Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Clean Energy topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Supervisors order Clean Power SF ballot language defining 'clean energy' for Nov. 3 election
Summary
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to place an ordinance on the Nov. 3, 2015 ballot that would amend the city's environment code to define terms such as "clean energy," "green energy" and "renewable greenhouse gas free energy," and affirm how Clean Power SF will count renewable resources.
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted 8-0 July 31 to order submitted to the voters an ordinance amending the city's environment code to define the terms "clean energy," "green energy" and "renewable greenhouse gas free energy," for the Nov. 3, 2015, ballot.
The measure, described to the board by the clerk as an item forwarded from the Rules Committee, would specify how San Francisco will follow state law and how the city defines clean energy resources when launching Clean Power SF. The proposal explicitly reiterates that Clean Power SF intends to follow state renewable portfolio standards, allows the use of unbundled renewable energy credits and ensures that solar installations in San Francisco are counted as top-tier clean energy.
"This is really significant. It's the single most important environmental effort in San Francisco," Supervisor Breed said during the brief discussion, and thanked staff and outside groups for work on the measure. Breed also named staff and advocates who helped develop the language, including Jason Fried, Supervisor Avalos's aide Jeremy Pollock, her aide Connor Johnston, Roger Kim in the mayor's office, Eric Brooks, Jed Holtzman, members of the Sierra Club, Hunter Stern and IBEW Local 1245.
The board took no substantive amendments during the meeting and voted to approve the motion to submit the ordinance to the ballot. The clerk called the roll; the eight supervisors recorded as voting yes were: Supervisor Campos, Supervisor Christensen, Supervisor Cohen, Supervisor Kim, Supervisor Marr, Supervisor Weiner, Supervisor Avalos and Supervisor Breed. The clerk announced "There are 8 ayes" and the motion was approved unanimously.
During the general public comment period, speakers praised Clean Power SF activists by name and urged additional policy actions on unrelated issues. One commenter thanked activists Bruce Wolf and Karen Babbitt for their work on Clean Power SF. Another speaker urged a range of renter protections, including limits on no-fault evictions and formulas for sharing sales proceeds with long-term tenants; those proposals were made during public comment and were not acted on at the meeting.
The ordinance language will appear on the Nov. 3, 2015 ballot; the clerk did not specify subsequent procedural dates or implementation steps at the meeting.
