Our Vision for a Local Clean Energy-Powered Bay Area

The Local Clean Energy Alliance envisions a future Bay Area that consumes significantly less energy. Residents actively and consciously reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions by making their homes and businesses more energy efficient, installing solar power, using alternatives to driving, and conserving and capturing water. Residents consume less energy on transportation because their cities and planning policies have been configured around local and regional electrified transit systems.

We envision a future for the Bay Area that is powered by renewable energy, with the majority coming from local, decentralized electricity generation that provides affordable, reliable, and clean power. We envision the Bay Area revitalizing and rebuilding its communities around public gathering places, events, and locally owned businesses, all powered by local clean energy.

Energy Development Principles:

To achieve this vision, the development of local renewable energy resources should be based on the following principles:

1.    Social Justice and Equity: making sure the benefits of local energy resources are equitably shared.

2.    Green Jobs and Livelihoods: creating local jobs, new businesses, and new ownership opportunities that help improve the environment and restore our communities.

3.    Workforce Development: committing to workforce development programs that create good prevailing wage jobs for local residents, especially for those most vulnerable to poverty and pollution.

4.    Sustainability: respecting the limits of nature and ecological interdependence, while creating the environmental conditions needed to support present and future generations.

5.    Healthy Communities: supporting locally resilient, healthy foods systems; affordable, reliable, and accessible public transportation; clean air; clean water; and safe, efficient, affordable housing.

6.    Energy Democracy: maximizing community ownership and control of energy resources, with shared leadership and decision-making authority that involves all stakeholder communities.

7.    Community Resilience: strengthening vulnerable communities to prepare for disaster and adapt to the impacts of climate change.

8.    Social Safety Net: making special provisions for those people unable to afford energy services at normal rates.

9.    Precautionary Principle: accepting that a project, policy, or decision should not be pursued if it could have an adverse impact on human or environmental health.

On the basis of these principles, communities share a vibrant and equitable regional economy thanks to tens of thousands of clean energy  jobs created by energy efficiency, local energy generation, and local green businesses. Communities source their own power and cooperatively build their renewable power infrastructure.

This is our vision. The Local Clean Energy Alliance seeks partners who share our passion for renewable energy, community vitality, and equitable development, and who are willing to work for change. Join us in laying the groundwork for a sustainable energy future.