey all, Vote Solar just proudly announced its successful fundraising event 'Equinox 2' in which, among its major donors, were PG&E (top donor), Edison, Chevron and BP. see http://www.votesolar.org/equinox2/thank_you/ and also the previous year's Equinox fundraiser at http://www.votesolar.org/equinox/thank_you/ Vote Solar is the organization (founded by now SFPUC Commissioner David Hochschild) which also put forward the poorly written solar Prop B in 2001 for 50 mw of solar on City facilities. Prop B passed, but failed to implement because of its poor funding plan combined with the fact that the SFPUC made no effort to find a way to make it work. No solar facilities were ever built through Prop B, although Vote Solar's web site blatantly and falsely claims otherwise. (See http://www.votesolar.org/city-initiatives/successes.html ) David Hochschild is the architect of the Mayor's privatized solar proposals. Vote Solar has been one of the most vocal proponents of the Mayor's proposals. Though Hochschild is no longer with Vote Solar, he spoke and hobnobbed at the Equinox fundraiser. As did Phil Ting (who helped Hochschild create and sponsor the Mayor's solar program and who received an award at the event for that involvement). Also present was Mayor Newsom himself, Assemblymember Mark Leno (who has frequently sponsored milquetoast renewable energy legislation which has basically amounted to faux stuff that allows PG&E to remain dominant in our Northwest power market) and, Adam Werbach, the new greenwash champion for Walmart and Wall Street.. David Hochschild -is- however VP for External Relations for Solaria Corp., a private solar technologies company which is one of those proud new Equinox funders of Vote Solar. I didn't even notice the note on Hochschild's corporate position when I saw the press release for his appointment to the SFPUC last year, but now that I've picked up on it I'm pretty shocked. Someone with that kind of energy corporation conflict of interest should not have even made it onto the SFPUC commission in the first place, and should certainly at the very least be recusing himself on all votes related to solar power funding. This all puts into even starker contrast the fact that, although Hochschild has vociferously upbraided the SFPUC staff for not creating solar and other renewables programs in San Francisco, he has never once in those tirades mentioned the Community Choice renewable energy project, which would have already been out for bids long ago were it not for both constant interference from the SFPUC staff, and a resolute and total lack of support from the SFPUC commissioners themselves (including former commissioner Adam Werbach). It has become clear that Hochschild and is his ilk are nothing more than the next generation of private corporate developers manipulating their way into sweetheart deals for their own companies at the expense of the public good, while steering city government away from publicly owned energy projects, into cozy and corrupt 'public/private partnerships'. I would have thought that the visionary renewable energy industry could have avoided this typical, tawdry trough feeding. I guess I was wrong. peace Eric -- "I am not a liberator. Liberators do not exist. The people liberate themselves." – Che Guevara

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[Sustain] Very Important Audio Program On Soil Sustainability
by Eric Brooks 20 Apr '08

20 Apr '08

Hi all, I highly recommend listening to an edition of KPFA's 'Against The Grain' in which a studier of economics, social structure, and the ecology of soil systems, lays out an excellent basic holistic summary of soil dynamics as the crucial interface between the atmosphere, hydrosphere, planetary crust, living systems and human social systems. You can stream or download the program at: http://www.kpfa.org/archives/index.php?arch=25717 -- "I am not a liberator. Liberators do not exist. The people liberate themselves." – Che Guevara

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[Sustain] Critical McKinney Report: Mexico Democratic Uprising
by Eric Brooks 20 Apr '08

20 Apr '08

http://www.fogcityjournal.com/wordpress/2008/04/19/cynthia-mckinney-on-her-… *By Cynthia McKinney* /Earth Day Celebration, April 15, California State University, Northridge./ April 19, 2008 I would like to thank the students at Cal State University, Northridge for inviting me to speak on campus today. I have just returned from an exciting trip to Mexico City and I'd like to share some of my observations with you this afternoon. First of all, it is important to note and ask the question why is it that the corporate press are not even touching the events playing out right now in the capital city of our neighbor to the south and their importance to us? Had I not actually been there myself, I would be hard pressed to convince any audience that events of this magnitude were actually taking place anywhere in the world, let alone in a country as important and close to us as Mexico. A quick review of today's press shows us that we are currently being titillated by news of sex tapes featuring Marilyn Monroe and another such tape featuring an unnamed British Royal. The top of the news hour greets us with information of an intemperate statement made by a former television executive about a current Presidential candidate; video is plentiful of the contorted Presidential theatrics around the Olympic Games Opening Ceremony in Beijing. We were treated today to the visual of the Pope descending from the Alitalia jet. But, while we have more television stations that feed us 24-hour news, we are less informed. We have more and more political pundits feeding us, what Fred Hampton described as "explanations that don't explain, answers that don't answer, and conclusions that don't conclude." CNN even tells us in a feature story who suffers as a result of a choice made by our policy makers to emphasize ethanol as a preferred method of weaning a hulking, overfed economy off its petroleum-based consumption habit. But they forgot the other half of that equation: who's winning? And it's the "who's winning" part that is just about always the key piece of information, that could guide us, especially when the choices of our elected leadership diverge from the core values of the voters who elected them. And yet, as we speak, the Mexican Senate Chamber has been occupied. The massive rally held today has probably just ended, and some of the opposition Members of the Mexican Congress are inside the building on the dais and have announced a hunger strike. Days ago, one of the leading papers in Mexico City had a photo of the Chamber of Deputies of the Mexican Congress with an unfurled banner covering the Speaker's Rostrum, proclaiming the Chamber "Closed." The banner was hung by elected Members of the Mexican Congress who constitute the Frente Amplio Progresista that has dared to draw a line in the sand against U.S.-inspired legislation just introduced to allow foreign corporate ownership of PEMEX, Mexico's state-owned oil company. Mexican women are energized around the idea of nation. The idea of patria. I wrote my Master's Thesis on the "Idea of Nation." And to see the women, in their t-shirts and kerchiefs, so committed to their country, their nation, their identity. To them, that's Mexico's oil, natural gas, electricity, land, and water and it ought to be used by the Mexican people first and foremost for their own national development. But sadly, it's the public policy emanating from Washington, D.C. that threatens that. But to tell that story accurately, would also require that the U.S. corporate press expose why this citizen outrage exists in the first place. And to tell that story, they would have to expose the fact of a stolen Presidential election, where a private U.S., Georgia, corporation, possibly played a role in stripping citizens of their right to vote and have their votes counted. Well, while that might sound like what happened in the United States, centering in Florida, in the U.S. 2000 Presidential election, I'm really talking about the 2006 Mexican Presidential election in which the popular candidate didn't win because all the votes weren't counted. According to Greg Palast, the U.S. corporation involved in the Mexican move was none other than that now infamous Georgia-based company: Choicepoint. We know that in Florida, Choicepoint, then doing business as DataBase Technologies, constructed an illegal convicted felons list of some 94,000 names, many of whom were neither convicted nor felons. But if your name appeared on that list, you were stopped from voting. Greg Palast tells us that for most of the names on that list, their only crime was "Voting While Black." Under a special "counter-terrorism" contract, the U.S. FBI obtained Mexican and Venezuelan voter files. Palast learned later in his investigation that the U.S. government had obtained, through Choicepont, voter files of all the countries that have progressive Presidents. Many Mexicans went to the polls to vote for their President, only to find that their names had been scrubbed from the voter list, and they were not allowed to vote. So now, not only in the United States, but in Mexico, too, one can show up to vote and not be sure that that vote was counted, or worse, one can show up duly registered to vote, and not even be allowed to vote. I guess this is the way we allow our country to now export democracy. Unlike in the United States in 2000, Mexico City was shut down for 5 months when Lopez Obrador, Mexico's Al Gore, refused to concede and instead, formed a shadow government. The issue in the 2006 Mexican election was privatization of Mexico's oil; it is the riveting issue taking place in Mexican politics today. Teachers on strike at the same time as the Presidential elections in Oaxaca, one of the poorest states in Mexico, began their political movement as a call for increased teacher salaries and against privatization of schools. Due to heavy-handed tactics used by the government against the teachers, tens of thousands of citizens joined them and took over the central city area of that state. Today, after Mexico has added teachers and those who support teachers to its growing ranks of "political prisoners," teachers are still protesting their conditions, the reprisals taken against them for striking, and now, the teachers' union is a committed part of the national mobilization against privatization of PEMEX. I was invited to participate in the Second Continental Workers Conference. The first meeting was held in La Paz, Bolivia. And so, people from all over Mexico and eight different countries told of their struggles, their hopes, their ideals, their values, their patriotism, their desire for peace-no more war. Representatives from Chiapas, another one of Mexico's poorest states, told us of the indigenous struggle for land and self-determination, the low-intensity warfare waged against them, and how now they, too, count themselves a part of the national mobilization against PEMEX privatization. While I was there, mine workers had taken over the mines, and so, could only send a handful of inspiring representatives. They are pressing for the right to unionize, denied to them by the Government. And the mine workers are a part of the solid front forming in Mexico to protect this powerful idea of nation. I participated in one of the many rallies organized by opponents of the government's plan to offer up Mexico's patrimony to the insatiable multiple U.S. addictions. One woman removed her brigadista t-shirt and gave it to me-proud that a citizen of the United States came to stand with them. Today's front page of La Jornada says that the women, who marched 10,000 strong on the day that I was there, have renewed their protests and civil disobedience. The threat of violence and bloodshed is very real. Now, why should this massive social, political, and economic upheaval in Mexico, aside from its human rights implications, be important to us up here in the United States? Because the sad truth of the matter is that, in many respects, it is our military and economic policies that are causing it. Of course, I recognize that all the way back to the practice of Manifest Destiny and the declaration of the Monroe Doctrine, U.S. policy decisions have at times sent shock waves to places outside our borders. You could say that the modern version of that is NAFTA. In 1993, the Democratic majority in the United States Congress supported then-President Bill Clinton's push for passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement. The stated purpose of the legislation was to remove barriers to trade and investment that existed in North America. The propaganda had it that the objective was to lift all boats, in Canada, the United States, and Mexico through trade and investment. The result is the stripping away and transfer of Mexico's patrimony in terms of their natural and human resources. And the Mexican people are taking a stand against it. They are taking the same stand that the little people in Haiti, Venezuela, Brazil, Chile, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Ecuador, and Argentina have taken. With the power of the vote, the people of these countries dared to believe that they could peacefully defeat the colossus to the north. And they did. And so, in a way, now, I guess I understand why the corporate press can't tell you and me the truth about the valiant stand for dignity that's going on in Mexico, because to truly cover the story, they'd have to uncover and point out some inconvenient truths. One of those inconvenient truths particularly meaningful to me: There comes a time when silence is betrayal. We, the little--and yet so powerful--people in this country have been way too silent for way too long on all the issues that mean so much. Dr. King also said that our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter. On one of my early days in Congress, I was late for a vote. I looked up on the board and only saw green votes; I presumed that the vote was a non-controversial item on the calendar. Since I was among the last to vote, there was no time to inquire. I pressed my green button. Afterwards, I learned that the vote might have been what others would have called an "easy" yes vote, but for my conscience it was a no vote. Later that night, my heart sank as I watched the news. One man of 78 years was so angered by that vote that he threw stones. Only thing, he had a heart attack throwing stones, and died. My heart sank. I felt personally responsible for that man's death and vowed that I would never cast what they call easy votes, again. My one vote would not have changed the outcome of the tally on the resolution. But my one vote would have been true to my values and my ideals that everyone is entitled to human rights that are to be respected. I got into trouble often after that, because I recognized my responsibility to read the legislation, think analytically, question critically, and vote independently. That was while I was in Congress. But now that I'm not, does that mean that the responsibility is gone? No. I happened to vote against NAFTA, and I'm glad for that. But imagine if the all the voters in the entire United States understood that something as simple as a vote in a federal election might determine who lives and who dies in another country. Imagine, if we in the United States were as certain of the possibility of peaceful change through the vote as were the people of Haiti, Mexico-despite having their election stolen from them, Venezuela, and the rest. Then we would vote Members of Congress out of office who support Plan Colombia. We would vote Members of Congress out of office who support Plan Mexico-which like its Colombian counterpart, is the military answer to the cry of the people for dignity, self determination, and that idea of patria. We would not vote for any political party that did not have as its agenda extending the same respect and love of life to all others as we reserve for ourselves. And so I come to the additional meaning of Earth Day, today. I met people in Mexico City who are willing to die in this struggle-But they shouldn't have to because the United States wants their oil. Let us express our respect for the planet that sustains us by first showing love to our brothers and sisters beside us. We voters in the United States do have as much power as the voters in all those other countries. All we have to do is believe in ourselves and use it. Finally, I'd like to recognize the role of student activists in promoting change. Of course, it was high school students who faced the water hoses and the dogs in the civil rights movement. It was the university students who faced the riot gear and the bullets in the anti war movement. The current anti-globalization, pro-peace rallies are all organized and led by young people. Keep it up and don't ever give in. ### -- "I am not a liberator. Liberators do not exist. The people liberate themselves." -- Che Guevara

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[Sustain] Joint Meeting: Transportation & Sustainability Working Groups, Thu, Apr 24, 6:30-9pm, SFGP Office
by Eric Brooks 17 Apr '08

17 Apr '08

Joint Meeting: Transportation & Sustainability Working Groups When: Thursday, 4/24/08, 6:30PM-9:00PM Where: SFGP Office, 1028A Howard St NOTE: This will be a very important meeting because the final committee hearing on the polluting Combustion Turbine power plant proposal for the Bayview Hunters Point will be held at City Hall within 2 weeks, and we need to organize to attend that hearing in big numbers to demand a halt to the power plant project. Proposed Agenda Items - Assessing The Transit Effectiveness Project - McGoldrick's Elected MTA Charter Amendment - Peak Oil Taskforce Update - Critical Combustion Turbine Update - Update On Mayor's Solar Programs and New Sandoval Solar Proposal - Update On Community Choice Energy project

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[Sustain] keep me on mailing list, had e-mail prob.s
by Scott Warthin 16 Apr '08

16 Apr '08

From: Scott Kennedy Warthin To: fellow Green Party members of San Francisco As a reminder of who I am: I'm the 28 yr. old who came in earlier. Born & raised in The City, who is in the last month of training to be a photovoltaic (solar electricity) installer. Currently living with a relative in Marin (and registered Green here temporarily) until I finish the PV course on May 2nd, get an installer job which will allow me to live in The City and FINALLY move back home to San Francisco (@ which time I will become more active with the Greens in SF). My Potential Contributions: I would like to get involved with anything relating to furthering sustainability, the peace movement and, of course, PHOTOVOLTAICS. E-Mail: I suspect alot of stuff has been sent to me that my e-mail has disgarded as spam automatically. I'm not e-mail savy, so if someone could send me a message from sustainability(a)sfgreens.org of the e-mail addresses which party members might be sending me information on it would be appreciated. (only way i know to unblock e-mails is to know ahead of time which ones to unblock) Thanks, SF Greens.....Hope to be a more active member ASAP __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com

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[Sustain] Excellent SF Guardian Analysis On SF Solar, CCA, & Faults Of Mayor's Program
by Eric Brooks 16 Apr '08

16 Apr '08

<http://www.sfbg.com/> **The Green Issue: ** *A solar plan that works <http://www.sfbg.com/entry.php?entry_id=6149&catid=4&volume_id=317&issue_id=…>* /Solar power now: A basic blueprint/ *EDITORIAL *Solar energy makes so much sense in San Francisco that it's crazy this city didn't figure out years ago how to get at least a quarter or more of its power from the sun. And it's crazy that now, with the financial benefits of solar power improving, the technology improving, and the environmental mandate getting more profound by the day, the city still doesn't have an effective citywide solar program. Click here <http://www.sfbg.com/entry.php?entry_id=6149&catid=4&volume_id=317&issue_id=…> for full editorial. ** ** *Dark days <http://www.sfbg.com/entry.php?entry_id=6166&volume_id=317&issue_id=374&volu…>* /Why is it so hard to get solar power in //San Francisco//?/ By Amanda Witherell and Sarah Phelan It's now 2008, and the number of solar roofs in San Francisco stands at a grand total of 618 installations by the end of 2007. In terms of kilowatts per capita, the city ranks last in the Bay Area. The city's total electricity demand runs about 950 megawatts; only 5 megawatts is currently supplied by solar. Click here <http://www.sfbg.com/entry.php?entry_id=6166&volume_id=317&issue_id=374&volu…> for full story. For more Green Issue coverage, visit sfbg.com <http://www.sfbg.com/>.

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[Sustain] Chronicle Attacks Community Choice Energy On Front Page
by Eric Brooks 16 Apr '08

16 Apr '08

Hi all, This piece starts off looking balanced, but then goes after Community Choice with subtle deceptive attacks. This screams for letters to the editor from us. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/04/16/MN1K105A81.DTL Local communities reach for power over energy Kelly Zito, Chronicle Staff Writer <mailto:kzito@sfchronicle.com> Wednesday, April 16, 2008 Marin County residents want more solar and wind power. San Francisco officials think they might be able to strike better energy deals. Some cities in the San Joaquin Valley want to build their own power plants. From the North Bay to Hollywood, California communities are trying to exert more power over, well, their power. Marin County officials will open a public relations campaign today for "Marin Clean Energy." The plan, called "community choice aggregation" or CCA, would pool the energy needs of all residents and businesses, allowing a local board to negotiate not only for energy rates but energy sources. Similar efforts are under way in San Francisco, Berkeley, Beverly Hills and other cities. However, the player that stands to lose the most - Pacific Gas and Electric Co. - isn't likely to let Marin or any other community considering similar programs go without a fight. PG&E, which both supplies and distributes energy throughout Northern California, stands to lose the lucrative supply side of its business in communities that choose to go their own way. The company has a long history of successfully staving off public power efforts in San Francisco and elsewhere. This week, the utility settled a dispute with a Central Valley power authority over the company's marketing tactics, which appear to have helped persuade Tulare County and the city of Fresno to stop pursuing local control of their power. Marin officials expect the same onslaught. "They're throwing up regulatory, legal, political roadblocks," said Tim Rosenfeld, project director for the Marin Energy Management Team. The Marin effort has roots in the California energy debacle of 2000 and 2001. In 2002, in response to the crisis, the state passed a law allowing local governments to participate in the open power market. Today, the worries driving the movement are local and global: climate change, dependence on foreign oil, record oil industry profits. "It's probably the quickest and most powerful thing we can do to reduce Marin's carbon footprint," said Ed Mainland, a Novato supporter of Marin's plan and co-chair of the energy-climate committee of the Sierra Club. "And it's also more democratic decision-making; it's trying to take care of our own energy futures and getting it out of the boardrooms of the corporations and bureaucratic state agencies." But big questions loom. Can local governments play in the complex and competitive energy market? More importantly, is cheap green power a reality? Severin Borenstein, director of the University of California Energy Institute, says the answer to both questions is a resounding no. Even factoring in municipalities' favorable tax status and their ability to borrow money at rates lower than private businesses, he said, the cost of renewables is steep. "The basic fact is, renewables cost more. I hope that won't be the case for long, but it's the case for now," Borenstein said. "So the idea that you're going to save a bundle of money with a CCA is not well founded." Marin wants sun power Marin County, with its liberal sensibility and fondness for all things earthy, seems a likely spot for a community drive toward renewable energy. The county wants more power from sun, wind, hot springs, biomass and other natural sources. And officials say they can offer that at costs initially on par with or possibly higher than PG&E's generating costs. Eventually, they say, those costs would fall below the utility's. "What this constituency is saying repeatedly is, 'Cut greenhouse gases now. Do it in a financially responsible way, but do it,' " said Charles McGlashan, supervisor for southern Marin County. Economist William Marcus says Marin is taking a gamble. Marcus, whose JBS Energy Inc. evaluated PG&E's response to Marin's program, said the company's early March analysis of the plan forecasts that natural gas prices will drop by an "improbable" 14 percent between now and 2020. "Marin is trying to hedge natural gas price risk by buying renewables," Marcus said. "If natural gas ends up really cheap, Marin's prices are going to be expensive; but if they bounce up and down, Marin's will look pretty good. "We'll all know who's right in 12 years, but (a CCA) is a perfectly good choice to consider from a public policy standpoint." Under Marin's plan, five years in the making, a joint power authority composed of representatives of all 11 Marin County towns would oversee the program. Officials expect to submit the plan to the California Public Utilities Commission for approval next year. Ratepayers would have a choice: "light green" or "dark green." Light green customers would get 25 to 50 percent of their energy from "qualified" renewable sources - everything other than large hydropower. PG&E estimates 14 percent of its energy will come from renewable sources this year. Dark green would offer 100 percent renewables. PG&E would still distribute power and maintain poles and lines; Marin would simply choose other energy generators. (Technically, electrons can't be tagged "green" or "brown" - advocates say demanding renewable sources forces more into the overall grid). Ratepayers to get mailers Over the next several months, Marin ratepayers will get mailers about opting out of Marin's attempt to go local. During an initial period, consumers could opt out for free; at a later date, a fee might be charged. PG&E argues that becoming part of the local program will open ratepayers to high costs and not necessarily more renewable sources. For one, PG&E says it's already in the renewable hunt. Although it won't meet a state-set deadline for 20 percent renewable power by 2010, the company expects to soon after. In addition to large-scale solar projects, the utility is working on buying power from more small alternative energy companies. So far, PG&E has hit the same thorny issue - high costs. "We're working hard to bring new renewable supplies into being ... but they don't come without a cost, so it's a balancing act," said David Rubin, director of service analysis for PG&E. "We don't think it's credible to get to those (renewable source) levels without much stiffer costs than are being represented in (CCA communities') business plans." Put simply, the renewable energy goals aren't attainable at the prices advertised; and they will continue to track above PG&E rates, the company said. The other main criticism of the aggregation system has less to do with money than management. "A small town getting into the energy business is asking for trouble," Borenstein said. "If you don't know what you're doing, it's pretty easy to get your clock cleaned by a sophisticated company." Depending on how the system is structured legally and financially, Borenstein also said cities could put basic services at risk. If, for instance, a local power authority were to lock into a long-term contract at rates that prove expensive. it could hurt a city's credit rating. "If (a CCA) goes badly, other aspects of the city are going to go badly... you'll have budget cutting." Marin officials say they've examined every angle and concluded the risks of the status quo are far higher; they also emphasize they're looking to hire experienced power brokers. Few programs tested There are few test cases for aggregation programs in California. The San Joaquin Valley Power Authority is first out of the gate - the California Public Utilities Commission certified the plan this year. System administrators, who hope to power about 115,000 customers in the valley, are working out a contract with Citigroup Energy to handle its entire energy supply. Eventually, the power authority expects to issue bonds to pay for some local energy plants. The current energy supply is largely a mix of hydroelectric - which they worry will become less reliable - and imported, which sometimes creates system bottlenecks. Marin also hopes to invest in regional energy projects, particularly alternatives - a stepped-up variation on the "buy local" credo. "Right now we're dependent on fossil fuels - the cost and supply is very uncertain," said Dawn Weisz, sustainable planner for the Marin Community Development Agency. "So getting unhooked from that dependence is good for rate stability, for economics, and it's good for self-sufficiency... and as a way to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. "We need to do as much as we can ... and then maybe we can step back from the tipping point. That's where Marin wants to be." How it works Under a "community choice aggregation," a local government or a group of local governments buys power for customers within their communities. Although the CCA does not own the transmission wires, it may or may not own energy generating facilities. *Proponents *say the system allows for more local control, the inclusion of more renewable energy sources and the possibility of negotiating for better electricity rates. *Opponents* contend that renewable energy remains expensive and that local power authorities might not have the necessary expertise in the energy market. Online resources -- Marin's CCA page: /links.sfgate.com/ZDAX <http://links.sfgate.com/ZDAX>/ -- The Web site of Assemblyman Paul Fenn, who wrote the bill allowing aggregations:/ www.local.org/fenn.html <http://www.local.org/fenn.html>./ /E-mail Kelly Zito at kzito(a)sfchronicle.com <mailto:kzito@sfchronicle.com>./ This article appeared on page *A - 1* of the San Francisco Chronicle

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[Sustain] FW: (MRGWA) materials on pharmaceuticals in ground water from NGWA
by Martin Zehr 16 Apr '08

16 Apr '08

The National Ground Water Association (www.ngwa.org) has prepared some materials on pharmaceuticals in ground water. Many of you are aware of recent news coverage about the presence of trace amounts of pharmaceuticals and endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) in water. As a result of this coverage, the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Transportation Safety, Infrastructure Security, and Water Quality will hold a hearing entitled, "Pharmaceuticals in the Nation's Water: Assessing Potential Risks and Actions to Address the Issue," on Tuesday, April 15 at 3 p.m. Eastern Time. To help equip you to respond at the local level should you deem it necessary, attached are four information pieces developed by NGWA for possible use at your discretion: Key Points-This is a very brief summary of the issue of pharmaceutical compounds and EDCs in water. This is intended for your own edification. http://www.magnetmail.net/images/clients/NGWA/attach/key_points.doc Talking Points-This provides some key points about what is known about the subject of pharmaceutical compounds and EDCs in water. You may find it useful in responding to inquiries. http://www.magnetmail.net/images/clients/NGWA/attach/Talking_pts.doc Clip & Copy-This is a two-page backgrounder on the issue that can be used to answer frequently asked questions by the public. http://www.magnetmail.net/images/clients/NGWA/attach/Clip_Copy.doc Template News Release-This news release provides some basic, practical information that may be helpful to private well owners if this issue is of concern locally. It focuses on general well construction, maintenance, and water testing practices, and also provides some specific information on proper disposal of unused drugs and EDCs. http://www.magnetmail.net/images/clients/NGWA/attach/news_release_template.…

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