SFGP Sustainability Working Group 4/24/08

Agenda:

I. Peak Oil Taskforce; II. Transit Effectiveness Project; III. CT’s;; IV. CCA, V. Mayor’s Solar program

I.          Peak Oil Taskforce- Jeanne -   There have been problems getting preliminary reports out due to almost 50% turn over on the committee. First drafts of report sections are due June 3, but not many will likely be ready.

Discussion:

·         Energy person is needed. Don has applied.
·         Ways are needed to localize the problems
·         Need to identify common units for measuring comparisons; CO2 emissions? Gallons? BTU’s?
·         Taskforce meetings are First Tuesday of the month at 3 P.M., and Third Tuesday of the month at 5 P.M. in room 421 at City Hall.
·         Wade Crowfoot came to one Taskforce meeting and said the mayor now :gets it” on Peak Oil. Conjecture is that Newsom is eying higher office and needs to embrace environmentalism more strongly.

II.        Transit Effectiveness Project- Eric - We did not discuss this in detail, as no one from the Transpo Working Group was in attendance to give us the latest. From what he knows of it, Eric says the plan is still over dependent on auto transit, albeit “alternative fuels”.

Discussion:

No way we can “drive greener” and get out of the mess we are in
Environmentalists had a long-standing critique that auto transit was destroying the planet long before the effects Peak Oil and Greenhouse gasses also began to impact.
It is still bad for land use, resource extraction, environmental quality and other issues.
We should not nibble at the edges of real social change.
PG&E is touting huge “green” solar projects in the Southwest. Centralizing solar grid energy and transporting it long distances is inefficient and defeats the advantages of a decentralized energy grid. Makes it so we still buy energy over PG&E wires.
Some half-steps, i.e. toward plug-in hybrids may be necessary to get people to begin to move in a right direction and begin momentum for deeper change.
Many rural areas need personal vehicles, but need to find ways to ride-share more
Where there is ready access to public transit, that option needs to be pushed to the max.

III. CT’s- Eric- We have 5 supervisors who support our opposition to the turbines. Four support the turbine project. Mayor Newsom may be reconsidering his support for the project since PG&E opposes the project. Some worry that, with PG&E opposed to the plan, it might obscure the fact there is true community opposition. A letter laying out the coalition’s opposition to the CT’s was delivered to the Mayor and Supervisors. Ella Baker Center has signed, as did Sierra Club, Van Jones, among others.

(Letter is attached.)

Discussion:

SF Chronicle came out against the CT’s!
Bay Guardian did a good analysis in last week’'s issue, although made incorrect assertion that pollution would be less.
We may be in a good position to stop the CT’'s and shut Mirant, and have no internal fossil fuel production, in line with what is going on in Seattle.
Next CT meeting will be May 5^th at Government Audits and Oversight Committee. Eric will be sending a major alert to try to get a large turnout there.
The group letter will be released to the press that Monday.
Sophie Maxwell, who is the main turbine project supporter is not expected to take it well, and will pull out all the stops.
We need a new City energy pan. The 2004 Plan is woefully out of date.
The judge threw out the Brightline suit trying to stop the CT’s based on requirements for EPA to control CO2 emissions. The judge said there is no time limit on EPA compliance and for that as reason threw out the suit.
The judge also ruled that since the plant has not been approved by the Supervisors yet, his court could not rule on Brightline's assertion that the Bayview's civil rights were violated by a process without sufficient public input..
Cal-ISO staff say they do not see an overriding need to internal production, although higher ups will not say that and are trying to suppress staff comments.
Cal-ISO staff have been quoted in the media that they are willing to look at alternative proposals, however Cal ISO executives are contradicting them. (Sort of like Bush admin. denial of EPA staff scientist statements.)

IV. CCA- Eric- Some good developments. While SFPUC is still fighting it, like delaying RFQ’s, etc., LAFCO increasingly is not supportive of delays and has moved unilaterally and begun hiring its own CCA contractors.

Discussion:

Michael Bell was accepted for the position by LAFCO over Local Power for some limited preliminary work. Bell’s bid was lower. Local Power feels he was an ok choice for those tasks but that CCA will be much more viable if Local Power is hired to undertake the complete landscape of CCA tasks comprehensively.
SFPUC appears to not want to hire Local Power (or even any contractor to get the CCA project underway) SFPUC is still throwing up constant roadblocks and delays. The LAFCo executive officer Nancy Miller is falling for SFPUC's nonsense far too much and deferring too often to SFPUC requests for delay. Luckily the LAFCO commissioners are contradicting this and moving the project forward.
LAFCO is finally moving the process along, despite SFPUC sandbagging.

V. Mayor’s Solar program- Eric- LAFCO discussed the solar program and Jake McGoldrick had many criticisms. It went to the Budget and Finance Committee, which has 3 LAFCO members, and is a very good committee for us. The program is being heavily amended in Budget and Finance to become a better program.

Discussion:

Green Party opposition to this program shook up city hall.
At first, the project was fast tracked and did not allow public process. Sierra Club came to an impasse on it, wanting to cultivate relations with a strong Democratic candidate, Newsom, who seems to be coming around to peak oil, global warming.
At first, it passed a board vote when Ammiano somehow got the mistaken idea that Sierra Club supported the project
Mayor's office thought it had won and decided to take their threatened ballot measure version of the project off of the June ballot the Friday following the vote (that Friday was the deadline for June ballot changes).
Sierra Club sent a letter to the Board clarifying that they were neither in support or opposed the project. Bruce Wolfe and Eric Brooks got Sierra Club to wait to send the letter until after that Friday so that Mayor would make the mistake of pulling the ballot measure.
Bruce and Eric waited until after Mayor's office pulled the ballot measure and then hit the Board with strong arguments against the project the following Monday and the board vote was reversed on second reading. (All ordinances require two votes at the Board of Supervisors.) The solar program was remanded to Budget and Finance.
McGoldrick feels it needs to be changed and given more public input, and to include economic means testing for recipients.
Because of internal pressure from members who do not understand the negatives and dangers of the Mayor's program, Sierra Club decided to support it, but is leaning toward support mostly toward the 1 year pilot version of the program, instead of the full 10 year version.
Solar City has threatened to pull a promised solar jobs training center if the Mayor's program does not go through.
Open ended SFPUC process needs to be changed.
PG&E is still painting itself green and threatening CCA.
Hearing will be May 7^th for Mayo's solar program and we will need to turn people out.
We need to set up H-Bonding (renewable energy revenue bonds) through CCA to pay for solar installations and a lease to own program with net metering to sell excess power to the grid.

Anti-Plant Letter.pdf

Don Eichelberger
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The Hegelian/Marxist goal is emancipation. Marx said it best in 1843:

"Human emancipation wll only be complete when the real, individual man (sic) is absorbed into himself the abstract citizen; when as an individual man, in his every day life, in his work and in his relationships, he has become a species-being (politically accountabe to the whole); and when he recognizes and realizes his own power as social powers, so that he no longer separates this social power from himself as political power."