John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins on Green Tech

Here's a great speech by John Doerr on the challenges of Climate Change.

Carl Pope and Van Jones

Here's an interesting video discussion between Carl Pope, the Sierra Club's National Director, and Van Jones of the Ella Baker Center and Green for All.

Dr. Donald Aitken Video on Renewable Energy

I came across this slightly dated but excellent video on renewable energy potential in the U.S., and though the quality of the film leaves a bit to be desired, the quality of the information and the speaker, Dr. Donald Aitken of the Union of Concerned Scientists, is first rate. If anyone ever tells you that we can't replace fossil fuels with renewables, give them this link.

Click To Play

North Bay Clean Energy Alliance

In spite of all the recent press about record gas prices, increasing home foreclosures, troubling unemployment figures, food price increases and the credit squeeze, the overarching issue of global climate change is still the 1000 pound elephant in the room. If we don’t start turning the corner on reducing GHG’s, and soon, all of these other concerns will pale in comparison as our civilization starts to face much more extreme challenges just for its very survival. But we, the people, simply don’t seem ready to believe what we’re being told by our best scientists, as well as many of our most knowledgeable and respected government, religious and business leaders. Or if we do understand the severity of the situation, we simply don’t know what to do to help. It seems too large a problem, and too remote in many ways, for us to act on it.

If we did really feel that we were in a climate crisis, then wouldn’t even the average person on the street be demanding that our leaders find solutions, and wouldn’t there be huge demonstrations on campuses? If we really believed there was a sense of urgency about needing to mitigate the root causes of climate change, wouldn’t most of us be willing to pitch in and help?

While there is a growing awareness about the issue, and many fine efforts are underway to educate and engage the public about the seriousness of the problem, the fact is most of us are continuing to go about our everyday lives as if the most profound natural disaster any of us will ever experience is NOT ACTUALLY HAPPENING—mainly, I believe, because it’s occurring so (relatively) slowly that it’s hard for us to discern or grasp except when we see melting ice caps or other more dramatic signals that things are changing.

The Sonoma Climate Protection Campaign recently released a graph showing that, despite all of the laudable efforts in recent years by residents, businesses and municipalities to install renewable energy and become more energy efficient, greenhouse gas emissions actually INCREASED last yeast year in the county. Clearly, we need to make much bolder, more significant steps and on a much broader scale than we have so far. But where’s the political will? Where is the public outcry?

With this as a backdrop, what if you were told that a means does exist not only to reduce GHG emissions to meet the necessary goals we have in our area, but that employing this solution could also spark an economic “Green Rush” in the North Bay employing hundreds of people as well as act as an inspiration to other communities across the nation?

This, I believe, is the potential created by forming a North Bay Clean Energy Alliance (or Community Choice Aggregation—CCA and Joint Powers Authority—JPA) to give Sonoma County residents a choice of getting their electricity from much greener sources than is currently offered by P. G & E. Marin County is already several years into this process and city and town councils there will be deciding by November whether to form just such a JPA. If it passes, Sonoma cities (or the County of Sonoma) could choose to join it, thereby giving those communities the choice of purchasing electricity produced either partially or 100% from renewable sources.

In addition to allowing us to meet our greenhouse gas reduction targets, here are a few additional benefits of the program:

Energy Independence and Jobs: Originally, the JPA would contract with renewable energy suppliers from across the western US. Over time, this Power Authority could invest in local power generation, thereby creating jobs in the local economy. Eventually (and this is my dream), with a large base of installed Solar generating capacity we could convert a lot of our local vehicle miles driven to electric vehicles, and charge them using locally produced, renewable power. Since transportation is the single largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in Sonoma County, this would go a long way towards reducing our local carbon footprint.

Price Stability: Publicly-financed power costs less than private power. There are already many successful, municipally-owned utilities in California and ALL of them offer power at less than current P G & E rates. By investing in renewable technologies we can sign long-term contracts for power at guaranteed rates and eliminate the severe price fluctuations and uncertainty such as we're experiencing today in the energy markets.

Local Control: Unlike investor-owned utilities such as P G & E, local governments are accountable to their residents. The decision-making process of a North Bay Clean Energy Alliance would be accessible and accountable to the community because it would be overseen by our local elected representatives.

Aggregating the purchasing power of thousands of residents and businesses would enable power to be obtained and offered at or below current P.G & E prices for the partially green option, and would require nothing from residents other than to encourage their leaders to adopt the program. Residents would have the OPTION of going 100% green right away, for a premium. The exact premium would depend on the number of participants, but is expected to be between 5% and 10% over current rates.

For more information on the Marin Clean Energy campaign, go here:

Marin Clean Energy Website