Marin County can do much more to generate local clean energy.  My vision for Marin is that we make significant strides in reducing our carbon footprint by utilizing our rooftops, parking lots and structures, and other creative collaborations as San Rafael has done.

I have a unique perspective on this issue in that I am both Chair of Marin Clean Energy (MCE) and Chair of San Rafael’s Sustainability Committee.  In both roles, I have made increasing local clean energy production a priority. 

Under my leadership on the San Rafael City Council, San Rafael has taken a number of steps to create opportunities for local power generation.  The city approved the San Rafael Airport solar project, which is the first of its kind project under MCE’s Feed-In Tariff Program. 

San Rafael is spearheading the creation of Solar SEED, which will incentivize participating municipal jurisdictions in Marin, Sonoma and Napa Counties to place solar on their buildings and parking structures.  

San Rafael has led efforts to install electric vehicle charging stations in its public parking garages.  Now I am pushing for San Rafael city operations to upgrade to Deep Green, 100% renewable energy. 

San Rafael residents have been at the forefront of creating neighborhood collaboratives for solar on rooftops, and MCE has incentivized such efforts through the Net Energy Metering program, which provides credits for excess solar power produced on roofs. 

MCE just launched the Sol Shares program, which will enable residents who aren’t able to install solar on their own roofs to participate in purchasing power from a local project at cost.