The mainstream daily The Press Democrat here in Sonoma County, Northern California, published a long front page article on Nov. 26 headlined “Green Energy: how alternative resources have gone from responsible to cost-effective.”

The headline above a large photo of a 300-foot-tall wind generator in nearby Solano County, a model for Sonoma County’s Geysers, “already the world’s largest source for geothermal power,” reads as follows: “From the sun to the Earth: the North Coast is at the cutting edge in making renewable energy an economically feasible option.”

One Sonoma County town, Healdsburg, according to the article written by Clark Mason and Michael Coit, has operated an independent electrical utility for nearly 100 years. It “gets a majority of its power from renewable sources” and delivers “lower rates to its customers than PG&E,” the state’s largest utility, which has only 12% of its energy sources certified as renewable.

The Northern California Power Agency serves Healdsburg, Ukiah in Mendocino County and 16 other cities and public agencies. It advocates not only The Geysers wind farm, but also “a variety of innovative energy sources including tidal and ocean waves,” according to the article.

Many companies, groups, and individuals have been advocating the development of renewable energy here in recent years. Among those mentioned in the article are Fetzer Vineyards in Mendocino County, which this summer installed the largest solar array in the wine industry, and Codding Enterprises, which just installed a massive solar electrical system to redevelop a mixed-use community of 1900 homes in Rohnert Park. Professor Alexandra von Meier at Sonoma State University heads that school’s efforts to teach students about green energy.

Various local small groups also work to educate and advocate renewable area in the region and globally. Among them are the following: Solar Sebastopol, the Energy Transition Team connected to the Leadership Institute for Ecology and the Economy, the Livability Project, Sustainable Petaluma, and Santa Rosa Economic Relocalization.

Author Richard Heinberg also teaches at New College of California in Santa Rosa and has initiated various Powerdown Projects in the area. The Post Carbon Institute recently moved from Vancouver, Canada, to Santa Rosa.

The entire article is available at www.pressdemocrat.com.
Shepherd Bliss, sb3@pon.net, Sebastopol, CA.