Take Action: Dixie Fire: It's Time to #BuryPGE

(07/2021) It's happening again. PG&E negligence has caused the Dixie Fire, quickly becoming one of the largest fires in California history. Just months after the CPUC passed the criminal corporation's Safety Certificate, yet another fire is endangering lives, lungs, and livelihoods.

The Antidote for Utility Debt and Power Shut-offs: Local Clean Energy

(07/2021) Neither the COVID pandemic nor its financial impacts on underserved communities is waning. According to East Bay Community Energy (EBCE)’s report to its Executive Committee in April, there were more than 50,000 EBCE ratepayers who have accumulated utility debt as a result of the pandemic’s economic fallout. In the middle of the utility debt crisis, Californians are also getting ready for another mega wildfire and power shut-off season. Our antidote for these multiple crises is local clean energy—a decentralized energy system. Local clean energy resources such as energy efficiency, solar panels and batteries can help ratepayers decrease their energy cost and become energy resilient. The East Bay Clean Power Alliance (EBCPA) has been prioritizing this advocacy in the last couple of months as a response to this increasing crisis.

#CancelUtilityDebt: Victory, But More Work To Do

(07/2021) June 15th marked the Cancel Utility Debt National Day of Action! Reclaim Our Power and Local Clean Energy Alliance joined with partners from the Energy Democracy Project, Right to the City, Partnership for Working Families, and dozens of others to bring the voices of low income, Black, Indigenous, people of color across the country that are currently facing massive utility bills and potential shutoffs.

#CancelUtilityDebt- Join us June 15th!

(06/2021) A deadly pandemic. A cratering economy. Escalating utility rates. Unprecedented fire, smoke, and shutoffs. And through it all, PG&E took massive profits and doubled its executive salaries.
 
Now, with the end of the shutoff moratorium scheduled for June 30th, millions of California families are at risk of having PG&E turn their power off-- just so their Wall St shareholders can keep lining their pockets. We say PG&E should pay their share and not siphon public dollars.
 

Speak Out for Equity at the EBCE Budget Meeting, Wednesday, June 16

(06/2021) East Bay Community Energy's next board meeting agenda will include the annual budget item  for 2021-2022 on the agenda Wednesday, June 16, starting at 5pm. The proposed budget for the Local Development Business Plan (LDBP) is over $16 million and includes some excellent programs. However, the majority of the budget is still slated to go to projects that will largely benefit only middle- and upper-income customers. In May 2020, the board approved a large 3 year budget for EV infrastructure and vehicle purchase incentives budget with the intent of receiving a matching grant from the California Energy Commission (CEC).

Stop the PG&E Attack on Rooftop Solar

(06/2021) PG&E and California’s other investor-owned utilities are pushing the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to gut Net Metering, California's cornerstone rooftop solar policy. 
 
 
The utility proposals in the CPUC’s new Net Energy Metering 3.0 proceeding effectively tank the growth of rooftop solar. Their stated objective is to slash payback period of a solar installation from the current 5-8 years to 20-25 years—so there will be essentially no financial benefit to installing rooftop solar.

The Biggest Climate Emergency of Our Time is Undercutting Equity in Climate Solutions—An Update on East Bay Community Energy

(05/2021) As we approach the one year anniversary of George Floyd’s murder at the hands of racist police and the Black Lives Matter uprisings that followed, reparations are still being held hostage by institutions.  Since then, we have seen a rise in violence against our Asian community, mostly the elderly and women, who have been scapegoated for this pandemic.  The reality is that capitalism has been at the root of these injustices. East Bay Clean Power Alliance felt that equity has to be explicit in every aspect of our lives and of our work. Electricity is a human right that has been monopolized by investor owned utilities for too long, leaving struggling families literally in the dark by power shut offs.  Our communities advocated for a Community Choice energy program to flip the script and make energy work for our communities.  Our East Bay area has a wealth of community organizing and advocacy for energy democracy.  But, energy democracy is a two way street, our local electeds must hear and act on these demands.

PG&E "Failing Since Bankruptcy" Scorecard Is Out!

(04/2021) On Thursday, April 8th, the Reclaim Our Power Campaign released the "Failing Since Bankruptcy"- a scorecard grading PG&E on their failure to keep Californians safe. Fire survivors, people with disabilities, ratepayers, and young people spoke powerfully about the ways PG&E has harmed our communities since they were allowed out of bankruptcy in June 2020.

Thursday: Take Action to Reject PG&E's "License to Burn!"

(04/2021) Reclaim Our Power is asking for your help! On Thursday April 15th, the CPUC is voting on whether to approve PG&E's "safety certificate"- or as we call it, their "License to Burn." After years of dangerous negligence that have killed more than 100 people, and with the Zogg fire, raising rates, and more shutoffs all since they were let out of bankruptcy, it's long past time to reject PG&E's ability to burn us down and shut us off. We're asking the commission to reject the safety certificate, and move us closer to a safe, reliable, worker and community controlled energy system. Will you join us?

LCEA is in the News Again!

(03/2021) Local Clean Energy Alliance’s Jessica Tovar was interviewed by The Intercept’s Alleen Brown and San Francisco Chronicle’s J.D. Morris about Texas blackouts and transition to renewable energy. 

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