The Concord City Council voted unanimously to opt the City’s facilities into MCE’s Deep Green 100% renewable energy service option. With this action, the City is expected to eliminate 2,729 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions annually, equivalent to taking 607 cars off the road.
The City’s accounts currently served by MCE’s 60% renewable Light Green service will be upgraded to 100% renewable Deep Green service, currently powered by 50% wind and 50% solar. MCE invests half of the Deep Green premium collected in local projects and programs that benefit the community, such as rebates for newly purchased and leased EVs, EV charging ports, and electric heat pump water heaters.
“We’re taking bold actions to fight climate change by increasing our commitment to renewable energy,” said Concord Vice Mayor and MCE Board Director Edi Birsan. “This is just one of the ways we are moving to deal with climate change, and we look forward to adding more steps to a better future.”
“Choosing 100% renewable energy for city facilities is an incremental, yet important, step towards care for our common home,” said Concord City Councilmember Laura Nakamura.
“Concord joins 8 other cities in Contra Costa County who are choosing to power their facilities with 100% renewable energy, significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions and investing millions of dollars toward an equitable clean energy transition,” said MCE CEO, Dawn Weisz. “With MCE’s Deep Green service, everyone in our service area can take tangible steps to confront the climate crisis, and we’re proud that Concord is leading the effort to ‘think globally and act locally’ with their example.”
The transition to Deep Green Service will:
- Begin on July, 1, 2023;
- Cost only 10% more annually than the City’s current energy bills for its 323 accounts; and
- Add to a growing list of the City’s sustainability initiatives including, replacing street light fixtures and traffic signals with energy efficient lighting, receiving SolSmart Gold designation for solar projects, improving bike lane design in the downtown corridor, and installing a stormwater capture system at Hillcrest Park and a bioretention system along Salvio Street.
38 comments
Such wonderful buzz words for power that is not constant nor scalable to meet demand loads.
In winter solar can not supply peak demand load 4 – 9 pm. Wind only works when there’s wind.
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As number of EVs increases demand after 9 pm will increase and electricity will need to be purchased form outside the state. An WHY was it requested that Diablo Canyon nuclear plan operating license be extended well past it’s scheduled shutdown date ? ? ?
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Wondering how many years into the future before the liberal house of green cards falls down.
All the while communist china gets rich from solar. Makes one ponder who got paid off.
It never will. There is no time frame for results so it will go on until we get board then it will be rebranded into some new “Buzz” word “. They already used up hole in the ozone and global warming so now it is climate change. You have to hand it to them as creating the single most useful mechanism for the direct transfer of wealth there has ever been.
I often ponder what melted the ice age? was it the white man and his automobile? (obvious sarcasm)
That guy who invented the internet . . . . . ?
Have you noticed that the Warmists don’t talk about CO2 anymore? William Happer really burned their arses about CO2.
For those who rely heavily on electric everything. Good luck when when an EMP causes blackouts. Water, automobiles, heat, cooking, cell phones, news sources. Everything if our supervisors have their way.
You will wish for gas when, not if, this happens. It could knock out power for days or even weeks. To rely on only ONE source of power will cause clusters of heavily populated areas to fall vulnerable to mob behavior.
Yet looney toon liberal DEMs still manage thru liberal media’s fear porn, implying civilization is in dire peril. DEM voters, the ones with memory of a fungus gnat, mindlessly continue to vote for whatever or whoever spends the most on pre-election advertising.
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Intentional motivational fear porn will continue until DEMs are voted out of office and their unelected liberal minions find themselves unemployed.
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Look what they’ve turned CA into . . . . . . . . .
Politics of fear.
Wouldn’t it be refreshing if someone in power came out smiled and said “we are doing great things and we should be proud of it” instead of “we are all at fault” or things like “Be prepared for a winter of serious illness and death? or the classic “the world will end in 5 years”
just saying we felt good once.
Cost is only 10% more annually from the taxpayers pockets for now. I don’t remember voting for this!!!
“O N L Y” 10%…. So, City of Concord… don’t go “slamming” residents into the MCE like was done before. When you realize you are paying for PG&E’s normal increase, PLUS MCE’s (but it’s only 10%) more for green. PLUS costs of recovery, Plus fees up the ying-yang.
Who voted for you anyway? I’m still trying to figure that one.
What a coincidence Edi Vice Mayor and MCE Board Director, who would of thought .
I have MCE but thinking I might not actually be that generous with my reduced finances to participate but there’s very little difference between the options. Besides I may sell and move out of the area so why bother.
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What I really object to is PG&E being our overlords and telling us what we can and can’t do with out power. Doesn’t work on those who never bought into the “global warming” narrative anyway. They seem to think everyone was born yesterday, but then given the millennials….
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Yep, buzzwords seem to be the appeal to the mindless “woke” who are cartoon characters to begin with. What a strange world we are now finding ourselves in.
If only MCE’s Deep Green 100% renewable energy service didn’t cost more than the over-priced PG&E then they would have a chance to succeed.
Does anyone really understand how MCE works? I do know that as a PGE customer you were automatically enrolled in their program unless you opted out. The promise was that your utility bills would be lower than what you are paying now. I opted out since I didn’t understand how I would save money. As it turns out that was the right choice at that time, as most people that I talked to their bills have increased under MCE.
Side note: maybe the City of Concord should work on their budget and resolve the issues at hand before committing to a 10% increase in their utility bills (which equals more taxes imposed somewhere down the line).
“automatically enrolled” is SLAMMING, and it is illegal. Remember the Ma Bell breakup? Remember slamming law suits? I think that was early ’80s?
TTD, I agree few people understand that MCE does not produce any power at all. MCE competes with PGE to buy solar, wind, and geothermal from third party producers. It is these “green” producers who created MCE and are enriching themselves as this “competition” raises prices for their product.
In theory, the increased prices we all are paying should encourage more green production, but no assurance that will occur. It is a windfall of money for the MCE creators,.
Mike McDermott,
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The Concord City Council voted to join MCE over the other 2 or 3 options they were given because it was already up and running compared to the other options. The reason the City of Concord joined MCE was because the State of California gave Concord credit on their State mandated “Climate Change Action Plan.” It’s all just a waste of time and money.
Interesting read about MCE – essentially a scam.
https://www.technocracy.news/energy-alert-community-choice-aggregator-latest-energy-scam/
Also, Edi Birsan is on the Board of Directors for MCE. Even the appearance of a conflict of interest calls his judgment into account. See the following:
https://www.mcecleanenergy.org/board-of-directors/
@Glenn223 – very interesting that Edi Birsan is indeed on the Board of Directors; in fact, it appears that all of the Board of Directors are various city employees. I thought the idea of a Board of Directors was to have members that were not affiliated in any way with the company; in order, to maintain an independent thought process. In my opinion this is clearly a conflict of interest in using MCE for the City of Concord.
It is no different than Concord Mayor Laura Hoffmeister sitting on the County Connection Board. All Concord City Council members sit on a board of some kind of a multi-city/county created public entity like County Connection and Marin Clean Energy.
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With the Concord City Council giving themselves a raise every 2-years and now voting to pay an extra 10% for electricity, it’s good to know the City of Concord no longer has money problems. It’s time to get Measure V back on the ballot and repeal that 1% sales tax.
BINGO!
Just another geeen scam – https://www.technocracy.news/energy-alert-community-choice-aggregator-latest-energy-scam/
Edi Birsan is on MCE’s board – https://www.mcecleanenergy.org/board-of-directors/
Concord WILL pay more and there are NO guarantees (or proof) that the claims by MCE will be met.
Just another feel-good measure.
They don’t have a clue..wind and solar panel will never meet demands. It’s someone’s fantasy but it just ain’t ever gonna cut it.
PGE tried to opt everyone into this but it didn’t work, most people are smart enough to know better.
As I understood, PG&E was forced by the CPUC into accepting CCAs and the manner in which they were signed up; ie, having to opt out.
In any case, mce is just a middle-man, promising all kinds of stuff without any proof of what they’re supplying – then taking their cut out of the increased prices.
It’s a green ripoff.
Then a city councilman is on their board? And he voted to go with them?
Birsan apparently doesn’t understand conflict of interest concepts.
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Going green in exchange for some green.
I feel sorry for people who believe this is a good thing. The cost to the city will be higher, the taxpayers will end up paying more and there’s no benefit other than the propaganda.
With the leaps in developing hydrogen-fueled engines, which do not pollute, those engines will be capable of generating enough electricity to meet the demands of the people.
But no, let’s all starve ourselves and suffer along with inefficient solar and wind-generated electricity.
What astounds me is that there are so many people who are gullible and believe all the propaganda spewed by politicians and government entities.
Mce cannot guarantee 100% that all energy they purchase/supply is “deep green.” Think about it. Way happens if those buying the deep green option use more energy than the “green” sources connected?
It’s just a scam adding a middleman to give you the good feeling that you’re paying more for some nebulous political (green) promise.
Those 607 cars are back when they have 300 illegals hit town.
And it wont save any citizen any money,this will raise rates
And what happens when the sun doesn’t shine and the wind doesn’t blow? Will the town come to a standstill?
All this EV stuff will end up doing more damage than what we had. Now they are making Lab Meat. It will also be worse for the world. What do they think will happen without fertilizer. Some Asian country found out when they were talked out of buying it and their crops failed.
Remember that Newscum wants to give council members a raise? Seems to me they have their cake and are eating it too. Darn I forgot it was to help with diversity so sorry.
“…said Concord Vice Mayor and MCE Board Director Edi Birsan”
Um, conflict of interest? Anyone?
The City of Concord makes itself look like a shining beacon of reason and propriety on the backs of the bent and laboring taxpayers.
911: “911 what is your emergency?”
Citizen: “I’m being assaulted!”
911: “Sorry we can’t contact the police, their power is out”
Wasn’t Birsan the one who funneled the street repair money to increase the police salaries?
It’s time to vote the entire city council out.
And they’ll “claim” there’s no conflict of interest.
Bunch of liars.
Clearly there is a misunderstanding of the relationship between me being on the Board of Directors of MCE.
1. The position belongs to the City of Concord
2. The posiiton is not a paid position
3. I was appointed to the board by the City Council. There are two positions: member and alternate. Over the years Carlyn Obringer and Tim McGallian has served as well as the current alternate: Laura Nakamura.
4. ALL Cities and Counties that are a member of MCE appoint a member to the Board so that they have a say in the decisions of this Non-Profit company.
5. The decision to go with Deep Green for the City government facilities was made by unanimous consent of the count.
If you want to discuss this further or if this is not clear enough then please meet with me and we can go over your concerns one on one. I will not be following this thread any further.
Edi.Birsan@CityOfConcord.Com as always I buy the coffee at Peet’s at Oak Grove and Treat.
Now Edi won’t follow this thread “any further” but wants to talk one-on-one to address concerns. So much for transparency.
See the following for a discussion on CCAs – foisted on you by the CPUC.
https://www.technocracy.news/energy-alert-community-choice-aggregator-latest-energy-scam/
I emailed mce about my question earlier (what guarantees does mce have when “deep green” customer loads exceed “deep green” generation?
No response – except some “feel-good” BS that no engineer would agree to. It’s just a buy/sell contract with mce being the middle man and taking their cut.
All generation goes into the grid. You CANNOT identify each single source at the load (ie, customer) end. Mce just “hopes” that there is more “green” generation than customers/loads wanting “green” generation. Anyone who knows anything about transmission and distribution interconnections would understand this… but noooo.
And as far as ethics – one does not have to be paid for it to become an ethical concern or conflict of interest. I sure don’t recall agreeing to this, but it sounds like Concord entered into this contract unanimously…..which tells me that they just ate up mce’s feel-good BS.
Nothing but bean-counters, envirowackos, lawyers and politicians looking at this. Nobody is asking the real questions and forcing the issue to hold politicians accountable.
Go on, Edi… you’re “not following this thread anymore.”
So much for political transparency.
Time to drain the swamp.
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