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TOM WHEELER:

Welcome to the Econews Report. I'm your host this week, Tom Wheeler, Executive Director of EPIC, the Environmental Protection Information Center. And joining me is my co-host for this episode, Matt Simmons, Climate Attorney at EPIC. Matt, what were we talking about today?

MATT SIMMONS:

Today, we're going to talk about Regenerate California Coalition. And so we're joined by Heena Singh, who is Energy Justice Manager at the California Environmental Justice Alliance, or CEA. She actually leads the Regenerate California Coalition. And we are also joined by Julia Dowell, who is the Senior Campaign Organizer at the Sierra Club working to decarbonize California's electric grid and ensure responsible build-out of renewable energy resources.

WHEELER:

So Matt, I think the inspiration for this show for us is that one myth that we're almost perpetually busting is that new renewable energy won't make a difference, right? That we are just going to keep expanding energy use and that new renewable energy is not going to make a difference in decarbonizing our energy grid, it's not gonna make a difference in climate change, and won't make a difference maybe to fence line communities who are impacted from fossil fuel production and use. We know that that's not true, our guests know that this is not true, so we're gonna hopefully explain today through this show why more renewables is going to result in better air quality, both like this international scale greenhouse gas thing, but then also for fence line communities, black and brown communities in the state who are pollution burdened because of fossil fuels.

SIMMONS:

That's the hope, and hopefully we'll also talk about how to make sure that that happens. So I guess let's start off with, can you guys tell us about the Regenerate campaign? What is it? What is its goals? What are you guys trying to do?

HEENA SINGH:

Yeah, of course, I can start and maybe I'll just share a little bit more about SEHA as well. So California Environmental Justice Alliance, we are one of the largest environmental justice coalitions in the state. We represent our 10 member organizations, which really represent tens of thousands of residents from EJ communities that are dealing with the impacts of oil and gas. And really, our framework at SEHA is fighting the bad in order to build the new and build the good. And so we really look at Regenerate, our campaign, as an opportunity to stop current cycles of harm and empower the more impacted communities, fence line communities, to build their clean energy future. So Regenerate California is a partnership with SEHA and Sierra Club to retire all gas plants in California, starting with those in environmental justice communities, which is awesome.

Our coalition consists of three of our member orgs, including Central Coast Alliance for Sustainable Economy in Oxnard and Ventura, Communities for a Better Environment in Southeast LA and Wilmington, and then Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice in the Inland Valley. So we all have been working together since 2020 when we were launched. Really, this was on the heels of a very successful fight against a proposed power plant called the Puente Power Plant in Oxnard. And we were successful in making sure that it didn't get approved. And really, we wanted to create this partnership to move forward our vision of what a just transition looks like away from fossil fuels, moving towards a clean energy future that's community led. And that really results in a portfolio of clean energy solutions, including distributed energy solutions like community solar, demand flexibility, but also, as we're going to talk about today, like responsible utility scale energy.

So, as you mentioned, like, who is on the fence line? Who are the communities that are really impacted? And we see these are communities of color. Usually we see this through pollution in the air, in the water, land, through extractive industries like oil and gas. And this is like the highest form of environmental racism. And so offshore wind and responsible utility scale energy like solar and batteries, we're really focused there because we want to see these technologies facilitate the retirement of these gas plants.

SIMMONS:

That's great, thanks for that explanation. I had a follow-up, but I think you answered it at the end there, which is, what is an environmental justice community? Who are these folks? But thank you for that clarification. So I think part of what you said there is about these communities being leaders and being in charge of this sort of planning. Why is it important for these communities to be involved in energy decision-making?

SINGH:

Yeah, maybe I can start and then, Julia, I'll pass it to you. So I think when we talk about energy justice, what we mean, just to clarify again, it's these communities that are most burdened from current extractive and polluting energy systems. These should be the folks that are the first to benefit from and co-govern a new regenerative clean energy system. And so, as an example, we've seen how folks who live near gas plants that serve system reliability, but not local reliability, so that in a grid emergency in the summer when it's really hot outside, they're dealing with the impacts of these gas plants turning online, but then they don't have reliable electricity in their home. So this is an example of what we wouldn't want to see repeated with offshore wind, where communities in proximity to offshore wind development are not going to be benefiting from reliable electricity when they really should be part of the whole process.

And we've seen in the past that there are certain decisions that have not really allowed for true community engagement, like AB 525, the offshore wind strategic plan. This was an example where we submitted comments that didn't really get embedded into the plan. We saw this with like, in 2023, when the Department of Water Resources and California Public Utilities Commission extended the life of three once through cooling plants, two of which are in EJ communities, Oxnard and Wilmington. That entire process was super opaque. Communities didn't have a chance to express their concerns, challenge assumptions, and so that was really disappointing. And now same entities are in charge of offshore wind procurement. So these are all related topics, and this is like why we need community to be part of these discussions, these decision-making spaces, so that we can really advocate for pathways to enable offshore wind responsible utility scale to retire gas plants. I'll pass it to you, Julia, if you wanted to add anything there.

JULIA DOWELL:

Yeah, thanks so much, Heena. You covered that really well. And I think I'll just add that, like Heena mentioned, we engaged in the California Energy Commission's AB 525 process, which was their first attempt at creating a strategic plan for how offshore wind should be built out in California. And as part of our comments, and something I just want to highlight, is that we really feel like this strategic plan and any renewable energy strategic plan moving forward needs to center tribal and environmental justice community engagement. I think we have a real opportunity to right the wrongs of how we have done energy planning in the past. And so it's really critical that we break away from this historic pattern of extractive energy development that overburdens communities, typically communities of color, low-income communities. And we're going to do this, be successful in it if we prioritize community input.

And one important way that we advocated for agencies to do so in our comments was by really urging these decision-making agencies to integrate the concerns of environmental justice and tribal communities in their offshore wind project planning and implementation process. So the entire life cycle of energy development should really include EJ communities and tribal communities as key stakeholders. And we also advocate for tribal energy sovereignty. We know that those that are most impacted by the extractive energy economy are often those that also have the least reliable energy, especially during power outages and things like that. And so we really wanted to urge decision-makers and continue to urge decision-makers to center the consent of tribal communities in offshore wind decision-making and also environmental justice communities as well.

WHEELER:

And I will remind listeners that we had Linnea Jackson, the director of the Hupa Valley Public Utilities District on this show, not too long ago talking about tribal energy sovereignty. And there is a link to that episode in the show notes.

SIMMONS:

Thanks, Tom. We've jumped into talking about offshore wind, but I maybe want to take a step back and just talk about why these two things are related. I think if you're not an energy nerd, it might not be obvious why natural gas plants in Southern California and offshore wind off the North Coast of California could be related. If either Julia or Heena want to jump in and talk about that, that'd be great.

DOWELL:

Yeah, thanks, Matt. And I can kick us off. And then I think I'll pass it to Heena. And we can also talk a bit more about like, the goals and how we're trying to reach our goals in terms of connecting offshore wind to gas plant retirements. But yeah, it is a an interesting relationship there that we don't typically see in the same conversation. Like we'll talk about offshore wind in a silo. And then we'll talk about gas plant retirements in a silo. And what we're trying to do at regenerate is is connect those two together.

So the reality is, in order to get to 100% clean energy, which the state has a goal of doing by 2045, we're going to need to build out unprecedented levels of clean energy. And offshore wind really gives us this opportunity to reach our clean energy goals. And then if done right, how do we connect that offshore wind to retiring gas plants. And essentially, we want there to be a transmission plan that allows for offshore wind energy to be delivered to areas that currently rely on gas plants, especially those gas plants that are in Egypt communities and have been long overburdening marginalized communities. So as an example, the governor and state agencies have said that we need to get to 25 gigawatts of offshore wind in California by 2045 in order to help us reach our clean energy goals as a state. And what we want to see and how we're engaging in this process is how do we maximize the deliverability of this energy to allow offshore wind to displace gas plants.

And I will pause there and I'll pass it over to Heena if you want to add anything.

SINGH:

Yeah, yeah, I think that's a great summary, Julia. I feel like, really, like, I want to just say, like, I think part of this goes back to that framework of stopping the bad to build the new responsibly. And so stopping the bad in this context of offshore wind means that we want, like, new energy infrastructure to be planned in a way that stops these existing cycles of harm. They should enable the shutdown of gas plants. They should remediate waterfront facilities that have faced legacy pollution, and ultimately prioritize the health of portside communities. And when we think about what building new responsibly looks like, it's like, we want a clear community-led process from planning all the way to siting, development, evaluation. Like, communities should be involved in all of these steps. And in order for these priorities and, I guess, like, feedback and lived experience to be captured.

And then I think, ideally, we want this transition, even, like, the build-out of offshore wind, is there's a possibility of fossil fuel production in that process and development. And so making sure that we're using 100% zero-emission equipment and trucks to protect communities as we're moving into this just transition. But I did want to touch on our goals, actually, for the Regenerate campaign, which I think will maybe illuminate more around, like, why are we focused on transmission? Like Julia was saying, like, we're really involved in three regulatory spaces, the CEC SB100, which looks at what is our resource mix for achieving 100% clean energy, and how can we enable retirement there? The second is the transmission process through CAISO, which is advocating for a transmission plan that includes the full deliverability of offshore wind to load pockets served by gas plants. And then the third is involved in, we're involved in the California Public Utilities Commission proceedings, including integrated resource planning and resource adequacy.

And it's very technical, but at a high level, what we're really looking for is to adopt a plan to retire all of the 80 gas-fired power plants and disadvantaged communities. This is about 18 gigawatts of gas plants. And we're looking to push for policies that prioritize offshore wind procurement. And so we engage in these different venues through a combination of organizing research and communications. And happy to dive into that more, but that's kind of, yeah, that's the connection from our perspective of regenerate and offshore wind.

WHEELER:

So a couple of personal reflections, we're talking about gigawatts, 18 gigawatts that we're trying to replace. This is why I think offshore wind has been exciting for Matt and myself is that offshore wind has potential for gigawatt level power, right? This isn't, we're not trying to fill a bucket with thousands of little drops. This is a couple large projects can really be a substantial contribution to getting rid of these gross toxic gas plants in communities of color. Also here in the North Coast, right? Our power right now, this podcast is being recorded using fracked natural gas. That's being burnt at the Humboldt Bay generating station. So we can shut down that sort of stuff only if we have new corresponding energy that meets that demand.

And Heena also brought up a wonderful point about doing this correctly and trying to decarbonize the process of offshore wind as well.

We're going to hopefully explain through this show why more renewables is going to result in better air quality, both like this, like international scale greenhouse gas thing, but then also for fence line communities, black and brown communities in the state who are pollution burdened because of fossil fuels, Matt, I'll turn it over to you briefly to talk about what you've accomplished working with the Harbor district, Humble Bay Harbor district to promote a green point development and what that means for the development of offshore wind here in Humble County.

SIMMONS:

Yeah. So as listeners are probably aware, there's a offshore wind, heavy lift terminal proposed for a couple of a, this is where the offshore wind turbines would actually be, they call it staging and integration, but sort of final assembly put together and through advocacy by Epic and a lot of our partners, we got the Harbor district to sign a resolution to decarbonize that process and push for a net zero terminal there. And the Harvard district is in the process of developing that process in coordination with Moffitt Nickel, and we're going to be watchdogging it really closely to make sure that they are not cutting any corners or skipping any steps in keeping our air clean and making sure that this process has as low emissions as possible.

WHEELER:

I'm also excited for the port workers who are going to be there, who are not going to have to work around gross diesel machinery that is way too loud and is causing them to go deaf at an early age, as is often the case with industrial workers, as well as the communities who live nearby the port that they're not going to have to likewise be exposed to that sort of pollution too.

SIMMONS:

I just, I want to flag one other thing, and I'm actually curious to hear what your guys' thoughts are on this, but part of, I think, the problem right now is that we have a lot of solar in the middle of the day, and then as the sun starts to set, we ramp up all these peak, they're called peaker natural gas plants, that are sort of the dirtiest form of natural gas plant, but they're good at sort of turning on quickly. And my understanding, not as a scientist or engineer, is that offshore wind is sort of uniquely good at replacing that time of day, that late afternoon, early evening, when the solar panels aren't as productive, offshore wind has a capacity factor that is, it's still generating electricity at those times. Is that part of it that you guys are thinking about as well?

DOWELL:

Yeah, I will share that I've heard similar things in terms of the timing issue and that offshore wind has a potential to provide power during those times when we are currently relying on gas plants. I'll also say that pairing offshore wind with battery storage is going to be essential to really retiring gas plants as well. So that's something we're thinking about as well. We've heard historically that renewable energy is not seen as quote-unquote as reliable and firm as say gas plants.

And I just kind of want to quickly debunk that because we actually have a report that we released a couple years ago about how gas plants really aren't as reliable as we are being told that they are. During a big heat wave they often are underperforming and they actually can take hours to start up and shut down and that's when the pollution controls are also not active. So that's when they're spewing the most pollutants into communities and yeah, they often are not showing up when we need them most during those heat waves. And so we really see like pairing offshore wind for example with battery storage as critical to creating this firm resource that can very reliably replace gas plants. And I don't know Heena if you want to add anything there.

SIMMONS:

Hey, well that goes -- sorry, go ahead, Heena.

SINGH:

I was just gonna say, I think you covered it perfectly, Julia, and maybe we can also link the HeatWave report in the show notes for folks that are interested in checking it out.

SIMMONS:

Yeah, that sounds great. Okay, so I think we've sort of successfully described sort of the hopeful version, which is we build all this offshore wind and all these natural gas plants get decommissioned and all these communities never have to breathe this unclean air ever again. Your goal is to make this happen. How are we doing? What does the state need to do to make this happen? What can advocates up here in the North Coast do to make this happen? Yeah.

DOWELL:

Yeah, I can jump in first. So Heena spoke to a lot of the processes that we are involved with and how that planning is critical to really making this transition. But I'll first kind of start and lay out some of the challenges, and then we can maybe talk about how we can tackle those challenges. And one of the key challenges is just like how siloed this work can be between agencies. California is very unique, and we have four, you could even say five agencies that have some role to play in our energy planning. And so we have the California Energy Commission that does statewide energy planning. We have the California Air Resources Board that sets these emissions targets. We have the Public Utilities Commission telling utilities what to actually procure of what resources. And then we have CAISO, the California Independent System Operator, doing the transmission planning.

So we have to get all of these agencies on the same page and doing their piece of the puzzle the right way to make our vision happen. And all of these agencies have to essentially find alignment and communicate for us to have this overall energy plan, a transmission plan, and then the associated procurement orders that make sure offshore wind displaces gas. And then another challenge I already touched on is really this reliability issue and just debunking this narrative that gas plants are more reliable than renewable energy. Because if we really are planning correctly and using battery storage and other long-duration energy storage technologies to firm up renewable energy, we don't need to be relying on gas plants in the same way. So those are the challenges. I think we have been doing advocacy at the California Energy Commission. Their plan to get to 100% clean energy by 2045, we want to make sure that plan is as robust as possible. And advocacy there is critical.

And then we also are, together as Regenerate, we are engaging in the integrated resource planning process at the California Public Utilities Commission. So how do we get that agency specifically to make a plan that procures, that tells utilities like PG&E and SoCal Edison to procure renewable energy and decrease its procurement of gas over time? So I think that those are areas where I think the public can also be engaged in advocacy. But I'll also pass it to Heena to see what you want to add there.

SINGH:

Yeah, thanks, Julia. I want to highlight, too, when we talk about these regulatory agencies, that there is a statutory requirement under SB887 that asks these agencies to substantially reduce gas use in local areas by 2035. So this is already, this is past legislation that is a requirement. And so these regulatory agencies do have a duty in this offshore wind planning process to ensure that gas plants are being retired. And I think a lot of our work is trying to bring the conversation across these agencies, make sure that they're coordinating with each other to find these pathways.

And I think the other piece of this I want to bring up, because I know we're talking about offshore wind, but I do want to say that offshore wind is really like a piece of the puzzle. And even though we see the scale of offshore wind is incredible, and the gigawatts, we also see, when we're talking about environmental justice, we want to highlight, what are the tangible benefits to communities? And a lot of those tangible benefits are going to be seen in things like their energy bills. Do they have power during an outage? Do they have clean air? And so in order to enable those solutions, actually, or those outcomes, actually, those solutions are looking more like distributed energy resources, which include like rooftop solar and battery storage or microgrids, or looking at energy efficiency and demand response, which is where folks like turn off their lights when there's an outage. And we're able to like, we're able to reduce load when necessary on our own.

So there are lots of strategies that can actually enable these things. Offshore wind is certainly part of the solution. But the other thing that we try to bring into our conversations with these agencies is like, we want to make sure offshore wind is being right sized. It's like, not too big or too small when they're doing their load projections for the next 10-15 years. And they're thinking about what the portfolio of solutions look like. We want to make sure they're taking into consideration like the full non-energy benefits and social costs. But I do like the question on like, what can folks do? Like this all feels like a lot. And it's like, how can like people get involved? And I think like, so SEHA is a statewide organization. We are involved in a lot of these more like wonky areas like in policy and legislative work.

But I think the main takeaway here is like, folks should continue to be curious. Like even tuning into this show is like, you're educating yourself about the way these systems work. And a lot of people are not aware of how some of these decision makers come into power and what they're responsible for and how that then impacts them. And so my big like, I guess recommendation is just to continue to be curious, ask questions and challenge some of the norms that we see in our everyday. I think there's a lot of trust in the systems and structures around us and there shouldn't be. And I think you should continue to question those. But there's also a tangible ask and I'll pass it to Julia to maybe share some of that.

DOWELL:

Yeah, thanks, Heena. I love that. Yes, be skeptical of the decision makers and where things are going so that we can really hold them accountable. I think that's like what our organizations are trying to do. But in terms of tangible asks, so we do have a petition, and I know we've been talking about offshore wind, and I know offshore wind is getting a lot of national, federal attention. And so we have a petition that is really aimed at telling decision makers in the state, at the CEC and the Public Utilities Commission to stand strong on offshore wind in California, that Californians really want offshore wind and that we need to build it out responsibly.

But we need to continue on the path forward. So if you do want to sign our petition, the link is tinyurl.com backslash offshorewindca. And we can maybe put it in the show notes too.

WHEELER:

You anticipated exactly what I was going to say. Yeah, you can find the show notes on the lostcoastoutpost.com or if you're listening to this as a podcast in your podcast app, so go check it out and sign that petition if you are so inclined, we are approaching the half hour mark. This has been a great conversation.

One thing that I wanted to share is something that gives me hope that this transition is possible and that in the last year, we just keep hitting these milestones, which are really meaningful to me. We have hit a milestone where we are meeting 100% of our energy demand using renewable during the day, which is exciting. We just had a new one recently, which is battery discharge met 100% of our energy demand, not for an entire day or 24 hour period, but at some point during the day, it was in the evening, we were discharging from batteries enough to meet our total energy demand as a state. That's incredible. We know that this technology works, we are working towards this solution and I think that we need to have some trust and faith, be skeptical, but also some trust and faith in that this is an achievable thing.

I know a lot of folks, at least locally, who might come from an environmental circle, but they're skeptical of renewables is that they don't have the imagination that adjust energy transition is possible. And I am here to say that it is possible and it's possible because of the work of folks like Heena and Julia. So unfortunately that is it. We're out of time for the show, but I'll give you one last opportunity to plug your organizations and the coalition. So Julia, how about you go first?

DOWELL:

Yeah, thank you. So I'm with Sierra Club. Get involved with your local Sierra Club chapter if you are interested and Regenerate California is a partnership between SEHA and Sierra Club and we would love for you to learn more about all the work that we do.

WHEELER:

And the North Group of the Redwood Chapter of the Sierra Club would love to have you. Heena, where can we find out more?

SINGH:

Yeah, you can go to Seha.org. You can follow us on Instagram, Seha Power or Blue Sky as well. Yeah, thank you so much for tuning in today and for having us.

WHEELER:

Thank you both. And thank you listeners. Join us again next week on this time and channel for more environmental news from the North coast of California.