2030 Scoping Plan

Statewide LG EE Best Practices: Weekly Update

Here are your wEEkly updates:

News and Opportunities

Reason for Optimism: Making Climate Change Progress in a New Political Era
This month's Livable Places Update from the Local Government Commission attempts to address what the new administration might mean to leadership on climate change, energy, and infrastructure investments.

High Utility Bills Trigger Anxiety and Depression in Low-Income Households

A researcher at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health studied a hidden source of hardship: energy insecurity, the ability to adequately meet basic household energy needs, and its adverse environmental, health, and social consequences. The study provides real-world examples of three dimensions of energy insecurity: economic, physical, and behavioral.

2030 Target Scoping Plan Discussion Draft
ARB released the 2030 Target Scoping Plan Discussion Draft to provide the staff's current thoughts on how to achieve the State's SB 32 climate goal of reducing greenhouse gases of at least 40% below 1990 levels by 2030. Comments received on the Discussion Draft will inform the development of a comprehensive Proposed 2030 target Scoping Plan, which is expected to be released in January 2017. Comments due December 16, 2016.

RFP: Sustainable Communities Planning Grant and Incentives Program: Best Practices Pilot
The Strategic Growth Council in partnership with the Office of Planning and Research is soliciting proposals for an effort to support local land use planning related to climate and the State's statutory planning priorities. The program funding in the amount of $250,000 will be available for applicants to apply for up to $50,000. These grants will support the development and/or implementation of a specific portion of a land use plan, land protection or management practice, or development project. Proposals due January 11, 2017.
Revised Draft Short-Lived Climate Pollutant Reduction Strategy and Revised Draft Environmental Analysis
ARB released these drafts for public review and will be conducting a series of public workshops to summarize these revisions. Comments due January 17, 2017.

Job Opportunity: Energy and Water Coordinator, County of San Luis Obispo
The County of San Luis Obispo Department of Public Works is seeking an innovative and experienced individual who is committed to work as part of a team in delivering a broad range of energy-related projects at County facilities. The position covers a wide range of duties, such as energy monitoring and reporting to researching and implementing program/projects in the County's EnergyWise Plan. Applications due December 29, 2016.

Job Opportunity: Customer Programs Specialist I, MCE
MCE is currently hiring a motivated individual to help implement a new pilot focused on providing energy efficiency services to income qualified communities. The position will require creativity, attention to detail, and ideally knowledge of energy efficiency and/or experience working with low-income communities in the Bay Area. Applications due January 13, 2017.

Job Opportunity: Energy and Sustainability Information and Communication Analyst, County of Sonoma
The County of Sonoma is hiring for a bilingual (English and Spanish) Information and Communications Analyst that will be responsible for planning, developing, coordinating, and implementing Energy and Sustainability Division information, communication, education, and marketing efforts, and who will act as the division spokesperson in dealing with the media and community groups. Application deadline extended to December 21, 2016.
Calendar
Click the Calendar link to view all upcoming events.

Join the CPUC for the upcoming Quarterly Energy Efficiency EM&V Stakeholder Meeting. Please propose agenda topics to Syreeta Gibbs at syg@cpuc.ca.gov by COB December 7, 2016. Agenda topics proposed so far include: 1) Review of the EM&V Masterplan, 2) CPUC and Program Administrator Update on EM&V Budgets and Activities, and 3) M&V 2.0 case studies presentation.

12/15 (webinar) Advanced Energy Year In Review: What happened in 2016 - and what to expect in 2017
In this webinar, you can hear about the most important policy developments impacting the advanced energy industry in 2016, as well as possible policy battles and breakthroughs coming in 2017.

1/25-1/26 (Sacramento) California Climate Change Symposium 2017
This forum aims to share cutting-edge research addressing the impacts of climate change on the state to inform the state's strategies and policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to develop programs to safeguard California from a changing climate. Early-bird registration ends 12/12/16.


2/2/17 (St. Louis, MO) New Partners for Smart Growth Conference
Early-bird registration has been extended to December 16th  for the 2017 New Partners for Smart Growth Conference. This conference is the nation's largest smart growth and sustainability event and has been named one of 12 conferences not to miss by Planetizen.

5/5/17 (Long Beach) The Business of Local Energy Symposium 2017
The Center for Climate Protection along with the Local Government Commission and the Local Government Sustainable Energy Coalition is offering their third Business of Clean Energy Symposium to convene government, business, and community leaders to accelerate California's shift to a clean energy economy and to exchange ideas about Community Choice Energy programs. Save the date - registration will open in January.

​Resources and Reports

Current Practices in Efficiency Financing
This report serves as a guide to all customer-facing financing products - products offered by a lender directly to a borrower - used to pay for energy efficiency. View the video and presentations from the associated webinar.

Less Carbon, Higher Prices: How California's Climate Policies Affect Lower-Income Residents
This paper examines the Golden State's history of renewable-energy mandates, as well as its carbon cap-and-trade program; its tiered system of electricity pricing; how prices vary by county; and the impact of energy prices on households.

The Intersection of Energy and Justice
This paper explores the interactions of spatial, racial and socioeconomic patterns of residential heating affordability, consumption and efficiency in Wayne County, Michigan. Alongside energy consumption and efficiency disparities, ineffective targeting of inefficient homes are highlighted as the impetus to fuel poverty in this study.

Planning & Zoning for Health in the Built Environment
This Essential Info Packet offers planners a collection of resources to help them better understand the connections between health and the built environment and integrate community health considerations into their planning and zoning work.


And that's all for this week! 




Statewide LG EE Best Practices: Weekly Update

Here are your wEEkly updates:

1. SB 350 Barriers Study: A California Energy Commission workshop on low-income barriers to accessing the energy efficiency and renewable energy goals of SB 350 is going on this morning!

2. San Joaquin Valley Clean Transportation Summit 10/19: Save the Date! The San Joaquin Valley Clean Transportation Summit, featuring a full day of speakers and breakout sessions on electric vehicles, natural gas alternatives, and more, will be held October 19th.

3. Joint Agency Workshop 8/23 on 2030 Target Scoping Plan: California Energy Commission (CEC), California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), and California Air Resources Board (ARB) are jointly hosting a public workshop on the process to update the 2030 Target Scoping Plan.

4. Workshop 8/29, Electricity Reliability in SoCal: The California Energy Commission will conduct a workshop to review efforts to ensure electricity reliability in Southern California resulting from the closure of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (San Onofre) and impending retirement of several fossil generating units using once-through cooling (OTC) technologies.
5. Vehicle Technology Program Review 8/22: CEC Commissioner Janea Scott, Lead Commissioner on Transportation of the California Energy Commission, will conduct a workshop to discuss the use of metrics within the Alternative and Renewable Fuel and Vehicle Technology Program (ARFVTP).

6. New EPA Portfolio Manager Feature Helps Buildings Save: The EPA has launched a waste and materials tracking feature in its Energy Star Portfolio Manager, which is a free benchmarking and tracking tool for commercial building owners and managers. (New to Portfolio Manager? Check out resources here.)

7. Sustainability, Prosperity, and Security: A new book from United States military leadership, “The New Grand Strategy: Restoring America’s Prosperity, Security and Sustainability in the 21st Century,” tells the story of a grand strategy, born within the Pentagon, to recapture America’s greatness at home and abroad by elevating sustainability as a strategic imperative.

8. USDOE Awards $ for Local Data-Driven Energy Planning: In support of cities’ efforts to reduce energy waste and greenhouse gas emissions and increase the use of energy efficiency technologies, the Energy Department selected three projects this week to help cities integrate energy analysis and data into their strategic decision making across all clean energy sectors. Learn more about the projects and the findings through its “Cities Leading through Energy Analysis and Planning (Cities-LEAP)” program.

9. New Green Leasing and Commercial Real Estate EE Resources: Looking to engage and support the commercial real estate sector in your jurisdiction as they explore the value of energy efficiency in real estate? The Institute for Market Transformation (IMT) and Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) are arming the commercial real estate industry with a new set of tools that enable tenants to more effectively seek out and secure high-performance spaces that are in line with the tenant’s organizational goals, objectives, and budgets. (Get more resources on green leasing uncovered through recent local government asks.)

10. New York Joins California’s 50% by ‘30 Goal: Last week saw an order by the New York Public Service Commission requiring that 50 percent of the state’s electricity must from clean, renewable sources like solar and wind power by 2030 – this makes nearly one-fifth of the country’s population in pursuit of a 50% renewable goal.

11. Cities Consider Increasing Renewables: While on renewables: the cities of Solana Beach and La Mesa were in the news this week as they weigh using a community choice aggregation (CCA) model to increase their jurisdictions’ use of renewable energy and lower their carbon footprints. (More on CCAs here.)

12. CEC Blueprint Newsletter: Did you know that the California Energy Commission documents the most common questions to their Energy Code Hotline, and answers them in their Blueprint newsletter? The Blueprint newsletter for July/August is out, and provides guidance on a number of key issues – including new lighting compliance options, pipe insulation, solar ready requirements for single family homes, air-to-water heat pump systems, and more. Share with your building departments and other building efficiency stakeholders in your community!

13. Energy Efficient Codes Make Financial Sense: “Average homeowners are the biggest beneficiaries of more energy efficient building codes, says Daniel Bressett of the Alliance to Save Energy. Homeowners consistently state their preference for energy efficiency features, a point made again in the housing survey conducted by the National Association of Home Builders.” Get more coverage and resources for explaining the financial value of energy efficiency in this newsletter piece from Zero Energy Project.

14. Cutting Poverty through EE and More: Addressing income inequality and affordability is a central and growing issue for many local governments. A new policy paper, the “Urban Opportunity Agenda,” from the Center for Neighborhood Technology proposes that poverty can be cut through simply cutting core household expenses – including energy.

15. Model Released to Pursue EE, ZNE: A tool to model the time dependent value (TDV) of energy for use in planning for the 2019 energy code’s steps toward zero net energy is now available on the CEC’s website.

16. Airport Achieves Carbon Neutrality: The Dalllas Fort Worth Airport is the first in the United States to achieve carbon neutrality! Learn how they did it and more here.

17. Microgrid Conference: The Microgrids Convergence Conference will be held October 25th-26th in San Mateo and will consist of two, unique, content-rich days. Learn about conference content, speakers, and more.

18. Microgrid Financing: Microgrids Conference event sponsors are offering a free recording of the webinar "Financing Microgrid Distributed Energy Efficiency Solutions."

19. CEC Workshop on Title 20 Appliance Efficiency: For sharing with your jurisdiction’s retailers and businesses; The California Energy Commission will host a webinar on August 17th, 2016 presenting focused on the needs of retailers, wholesalers, importers, and internet vendors.

20. Vehicle/Grid Demonstration Funding: The Pre–Application Workshop Presentation and WebEx Recording for GFO–16–303, Advanced Vehicle–Grid Integration Research and Demonstration, is now available on the California Energy Commission (CEC)’s website.

21. Job announcement: San Luis Obispo has extended the deadline to apply for its open Senior Energy Planner position! Learn more here.

As always, you can keep track of relevant events by connecting to the EE Events Calendar, and find more resources being added daily on the EECoordinator website – including past WEEkly Updates


That is all for this week!