The Marin Energy Authority is a done deal. But proponents of forming a county environmental energy agency continue their call for a march toward a clean-energy future in Marin.

A new Joint Powers Authority (JPA), the Marin Energy Authority, has been formed by a vote of city councils and county supervisors. But not all governmental entities are totally on board yet.

The next big vote comes Dec. 15, when the San Rafael City Council will take up the issue. On Dec. 1, in the first reading of the joint powers ordinance, council members Greg Brockbank, Damon Connolly and Barbara Heller gave the ordinance a nod. Mayor Al Boro recused himself because he has investments in PG&E. The only vote in opposition to joining the joint powers authority came from Cyr Miller, who said he wanted the city manager to work with PG&E on the company's long-proposed clean energy partnership with Marin County. Some say the partnership is more phantom than serious proposal.

The council members who voted to join the JPA said PG&E is fully capable of working on its partnership proposal without the help of city staff. They noted that the utility company has said for more than a year that it's serious about proposing a clean-energy solution for Marin but has so far shown little inclination to reveal specifics, at least enough for Marin cities and the county to assess the value of a PG&E proposal. That sentiment echoes the thoughts of county supervisors who, in late November unanimously signed on to the clean-energy JPA.

Women's Energy Matters, a grassroots nonprofit, has been urging cities to join the clean-energy march. The group has played a significant role in disseminating education about the clean-energy proposal as the ordinance makes the rounds of city councils across the county.

Barbara George, founder of the organization, is a ratepayer advocate at the California Public Utilities Commission, a spot she has held since 2001. She specializes in issues concerning energy efficiency and power procurement, key elements in the proposal to create a clean-energy agency in Marin.

Councilmember Miller said he believes the tough economic conditions cities are navigating is sufficient reason to forego joining a new clean-energy venture. But George and other clean-energy advocates counter that forming a Marin clean-energy agency could be a big boost to the local economies, including San Rafael.

Novato has not yet voted on the joint powers ordinance, and many clean-energy and sustainability advocates are wondering what's holding up the process there. Concerns that mirror those Miller expressed in San Rafael play a part in Novato's hesitation. And no one denies that this would be a major step into new territory. But, say advocates, it's a step that carries no risk in the early stages. And it's not entirely new--it is working successfully in Massachusetts and Ohio.

Voting to join the JPA doesn't obligate a town or city to participate in a local-power plan, but it does allow towns and cities to participate in the early planning process that could pave the way toward a clean-energy future for the county—-and help the county and cities meet a state mandate to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Voting to join "will cost the city nothing," John Schlag wrote in a letter to the Novato City Council. Schlag is president of Sustainable Novato. While joining the joint powers authority would carry no risk, Schlag continued, it would enable "Novato to have a voice in issuing a request for proposals to potential green electricity providers."

As proponents of a clean-energy agency (known as Marin Clean Energy) repeatedly stress, "off-ramps" all through the process will allow safe exit from a plan should reality not meet expectations. After choosing a service provider, the new energy agency will negotiate a contract, subject to a 90-day review. Each member of the JPA will have a chance to vote whether to proceed with the contract. If members like what they see, it's expected that the new energy agency would sign a final agreement with an energy provider next year.

Novato should at least join with the other cities that have become JPA members "to the point of letting bids out to see what the market tells us," says Ed Mainland of Sustainable Novato. "There's no risk to get to that point, so the city of Novato has nothing to lose."

Mainland and other clean-energy advocates say that using the current economic meltdown as a reason to reject a clean-energy plan is a false argument. The meltdown actually is an incentive, albeit a depressing one.

Advocates of the clean-energy plan estimate that a Marin clean-energy agency could provide 25 percent of Marin's electricity from renewable sources by 2010 at the same rate that PG&E charges. The goal is to increase that percentage so energy consumers would receive 50 percent of their electricity from green sources at the same price that PG&E charges. Customers also could opt for a 100 percent green option for a surcharge on their bills. Estimates for the surcharge range between $10 and $15 a month.

Creating the energy agency and buying the green power would "be a ready-made way to comply with AB 32," says Mainland. That law, enacted in 2006, is a state mandate that requires the California Air Resources Board to develop regulations that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. Governments, counties and cities, are on the hook to meet that target. As Woody Guthrie might sing, "How can cash-strapped cities and counties and cities meet that target in such times as these?"

In a staff report regarding AB 32, Alex Hinds, former head of the County Community Development Agency, estimated that an overall greenhouse gas reduction of 30 percent "may be needed to meet the state mandate. Countywide, this is the equivalent to a reduction of 955,500 tons of CO2."

If instead of reducing emissions, the county and its cities and towns could buy offsets, credits from other entities that reduce emissions more than required, it would cost a bundle. In his report, Hinds wrote carbon offsets on the Chicago Climate Exchange cost $4 per ton. The math in Marin is daunting: $4 a ton times a reduction of 955,500 tons.

The promise of economic benefits accruing from a clean-energy future would extend beyond the money saved in meeting AB 32, say advocates of a clean energy authority.

"There would be a new revenue stream," says Mainland, "and it's a way to fund many of the sustainability energy initiatives that the Novato City Council professes to be for but says the city can't afford. We recognize that all cities are in dire straits right now. But that's all the more reason why it would be bizarre to pass up this opportunity."

Whether or not Novato joins the JPA, it's a done deal, says Dawn Weisz, principal planner with the county who specializes in sustainability issues. Sausalito, Tiburon, Fairfax, Mill Valley and the county all have joined the joint powers authority. Four other cities, including San Rafael, have held their first readings of the ordinance and are expected to formally approve their membership in the joint powers authority. If each city that has held a first reading re-affirms the positive position in a second reading, the new Marin Power Authority will have 70 percent of the energy load in Marin, according to Weisz.

The JPA officially began operating on Dec. 19. The ordinance that created the agency allows cities to sign on to the agreement without consequence up to 180 days after that formation date.

The requirements associated with AB 32 are becoming more distinct, sharper-edged. This month the California Air Resources Board is finishing its AB 32 scoping plan. A section of that plan concerns the responsibilities of local governments.

Creating a working and successful green-energy agency in Marin would "in one fell swoop" allow Novato to comply with AB 32, Mainland says. That reasoning has been a major spur to county and the cities that already have signed on.

The process of moving toward a clean-energy future in Marin began in 2002 with AB 117, a law sponsored by then Assemblywoman Carole Migden. It paved the way for "community choice aggregation," which allows communities to buy power from whatever provider they choose--including providers with renewable power--and then deliver it through the existing power grid, which in this case is the bailiwick of PG&E. Marin supervisors have been investigating the possibilities of AB 117 for Marin since its passage.

That long planning time is a ready-made counter to the argument that the clean-energy plan is too complicated to become a reality in a complex marketplace. After all those years of planning, and receiving positive reports from consultants, proponents are optimistic that the clean-energy agency will receive good news and competitive estimates when it sends out requests for proposals to energy providers.

PG&E will be on the list. The utility company is welcome to submit competitive bids. That puts the company in an unusual position in Marin, but it's an unusual position that PG&E already has contorted itself into across the state.

After the legislation that paved the way for local power agencies, the utility began pushing back, most notable in the San Joaquin Valley, where cities wanted to form a local power agency. PG&E mounted an aggressive advertising campaign designed to get cities to balk at becoming members. It worked to an extent, but the company's strategy failed to prevent creation of the San Joaquin Power Authority. The tactic led to a lawsuit over the company's marketing tactics, which PG&E eventually settled with the San Joaquin agency.

In Marin, the utility company spent the better part of year arguing that a Marin clean-energy agency could never meet the promise of clean energy at competitive rates. Then, late in the game, PG&E said it was willing to form a partnership in Marin to supply clean energy to customers in the county. Few details ensued.

Advocates of forming a JPA said the company should wait and submit any proposal to the new Marin Power Authority. But the company kept up the pressure at the many public meetings and workshops that have been held to educate the public about the clean-energy proposal. (Sixty public hearings have been held since July 1, says Weisz.)

Two prominent locally connected consultants, former Marin Supervisor Gary Giacomini and former Assemblyman Joe Nation, went to bat for the utility company, selling its partnership proposal. But details have remained too sparse.

While the details of the PG&E proposal might be a little too few for Marin clean-energy advocates, the utility company has said it will go before the state PUC in June or July of next year for approval of a partnership program with Marin. The company earlier had said it would go to the Utilities Commission no later than Jan. 1, 2009.

The company needs that approval before it can begin any partnership program with Marin. And the PUC has another interesting requirement: PG&E must say that the partnership program it proposes for Marin will be available throughout its service territory. The company cannot offer something in Marin that it will withhold elsewhere. No special perks for Marin. Lacking that stipulation, the utility company can say the Marin program is a pilot project that will run for a year or two, and then be available throughout its service area. From combative to cooperative, the road PG&E has traveled has not been a straight line.

Proponents of Marin Energy Authority say the utility company cannot meet, and does not want to meet, key requirements of a Marin clean-power agency: the ability to control rates, control energy acquisition sources, stimulate a local green economy; in other words, a heaping helping of local control.

When the energy crisis hit the state in 2000, the event triggered the start of local-power efforts. It was the investor-owned utility companies, including PG&E, that hit the skids as victims of rampant speculation. Municipal utilities, which supply about 25 percent of the power in California, escaped the speculation meltdown in the energy market.

"Sometimes government is a safer bet," says Weisz.

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