Clean Power to the People: Making it Real

On December 8^th, the Local Clean Energy Alliance hosted a fourth Clean Power to the People strategy session, focused on the question, ‘how can we make the Community Choice benefits real for our community?’ Representatives from 30 different community organizations attended the Oakland workshop, hailing from labor unions, workforce development organizations, environmental justice organizations, faith communities, renewable energy businesses, and more.

Read the full report here.

With the first meeting of the East Bay Community Energy (Alameda County’s Community Choice program) board scheduled for January 30^th and the program expected to start providing services at the end of this year, the goal of the strategy session was to hear directly from community representatives about what it will take to make this program serve local communities and advance economic, environmental, and racial justice.

The discussion was broken down into four topics covering different types of community benefits: labor standards, workforce development, mitigating the housing crisis and displacement, and community-driven economic development. The following includes some of the key points raised in each topic:

·         Labor standards: creating good jobs with fair and family-sustaining wages requires continual lobbying efforts with the Community Choice board.

·         Workforce development: focus on employing people with barriers to entry-level jobs, including former incarceration, housing insecurity due to affordability crisis, exposure to trauma, among others.

·         Mitigating the housing crisis and displacement: think beyond lower rates, towards a program that subsidizes low income rate payers and does not turn off people’s power for inability to pay; brainstorming compassionate solutions such as a Community Care Fund with on-bill contributions.

·         Community-driven economic development: engaging neighborhoods in designing and advocating for renewable energy projects could lead to organizing to address other specific community needs.

All of the benefits discussed at the workshop are only possible if the community steps up, advocates, and organizes to make them real. The first step is for the community to have a strong presence at the first board meeting on January 30^th to demonstrate our presence and our power. Community members should call specifically for the board to adopt the East Bay Clean Power Alliance’s proposal for selecting the Community Advisory Committee, to ensure the county’s diverse communities are represented. RSVP today to join us on January 30^th.