News

Special Meeting To Be Announced
Council Reconsiders Marin Clean Energy
In a stunning reversal of their initial support, the Dixon city council pulled the second reading of the ordinance establishing a Joint Powers Agreement with Marin Clean Energy off of the consent calendar and called for further discussion.
Councilman Steve Bird said he had heard from a number of people whose main concern was that you had to “opt out rather than opt in” to have or reject MCE as your new energy provider.
Another key point was that the council was approving a Joint Powers Agreement that only staff had seen. This highly unusual procedure brought questions as to termination costs on the city if the city were to pull out of this agreement in the future. Also within the agreement was having only one appointed councilman having the ability to make decisions for the entire council when dealing with MCE’s board.
MCE’s representative Dan Sharp told the council he would have no problem “educating” the public as to what MCE would provide to the citizens of Dixon. Audience members countered the contention that MCE was a “green energy” provider, saying that the use of renewable energy certificates allowed MCE to obfuscate where their power was generated. It was also pointed out that PG&E, the current electricity provider, also has programs for energy from renewable resources.
While some on the council wanted to include this subject on a regularly scheduled meeting agenda, it was de-cided to give it its own meeting and attempt to inform as many residents as possible of the meeting. The date has not been determined at this time. Dixon Independent Voice/ June 14, 2019