Envisioning a Climate-Safe California webinar #15: California’s Community Choice Agencies Celebrate Success – 30 May 2024
The Clean Coalition was a partner organization for this webinar, which took place on 30 May 2024 at 10am.
The Climate Center believes in thriving, healthy communities. They envision a future where everyone in California enjoys clean air and water, renewable and reliable energy, healthy food, and abundant nature. California has the tools and the know-how to make this vision a reality if our elected leaders summon the political will. It is time we put people back at the heart of policy. In doing so, we can keep our friends and loved ones safe from worsening climate disasters, create millions of family-sustaining jobs, and give everyone the chance to thrive in the clean energy economy.
The climate center’s Envisioning a Climate-Safe California: Stories and Solutions webinar series will combine personal stories, frontline perspectives, scientific expertise, and policy analysis to shed light on how California can lead the world toward a climate-safe future. We’ll hear from the people and communities feeling the impacts of the climate crisis today as well as those advocating for solutions.
See below for more information on the fifteenth webinar of the series.
Webinar #15: California’s Community Choice Agencies Celebrate Success
Thursday, 30 May 2024 at 10am to 11:30am PST
Across California, 24 Community Choice Agencies provide clean power to more than 14 million customers. Community Choice Agencies are local, not-for-profit government agencies that empower communities to purchase electrical power on behalf of their residents. In this webinar, we celebrated the successes of California’s Community Choice Agencies and Sonoma Clean Power’s tenth anniversary. Sonoma Clean Power’s founding CEO Geof Syphers discussed the agency’s achievements, ongoing challenges, and opportunities to reduce climate pollution and save customers money. We also learned about customer programs that support local renewable energy projects for California’s largest Community Choice Agency, the Clean Power Alliance. Lastly, we heard about efforts to advance environmental justice and workforce standards at all Community Choice Agencies.
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Presenters
Geof Syphers is the Chief Executive Officer of Sonoma Clean Power, a position he has held since the program’s inception in 2013. Under his leadership, Sonoma Clean Power now serves 600,000 people throughout Sonoma and Mendocino counties with cleaner power at competitive rates. Before his current position, Mr. Syphers worked for 20 years as an energy consultant to utilities, public agencies, and private companies. His work has spanned microgrid design, zero-carbon community design, and energy efficiency program implementation. He served as the Chief Sustainability Officer for Codding Enterprises and was the founding Director of DNV’s Green Building Group.
Joanne O’Neill serves as the Director of Customer Programs at Clean Power Alliance, leading a mix of programs promoting electric vehicles and buildings, demand response, energy resiliency, and low-income community solar. She has over 15 years of experience delivering customer programs within the utility and consulting space. This includes over 5 years of leading the California operations at CLEAResult, the largest provider of emission-reducing energy solutions across North America, and more than 10 years at Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E). When at PG&E, Joanne designed and implemented numerous customer programs and led the strategy for the implementation of time-of-use rates.
Ana Rosa Rizo-Centino is the Environmental Justice Representative on the Community Choice Agency Environmental Justice Workforce Alliance Coordinating Team. Ana Rosa’s work focuses on community co-empowerment, government transparency, environmental justice issues, and support for working families. Ana has formed a Community Cumulative Impacts Commission, fasted to fight public transportation price hikes, pushed for the planting of a thousand trees, and fought for more green open space in her hometown. Ana Rosa has served as Network Manager of the Central Coast Climate Justice Network (C3JN), Central Coast Senior Organizer for Food & Water Watch, Mayor and Planning Commissioner for the City of Maywood, Executive Director for PUEBLO & PUEBLO Education Fund, California Lead Organizer for the National Farm Worker Ministry, and the National Coordinator for the Student Labor Action Project for the United States Student Association and Jobs with Justice. She currently works for the United Farm Workers.