Solstice Celebrations at Xcel Energy Applaud New Solar Gardens But Push for Equal Access
On Tuesday June 21st, 2016, Community Power, community members, & coalition partners held a colorful "Solar Solstice" celebration in front of Xcel Energy Headquarters in downtown Minneapolis. Participants thanked Xcel for the progress they have made on approving community solar project applications, but also asked Xcel with vivid street theater to remove the bar to solar for everyone to participate. (You can take action, too! Call Xcel and/or sign the Energy Equity petition).
Coalition partners: MNIPL, MN350, ILSR, VoteClimate, Northfield Area Community Solar, North American Water Office, Young People's Action Coaltion, MPIRG, CTUL
The Solar Solstice celebration was Community Power's promised follow-up event to the Xcel Slow Walk demonstration seven months earlier, which highlighted Xcel's long months of delays to the community solar program.
#XCELSLOWWALK NOVEMBER 2015
This time, Community Power and partners gathered to celebrate the 350+ Minnesota community solar gardens have been approved (up from a mere 5 in November) thanks to Xcel’s responsiveness to developer and community concerns.
November 2015 June 2016
Despite this progress, the question remains:
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An Equitable Clean Energy Future Accessible to all Minnesotans: Removing the Barriers
If we are fortunate to get a Clean Power Plan implemented in Minnesota, it is important that energy equity be prioritized in addition to carbon reduction. The renewable energy revolution has to be done in a way that helps promote economic and racial justice if we are to fulfill goals of moving our state toward 100 renewables.
The system we have in place makes it very difficult for families with a lack disposable income or without credit scores over 700 to invest in energy efficiency improvements, weatherization and clean energy through community based solar and wind sources.
Let’s remove these barriers so that all customers can improve their homes and save their families energy dollars regardless of income or credit score.
When we clear an easy path for low and middle income families to take action on climate change, they also gain the double benefit of saving money on utilities, and building a green job-creating economy of locally circulating wealth.
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Remembering Kirk Washington Jr.
At the intersection between activism and poetry, at the intersection between community art and cultural-civic engagement, Kirk used artistic expression to foster social change. He spread his energy of collective organization whenever he blinked and completely related to people who could hardly be more different from himself.
I recall Kirk expressing an interest in a greater variety of mediums and capacities than any of us could keep track of: bookmaking, education, spoken word performances, event building, urban gardening, community development, visual art, poetry, cultural theory, musical expression, etc.
He could take negativity, fear, anger and transform it into beauty, into poetry while building power around reflection. A much needed characteristic in this world.
In particular, Kirk demonstrated to us us all the value of using great talent in poetry, spoken word and artistic expression as a way to create counter-narratives to dominant stories. He had the critical mind to see through anything which enabled him to not only open up dialogue on challenging conversations but change hearts and begin solutions.
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Minneapolis Clean Energy Partnership Continues to Gain National Recognition and Awards
The Minneapolis Clean Energy Partnership has helped the City win milestones of national recognition even when it existed only on paper. At that time in late 2014, The White House and U.S. Department of Energy gave the City of Minneapolis a competitive “Climate Action Champion” award largely because the Partnership it established with its energy utilities was the first of its kind in the nation.
Now the Clean Energy Partnership itself is winning awards of national recognition after a full year of formally convening. On Wednesday March 9th, the Partnership won the EPA’s 2016 Climate Leadership Award in the Innovative Partnerships category for working collaboratively on leading-edge climate initiatives. The award page identified ambitious energy goals, the Partnership’s early accomplishments and the Energy Vision Advisory Committee (EVAC) providing input on the Partnership’s work plan.
Particularly successful is Minneapolis' Energy Benchmarking program as it has earned a dynamic duo of honorary acknowledgement this year.
Read moreXcel, Centerpoint, Minneapolis give $10,000 each to EVAC’S new Community Engagement Pilot Project
The Minneapolis Clean Energy Partnership has a conduit for community input on how to meet City energy goals known as the Energy Vision Advisory Committee (EVAC). Members of the EVAC have succeeded in launching a serious movement to shift energy efficiency program implementation towards an innovative community engagement rather than relying upon the marketing approach which utilities are familiar with.
Energy utilities have become accustomed to using marketing-based recruitment and retention strategies that often have passive method of soliciting participation into their home energy saving programs (as described in this blogpost). However the marketing approach has not been very effective in situations where people's main barriers to significant energy saving gains are social in nature as opposed to purely financial (as described in this blogpost).
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