Comments on: Superstars of AB 811 Rock Palm Desert @ EcoMotion Conference

By: Quan

Quan — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 20:22:24 +0000

Hey Greenius,

I won’t be down in Southern California until I return to UCLA in the fall, let me know if you have some time to set up a meeting to chat. Doesn’t have to be immediate and I appreciate anything you can offer up. (Was at the Intersolar conference yesterday and will be back tomorrow (Wed.) up in San Francisco)

-Quan

From the Greenius:
Quan my new friend, I’d be happy to chat it up with you on the phone about what I know. I’ll contact you via email.

By: Betsy Meiman

Betsy Meiman — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 06:10:11 +0000

I’m with a small Episcopal church in studio city. We installed solar panels on our parish hall. It worked so well for us that we are seeking to install solar panels on charities that minister to the poor and under served in our communities, both secular and interfaith. That way they can take the money they would put into their electric bills back onto their organization’s operations. I just heard about AB811 and was googling and found your website. You have a great blog. Thanks for the info. Is there any way AB811 would benefit the St. Michael and All Angels Solar Outreach Program? Do you know of any other programs that we could utilize?

Thanks,
Betsy

From the Greenius:
Hi Betsy, I’m so glad you found the blog because I’m very interested in talking to you about solar for nonprofits who serve low income and under served constituencies.

I checked out your web site and absolutely love what you’re doing. You folks seem like kindred spirits to me.

I’ll contact you directly via e-mail so we can discuss AB 811 and some other options I know about.

By: Quan

Quan — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 18:28:35 +0000

Hey Greenius,

I really like the material you’ve got posted on the blog, however I was looking for my information on AB 811. I’m a summer intern at SolarTech, a non-profit in Silicon Valley, and my main project is looking at financing methods and developing a guideline to help end-users pick out the best option and uncover the mystery. I would love to get some help in finding out what works and what doesn’t with AB 811 (in particular, I am very interested what was said in Pat Conlon’s presentation).

Much thanks!

Quan

Greenius:
Hi Quan. First off, what a great name. Reminds me of Jerry McGuire…

I’ve been swamped on a professional project that has kept me from doing my followup post on AB 811. I’ve got more news from the Palm Desert conference and I’ve got news from the L.A. County AB 811 meeting I attended too. I’ll be catching up on all that next week.

But if you’re in Malibu on Monday night, I’ll be giving an update on AB 811 to the Malibu City Council. Come by and we can talk in person.

By: Tania

Tania — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 02:08:04 +0000

I’d also be interested in getting contact info for the Alameda County AB811 plans, if you have one! Thanks

Greenius:
Hi Tanya. I just emailed you the info on Alameda County’s AB 811 program which is part of their Stopwaste effort.
Also, here’s a link to a PDF made available just a couple of weeks ago on the GREEN PACKAGES as they’ve dubbed their AB 811 effort.

Good luck up there and let me know the latest when you find out.

By: Richard Hart

Richard Hart — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 16:41:38 +0000

Great post on the AB811 conference. And really nice slides for the SBESC group. Thanks for your efforts.

I’m up in Oakland,CA and would like to get the city and county moving on AB811. You mentioned in your SBESC presentation that Alameda County is making some AB811 efforts. Do you have a contact there? I’d love to play my part in moving this thing forward.

Can I also ask a couple of questions about the AB811 conference?
1. Is anyone talking about setting up IRA and 401(k) funds that would buy AB811 bonds? Seems like a good fit between the needs of the programs and the needs of retirement savers.
2. What was the general feeling about feed-in tariffs? Any chance we’ll see a decent FIT in California within the next 18 months?

Once again, Joe, many thanks for your terrific work on climate change.

Richard
Oakland, CA

Greenius:
Thanks for the kind comments. Thanks for helping in the Oakland area.

I’ve got just what you need to help up in Alameda County. I’ve e-mailed you the 10 page PDF of the PowerPoint the folks from Alameda County gave at the April 29 AB 811 Workshop in Sacramento. They call their program Stopwaste.

You’ll see on the last page there’s contact info for the folks you want to talk with:
Karen Kho, Green Building Program Manager
kkho@stopwaste.org
Wendy Sommer, Senior Program Manager
wsommer@stopwaste.org
510-891-6500

Regarding Feed-In Tariffs, that wasn’t on agenda in Palm Desert, but I brought it up anyway in Marketing Workshop and people are definitely seeing it the way I am in terms of being part of the 1-2 punch along with AB 811.

Here in California Huffman (D-San Rafael) has introduced AB 920 which I support and have been lobbying for. I spoke with my state Assemblyman, Ted Lieu (a co-author of the bill) about it on Saturday at the Torrance Environmental Fair and I’ll be following up with his staff next week. Lieu needs to step up and show some leadership stones on this issue. Last time I checked he didn’t even bother to mention it on his own website. So it’s clear he needs some help understanding its import.

Here’s a great link to track the movement of this feed-in tariff legislation:
http://www.totalcapitol.com/?bill_id=9411

I’m meeting on Tuesday with Congresswoman Harman’s Environmental Deputy on this very subject and I’ll be offering my pro bono help to make national feed-in tariffs happen. I’ll also report back what I learn here on the blog.

And I’m currently writing a Creative Greenius piece on Feed-Ins and will have details of the just-passed Vermont law as well as the movement for that national feed-in tariff bill.