San Rafael, CA - For the second consecutive year, residents in the unincorporated areas of Marin County, along with several other Marin cities and towns, have received national recognition from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for their use of electrical power from renewable sources provided by Marin Clean Energy (MCE) and on-site installations.
The EPA recently bestowed their EPA Green Power Community award to unincorporated Marin because of the high percentage of electricity use from sustainable sources provided by MCE and on-site generation. Green Power Communities are municipalities or tribal governments in which the local government, businesses and residents collectively use green power in amounts that meet or exceed EPA's Green Power Community purchase requirements.
According to the EPA’s Green Power Community rankings, the County of Marin ranked No. 13 nationally for its percentage of power coming from sustainable sources (25.1 percent in unincorporated areas). Mill Valley (30.9 percent), Fairfax (30.1), San Anselmo (28.0), Belvedere (27.7) and Tiburon (27.7) all rank among the top 10. Oak Park, Ill., is No. 1 with 91.9 percent use of green power.
Marin customers have several choices when it comes to their electricity mix. MCE is a public, not-for-profit electricity provider that offers customers the choice of having 50 percent to 100 percent of their electricity supplied from renewable sources, such as solar, wind, bioenergy, geothermal and hydro. Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) customers receive 22 percent of their electricity from renewable sources.
“This is an honor,” said Marin County Board of Supervisors President Kate Sears said of the award, “but it is also proof of the success of locally based programs like Marin Clean Energy that make it possible for communities to decide where their electricity comes from. It has been a goal of Marin’s to have a dramatic effect on our greenhouse gas emissions as we face climate change and sea-level rise. While there is much to be done, MCE has had a significant impact. I am very proud of our community, as we have led others in the state to form their own programs.”
First formed in 2008, MCE was California's first Community Choice Aggregation program and launched service to customers in May 2010. MCE serves approximately 125,000 customers in its service area, which includes Marin and the City of Richmond. As a community choice aggregator, MCE partners with PG&E to provide billing and electric delivery services while MCE determines the source of energy.
MCE municipal participants include the County of Marin, the towns of Corte Madera, Fairfax, Ross, San Anselmo and Tiburon, and the cities of Belvedere, Larkspur, Mill Valley, Novato, Richmond, San Rafael and Sausalito.