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Peninsula Clean Energy performs the “Three Cups and One Ball” trick.
How Green is My Valley
We did the litmus test, and the results are in. Currently, San Mateo County leaders are not leading much. The discriminatory bicycle infrastructure, the lack of safe bike routes to schools, the bluffing with “bikeway marketing tricks“, the SamTrans customer service “Reimagination“, or the “political dysfunction” [source: NYT] project called Dumbarton Corridor. There is also a very unhealthy fixation on highway projects, including violations of CEQA rules, especially when it comes to air pollution affecting Equity Priority Areas.
But the most important “green” statistic is that the Board of Supervisors claims to use 100% green energy. If it weren’t for residential rooftop solar, there would be hardly any renewable energy production at all. While Iowa and South Dakota generate some 60% of their energy from wind farms these days, San Mateo County generates 0%. So where is the “green” coming from?
“If something sounds too good to be true, it usually is.” Better Business Bureau
If the 100% Green sounds magical, it probably is. There is not enough evidence to conclude that this county is taking Global Warming or Sea Level Rise seriously.
Or in short, this county is NOT really “Protecting our resources for future generations.” Not even close.
Is it a lack of will or a lack of skill? You’ll be the jury; I’m merely presenting evidence.
“Green” without the Magic
An average Maui household uses ~450 kWh per month; a fully electrified household in San Mateo County is closer to 900 kWh. There could be good reasons for the difference. There could be all-electric appliances, an electric heatpump and water heater, a plug-in hybrid, and a low-speed electric bicycle. The other reason might just be that this county never had CO2 reduction or energy restraint built into its Climate Action Plans.
Being an island, Maui has a stand-alone grid. Maui has to bring in oil in tankers, which isn’t cheap. ‘Reduction’ and ‘restraint’ have to be part of the plan. Resiliency requires this, as the cheapest and greenest electron is the one you never needed in the first place. The next-cheapest electron comes from renewable sources like wind and solar. The most expensive and least resilient electron comes from scarce sources whose availability is defined by world events, and its price is set on world markets. If a nation, a state, or an island wants resiliency, oil and natural gas aren’t the best solutions.
San Mateo County produces less than 3% of its power needs in-county. The Island of Maui is producing 100%.
Maui is closing in on having 40% of its electricity provided by renewable energy sources. Part of their system currently has 42 wind turbines producing 75 MW, or 15-20% of Maui’s total electricity needs day and night.
San Mateo County has a long and windy coastline, but 0 wind turbines producing 0 MW.
Before anyone complains about how ugly turbines are, let’s just say Maui is a famous tourist destination, and San Mateo County is not. If Maui can live with the looks …
Let’s look at San Mateo County
The goal of ‘Electrification’ and reach codes is a fully electrified household. And a fully electrified San Mateo County household uses almost twice the electricity of a typical household on Maui. And Maui’s self-made grid is 40% renewable, whereas San Mateo County production qualifies as Virtual Net-Zero.
Maui’s regulators (PUC) have been called out for being too cozy with their utility company and were, therefore, slow-rolling renewable energy. After the destruction of Lahaina, their speed and commitment to “green” had to change. No more pretending.
Maui runs a self-contained, stand-alone grid; there is nowhere to hide. San Mateo County is part of the Western Grid (WECC), California’s CAISO, PG&E covering Northern California, and PCE covering the county; hiding is built right into this system.
San Mateo County leaders are still slow-rolling; they are still pretending.
Again, we are part of one large grid. If one takes the WECC data, an average household might be responsible, let’s say, for 3 metric tons of electricity carbon; using California Grid (CAISO) values, we can whittle this down to maybe 1.8 tons. In the end, PCE is cleaning that up for San Mateo County to either 0.2 or Net-Zero.
Nothing has changed on the way from 3 to 1.8 to 0 – only the deck chairs on the Titanic have been rearranged. Rearranging furniture is, in fact, the whole magic trick.
PCE’s “green” ECOplus or ECO100 plans can claim they have zero greenhouse gas emissions, because Sacramento gave them the Magic Wand in 2002 (AB117) and never took it away. Sacramento is allowing them several ways to deceive voters and residents.
What’s wrong with “Greenwashing”?
There are different levels of “greenwashing”, but Peninsula Clean Energy is breaking all the green rules in the business.
“The U.S. Department of the Treasury and the European Union consider electricity use carbon-free if the users purchase renewable power from newly built, nearby sources on an hour-by-hour basis.” [Arik Levinson, Georgetown University]
At least 14 national environmental organizations, many climate scientists, and the U.S. Treasury are promoting the same rules. Let’s repeat them:
- Newly Built: Peninsula Clean Energy must promote, or even lead, the planning and construction phase.
- Hour-by-hour basis – for peak hours between 4 and 9 pm, solar just doesn’t work anymore, and batteries aren’t “green”.
- Nearby – this would require a few local turbines.
So far, Peninsula Clean Energy has done none of this. So far, the combination of PCE and the ‘electrification’ battle cry is part of a huge carbon laundromat that the Board of Supervisors is supervising here.
Additionality
John Oliver explains what the lack of ‘Additionality‘ means for many green projects. PCE has that problem with all its power sources. Let’s take their nighttime hydro power after the sun goes to sleep:
- Shasta Dam is a World War II hydro power dam.
- Shasta Hydro Power has been running long before PCE existed.
- Not a single electron has ever made the long trip from Shasta Dam to the Peninsula.
- We could decommission PCE tomorrow, and Shasta Dam would still survive.
Hiding behind an 80-year-old concrete WWII dam isn’t exactly the “Silicon Valley innovation” we come to expect around here.
In fact, every single one of these projects pre-dates PCE; there is simply no “Additionality” at all in this energy mix.
“It’s easy to say, you are reducing carbon emissions. But it is much harder to prove it.” [John Oliver]
“Additionality” is supposed to be the easy rule. The county doesn’t fare better with the ‘nearby’ and ‘hourly matching’ requirements either.
Final Thoughts
The nighttime power mix in the Western Grid remains 60% fossil-fuel-based. And while PCE is pushing for ‘electrification’ in this county, nothing they are doing has changed that nightly power mix.
Peninsula Clean Energy is neither producing, sourcing, nor supplying renewable electricity. The combination of WECC and CAISO decides how “green” our grid really is. And in the middle of the night, when all SMC EVs are plugged in, they are still charged by mostly non-renewable sources.
It was never PCE’s job to reduce carbon emissions. It was created by our ‘nearby’ political powers to fix a problem with their Climate Action Plans (CAP). PCE is doing the famous Three Cups and a Ball trick on behalf of the county.
Who is in charge here?
Peninsula Clean Energy – Board of Directors
Donna Colson (Burlingame), Ray Mueller (San Mateo County), Adam Loraine (San Mateo (City)), Elmer Martínez Saballos (Redwood City), Noelia Corzo (San Mateo County), Marty Medina (San Bruno), Rick DeGolia (Atherton), Tom McCune (Belmont), Coleen Mackin (Brisbane), Ken Gonzalez (Colma), Dr. Rod Daus-Magbual (Daly City), Carlos Romero (East Palo Alto), Stacy Jimenez (Foster City), Patric Bo Jonsson (Half Moon Bay), Leslie Ragsdale (Hillsborough), Michael Amabile (Los Banos), Betsy Nash (Menlo Park), Bob Nguyen (Millbrae), Greg Wright (Pacifica), Rebecca Flynn (Portola Valley), John Dugan (San Carlos), James Coleman (South San Francisco), Hassan Aburish (Woodside).
“Driven by community, focused on clean energy.” [PCE]
San Mateo County Flood & Sea Level Resiliency District – Board of Directors
Donna Colson, Ray Mueller, Kaia Eakin, Debbie Ruddock, Lisa Gauthier, Adam Rak, Marie Chuang
“Building Solutions for the Changing Climate.” [OneShoreline]
Interestingly, the picture PCE chose for its marketing campaign looks like a parent riding a ‘dangerous’ class 3 e-bike on a trail. Weirdly, this is exactly the kind of behavior this county and several PCE board members have been trying to outlaw.
Warning: Certified Greenwashed Power Source. Every electron used in the writing of this blog post was ethically sourced from verified greenwashed origins.
Editor’s Note: The views and opinions expressed in this blog post are those of one author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Redwood City Pulse or its staff.
