SB County Supervisor Das Williams has been elected as Chair of the Central Coast Community Energy (3CE) Policy Board of Directors and expects to lead the 20 or so directors to new renewable ideas.
“Each move we make is to reduce the carbon footprint,” he told Condor Call.
“I am really excited about what we can do with energy, but it will take a lot of work to implement the goals that the state has and more ambitious goals of 3-CE. We now have 40% renewable energy, above the state, although some are not carbon free.”
3CE formed beginning in 2021 as the area’s new, locally owned electricity provider. Its reach spans 30 cities and five counties, from Carpinteria to the Santa Cruz Mountains. With no investors or shareholders, the revenue generated by 3CE stays local, helps keep rates lower than SCE and PG&E (which remain the distributors), and provides millions for rebates and incentives that lower greenhouse gas emissions.
“For example, during a recent 3CE Board policy meeting, we adopted the FY 2022-23 Operating Budget that includes approximately $16M for energy programs. During my time as Chair, I am looking forward to increasing awareness of the important work 3CE is doing,” Williams said.
One exciting option for 3CE is to buy energy from a new experiment being constructed in Kern County, which would be the first compressed air storage and first in the nation that is not petroleum based. It would contain 200Mw of storage and “we want to have one more in our area, and it doesn’t rely on lithium,” he noted. The idea is to excavate a cavern to store the compressed air then letting it out to generate electricity when needed.
“We are missing out on getting all the local fleets to transition (to electricity). It’s affordable for cities and counties to reduce their price as we offer help and funding for these fleets. We’ve bought over 70 EVs that only cost us $31,000 per vehicle, mostly Bolts. SB County is now working on getting EV for our trucks,” he noted, adding “It’s something that Sierra Club activism can address.”
To learn more about how it works, go to: https://tinyurl.com/3cenergyInfo
To the south, Ventura County joined a similar entity, the Clean Power Alliance (CPA), which includes Los Angeles County and about 40 cities. Like 3CE, there are rate options for customers: 100% Green Power (7-9% higher than SCE’s default rate), 50% Clean Power using renewable energy about the same price and 36% Lean Power with the least amount of renewable energy 1-2% cheaper.
CPA also offers incentives for electric vehicles and other methods to kick petroleum energy.
To learn how that works in Ventura County, go to: https://cleanpoweralliance.org/