At Council meeting, official hears criticism of effort, suggestions for improvement

Marin Clean Energy’s efforts to inform power customers about next month’s switch away from Pacific Gas and Electric as Benicia’s primary electricity provider needs further refining, members of both the City Council and the public suggested last week.

Allison Kirk, account manager for Marin Clean Energy (MCE), a community choice aggregation agency, told the Council on Tuesday that the third of five mailings has been sent out to customers. Unlike the first two, which were letters, the latest is a tri-fold brochure.

In addition, MCE representatives have reached out to the Benicia Industrial Park Association, Benicia Rotary Club, Arts Benicia, Benicia Chamber of Commerce, Benicia Unified School District and the Community Sustainability Commission, Kirk said.

MCE employees also have been at tables at Benicia Senior Center and at Benicia Public Library, she said, and they have attended the unveiling of the public art piece “Wind, Water, Air” and Benicia Mini Maker Faire. They also have emailed or provided information to Benicia League of Women Voters, Benicia Main Street, local Neighborhood Watch organizations, Benicia Historical Museum and WattzOn, the company that evaluates residents’ water and power use and recommends ways to cut back on consumption and save money.

More public appearances are scheduled, Kirk said, and information will be inserted into residents’ water bills at the end of April.

More than 50 people attended a community meeting April 2 at Benicia Community Center, and two chose to enroll that day in MCE’s “Deep Green” option that involves the agency buying 100 percent of their equivalent power usage from renewable sources.

Kirk said her agency has incorporated recommendations made during past reports to the Council, adding the city logo, rewording its information and printing mailers in brighter colors.

The most recent mailer has a brief question-and-answer section that describes MCE as a new choice, with 50-percent or 100-percent renewable energy at a lower cost than PG&E, and that unless someone expresses a different preference the customer will be enrolled in MCE’s 50-percent renewable energy plan.

After the change in May, bills will show PG&E charges for delivery but not for electric generation. That part of the bill will show MCE charges. The brochure also explains that the change came about through City Council vote, Kirk said.

The mailer provides MCE’s website, www.mceCleanEnergy.org/Benicia, and its number, 888-632-3674.

The brochure also explains that MCE doesn’t use tax dollars for its investments or purchases, and says its customers have saved more than $5.9 million, of which $66,000 alone was saved by West Contra Costa Unified School District.

MCE is developing 193 megawatts of renewable energy projects in California, Kirk said, and its contracted power projects have created more than 2,400 jobs in the state. It said its own “Light Green” (about half renewable) service was 61-percent carbon-free, compared to PG&E’s 22-percent renewable and 54-percent carbon-free power generated in 2013.

The brochure also provides information directly to those who have chosen to stay with PG&E, outlining when that opt-out request will be effective.

But more reworking is needed, several suggested after Kirk’s presentation.

For one, Councilmember Tom Campbell said, power customers’ options need to be spelled out. The MCE brochure says customers will be enrolled with “MCE’s less-expensive, cleaner energy in May 2015, unless you choose another option.” Campbell wanted added verbiage that explains residents can choose to remain with PG&E or select MCE’s Deep Green option.

Vice Mayor Mark Hughes said MCE’s approach needs to be more balanced in its explanation of power customers’ options.

“It’s more a marketing tool, not an educational tool,” he said of MCE’s latest mailer. “There are no pros and cons.” He suggested adding testimonials from those who have made various choices through MCE.

Dennis Lowry, who said he is a member of a group called Benicians Against Marin Clean Energy, said the agency is improving in its outreach, particularly in producing mailers recipients would be likely to read. But he called the mailers “a sales brochure” and noted that residents would be assigned to MCE’s 50-percent renewable purchases unless they speak up.

Lowry also questioned some of MCE’s contentions, such as PG&E being only 22-percent green, since hydroelectric- and nuclear-produced power are not greenhouse gas-producing sources.

Kirk responded that MCE uses only verifiable numbers, and the most recent verifiable information about PG&E’s green power sources dates to 2013. “Projections for 2014 are not verified,” she said.

PG&E’s website, www.pge.com, says the investor-owned company received state regulators’ permission Jan. 29 to offer up to 100 percent solar power at an additional charge, and that program should be available before the end of the year. Customers may choose from a pool of small to midsized solar arrays or from a nearby solar project.

PG&E’s site said about half of the electricity it delivers to customers comes from a blend of renewable and greenhouse gas-free sources, from hydroelectric plants to nuclear generation and a blend of wind, geothermal, biomass, solar and small hydro operations.

It expects by 2020 to make investments to increase to 33 percent its renewable electric power mix that doesn’t come from hydroelectric or nuclear sources, the website said.

Lowry said the number-one complaint he has heard is that 70 percent of Benicians “don’t know they are assigned or why they are assigned” to the community choice aggregation agency.

But Campbell disagreed, saying Lowry’s contentions sounded like customers had no choice with MCE. Until the Council approved membership in MCE, he said, “PG&E was your ‘choice.’ You had no other options. Now there is a choice. Before, there was no choice at all.”

Though Benicia continues to have a higher opt-out rate than some other members, Kirk said the numbers of those who want to remain with PG&E — 1,460 residents, or 11.24 percent, and 179 companies, or 10.56 percent — are not high enough to cause a problem for the agency.

She said opt-out requests usually are higher with the initial mailout and after the switch to MCE, then level off.

Also higher is the number of Benicia customers who have chosen the 100-percent renewable “Deep Green” option, she said.

Future mailouts will have sample bills, Kirk said, and the information to be sent in customers’ water bills will have information set up in bullet points and explanations of customers’ three options.