Marin Clean Energy is Marin's "brand name" for our version of Community Choice Aggregation, which is a process under which the county could form an agency to purchase our electricity in the wholesale market. PG&E would continue to transmit this power and would continue to be "the electric company" in terms of customer service and billing, but we would have local control over the kind of power we buy, from whom and at what price.  

MCE is Sustainable San Rafael's top priority for one simple reason: by enabling us to buy a much higher portion of our energy from renewable sources, MCE would produce a truly significant reduction in our greenhouse gas emissions. This graph pretty much says it all. The impact of MCE dwarfs any other near term carbon-reduction strategies. It could buy us the time we need to move toward big-time, culture-shifting changes in transportation, industry, resource conservation and housing. (Click to enlarge graph.)

MCE can become reality only if at least one of Marin's large cities, San Rafael or Novato, joins the county in a Joint Powers Authority. So, Sustainable San Rafael is focused specifically on seeing that our City Council votes to join the Marin Clean Energy JPA. The Council has scheduled this vote for November. Prior to that meeting the city is holding a series of special City Council Meetings in various neighborhoods (see below) to educate the public, answer questions and solicit public opinion on this issue.

Sustainable San Rafael is supporting this program with a door-to-door public outreach program. Our members and friends are knocking on doors to pass out MCE literature, encourage people to attend the special City Council meetings and to poll their current opinions on MCE, which we will report back to the Council.

We will be walking the neighborhood for Clean Energy on several Saturday mornings this fall. A number of other grass-roots organizations are already helping with this, and we'd like to see ALL supporters of MCE join in the effort. If you'd like to join us, please contact Sue Spofford.

Sustainable San Rafael
MCE Campaign Dates

Wed Aug 13, 7 PM - Public education meeting on MCE, Pickleweed Community Center, 50 Canal Street

Door-to-door canvass dates. Meet at World Coffee Cafe, Montecito Shopping Center, 3 rd and Union st, San Rafael at 9AM.

• Saturday August 16
• Saturday August 23
• Saturday September 6
• Saturday September 13
• Saturday September 20

City of San Rafael
Public Meetings on MCE

Wed Sept. 3, 6 PM - Pickleweed Community Center, 50 Canal Street

Mon Sept. 8, 6 PM - San Rafael Community Center, 618 B Street

Mon Sept. 22, 6 PM - Maria B. Freitas Senior Housing, 455 Manuel T. Freitas Parkway.

Mon Oct. 20, 8 PM - (Regular City Council meeting) Presentation of Staff Report and Recommendation on MCE.

Mon Nov. 17, 8 PM - (Regular City Council meeting) City Council vote on joining MCE.

Website note: After being dormant for many months, the SSR website is alive again! We're still working out how to handle the News and Resources pages for maximum interest and unique content (with minimum labor) but as you can see, we again have current content on the home page, and we plan to keep it fresh. Also, be sure to check out the Events page, where we've started posting news of local sustainability events.

About Sustainable San Rafael

Sustainable San Rafael is a grass-roots organization focused on advocating for sustainability and green policies in San Rafael, CA. A big part of our mission is public education and networking with other local and regional green activist groups, so check our "Resources" and "Events" page for lots of useful links.

What do we mean by "Sustainable"? The simplest definition is "living within one's means" or, as the UN put it in 1987, "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." Beyond this, we believe it has meanings that include our sense of community, our spirit, and our political will. We've tried to capture these in the rotating quotes at the top of each page.

About Membership: Basic membership is $20 per year, simply to help us cover the cost of the website, meetings, mailings etc. There are higher categories of membership for people who want to help even more and feel extra-good about it. Click Here to download a membership application with all the details. (There are two on the page. Cut it in half and give one to a green-minded friend!)

Contact: We regularly send our members updates on important issues and notices of sustainability-related events by e-mail. To receive these, Click Here and put "subscribe" in the subject line. Also, please take a moment to tell us about yourself, your particular sustainability interests and how you might be able to help in our work.

Links to other Sustainable City Groups:

Sustainable Marin | Mill Valley | Fairfax | Novato | Sonoma
 

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This page last updated August 12, 2008