Energy Commission Spreading the Wealth; San Mateo Gets a Piece of the Action

During its first business meeting of 2015, the California Energy Commission (CEC) OK’d nearly $18 million to fund projects that are claimed will help meet CA’s climate and energy goals. Twelve million dollars will go toward three alternative fuel projects, $4 million will help fund two geothermal projects and $3+ million will help fund local energy efficiency projects.

The CEC approved $3,562,000 in loans through the Energy Conservation Assistance Act (ECAA) program for two cities – one of which is San Mateo. San Mateo will receive a $3,000,000 loan at one percent interest to replace more than 5,000 streetlight fixtures with LED lighting. The project is expected to save about $270,000 annually in utility expenses. The city also anticipates receiving $404,000 in utility incentives. The simple payback on the loan is 11 years. (The City of Morrow Bay will receive the remaining $562,000.)

The three alternative fuels projects will receive their funding through the Alternative and Renewable Fuel and Vehicle Technology Program or ARFVTP (admit it… you didn’t even know this catchall existed, did you?) which supports technologies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and dependence on petroleum-based fuels:

>The Regents of the University of California: $11.2 million to administer an incentive program to put more natural gas vehicles on California roads. Wouldn’t this be better handled by CalTrans? Just askin’

> U.S. General Services Administration: $600,000 to the federales to install at least 50 electric vehicle charging stations in existing federal facilities in California. This is a good call and one assumes the feds have handled the other side of the equation by actually having the 50 electric vehicles.

>Linde LLC: $300,000 for operation and maintenance costs and data collection for a new hydrogen refueling station that opened in West Sacramento in December. Also a good call for both people who drive hydrogen fueled vehicles.

The two geothermal projects will receive funding through the CEC’s Geothermal Grant and Loan Program, which provides funding for research and development of new or existing geothermal resources and technologies and is open to eligible private companies and local agencies. Funds come from royalty and lease payments made by geothermal developers operating on federal land in California. Recipients were the Modoc Joint Unified School District ($3.1 million to expand the existing geothermal heating system at Modoc High School to two other schools) and Modoc County ($1.1 million for geothermal research, analysis and exploratory drilling in the Surprise Valley Hot Springs area).

Now all we’re waiting on is the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) to implement their proposed pay-a-fee-when-you-drive tax. How will this be accomplished? Why we’ll all willingly put a tracking device in our vehicles which will tell ABAG & MTC how many miles we’ve driven so they can send us a tax bill… plus (in case you haven’t guessed) this also creates a record of where you drove, which ABAG and MTC swear they’ll never use or reveal to any other government agency. Somewhere George Orwell is laughing.