Marin County Energy Initiative Moves Forward

The partnership of Marin County Energy Authority and the participating Marin County municipalities have agreed to a revote in ninety days on the issue of entering the retail provision of electricity. The board of directors voted to approve the move into the Energy sector to compete with the mammoth Pacific Gas and Electric for the main benefit of county compliance with the recent California greenhouse emissions standards.

The supervisors and board members feel the five-year approach to competition is a breakthrough. The Authority has been courted by the Shell Energy of North America initially as the contractor for energy provider, and leads the bidding followed by Constellation Energy Commodities Group and Macquarie-Cook Power.

The eight members of the Authority partnership and their residents will be able to participate in the opportunity to purchase power from the newly formed Energy Authority. Those who wish to continue as customers of PG&E will be allowed to do so.

There are restrictions on the contract that include a 25% renewable clause that dictates that of the energy provided at least 25% must be produced by renewable sources while maintain competitive pricing. Also for more conscientious consumers the Authority will provide power that is derived from 100% renewable sources at a higher price, a so-called dark green option.

The state of California has an energy mandate requiring Pacific Gas and Electric to produce twenty percent of their energy from renewable sources by the year 2010, and the company claims that they will fail to meet the mandate by about five percent claiming transmission loss as the ultimate obstacle.

The draft contract is expected to exceed $350 million dollars and the representatives of PG&E are asking the Marin County Energy Authority to put the issue to a public vote. This is to be on of the greatest expansions in terms of spending for the government of Marin County in many decades.

One issue raised at the Authority meeting last Thursday night by both representatives of PG&E as well as some councilmen from municipalities were the prices that the Marin Energy Authority would be paying for distributed electricity if purchase from Shell Energy or others. The main objection being that these prices fluctuate somewhat throughout the year, and that estimates now based on spending versus greenhouse efficiency can hardly be properly analyzed. There are two more public meetings on the docket to discuss the draft contracts, one on November 23, at San Rafael City Council chambers and another on December 1, at Mill Valley Community Center.