CITY OF SEBASTOPOL
CITY COUNCIL
AGENDA ITEM
Meeting Date: August 2, 2022
To: Honorable Mayor and City Councilmembers
From: Climate Action Committee / Kari Svanstrom, Planning Director Subject: Letter of Support for SB833
Recommendation : Authorize the Mayor to sign the letter of support Funding: Currently Budgeted: _______ Yes _______ No ___X__ N/A Net General Fund Cost: $
Account Code/Costs authorized in City Approved Budget (if applicable) ________ (verified by Administrative Services Department) INTRODUCTION/PURPOSE:
This item is for City Council to Discuss and Consider Authorizing the Mayor to prepare and send a Letter of Support for SB833.
DISCUSSION:
At it’s July 27th, 2022 meeting, the Climate Action Committee (CAC) voted to recommend the City Council consider a letter of support, and unanimously voted to recommend the Council consider supporting this bill. Senate Bill 833 (Senator Dodd), the Community Energy Resilience Act of 2022, calls for the creation of a technical assistance and grant program administered by the California Energy Commission (CEC) to help local governments develop clean energy resilience plans, leveraging the substantial related investments that have already been made by the CEC.
SB 833 also enables local governments to collaborate with utilities in planning community-scale energy infrastructure such as solar panels and battery storage so that communities are deciding what facilities remain energized during a crisis.
The bill is aimed to help California reduce its reliance on carbon-emitting generators during disaster-driven power outages by empowering local governments to more strategically plan for the use of clean-emission, distributed energy resources, with a priority on lower income communities.
GOALS:
This action supports the following City Council Goals:
Goal 5 - Provide Open and Responsive Municipal Government Leadership, including Goal 5.1.4 Enhance the use of the City of Sebastopol Committees, Commissions and Boards. and General Plan Actions:
Goal COS 9: Promote Conservation of Energy and Other Natural Resources Policy COS 9-7: Promote efforts and programs, including increased access to clean technologies such as electric vehicles and charging stations, to encourage residents, businesses, and local organizations to use clean energy sources to supplant dirty technologies.
Goal CIR 5: Reduce Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) in Order to Reduce Congestion and Help Achieve Regional Efforts to Reduce Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions
Policy CIR 5-3: Support the establishment and expansion of a regional network of electric vehicle charging stations and encourage the expanded use of electric vehicles. and Climate Action Framework Goals:
BE3. Expand the installation of solar panels and other renewable energy sources, both locally and in partnership with other entities in Sonoma County, to further decarbonize Sebastopol’s electricity supply.
BE6. Ensure energy sources are reliable during extreme weather conditions.
PUBLIC COMMENT:
As of the writing of this staff report, the City has not received any public comment. However, staff anticipates receiving public comment from interested parties following the publication and distribution of this staff report.
Such comments will be provided to the City Council assupplemental materials before or at the meeting. In addition, public comments may be offered during the public comment portion of the agenda item.
PUBLIC NOTICE:
This item was noticed in accordance with the Ralph M. Brown Act and was available for public viewing and review at least 72 hours prior to schedule meeting date.
FISCAL IMPACT:
There is no direct fiscal impact associated with the recommended action tonight.
RECOMMENDATION:
Authorize the Mayor to sign the letter of support
Attachments:
Letter of Support
Legislative Language
March 9, 2022
Senator Ben Hueso
Chair, Senate Energy, Utilities, and Communications Committee 1021 Street, Suite 7340
Sacramento, CA 95814
Re: SB 833 (Dodd)—SUPPORT As Amended, March 7, 2022
Dear Chair Hueso:
We are writing to express our support for SB 833, the Community Energy Resilience Act.
Threats to the electricity grid are increasing in frequency, severity and impact, making it a policy imperative for the state to invest in clean, local energy resilience. Power outages have cost the California economy billions, and in response, homeowners, businesses, and utilities have reflexively invested in fossil fuel generators. Distributed clean energy is a better way to provide local energy resilience.
SB 833 directs the California Energy Commission to implement a technical assistance and grant program that supports local communities in creating community energy resilience plans. Upon receiving grant funds, local communities would partner with civic organizations, utilities, businesses and other stakeholders to identify areas critical for maintaining community health and well-being and develop plans to help ensure that these facilities can operate continuously via local clean energy resources. Energy resilience is an inherently local issue, with approval for siting of new distributed energy projects necessarily jurisdictional to local governments, most of which are currently ill-equipped to integrate energy resilience into local planning. Local political consensus as reflected in energy resilience plans will accelerate use of federal, state, and private funds to develop local energy resilience infrastructure.
SB 833 prioritizes allocation of community energy resilience planning funds to vulnerable communities. This prioritization is essential as vulnerable communities suffer disproportionately from air pollution and high rates of respiratory disease, problems which are being exacerbated by installation of new diesel generation.
With the enactment of SB 833, California will take an important step towards creating a more decentralized electricity system which is clean, affordable, reliable, equitable and safe. For these reasons, we urge you to vote “Aye” on SB 833. Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Ellie Cohen Allie Detrio
Chief Executive Officer Senior Advisor
The Climate Center Microgrid Resources Coalition
Tanya Peacock Craig Lewis
Senior Director, Government Affairs and Policy Executive Director Bloom Energy Clean Coalition
Daniel Barad Laura Deehan
Campaign Representative State Director
Sierra Club California Environment California
Rick Brown, PhD Kate Ringess
Chair of the Board Managing Director
TerraVerde Energy SmartBlock Communities
Brad Heavner Barbara Sattler, RN, DrPH, FAAN
Policy Director California Alliance of Nurses for Healthy California Solar & Storage Association Environments
Mark Rose Dillon Delvo
Sierra Nevada Program Manager Executive Director
National Parks Conservation Association Little Manila Rising Tanya Barham Nayamin Martinez
Founder and CEO Executive Director
Community Energy Labs Central California Environmental Justice Network Dave Atherton Michael Chiacos
President Director of Energy and Climate Programs
Electric Auto Association Community Environmental Council San Joaquin Valley
Melissa Romero Kristin Cushman
Legislative Affairs Manager CEO
California Environmental Voters EcoShift Consulting
Eric Veium, CEM, CEP Julia Levin
Chair Executive Director
SLO Climate Coalition Bioenergy Association of California Bill Magavern Lillian Mirviss
Policy Director Director, Government Affairs
Coalition for Clean Air Center for Sustainable Energy
Richard Schorske Robert M. Gould, MD
Executive Director President
ZNE Alliance San Francisco Bay Physicians for Social
* Responsibility
Roger Dickinson Jennifer K. Berg
Policy Director Board Chair
CivicWell Local Government Sustainable Energy
Coalition
Ralph E. Dennis Doug Linney
Legislative Analyst Executive Director
Bay Area Action 350 ZEV 2030
Alex Morris Julia Hatton
VP of Policy and Operations President and CEO
California Energy Storage Alliance Rising Sun Center for Opportunity Gopal Shanker Mike Lemyre
President Senior Vice President
Récolte Energy Head of Commercial PACE
Ygrene Energy Fund
Jason Barbose Jeff Morris
Senior Manager, Western States Senior Director State Government Union of Concerned Scientists Relations
Schneider Electric
Craig Perkins Erika Morgan
President & Executive Director Operations Director
The Energy Coalition CA Alliance for Community Energy
Steve Campbell Russell Hancock
Senior Manager, Policy and President and CEO
Business Development Joint Venture Silicon Valley
Grid Alternatives
Alex Jackson Brian Stewart
Senior Attorney Founder
Natural Resources Defense Council Electrify Now
Diane Bailey Ryan Craig
Executive Director Co-Lead, Clean Energy Resilience
Menlo Spark Team
Resilient Palisades
Marie Chen Ruth Merino
Climate Reality Leader Chair
The Climate Reality Project, San Diego San Jose Community Energy Advocates Chapter
Debbie Mytels Beth Chopp
Chair Legislative Committee Co-Chair
Peninsula Interfaith Climate Action San Diego 350
Jennifer Tanner Adriene Couter
Leader Steering Committee
Indivisible CA Green Team Indivisible Ventura
Ruth Richardson Mala Wingard
Co-Founder Admin
Rooted in Resistance (Indivisible) Normal Heights Indivisible Rebecca Elliott
Admin
Indivisible San Jose
CC: Members, Senate Energy, Utilities, and Communications Committee Senator Bill Dodd
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY JUNE 30, 2022
AMENDED IN SENATE MARCH 21, 2022
AMENDED IN SENATE MARCH 7, 2022
SENATE BILL No. 833
Introduced by Senators Dodd and Stern
(Coauthors: Assembly Members Calderon and Valladares)
January 4, 2022
An act to add Division 16.7 (commencing with Section 26450) to the Public Resources Code, relating to energy.
legislative counsel’s digest
SB 833, as amended, Dodd. Community Energy Resilience Act of 2022.
Existing law establishes within the Natural Resources Agency the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission.
Existing law assigns the commission various duties, including applying for and accepting grants, contributions, and appropriations, and awarding grants consistent with the goals and objectives of a program or activity the commission is authorized to implement or administer.
This bill, the Community Energy Resilience Act of 2022, would require the commission to develop and implement a grant program to award grants through a noncompetitive process for local governments to develop community energy resilience plans that help achieve energy resilience objectives and state clean energy and air quality goals. The bill would require a plan to, among other things, identify critical facilities, facilities where the construction of microgrids or other distributed energy sources could meet local resilience needs, and potential funding sources for implementing projects in the plan, include
96 a process for the expedited permit review of distributed energy resources by the local government, and demonstrate consistency with the city, county, or city and county general plan and other local government planning documents, as specified. As a condition of receiving grant funding, the bill would require a local government to submit its plan to the commission within 6 months of adopting the plan. The bill would require grant funds to be encumbered within 2 years, and liquidated within 4 years, of the date of an award.
The bill would require the commission to maintain a publicly available and searchable database of all local governments receiving a grant, annually submit a program summary to the Legislature, and post the summary on its internet website. The bill also would require the commission to develop and maintain on its internet website a publicly available community energy resilience planning toolkit, a directory of prequalified consultants, and a resilience valuation index, as defined, to assist local governments in community energy resilience planning.
The bill would require the commission to periodically update the index.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
line 1 SECTION 1. (a) This act shall be known, and may be cited, line 2 as the Community Energy Resilience Act of 2022.
line 3 (b) The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
line 4 (1) Development of community energy resilience plans will line 5 help ensure continuous electricity service during electrical outages, line 6 which in recent years have imposed enormous costs on California line 7 communities.
line 8 (2) Developing reliable and resilient electrical systems for line 9 critical facilities is a paramount public safety priority and is line 10 necessary to protect the health and well-being of California line 11 residents and businesses.
line 12 (3) Local governments typically lack the resources or expertise line 13 needed for community energy resilience planning sufficient to line 14 increase the usage of distributed clean energy resources. line 15 (4) Local governments are best able to identify, working in line 16 collaboration with community-based organizations, which facilities line 17 are most important to local residents and necessary to maintain line 18 public health and safety, and can most effectively integrate the 96 SB 833 — 2 —
line 1 permitting and development of distributed energy resources capable line 2 of providing electricity to these facilities during electrical outages. line 3 (5) With proper engineering and planning, local governments line 4 are capable of accelerating the deployment of resilient clean backup line 5 electrical systems by taking advantage of state, federal, and other line 6 funding sources.
line 7 (c) It is the intent of the Legislature to direct the State Energy line 8 Resources Conservation and Development Commission to develop line 9 procedures necessary for implementation of a new program to line 10 provide technical guidance and financial assistance for local line 11 governments to develop community energy resilience plans. line 12 SEC. 2. Division 16.7 (commencing with Section 26450) is line 13 added to the Public Resources Code, to read:
line 14
line 15 DIVISION 16.7. COMMUNITY ENERGY RESILIENCE
line 16 PLANNING
line 17
line 18 26450. For purposes of this division, the following definitions line 19 apply:
line 20 (a) “Commission” means the State Energy Resources line 21 Conservation and Development Commission.
line 22 (b) “Community energy resilience” means the capability of a line 23 local community, local government, tribal authority, or other line 24 municipality to provide and maintain stable electricity supply to line 25 identified critical facilities under changing conditions, including, line 26 but not limited to, outages of utility grid service. line 27 (c) “Community energy resilience plan” means a planning line 28 document prepared by a local government pursuant to this division line 29 that sets forth a strategy for meeting local electrical loads achieving line 30 community energy resilience with local clean distributed energy line 31 resources. Unless the context requires otherwise, “plan” means a line 32 community energy resilience plan.
line 33 (d) “Electrical corporation” has the same meaning as defined line 34 in Section 218 of the Public Utilities Code.
line 35 (e) “Local government” means a city, county, city and county, line 36 or California Native American tribe, as defined in Section 21073. line 37 (f) “Local publicly owned electric utility” has the same meaning line 38 as defined in Section 224.3 of the Public Utilities Code. line 39 (g) “Resilience Valuation Index” means a standardized, line 40 data-driven tool that assists local governments in conducting 96 — 3 — SB 833
line 1 cost-benefit analyses of community energy resilience investments, line 2 such as distributed energy resources or microgrids. Unless the line 3 context requires otherwise, “index” means the Resilience Valuation line 4 Index.
line 5 26451. (a) Pursuant to this division, the commission shall line 6 develop and implement a grant program to award grants to local line 7 governments through a noncompetitive process for the line 8 development of community energy resilience plans that help line 9 achieve local energy resilience objectives and state clean energy line 10 and air quality goals.
line 11 (b) In developing the guidelines and application process for the line 12 grant program, the commission shall do all of the following:
line 13 (1) Prioritize applications from low-income communities that line 14 are most likely to experience power outages, disadvantaged line 15 communities that are most likely to experience power outages, or line 16 low-income and disadvantaged communities that are most likely line 17 to experience power outages first, followed by communities that line 18 are most likely to experience power outages.
line 19 (2) Make the application process as simple as possible. line 20 (3) Conduct a minimum of two public meetings to receive and line 21 consider public comment before approving the guidelines and line 22 application process.
line 23 (c) Grant funds awarded pursuant to this division shall be line 24 encumbered within two years, and liquidated within four years, line 25 of the date of the award.
line 26 (c)
line 27 (d) For local governments located within the service territory line 28 of a local publicly owned electric utility, only the local publicly line 29 owned electric utility shall be eligible to apply for grant funding line 30 on behalf of the local government.
line 31 (d)
line 32 (e) Grant funds awarded pursuant to this division may be used line 33 for plan development, including, but not limited to, all of the line 34 following activities:
line 35 (1) Hiring outside consultants or technical assistance providers line 36 to help with coordinating and drafting the plan. line 37 (2) Identifying and coordinating with appropriate local line 38 government staff to draft the plan. A local government may hire line 39 a resilience manager to manage the plan development process. 96 SB 833 — 4 —
line 1 (3) Convening and facilitating one or more community line 2 workshops enlisting local stakeholders, including, but not limited line 3 to, labor representatives, representatives from community-based line 4 organizations, community members, representatives from related line 5 technology vendors, local government staff in departments relating line 6 to emergency services, planning, and public works, disability rights line 7 advocates, and representatives from special districts, load-serving line 8 entities, school districts, environmental justice communities, line 9 communities of color, local tribes, and other marginalized groups, line 10 to ensure that a diversity of perspectives and input is incorporated line 11 into the plan.
line 12 (e)
line 13 (f) (1) A plan for which a local government is awarded a grant line 14 shall do all of the following:
line 15 (A) Identify critical facilities, including publicly available and line 16 accessible facilities that can serve as community resilience hubs line 17 to accommodate and provide basic services, including water, line 18 restrooms, basic first aid, disaster information, and access to line 19 electricity to charge telephones and medical equipment, to people line 20 who have lost power to their homes.
line 21 (B) Identify facilities where the construction of microgrids or line 22 other distributed energy resources could meet local resilience line 23 needs.
line 24 (C) Identify critical facilities that are in greatest need of backup line 25 energy generation and potential backup energy systems that may line 26 meet the needs of those facilities.
line 27 (D) Identify potential funding sources for implementation of line 28 projects included in the plan.
line 29 (E) Include a model ordinance template that may be adopted line 30 by a local government to establish a process for the expedited line 31 permit review of distributed energy resources by the local line 32 government.
line 33 (F) Demonstrate consistency with the city, county, or city and line 34 county general plan and other local government planning line 35 documents.
line 36 (2) The plan shall be developed in collaboration with the relevant line 37 electrical corporation or local publicly owned electric utility line 38 operational and technical subject matter experts. line 39 (f)
96 — 5 — SB 833
line 1 (g) Subject to any restrictions or limitations placed by outside line 2 funding programs, grants awarded to a local government pursuant line 3 to this division do not affect the local government’s eligibility to line 4 receive other incentives available from federal, state, or other local line 5 governments, electrical corporations, local publicly owned electric line 6 utilities, or any other source, or to leverage the grant funding line 7 awarded pursuant to this division with any other incentive. line 8 (g)
line 9 (h) As a condition of being awarded a grant pursuant to this line 10 division, a local government shall submit its plan to the commission line 11 within six months of adopting its plan.
line 12 (h)
line 13 (i) The commission shall maintain a publicly available and line 14 searchable database of all local governments awarded a grant line 15 pursuant to this division. The database shall include relevant line 16 metrics to be determined by the commission, including the grant line 17 award amount and the community served.
line 18 (i)
line 19 (j) (1) The commission shall prepare an annual summary of line 20 statewide program expenditures.
line 21 (2) Pursuant to Section 9795 of the Government Code, the line 22 commission shall annually submit the summary to the Legislature line 23 and post the summary on its internet website.
line 24 26452. (a) The commission shall develop and maintain, on its line 25 internet website, a community energy resilience planning toolkit line 26 to support local governments’ development of community energy line 27 resilience plans. The toolkit shall include detailed information on line 28 typical planning steps, including, but not limited to, community line 29 asset mapping, stakeholder identification, community engagement, line 30 and technical and economic feasibility.
line 31 (b) The commission shall develop and maintain, on its internet line 32 website, a directory of prequalified consultants with energy line 33 resilience planning expertise who may assist grant recipients in line 34 plan development.
line 35 (c) (1) The commission shall develop and maintain a publicly line 36 available Resilience Valuation Index to assist local governments line 37 in community energy resilience planning and support data-driven line 38 investment decisions.
96 SB 833 — 6 —
line 1 (2) The index shall identify entities and populations within line 2 communities that are vulnerable to power outages or other climate line 3 disruptions, including, but not limited to, any of the following:
line 4 (A) Critical facilities, including, but not limited to, the types of line 5 facilities described in Public Utilities Commission Decision line 6 19-05-042, Decision Adopting De-Energization Guidelines, and line 7 other related decisions.
line 8 (B) Public agencies.
line 9 (C) Small businesses.
line 10 (D) Commercial and industrial facilities.
line 11 (E) Education and childcare facilities.
line 12 (F) Food production and distribution facilities. line 13 (G) Access and functional needs populations.
line 14 (H) Medically vulnerable populations.
line 15 (I) Disadvantaged or low-income populations.
line 16 (J) Rural or remote populations.
line 17 (K) Other communities or populations that the commission line 18 determines may be severely impacted by the loss of continuous line 19 electrical service.
line 20 (3) (A) The index shall catalog and quantify a range of potential line 21 resiliency values for each identified constituency or population. line 22 (B) The index shall use publicly available information on the line 23 value of lost load, socioeconomic analyses, and other power outage line 24 resources, from reputable academic institutions, including from line 25 the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s Interruption Cost line 26 Estimate Calculator.
line 27 (4) The commission shall post, and periodically update, the line 28 index on its internet website.
O
96 — 7 — SB 833
City Hall, 7120 Bodega Avenue, Sebastopol, CA 95472
www.ci.sebastopol.ca.us
August 2, 2022
Senator Ben Hueso
Chair, Senate Energy, Utilities, and Communications Committee 1021 Street, Suite 7340
Sacramento, CA 95814
Re: SB 833 (Dodd)—SUPPORT As Amended, March 7, 2022
Dear: Chair Hueso:
We are writing to express our support for SB 833, the Community Energy Resilience Act. Threats to the electricity grid are increasing in frequency, severity and impact, making it a policy imperative for the state to invest in clean, local energy resilience.
Power outages have cost the California economy billions, and in response, homeowners, businesses, and utilities have reflexively invested in fossil fuel generators. Distributed clean energy is a better way to provide local energy resilience.
SB 833 directs the California Energy Commission to implement a technical assistance and grant program that supports local communities in creating community energy resilience plans. Upon receiving grant funds, local communities would partner with civic organizations, utilities, businesses and other stakeholders to identify areas critical for maintaining community health and well-being and develop plans to help ensure that these facilities can operate continuously via local clean energy resources. Energy resilience is an inherently local issue, with approval for siting of new distributed energy projects necessarily jurisdictional to local governments, most of which are currently illequipped to integrate energy resilience into local planning. Local political consensus as reflected in energy resilience plans will accelerate use of federal, state, and private funds to develop local energy resilience infrastructure.
SB 833 prioritizes allocation of community energy resilience planning funds to vulnerable communities. This prioritization is essential as vulnerable communities suffer disproportionately from air pollution and high rates of respiratory disease, problems which are being exacerbated by installation of new diesel generation.
With the enactment of SB 833, California will take an important step towards creating a more decentralized electricity system which is clean, affordable, reliable, equitable and City Hall, 7120 Bodega Avenue, Sebastopol, CA 95472
www.ci.sebastopol.ca.us
safe. For these reasons, we urge you to vote “Aye” on SB 833. Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Patrick Slayter
Mayor