Armchair activism (see below for details on each):

1. OHM – Connect. Reduce use of dirty “peaker” plants at times of high use by cutting your electricity. You can earn cash and prizes and you can earn a donation to 350 Humboldt.

2.  Use Ecosia as your search engine. It’s ad revenue goes to funding tree planting by local groups.

3.  Write letters to influence policy on your own or you can join 350 Humboldt members every week at 7pm Sunday at this link:   https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85643874306?pwd=Tm1yeXJBVVhWMGt5ZjZXVTVYbGFoZz09

Ohm-connect

One hour a week the Ohm Connect folks determine when “peaker” gas plants would ordinarily have to be used. By getting thousands of people to reduce their energy use to a minimum in that hour they avoid having to turn those dirty plants on. PG&E pays them for the reduction and they pay us.

Signing up is free and they offer prizes and money for participating. Over 125,000 people participate, getting rewarded for helping reduce CO2 emissions.

Right now Ohm Connect is paying a $10 bonus to you if you are recruited through an existing customer and a $40 bonus to the existing customer. So sign up using Steering Committee member Dan Chandler’s sign-up link and he will transfer all the customer bonus money to 350 Humboldt: https://ohm.co/dwchandl

Thanks very much to the four 350 members who have already signed up. That’s $160 going to 350 Humboldt.

Here is the Ohm Connect website if you want to check it out first: https://www.ohmconnect.com/how-it-works

And here is an article explaining how it works and why it is going big.

https://www.fastcompany.com/90582902/a-100-million-investment-will-fund-the-largest-virtual-powerplant-in-the-u-s

Ecosia Search engine

Switch to the Ecosia search engine. Ecosia uses its ad revenues to buy tree planting through grass roots organizations (not monoculture). Does not sell your data. (It is also easy to use Google for any specific search, just add #g to your search string.)

https://www.ecosia.org

Independent verification below (we heard about it on the podcast “How to Save a Planet”, which also investigated it.)

https://greenstarsproject.org/2019/10/12/green-search-engine-ecosia/

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/ecosia-use-profits-to-plant-trees/

https://www.patharoundtheworld.com/ecosia-review/

LETTER WRITING THIS WEEK

Utilities are lobbying the CPUC to gut net metering, California’s cornerstone rooftop solar policy. Net metering lets solar users share their extra solar energy with neighbors for a bill credit. The utilities’ stated objective is to slash the bill credit such that solar’s payback period will go from currently 5-8 years to 20-25 years. This will effectively tank the growth of rooftop solar, jeopardize the state’s climate change goals, and prevent millions from accessing tools to help them control their energy bills and avoid power outages. Our goal is instead to protect and strengthen net metering to keep rooftop solar growing, get it into the hands of more low-income people and renters, and increase the use of solar-powered batteries. CPUC launched their proceeding last year and is expected to make a final decision late this year.

While some have argued we need “industrial scale” solar rather than rooftop a new study this week shows how rooftop solar could save Americans $473 billion in electricity costs. (https://www.latimes.com/environment/newsletter/2021-01-07/how-rooftop-solar-could-save-americans-473-billion-dollars-boiling-point)

Send an on-line message supporting net metering at https://solarrights.org/savecaliforniasolar/

For those who really want to get into the weeds on this issue, see the CALIFORNIA SOLAR & STORAGE ASSOCIATION comments at: https://docs.cpuc.ca.gov/PublishedDocs/Efile/G000/M348/K579/348579838.PDF

Sign Sierra Club petitions.

There are a number of actions you can take starting on this page: https://addup.sierraclub.org/campaigns/seize-the-grid-for-100-clean-energy-by-2030?promoid=7010Z000002799xQAA&_ga=2.167081342.1576845452.1610315569-418455547.1609714224

Then go to “Browse campaigns” at the top of the page.

Environmental Defense Fund

Sign on to EDF campaign petitions at: https://act.edf.org/z0nMwDU

National Resources Defense Council

Sign on to NRDC petition campaigns at: https://www.nrdc.org/get-involved