Pictured above: MCE celebrates at its launch event on May 7, 2010. Founding Board Chair, Charles McGlashan, is at the podium.

Celebrating Its Role in Transforming Community Energy

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 7, 2020

MCE Press Contact:
Jenna Famular, Communications Manager
(925) 378-6747 | jfamular@mcecleanenergy.org

SAN RAFAEL and CONCORD, Calif. — MCE is excited to announce its 10-year anniversary of service as California’s first Community Choice Aggregator. MCE began as a vision of environmental reform in partnership with community leaders and advocates across the Bay Area and launched service on May 7, 2010 to 8,000 customers in the County of Marin. Today, MCE celebrates its role as a groundbreaking agency that has redefined the energy landscape of California, opening the door to customer choice in electricity service and the power of locally-based decision making across the state. A decade later, MCE has grown to serve 34 member communities across four Bay Area counties, providing clean energy to over 1 million customers.

MCE now includes communities across Marin, Napa, Contra Costa, and Solano Counties — and its reliable, cost-competitive, transparent model of providing energy has inspired more than 20 other community choice organizations to form across the state. California’s community choice providers now represent more than 170 communities and 10 million customers contributing more than 3,600 megawatts of new renewable energy resources, and a growing market for green collar jobs.

“MCE’s mission is to address climate change by reducing energy-related greenhouse gas emissions with renewable energy and energy efficiency at cost-competitive rates,” said Dawn Weisz, CEO of MCE. “Over the last decade, MCE has shown it is possible to turn away from the volatile costs and climate impacts of fossil fuels, and attract millions of customers and business to local, public programs that use energy dollars to invest in renewable energy, high-paying jobs, local project development, and programs supporting more equitable communities.”

Since its inception, MCE has delivered significant community benefits; providing green energy at cost-competitive rates and saving its ratepayers more than $68 million, all while making significant reinvestments in our communities. Highlights of MCE’s achievements include:

  • Providing a core energy product that is 90% carbon-free and contains 60% or more renewable energy,
  • Committing over $1.5 billion to new California renewables, facilitating the creation of 5,000 jobs, and 1.25 million labor hours,
  • Supporting the development of 31 megawatts of new local renewable projects in MCE’s service area and an additional 678 megawatts around the state,
  • Distributing more than $1.8 million in energy efficiency and local program rebates, including more than 230 solar installations for income-qualifying customers,
  • Investing over $1.5 million in electric vehicle charging infrastructure, resulting in over 850 new ports installed or currently under construction in MCE’s service area,
  • Allocating $6 million to fund local resiliency efforts including installation of 15 megawatt hours of customer-sited energy storage prioritizing vulnerable customers, critical facilities, and community resiliency centers, and
  • Eliminating more than 340,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions, equivalent to taking more than 70,000 cars off the road for one year, according to the EPA.

As MCE launches its second decade of service, the agency is focused on strengthening community resiliency especially for vulnerable and underserved communities, reinvesting in decarbonizing transportation and the built environment, and continuing to develop innovative community energy programs with local workforce benefits. For more information on MCE’s history and impact over the past decade, please see the recent blog post from MCE’s current and founding CEO, Dawn Weisz.

Charles McGlashan, MCE’s founding Board Chair summarized MCE’s efforts well during the 2010 launch, as follows:

“We’ll just keep trying to do the right thing, as we always do, for as long as we can. I imagine that this point is the main theme of all our hard work – to do the best for the Earth and all her children, all the time, with every action and decision we make. We may lose most efforts, but we are engaged in ‘right livelihood,’ and that’s what matters most. Hopefully, some greater purpose is holding all of us as we try to win a better future for our lovely world and her kids.” –Charles McGlashan | July 15, 1961 – March 27, 2011

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About MCE: As California’s first Community Choice Aggregation Program, MCE is a groundbreaking, not-for-profit, public agency that has been setting the standard for energy innovation in our communities since 2010. MCE offers cleaner power at stable rates, significantly reducing energy-related greenhouse emissions and enabling millions of dollars of reinvestment in local energy programs. MCE is a load-serving entity supporting a 1,000 MW peak load. MCE provides electricity service to more than 480,000 customer accounts and more than one million residents and businesses in 34 member communities across four Bay Area counties: Contra Costa, Marin Napa and Solano. For more information about MCE, visit mceCleanEnergy.org.

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