Cocktails and Fist-Pumping: California’s Ballot Battle

“The fight over Proposition 23, the California ballot initiative that would suspend the state’s landmark global warming law, has spawned some unusual political alliances. Mainstream environmentalists, venture capitalists, labor unions, tech chieftains and even some Republicans have all made common cause to oppose the measure, which is backed by two Texas oil companies.

Now activists who work on behalf of poor communities afflicted by pollution and some of California’s top financiers have come together in an effort to bring minority voters to the polls on Nov. 2.

At a recent fund raiser at the waterfront offices of Sungevity, an Oakland, Calif., solar company, hedge-fund managers and other well-heeled investors sipped cocktails and mingled with inner-city activists in the hope of raising $1.9 million for a turn-out-the-vote campaign that will target nine counties with large populations of African-American, Asian and Latino voters.”

Read the rest of Tom Woody’s post on his New York Times blog Green.

The buck stopped WHERE?

Today’s post opens with a couple of clichés:  Time flies and yet, the more things change, the more they stay the same.  It’s already been a year and a half since the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (aka “the stimulus package”) passed, allocating $3.1 billion for energy efficiency and renewable energy projects (a big chunk of change but only 12% of total stimulus dollars).  But  here’s the real kicker:  According to a recent audit by the Department of Energy (DOE), only 7% of the funds have been spent.

Say whaaat?  It’s 113 degrees in Los Angeles, more than one in ten Californians are out of work, and there’s a $2.8 billion pot of gold collecting dust in Washington, D.C.?  Not very stimulating.

The hold-up, it seems, is a shortage of DOE project officers who approve proposed projects before funds can be disbursed.  Meanwhile, across the ocean, the European Union is spending (as in, actually spending) 64% of its stimulus funding on green investments and China 34%.  These countries recognize what the United States doesn’t–the fossil fuel era is running on empty, and our planet is on a slow roast.  We need to get those stimulus dollars to fulfill their destiny–stimulating real live renewable energy projects executed by real live workers.  Free the $U.S. billions!

–Erica Etelson

The weight of the law

Yesterday, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) passed a regulation requiring utilities to get a third of their power from renewable sources by 2020.  CARB stepped in because the legislature failed to enact a law that would have increased the renewable portfolio standard (RPS) from 20% to 33% . Renewable energy advocates are calling for the governor to convene a special legislative session to take one last stab at passing a new RPS law.

Why is the distinction between regulation and law important, and why aren’t we breaking out the champagne just yet?  If Prop 23 passes, the CARB regulation dies (along with the renewable energy industry), but if the legislature passes a new RPS law, Prop 23 doesn’t touch that.  Confused?  Glad you’re not lawyer?  The bottom-line is this: Prop 23 must be defeated.

–Erica Etelson

Achtung: The time to break our oil addiction is now!

I love it when scientists roll up their lab coat sleeves and get feisty. The Union of Concerned Scientists (USC) is never afraid to translate scientific expertise into policy demands, and their new plan for ending our addiction to oil is no exception.

The USC points out that, if we do nothing, US demand for oil will rise to 25 billion barrels a day by 2030. Or…we could easily cut our oil consumption in half by 2030 by hiking a handful of fuel efficiency standards (for cars, trucks, boats, planes, and buildings) and investing in mass transit. In so doing, the US would become a global leader in energy security and the fight against climate change and would save tens of billions of dollars in the process.

Sounds great, but there’s a catch…politics. With a withering mid-term election on the horizon and a President who can’t even bring himself to throw some free solar panels up on the White House, it seems once again like an idea that should be a no-brainer will turn out to be a non-starter.

The USC report comes not a moment too soon.  Earlier this month, a German military report on peak oil was leaked to the German newspaper Spiegel: According to German military analysts, peak oil has arrived, meaning the world is producing in 2010 more oil than it ever has before or ever will again. The report warns of a drastic oil crisis if Germany and other western democracies don’t get their acts together around renewable energy right quick. What’s Germany worried will happen when oil reserves grow scarce? Oh, just total market failure and the collapse of democracy. But hey, we like driving our big SUVs 80mph so don’t bother us with nuisances like the end of the world as we know it.

–Erica Etelson

Support Communities Uniting Vs Prop 23!

Check out our latest call to action to beat back the Texas’ oil companies and their Dirty Energy Proposition at SFGate.

Green Your School!

Bay Area Parents:  It’s not too late to register for the Growing Greener School Grounds Conference taking place this weekend in San Francisco.  Meet other parents who want to add features like gardens, rainwater harvesting and chickens to their kids’ schools.  Learn about resources that can help you transform asphalt into apple trees and astro-turf into tomatoes.

Sungevity will be there Friday night handing out flyers inviting schools to join our new Beyond the Bake Sale Solar Fundraising Program for schools–for every Sungevity customer schools and non-profits send our way, Sungevity makes a $1000 donation which schools can use to finance green improvements or pay for other programs axed from the school budget during these lean times.  If you know of a school or non-profit that would like to raise some sunny money, get in touch with me at  eetelson (at) sungevity (dot) com.  Goodbye, cupcakes and grant proposals…hello, clean energy!

–Erica Etelson

Another reason to hate Prop 23



Our good friends at Vote Solar just let us in on a not-so-wonderful little news flash:  If Prop 23 (which is on the ballot in California this November) passes, the state’s renewable energy mandate will drop from a respectable 33% by 2020 to a dismal 20%. That’s because Prop 23 would repeal AB32, California’s landmark climate change law, which authorized the Governor to mandate 33% by Executive Order.  As the San Jose Mercury News opined, “If Prop 23 passes, clean-energy investment will come to a halt.”

It’s pretty maddening when renewable energy advocates spend years working to get the state to pass a strong renewable energy portfolio standard, only to have a couple of self-interested Texas oil companies come in and bankroll a giant backlash.  It’s also pretty scary–if AB32 goes, so goes the planet.  In the absence of a national or global commitment to curbing climate change, the world has its hopes pinned on California to show how carbon emissions can be controlled while generating green jobs and economic growth. If California, the 8th largest economy in the world, abandons its climate change law, who will step in to take its place…and when?  There’s very little time.

Our friends at Vote Solar are urging everyone to donate generously to the No on 23 campaign and we second the motion:

“The No on Prop 23 campaign is putting together TV spots, web tools and advertising, voter mobilization, etc–all the critical tools of modern campaigning. They are also supporting Communities United, a coalition of top-notch groups with a plan to reach 1.5 million swing voters in communities of color through phone calls, mailings, door knocking, get-out-the-vote precinct walking, and more.

They need dough to make it happen. A lot of dough. Be generous:

https://secure.donationsafe.com/sde/

If you want to be more hands on, the Union of Concerned Scientists gives you all the tools necessary to host house parties against the prop.  Ain’t no party like a UCS party:

Bottom line, this thing needs to die deader than dead.   Act now or no complaining later.”

–Erica Etelson

Solar homes are a hot commodity

Sure, they save you money on electricity and give you lots of green karma, but what good are your solar panels when you sell your house?

According to the U.S. Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy, recent tracking of home sales indicates that solar homes sell twice as fast.  That’s because 91% of home buyers in California say energy efficiency is an important consideration, and 81% understand that a home solar system will lower their electric bills.  (We’re working to make that 81% grow to 100%).

But wait, there’s more:  For every dollar in annual utility bill savings, your solar home’s value increases by $20.  So let’s say you’re a typical Sungevity customer with a home worth $300,000 who saves $800 a year on electricity….Bam!  Your home is suddenly worth $16,000 more (a 5.3% increase in value) and you’ve recouped the out-of-pocket (post-rebate) cost of installing the system.  I vowed to stop using the expression “no brainer” because, in the political arena, it seems to to coincide with “non-starter”, but how else to characterize a homeowner’s decision to go solar when the math is so clear.

Heads up realtors:  Download this snazzy GoSolar brochure to help persuade your home buying clients to invest in solar.

–Erica Etelson

Obama to McKibben: Not right now

This morning, the crew at 350.org met with White House officials to push for the installation of a Sungevity home solar system.  While the White House didn’t reject the offer outright, they told 350.org campaigners that any such decision would have to be part of the broader sustainability assessment the White House is undertaking.

350.org founder Bill McKibben had this to say after the disappointing meeting:  “They refused to take the Carter-era panel that we brought with us and said they would continue their deliberative process to figure out what is appropriate for the White House someday. I told them it would be nice to deliberate as fast as possible, since that is the rate at which the planet’s climate is deteriorating.”

It’s hard to imagine what the downside of a solar-powered White House could possibly be, and we expect that, sooner or later, President Obama will come around–our offer stands.

–Erica Etelson

Hate Dirty Energy?

Here at Sungevity , we try to stay on the sunny side.  But there’s nothing positive to say about Prop 23, a cynical Texas oil company attempt to overturn California’s landmark clean energy/climate change legislation.

Texas oil refiners Valero and Tesoro are pouring millions into Prop 23. Their motive is clear: Keep California addicted to oil by killing policies that would promote clean energy innovation and jobs.

If you live in California, this Saturday is your chance to speak out at Valero stations around the state–Oakland, Richmond, LA, San Rafael, Palo Alto, Santa Barbara–check the Hell No on 23 Facebook page for details.

–Erica Etelson