Media Advisory, March 11, 2024
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Contact: |
Roger Lin, Center for Biological Diversity, (510) 844-7100 x 363, rlin@biologicaldiversity.org |
California Regulators to Hear Petition Wednesday Requiring Energy Decisions to Factor in Environment, Public Health
SACRAMENTO, Calif.— The California Energy Commission will consider a petition Wednesday from conservation, environmental justice and local government groups that would require it to factor in the environment and public health when making decisions about the state’s clean energy future. The commission’s staff has recommended approval.
The groups filed the petition in February, and soon afterward the commission added it to its March business meeting agenda. It follows a series of regressive policy moves by the California Public Utility Commission attacking local clean energy solutions, including a recent proposal to stifle community solar in California.
What: California Energy Commission votes on a rulemaking petition to require commissioners to consider the environment and public health in energy decisions.
When: 10 a.m., Wednesday, March 13
Where: California Natural Resources Agency Building, 715 P Street, First Floor Auditorium, Sacramento, CA 95814
Join via Zoom. Zoom technical support, 1-888-799-9666 x 2.
Call in: (669) 900-6833 or (888) 475-4499 and enter webinar ID: 938 6923 0237.
Who: Attorney Roger Lin with the Center for Biological Diversity will be available for interviews before and after the hearing, along with representatives of the California Environmental Justice Alliance, Sierra Club, Food and Water Watch and other petitioners.
Background
The California Energy Commission oversees the mix of energy resources needed to meet the state’s 100% clean energy target by comparing their costs and benefits. Those cost-benefit analyses omit the potential local harms (or “social costs”) and community benefits (or “non-energy benefits”) of energy programs or projects.
The commission doesn’t consider consequences such as local air and water pollution, excessive water use, and other environmental harms. For example, power plants and biofuel combustion appear to be “cost-effective” because the commission ignores the pollution and other harms of these projects, which disproportionately fall on low-income communities and those of color.
The commission also fails to consider local benefits such as improved public health from reduced pollution and the resiliency of distributed renewable energy resources. For example, energy-efficiency programs targeting low-income and disadvantaged communities have been deemed not “cost-effective” under a cost-benefit analyses that ignores the benefits to these families’ wellbeing.
The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1.7 million members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with more than 3.5 million members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.
The California Environmental Justice Alliance is a community-led organization that works to achieve environmental justice by advancing statewide policy solutions. Together, we are growing the statewide movement for environmental health and social justice, with a membership that includes over 35,000 Asian Pacific American, Latino, and Black residents in the San Francisco Bay Area, San Joaquin Valley, Los Angeles, Inland Valley and San Diego/Tijuana area.