Energy Commission Approves Disadvantaged Communities Advisory Group Members
The California Energy Commission has approved 10 members of a new advisory group that will help ensure benefits of the 21st century grid reach low-income households and hard-to-reach customers such as those in tribal and rural communities.
The Disadvantaged Communities Advisory Group will advise the Energy Commission and the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) on ways to help disadvantaged communities benefit from proposed clean energy and pollution reduction programs, access clean energy technologies, and receive affordable energy services. The members approved at the February 21 business meeting were:
-Stephanie Chen, energy and telecommunications policy director for the Greenlining Institute, Oakland
-Stan Greschner, vice president of governmental relations and market development at GRID Alternatives, Oakland
-Angela Islas, community health worker at the Central California Asthma Collaborative, Fresno
-Roger Lin, attorney with the Center for Race, Poverty and the Environment, Oakland
-Adriano Martinez, staff attorney at Earthjustice, Los Angeles
-Jodi Pincus, executive director of the Rising Sun Energy Center, Berkeley
-Andres Ramirez, clean energy director at Pacoima Beautiful, San Fernando Valley
-Waudieur Rucker-Hughes, president of the Riverside branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
-Phoebe Seaton, co-director and attorney at the Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability, Sacramento
-Tyrone Williams, director of development for the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency, and director of the Sacramento Promise Zone
The CPUC is scheduled to consider the members at its March 1 business meeting.
An additional member, Kevin Day, tribal chairman of the Tuolumne Me-Wuk Tribal Council and vice chair of the Central California Tribal Chairman's Association, was appointed to the group by the Governor’s tribal liaison. He will serve as the group’s Native American representative.
Senate Bill 350, the Clean Energy and Pollution Reduction Act of 2015, called for the group to be formed. Group members are either from or representing disadvantaged communities. The group’s first meeting is expected to be in early spring.
