Energy Commission Workshop on Barriers That Low-Income and Disadvantaged Communities Face with Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency
The California Energy Commission is holding a workshop to discuss the barriers that low-income and disadvantaged communities face when considering adopting renewable energy and energy efficiency measures.
The workshop, which begins at 9 a.m. on August 12 at the Energy Commission headquarters in Sacramento, will gather the input from community organizations, industry, state agencies, and local government.
Energy Commission Chair Robert B. Weisenmiller will preside over the workshop, which the other Energy Commissioners are scheduled to attend. Commissioners and executive officers from other agencies may also attend and participate in the meeting.
The panel and roundtable discussions during the workshop will focus on barriers and recommendations to increase access to renewable energy, energy efficiency and small business contracting opportunities for low-income and disadvantaged communities.
The meeting is part of the public outreach that the Energy Commission is conducting for the Senate Bill 350 barriers study, which will summarize the barriers and offer possible solutions.
Under SB 350, the Legislature directed the Energy Commission to complete and publish the study by January 2017. The Energy Commission plans to publish the draft study in September 2016 and hold a workshop to gather input on it.
SB 350, which Governor Edmund Brown Jr. signed into law October 2015, established new energy efficiency and renewable electricity targets by 2030 to support California's long-term climate goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.
SB 350 increases California’s renewable electricity procurement goal from 33 percent by 2020 to 50 percent by 2030. This will increase the use of Renewables Portfolio Standard (RPS) eligible resources, including solar, wind, biomass, and geothermal. It also requires the state to double statewide energy efficiency savings in electricity and natural gas end uses by 2030.
More about the August 12 workshop can be found here. Fact sheets about the study are available in English, Spanish, Chinese, Hmong, Vietnamese, Korean, and Tagalog.
