Orinda City Council Mtg, Tues, 5/16, 7:00 pm, & Community Choice Energy! Please Come!

Orinda City Council Mtg, Tues, 5/16, 7pm, & Community Choice Energy! Please Come to show your support!

Orinda has the opportunity, along with many other cities,to join a Community Choice Energy provider, which would give our residents the option of having 50% or 100% of their electricity to come from renewable sources. Most Orinda residents and business people who learn about Community Choice Energy (CCE) are very enthusiastic about it.
Our community deserves the opportunity to choose a CCE just as so many other communities are doing, which gives residents a choice of energy sources for the same or slightly lower costs, and yet it still allows others to choose to stay with PG&E. However this is only available to Orinda residents if the City Council makes the request to join very soon since the deadline for joining is June 30th!

Since the timeline is short, please e-mail, call, or COME to the ORINDA CITY COUNCIL MEETING on TUESDAY, 5/16, at 7:00 pm. Please ask the council members to support giving residents a choice of energy provider, and encourage the City Council to agendize this topic. The Orinda City Council already has heard a presentation on this topic on March 1st, in a joint council meeting along with the Lafayette, and Moraga Councils, both of which have already approved applying for Community Choice Energy.

All 9 counties around the Bay have voted to join a CCE or started their own. Our Contra Costa County, Board of Supervisors voted on May 2nd to join MCE (a highly respected CCE in CA, serving customers the longest, since 2010), as have Lafayette, Moraga, Walnut Creek, Danville, Concord, Richmond, El Cerrito, and San Pablo. Nine other Contra Costa cities are currently voting on the necessary Resolution and Ordinance to join MCE before the June 30 deadline. MCE has over 250,000 customers as of 5/9/17.

• Link to MCE: https://www.mcecleanenergy.org

If Orinda joins a CCE, we will have the choice of 50% of our energy coming from renewable sources such as wind and solar. Or 100%, by paying a little extra. PG&E gets 30% of its energy from renewable sources (the minimum the State requires). PG&E remains a choice for those that prefer it.

We want our community to have a choice between PG&E and a non-profit public agency (such as MCE*) providing cleaner energy at the same or slightly lower rates. And offering several other perks** that PG&E does not. A CCE can do this because it does not have shareholders; it is governed by a board with an elected representative from each city and with complete transparency.

The clean energy provided by a CCE goes on the grid; PGE takes care of the distribution, transmission, maintenance, and billing as usual. The customer doesn't need to do a thing -- except be certain their city joins.
The Orinda City Council so far has not agendized this topic,or even discussed joining a CCE. This Tuesday is the last chance for Orinda to move forward on joining a CCE this year or longer.

Please come on TUESDAY, to the City Council Meeting and support the effort of the many who have recently written emails, letters,etc. and speak if you are willing at the Public Forum time at the beginning. Meet at 5:30-6:30 before the meeting on the Plaza below, for an optional Q&A.
PLEASE ADD YOUR VOICE in support of more clean energy, and the right to have a choice.

* MCE Clean Energy website: https://www.mcecleanenergy.org
** perks include better reimbursement than PG&E for excess energy rooftop solar customers add to the grid, extra solar rebates for low income communities, rebates for EV charging station installation, creating green jobs and job training for a just transition to the new energy economy, and much more.

List of other meetings in various cities who are considering joining MCE in the upcoming 2 weeks: https://www.mcecleanenergy.org/meetings/

Please feel free to e-mail or contact any of us below for clarification or questions.

Thank you for your support, Sarah Butler (sarahgbutler@hotmail.com), Jim Ulrick (julrick@ulrick.com), and Carol Weed (carol4ofa@gmail.com)