Friends,  

Just when we were all ready for the fight for a sustainable future to get a little easier, the shocking federal election results requires us to significantly increase our efforts; and redouble our efforts at the state and local levels. The Clean Coalition is preparing for an intense 2017, building upon the extensive work we do to establish effective state-level energy policy, from California to New York. We are also preparing to expand the numerous collaborations we already have with utilities, municipalities, and communities to design and implement programs that result in broad deployments of local renewables and establish pathways to grid modernization.

It is daunting to imagine the Clean Coalition working harder in 2017 than in 2016. This newsletter highlights a number of the reasons why, featuring just a sampling of the Clean Coalition’s 2016 policy and program achievements.

On the policy side, the Clean Coalition secured major wins on interconnection reform, low income access to solar, and grid transparency. Also, in an unparalleled opportunity to eliminate a massive market distortion in California that harms local renewables to the tune of 3 cents/kWh, equivalent to about 30% of the wholesale cost of electricity, the Clean Coalition is leading the Transmission Access Charges (TAC) Campaign to ensure that California’s usage pays principle for transmission cost allocation is properly and consistently applied. Support for the TAC Campaign is growing fast and includes a spectrum of stalwarts like SolarCity, UCLA, and Sierra Club.

On the program side, the Clean Coalition is thrilled that the Peninsula Advanced Energy Community (PAEC) is well underway. The PAEC is one of 13 projects selected for funding by the California Energy Commission with the aim to streamline policies and showcase projects to facilitate local renewables, energy efficiency, electric vehicle charging infrastructure, and solar emergency microgrids throughout its target communities. The PAEC region includes San Mateo County and the City of Palo Alto, and collaborators include municipalities, school districts, emergency response entities, Pacific Gas & Electric, SamTrans, Facebook, Stanford University, Kaiser Permanente, and many others.

Bloomberg reported recently that sustainable investments in the United States surged by more than $2 trillion in the last two years with many companies — including several PAEC collaborators — demanding renewable energy. The PAEC project, once fully developed, aims to inspire an extra focus on local renewables that achieve even greater levels of environmental benefits while setting the stage for renewables-driven energy resilience that can never be achieved from any flavor of remote energy generation.

Thank you for continuing to support the Clean Coalition and its pursuit of making clean local energy accessible now. We wish you a happy holiday season and look forward to another big year ahead!

Sincerely,
Craig Lewis
Founder and Executive Director