Community Choice Aggregation Panel, Featuring Green Party Mayor of Richmond, Gayle Mclaug

WHEN: February 22nd at 6PM
WHERE: Napa Library in the Community Room (580 Coombs Street Napa, CA 94559)
WHAT: Community Choice Aggregation panel organized by the Napa County Green Party
WHO: Mayor of Richmond, Gayle Mclaughlin, Renewable Energy Implementation Manager, Woody Hastings, President of Récolte Energy Gopal Shanker

On February 22nd the Napa County Green Party is organizing a panel to discuss Community Choice Aggregation. The panel will include Green Party Mayor of Richmond, Gayle Mclaughlin, Renewable Energy Implementation Manager, Woody Hastings, and President of Récolte Energy Gopal Shanker.

The Napa County Green Party (NCGP) supports Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) in Napa County. It has proposed using Napa Pipe as a renewable energy production and distribution center. This would be one out of many ways to support community choice aggregation in Napa.

“CCAs are a progressive approach to solving some of our climate change problems,” explained Napa County Green Party County Council member, Steven Stratford. “In an economic recessionary period, they create jobs, lower energy costs and give control of rate-setting to the customers.”

CCA permits any city or county to aggregate the electric loads of residents, businesses and municipal facilities to facilitate the purchase and sale of electrical energy. It allows customers to replace ozone-damaging fossil fuel energy sources with various renewable clean-energy sources

Woody Hastings is Renewable Energy Implementation Manager for the Climate Protection Campaign. He has twenty-three years of energy and policy experience with government, non-profit organizations and private companies throughout California.

Gopal Shanker is President of Récolte Energy Gopal Shanker. He will talk about the benefits of CCA from the perspective of a renewable energy developer. Récolte Energy is a Napa Valley based renewable energy consulting firm.

Richmond Mayor, Gayle Mclaughlin will explain how, as elected city officials, they were able to bring CCA to their cities. The City of Richmond joined the Marin Energy Authority to participate in the CCA program in June 2012.

The panel will be introduced by Mark Lucas, Vice President of the Napa County Bicycle Coalition.