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Here at Sungevity , we try to stay on the sunny side.  But there’s nothing positive to say about Prop 23, a cynical Texas oil company attempt to overturn California’s landmark clean energy/climate change legislation.

Texas oil refiners Valero and Tesoro are pouring millions into Prop 23. Their motive is clear: Keep California addicted to oil by killing policies that would promote clean energy innovation and jobs.

If you live in California, this Saturday is your chance to speak out at Valero stations around the state–Oakland, Richmond, LA, San Rafael, Palo Alto, Santa Barbara–check the Hell No on 23 Facebook page for details.

–Erica Etelson

The Texas Oil Companies behind the Dirty Energy Prop seem to be up to some new tricks, including using Adam Smith’s name in vain! The latest news on this front is that their fundraising campaign is raising the federal government’s eyebrows. As reported here before, the campaign is desperate to save big oil’s bottom line, and their legally questionable tactics are proving it.

Read more of Danny’s latest post on SF Gate’s City Brights.

This made me laugh.

As I have said I want to keep you up-to-date on the battle to stop the dirty energy prop, so here’s this week’s best bit yet: Yesterday the Texas oil companies behind Prop 23 won a minor victory in the courts on the language used in November’s ballot to explain their job-killing initiative.

They changed some language like “major polluters” to “major sources of emissions” and other weasel words to try to downgrade how voters will understand Prop 23. And their lawyer actually said to the judge “truth is not the test” in summing up their argument.

But as Jane Warner, the head of American Lung Association, the smogbusters par excellence, said: ” Prop. 23 will result in more air pollution and kill hundreds of thousands of jobs and billions in economic investments.” I am with her – these polluters can’t hoodwink us. The truth will be the test on election day.

Today marks the three-month anniversary of the Gulf oil spill.  How many times in the past month have you wondered what you can do about it?

The Center for Biological Diversity has launched a No More Oil Spills Month of Action designed to give concerned citizens an opportunity to voice their outrage and demand a permanent solution to our fossil fuel addiction.  Visit their website to learn about local actions in your area, tips for writing a letter to the editor and opportunities to visit your senator or representative when he/she is in town during the August recess.

Images of the Gulf devastation are disturbing but, as the late great environmental activist Judi Bari said, “Don’t mourn, organize!”  The pundits keep saying that the Gulf spill presents the opportunity of a generation to get serious about energy security and climate change–they’re right, but only if the rest of us get busy.

–Erica Etelson

Los Angeles has been toying with the idea of a Feed-in-Tariff since 2009 when Mayor Villaraigosa announced his goal of making LA a coal-free city by 2020.  A Feed-in-Tariff (FiT) is a system in which utilities pay residents and businesses for all solar energy they generate.  This is different from net metering which gives customers a credit for excess energy during the next billing cycle but does not pay them fair market value for excess energy at the end of the year.

For solar advocates, the FiT is the holy grail–by paying people to generate solar power, a FiT encourages people to build larger systems than they need and to utilize warehouse rooftops, iconic hillside signs and other available spaces.  With a FiT, producing solar energy becomes not merely a means of saving a few hundred dollars on electricity but, rather, a lucrative financial investment.  FiTs are popular in Europe and Australia, but the only U.S. FiTs are in Hawaii, Vermont and Gainesville, Florida.

A report produced last week by the LA Business Council documents the enormous environmental, financial and economic benefits a FiT would reap: In ten years, a FiT would yield 600 megawatts of solar energy (3% of the city’s energy needs), 11,000 new local green jobs and a 5-7% return on investment (ROI) for participants (not a bad ROI compared to the topsy turvy stock market).

But wait, critics cry, won’t a FiT amount to a hefty price hike for LADWP ratepayers?  Yes indeed, ratepayers will be hit with a budget-busting 48 cents per month for the first ten years of the program and, thereafter, will see savings as LADWP is able to move away from volatile natural gas contracts.  48 cents?  I know it will be hard to make do without those extra three ounces of Gatorade each month, but where there’s a will, there’s a way.

The report also puts forth the Solar Stunner of the Summer:  The City of Los Angeles has approximately 5,536 megawatts of physical rooftop solar capacity spread over the rooftops of single family homes, multi-family residences, commercial and industrial facilities, and government agencies.  That means LA could meet a fourth of all of its electricity needs with distributed solar power–that’s not even counting the massive utility-scale solar projects being built in the desert.  And the carbon savings?  Well, let’s just say my calculator can’t handle the math.

The LA Business Council has assembled an impressive coalition in support of the FiT, including the LA Chamber of Commerce, the Sierra Club, LA Family Housing and Global Green USA.  It’s not too often that we see businesses and non-profits backing the same measure and, when we do, it’s a good sign that the proposal would have widespread benefits and negligible drawbacks.  Click here to join the Solar FiT Coalition. Go Solar LA!

–Erica Etelson

Danny’s latest on SF Gate’s City Brights;

Yesterday, the California Secretary of State assigned the Dirty Energy Proposition a number: Prop. 23.

The Dirty Energy Proposition may have a new name, but it is still the same deceptive measure sponsored by Texas oil companies that would repeal California’s landmark clean air and clean energy law. Prop 23 would lead to increased air pollution that threatens human health, would kill California’s clean energy economy and hundreds of thousands of jobs; and would keep consumers addicted to costly, dirty oil.

So remember that number. And remember the position: No on 23.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/dkennedy/detail?entry_id=66814#ixzz0sH6jHHjK

Planning to travel this summer? Whether driving down the coast or flying to Italy, many eco-conscious travelers buy “carbon offsets” that (in theory) cancel out the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions their trips generate. Here’s how it works: Let’s say you fly round-trip from Los Angeles to New York. You visit the website of a carbon offset company which calculates your GHGs for this little jaunt (two tons). The company then offers you the opportunity to buy carbon credits to offset your flight.  If that sounds like a sin tax on fossil fuel consumption, it is just that.

Different offset companies do different things with the money you pay them-some are scam artists that do nothing, some plant trees, some build wind farms or turn cow poop into electricity. It’s important to choose an offset company that makes the most of the cabbage you fork over. When choosing a company, look at how much carbon per dollar they offset-in other words, if you pay $50, will they be able to offset two tons of GHGs or five or ten? And examine whether the offset measurably displaces carbon emissions. For example, I like Native Energy because it uses the money I give them to build wind farms which directly reduce the amount of coal being fed into the electric grid. Offset companies that sequester carbon are dicier, because it’s hard to measure the amount of carbon being sequestered, and it’s hard to know whether the company is actually doing something that wouldn’t have happened anyway. On the other hand, some sequestration activities like tree planting and soil restoration have other important ecological benefits in addition to carbon capture.

Here are a few carbon offset companies that have a proven track record of converting offset dollars into renewable energy projects: Native Energy Solar Electric Light Fund TerraPass Climate Friendly

I can’t end this blog without raising the issue of whether the whole concept of carbon offsets even makes sense.  Sungevity customer Annie Leonard of Story of Stuff fame has created a new short video called The Story of Cap and Trade.  It debunks the notion that we Americans can keep on partying and count on a cap and trade scheme (or scam) to keep atmospheric carbon at safe levels.  As author Dan Welch put it, carbon offsets “are an imaginary commodity created by deducting what you hope happens from what you guess would have happened”. The only sure way to keep carbon out of the atmosphere is to keep it in the ground.  That means traveling to Yosemite instead of Patagonia and powering your home with renewables instead of with coal. So if you’re now feeling skeptical about the whole carbon offset concept, here’s another idea: Go to one of the sites above to calculate your sin tax, then donate that amount to an organization that is working to stop climate change. 

Sungevity “offsets” its emissions by donating money to Vote Solar, the Alliance for Climate Protection and 350.org.  My personal favorite is 350.org because it is one of the few groups that is willing to tell it like it is:  We must get to 350 ppm of atmospheric carbon, not 700, not 450, 350, end of discussion.

–Erica Etelson

“Yesterday, the California Secretary of State announced that the Texas Oil Companies’ “Dirty Energy Proposition” has qualified for the November 2010 statewide ballot.

In response, leading California business, public health, senior, and environmental groups promised to fight this deceptive ballot measure that would kill California’s landmark clean energy and air pollution reduction law (read the press release here).”
Read the rest of Danny’s CityBrights post here.

As promised, today we kick off Save Money, Energy and Water Week here on the Sungevity blog.  And lo’ and behold, perfect timing…Last Thursday, the House passed the Home Star Energy Retrofit Act of 2010, a $6 billion rebate program that will help homeowners pay for energy efficiency retrofits that will save them $9.4 billion over the next decade.

President Obama will definitely sign the bill once the details are reconciled between the House and Senate.  In the meantime, many California utilities already offer generous rebates-get started with what’s available right now and you’ll be able to tame your energy and water bills this summer:

LADWP customers can receive free shade trees and rebates for energy-efficient refrigerators, air conditioners, pool pumps, windows and high-efficiency (HE) clothes washers.

Southern California Edison offers rebates for energy-efficient lighting, refrigerators, electric water heaters, pool pumps, air conditioners, whole-house fans, and evaporative cooling systems (aka “swamp coolers”).

If you’re in the Riverside Public Utilities district, check out their triple rebate on insulation and other rebates for refrigerators, dishwashers, air conditioners, ceiling fans, shade trees, irrigation, drought-tolerant plants, and HE clothes washers and toilets.

San Diego Gas & Electric ratepayers will find rebates on attic insulation, natural gas furnaces, refrigerators, pool pumps, air conditioners, whole house fans, and dishwashers and can get a free water conservation kit.

If you’re a PG&E customer, take advantage of rebates for clothes washers, dishwashers, water heaters, room air conditioners, cool roofs, attic and wall insulation, gas furnaces, duct sealing, whole-house fans, pool pumps and motors and fluorescent lighting.  PG&E has also just begun offering rebates for solar hot water heaters, but the details on how to access this program are not yet clear.

Alameda Municipal Power customers can get rebates for refrigerators and insulation

EBMUD customers can get a free water conservation self-audit kit as well as rebates for HE clothes washers and toilets, sustainable landscaping, mulch and irrigation.  EBMUD will also send you freelow-flow shower-heads, faucet aerators, toilet low-flush bags and garden hose nozzles.

San Francisco Water offers rebates for HE toilets and clothes washers and provides free HE toilets to low-income residents.

Also, be sure visit the home page for the city you live in to see what it has to offer, especially for low-income residents.  Some of the municipalities in California we know have programs include Sonoma County, Santa Monica, Berkeley, San Francisco, Alameda County Water District, Palm Desert, and Ukiah.

And lastly, heads up Do-It-Yourselfers, here’s a guide to how to caulk and weather strip your home all by yourself.  If that sounds too ambitious, even a DIY knucklehead can at least install a programmable thermostat (33% savings on heating and cooling), set your water heater to 120º, and switch to CFL bulbs (75% less energy than incandescent and bulb lasts 8 times longer) or LED lighting (90% less energy and bulb last 40 times longer).

Most of the energy efficiency improvements outlined today require at least a small initial investment that will pay itself back and then some over time.  For those of you who are ready to start smacking down your utility bills right now without investing a dime, tune in tomorrow for the Free Home Energy Smack Down.

–Erica Etelson

It’s been a tough week.  First the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, then Senator Lindsey Graham declares the energy bill dead for the foreseeable future, then a major scandal is exposed by the Center for Biological Diversity and the Washington Post:  In 2009, the Department of the Interior exempted BP from environmental review of its plans to commence offshore drilling at Deepwater Horizon; in other words, government regulators gave BP a lease without requiring it to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

It’s pretty depressing when the government agency charged with protecting the environment from reckless oil and mineral development gives a major oil company a pass.  If there’s an upside to all this, it’s that politicians are rethinking offshore oil drilling and contemplating safer alternatives for meeting our nations’ energy needs.  From “drill, baby, drill” to “spill, baby, spill” to, we can only hope they arrive at the logical conclusion: ”Shine, baby, shine.”  At the risk of stating the obvious: Solar panels don’t explode, leak or require NEPA waivers.

We’ve asked a lot of you in the past few weeks–supporting Solar on the White House, celebrating a green Mother’s Day and reducing your carbon footprint. We’d like to thank you for all that you do, ask you to do one (well, maybe two) more  itty bitty things and, in return, next week, we’ll devote this space to informing you about free and low-cost energy and water-saving devices for your home.

So here’s today’s ask:

1. Sign the Sierra Club petition to stop new offshore oil drilling.

2.  Tell one friend about the Mother’s Day Special–sign a Sungevity home solar lease by Mother’s Day and get a $100 Whole Foods gift certificate.

Thanks, and Happy Mother’s Day.  Have a great weekend!

–Erica Etelson