Sierra Club Calls for Bold Leadership on Public Service Commission

The Honorable Muriel Bowser
Mayor of Washington, DC
1350 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington, DC 20004

Dear Mayor Bowser:

Thank you for your leadership of our city during this challenging time. Supporting DC residents and businesses, especially the District’s essential workers and most vulnerable residents, must be our priority during the pandemic.

The District should also move forward with preparations against another major threat to our community: climate change. Like the novel coronavirus, the impacts of the climate crisis are especially harmful to people of color, low-income communities, and the elderly. In line with these concerns, we write today to ask you to nominate a bold and forward-thinking leader to the DC Public Service Commission (DCPSC), which since the resignation of Commissioner Greer Gillis, has been operating with two commissioners rather than the full complement of three.

We ask you to nominate a commissioner who shares your vision for aggressively meeting the climate challenge and who possesses the knowledge and experience to chart a path at the DCPSC to help meet the District’s mandated climate commitments: reducing carbon pollution 50 percent from 2006 levels by 2032 and achieving climate resilience and carbon neutrality by 2050.

The DCPSC, as the regulator of the District’s electric and gas utilities, is one of the key players in implementing these climate change mitigation policies, but unfortunately, to date, progress on your climate and energy commitments has been slow at the PSC. In 2015, under pressure from citizen activists, the Commission  opened a proceeding on modernizing the electricity grid (MEDSIS, Formal Case 1130). Five years later, this proceeding continues to grind along without significant outcomes. It’s time to transform our electricity grid to enable widespread, rapid adoption of existing and emerging energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies. The clean energy economy brings business opportunities that create jobs and build value in DC’s building assets. To bring this knowledge to the PSC requires experience and vision.  The Commission needs strong and sustained leadership and vision to match the bold climate commitments you've made and to protect your climate legacy.

Your bold leadership as mayor has taken the District to a new level by making these forceful climate commitments and bringing to bear the knowledge and creativity of DC experts and residents to map out plans for achieving them. Your Clean Energy DC plan, issued in 2018, identifies the actions that need to be taken in our buildings, energy infrastructure, and transportation system to meet the District’s 2032 targets for reducing greenhouse gases. Importantly, the plan makes it clear that continuous progress, measured by annual reductions in emissions, is necessary to achieve our climate commitments, and it lists specific actions to do right away, next steps for each, and what we will need to do in the future.

Your Sustainable DC 2.0 plan, also finalized in 2018, addresses the pressing economic and social needs of DC residents as we face the climate crisis and other sustainability issues while striving “to make the District of Columbia the healthiest, greenest, most livable city for all District residents,” as you wrote in the introduction to the plan. You signed the C40 Cities Net Zero Carbon Building Commitment, which commits that new buildings in DC will operate at net-zero carbon by 2030 and all buildings will operate at net-zero carbon by 2050. This is an important commitment that DC must meet if we are to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, since 73% of DC’s greenhouse gas emissions come from our buildings. You supported and signed the CleanEnergy DC Omnibus Amendment Act of 2018, the strongest state-level climate and energy law in the nation.

Meeting the District’s climate commitments by implementing and building on these pathbreaking policies is essential—and achievable, with your leadership and sustained dedication from DC government agencies, businesses, residents, NGOs, and the DC Council. As importantly, by ensuring these climate commitments are met, you are providing a roadmap for other cities to follow as we work together to address the climate crisis in the United States.

Mayor Bowser, our city is fortunate to be home to many smart, talented, and creative energy experts who know how to use the regulatory authorities available to the DCPSC. We urge you to nominate an individual who will bring knowledge and urgency to the task of implementing your climate commitments.

Thank you for considering our views on this crucial nomination.

Best regards,

Catherine Plume
Chair
Sierra Club, Washington DC Chapter

cc:
Chairman Phil Mendelson
Councilmember Kenyan R. McDuffie
Councilmember Anita Bonds
Councilmember David Grosso
Councilmember Elissa Silverman
Councilmember Robert C. White, Jr.
Councilmember Brianne K. Nadeau
Councilmember Mary M. Cheh
Councilmember Brandon T. Todd
Councilmember Kenyan R. McDuffie
Councilmember Charles Allen
Councilmember Vincent C. Gray
Councilmember Trayon White, Sr.
Tommy Wells, Director, Department of Energy and the Environment
John Falcicchio, Chief of Staff, Executive Office of the Mayor
Tomas Talamante, Deputy Chief of Staff, Executive Office of the Mayor
Karuna Seshasai, Deputy General Counsel to the Mayor and Special Assistant to the Mayor
Beverly Perry, Senior Advisor
Steven Walker, Director, Mayor’s Office of Talent and Appointments
Shanelle Patterson, Associate Director, Mayor’s Office of Talent and Appointments