CityofGoleta
City Hopes Action Will Inspire Others To Do the Same
The City of Goleta is poised to meet and exceed municipal renewable energy goals earlier than expected following action by the Goleta City Council. Last night, May 7th, the Council unanimously approved moving to powering all City facilities with 100% clean, renewable energy through the City’s Community Choice Aggregator Central Coast Community Energy (3CE), starting in July.
“Moving to 100% renewable energy is a significant step the City of Goleta is taking to combat climate change. We all need to do our part, by taking action and leading by example,” Mayor Paula Perotte said. “By powering our Community Center, library, City Hall, streetlights, and other facilities with solar and wind, we’ll be cutting the City’s greenhouse gas emissions, and we hope to inspire others to join us in this effort.”
Goleta will join other cities in working to meet California Senate Bill 100 mandate early — to power 100% of the state’s electricity consumption with zero-carbon, clean renewable energy electricity by 2045. The City of Goleta has a goal to reach 100% renewable energy by 2030 and an interim goal to power municipal facilities with 50% renewable electricity by 2025.
Powering Goleta’s municipal facilities and streetlights with 100% clean electricity encourages the continued development of renewable energy in California by 3CE. 3CE offers two rate options: 3C Choice at 35.8% renewable content (2022 Power Content Label) and 3C Prime, which provides 100% renewable content at a premium added cost of $0.008/kilowatt hour. In advance of 2030, cities in 3CE territory can “opt up” to 100% renewable electricity at any time through 3C Prime to purchase up to 100% renewable, clean electricity – procured from non-polluting, clean and renewable sources with an approximate 50/50 split using solar and wind.
“Cities are on the front lines when it comes to combating climate change. Cities like Goleta are also leading the world in reducing carbon emissions through aggressive policies and adoption of clean technologies,” said the City’s Sustainability Manager, Dana Murray. “The City of Goleta has a strong history of taking climate action and moving towards sustainability, and how much renewable energy is in our municipal electricity has a direct correlation with lowering greenhouse gas emissions.”
With Goleta City Hall already running on solar energy generated by the Monarch Solar Array since August 25, 2022, the solar PV system powers 84% of City Hall electricity usage, saving the City roughly $6,000 and avoiding 75.7 metric tons of CO2 emissions in its first year of operation. The remainder of Goleta’s municipal electricity usage for all facilities and City-owned streetlights is 245.6 metric tons of CO2 emitted. Moving the City’s municipal electricity accounts to 3C Prime and 100% clean, renewable energy would effectively reduce those carbon emissions to zero, reducing the City’s total municipal GHG emissions by approximately 20%.
You can help by taking action and being part of the City’s Go Green Goleta initiative. Our tomorrow is today! Find out how you can help at www.GoGreenGoleta.org. You too can opt-up your electricity account to 3C Prime by visiting 3ce.org or calling 1-877-455-2223.
About Central Coast Community Energy
Central Coast Community Energy (3CE) is a public agency that sources competitively priced electricity from clean and renewable energy resources. 3CE is locally controlled and governed by board members who represent each community served by the agency. Revenue generated by 3CE stays local and helps keep electricity rates affordable for customers, while also funding innovative energy programs designed to lower greenhouse gas emissions and stimulate economic development. 3CE provides service to approximately more than 1 million people throughout the Central Coast, including residential, commercial, and agricultural customers in communities located within Monterey, San Benito, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and Santa Cruz counties. Goleta joined 3CE in August 2019. More information can be found at www.3CEnergy.org.
Renewable, clean energy is not a Republican versus Democrat issue. All of us have contributed to fossil fuel poisoning of the soil, water and sky and continue to do so at alarming rates. So what to do about it? Cities working together to reduce emissions and use clean renewable energy is a great start. Eventually other countries will acquire technology to harness wind, sun and thermal energy, it is after all, cheaper and cleaner in the long run. Why would a country like China want to be known as the number one polluter and suffer with terribly polluted cities, when an affordable alternative exists? They will change to cleaner solutions, and it’s going to be entities such as California Cities that wiil be the leaders in this world wide change. Kudos to you Goleta!
These efforts are like stepping over a dollar to pick up a dime. All these forced policies by the left to “go green” in the last 25 years have resulted in just under a 10% drop in emissions in the US. Meanwhile China….who does all the mining and manufacturing of/for these EV batteries and manufactures over a third of the wind turbines in the world…has seen their emissions increase 200+%. AND they are making a fortune selling these products to the US for their attempt at “saving” the planet.
Your point? Seriously, are you suggesting that we stop trying to reduce our carbon footprint because China doesn’t? Re-read the article; it’s not even about EV’s – it’s about wind and solar projects to achieve energy independence. That should stop because China makes EV batteries? Again, what is your point?
My point is….the shortsightedness of the lefty libs never ceases to amaze me. They think they are doing something, but they aren’t. And then force it on ALL of us making it law. Where will these huge turbines go when they are no longer in use/worn out? Will they be abandoned? Or buried? Because those are the only two options. Not very friendly to the environment. The effort is arbitrary. Like a smoking section in a restaurant. Acting green here by buying and using products made over THERE where they destroy the earth, well I guess it’s like every other idea the dems have. It’s useless.
So, Steve_O, how about you and some non-dems come up with better long term plans? China is still going to do what they do and sell their products to the rest of the world. What should the US do to protect the environment and stay economically competitive in the process?
STEVE O – “Will they be abandoned? Or buried? Because those are the only two options.” – That’s absolutely not true at all. Blades are now reaching almost 100% recyclability. If you bothered to do some actual research into the subject you act so “knowledgeable” about, you’d see that.
Stop worrying about what China is doing. If China jumped off a bridge, would you? That’s really the mentality you’re espousing here.
He’s not worrying dude – he’s considering what they’re doing and thinking critically. Big difference. Your analogy is way (should I say wildly?) off.
Critical thinking?????
You don’t know what critical thinking is, apparently.
How so?
BASIC – your whole comment is wildly off. Doesn’t make a lick of sense.
Try again?
Really. How so?
The entirety of his 2 comments were complaining about China as if that was an excuse for the US to not push forward with this. That’s a whatabout and logical fallacy, thus, not “critical thinking” as you praised him for.
Further, there was no “analogy” in my comments. I bet you think “China jumping off a bridge” was one, but it’s not. It’s a rhetorical question that’s really a fallacy in itself, but more importantly, it was obviously in jest. Or, are you aware of a bridge large enough for the country of China to jump off?
In sum, your comment made no sense.
There are very many dirty secrets to “clean energy”/ renewable energy. Just the amount of materials that go into the turbines, much of which beholds us to China. The quantities of cement and most metal parts are outrageous. New requirements in mining projects require further devastation to wild lands and ecosystems and the wild animals that live in such. Raptor and bat nesting sites have plumeted where turbine fields have gone. Further the use of batteries will lead to new contaminents in garbage dumps. s. By thinking we can impact the climate with our renewable dreams are just that, dreams.
That’s just more false propaganda from the carbon industries, meant to spread FUD. You gullible folks always ignore the huge environmental and monetary costs of carbon extraction, delivery, and use, plus the fact that the devastation is ongoing for the lifetime of the consumers.
What do you mean monetary costs of “carbon extraction”; science is just now researching carbon capture….. I am a realist. Even if you drive an EV you are polluting particulates with weight of the vehicle on the tires on roads. Materials in vehicles, wind turbines, and solar panels and new transmission lines need minerals and lands that are extracted. Anonymous and other people must really research the devastation renewable farms do to wildlife because of the equivalent amount of land needed to produce kilowatts. Solar or wind farms are killing thousands of birds and flying animals and insects and are not the answer to saving the environment. Decimating other species and radically altering the environment is what we humans do. My point is by throwing all this money at renewables for the sake of the environment is not for the sake of the environment. There will be other energy sources we have yet to discover and we will need to just to power more AI.
Since you don’t seem to be really following the specifics of the carbon economy, you should maybe be made aware that carbon extraction refers to the extraction of fossil carbon for use as fuel.
And, you still don’t get it that you are ignoring all the harmful activities and massive subsidies involved in carbon extraction, which persist for the lifetime of the vehicle or device, and also the resources needed to produce the vehicles, which you ascribe only to EVs.
Renewable harm far less wildlife than the petrochemical industries.
You’re just parroting con propaganda from the social media bubble you inhabit.
GETTHE – please read actual science and news on the industry. I’ve provided it too many times to count here over the years.
GETTHECHANGEUP – and yet they’re STILL less damaging to the environment than oil and gas production.
Facts. They’re super important.
Facts sacjon? Like the scientific facts the government used outlawed paper grocery bags to save the world? Then used facts to force plastic bags on us. Now the fact is the word is completely full of micro plastics. And now we are back to saving the world with paper bags!!
Wow, SAIL…. that whatabout was so hard, I think I got whiplash? Did you? Might want to go check in with the chiropractor, that was a doozy!
Also, I just got paper bags 3 days ago at Trader Joes. So yeah, SAIL, FACTS.
Let’s talk about facts: the government never “outlawed” paper bags – they banned the thin plastic bags that grocers had turned to because they were cheaper and because shoppers liked the handles and convenience of throw-away bags. The government’s goal was to go back to recyclable paper bags, but even with paste-on handles shoppers did not want to go back. Reusable bags couldn’t be used during Covid, so thick “reusable” plastic bags were introduced. The problem is that people don’t reuse them, and so the only result is more plastics. Bottom line: it was the free market that gave us plastic bags – not the government.
Sunday AM I went to TJ’s with my “collectors edition xmas plastic bag w/red drawstring handle” (I’m the one declaring it as a “c/e”); it’s over two years old and of course it’s main purpose is to protect the cold items; as it only goes in the backpack I’m wearing to shop. However when going to S&F, they prefer to use their own plastic bags I get to use for trash (once again gong in the backpack)?
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