Please contact your council members and ask them to support 100 percent clean electricity in Pasadena within 20 years.

Here's how to reach out to them. Click on this link, type your address and click on "District": In the window that pops up, click on the link for your district (in the right column). That will lead you to the page of your council member, and one of the menu options there will be Contact. Click on Contact, and his or her mailing and email addresses will pop up.

You can copy and paste the following sample letter:

Dear Council Member ___NAME____, 

I’m writing to ask you to support a goal of 100% carbon-free electricity in Pasadena by 2035, as part of the City’s Climate Action Plan.

At the federal level, our country is struggling to achieve consensus on climate action, yet poll after poll shows that a majority of Americans support clean, renewable electricity. Yet polls also show that most Americans don’t want to pay more for electricity, and this profile applies to Pasadenans as well.

PWP plans to keep Pasadena power bills low by generating at least 50% of our electricity with natural gas until 2030 and beyond. But gas, inexpensive now, will not remain low. Conversely, wind and solar don’t use any fuel. Their capital costs have declined rapidly over the past five years and will continue dropping in coming decades. Energy storage costs are not far behind. Lazard Inc., a major consulting firm for utilities, predicts that by 2020 solar energy PLUS storage will be cheaper than PWP’s Kingbird solar-only Power Purchase Agreement. With that kind of downward price trend, the potential savings in 2035 compared to business-as-usual will be significant.

Many cities across the nation have already made this commitment, realizing that transitioning to 100% renewable energy will create jobs, boost local economies, and (certainly by 2035) save money. Some California cities making this commitment are Palo Alto, Santa Monica, San Diego & Lancaster. A few others across the country are Boone NC, Salt Lake City UT, Georgetown TX, and Burlington VT. South of the equator, the Australian city of Adelaide expects to be 95% renewable by 2025. Setting a goal of 2035 is reasonable, achievable, and not at all aggressive.

Global warming is a threat to everyone on the planet. With cities like San Diego leading the way, it’s time for Pasadena to set a higher goal than merely satisfying the minimum State mandate of 50% renewable energy by 2030 (Pasadena’s Integrated Resource Plan). None of the City’s existing power contracts conflict with this long-term 100% renewables goal. Pasadena, by recognizing the urgency of decarbonizing, should craft a science-consistent roadmap to move the City, as well as the country, toward a healthier and safer future.

Council Member ___NAME___, will you support a 2035 goal of 100% carbon-free electricity in Pasadena’s Climate Action Plan?

Sincerely,

Address:
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Cheers to all who plan to attend the Women's March on January 20! If you are NOT planning to march, why not get some stuff fixed at Repair Cafe?!

Repair Cafe is a fun party connecting local folks who love a challenge to fix an appliance, a garment,  jewelry, a chair, a bike or whatnot with those who need the repairs! The buzz in the room is always exuberant. 

This is a project to keep stuff out of the landfill, yes, but even more, it is building a network of folks who want to do their part to make the world a better place, make new friends and have fun. Some folks who have repairs they can do themselves bring their projects to work on. Our various stations are always willing to give guidance on your progress. 

As always, this is a free event and accompanied by side projects such as the Really, Really Free Market, live music, free hot drinks, Seed and Seedling Swap.

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​Saturday, January 20, 10 a.m. - 1 p.m.
Throop Church Hall
300 S Los Robles Ave
Pasadena 91101

January Nordman, a member of Transition Pasadena from its inception in 2009, local water activist, community gardener and general lovingkindness spreader, left our midst on December 10. She will be deeply missed.

You are invited to honor her energetic efforts to make this world a more beautiful place. And indeed she has. The project nearest to her heart has been the transformation over the past eight years of Throop Church's weedy yard into a natural wonderland of native plants, orchard, habitat, beauty and a place of respite in a busy world.

She spread beauty with her artistic talents, with gardens designed with palettes of native plants, and with her compassion for all living things. 

Ever a teacher, she helped us all learn and grow. I have learned more deeply about community and how essential it is to the human family to network for resilience in tough times. I have learned how gardening draws us in, how earth meditation can connect and ground us, how music and celebration can be vehicles to bond us together. 

Thank you, January. We miss your big heart, your wisdom and your ready laughter.

— Therese Brummel

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January has thoughtfully specified each component of her celebration of life and memorial service and the tea which follows. 

Throop Church 
Sunday, January 28, 2-4 p.m.

Last week, Pasadena's long-awaited, state-mandated (Draft) Climate Action Plan (CAP) was released. The City congratulates itself on this comprehensive, yet less-than-ambitious plan, which addresses not only energy sourcing but a variety of other greenhouse-gas-reducing plans including bike lanes, food waste composting, water conservation and urban canopy. It meets the state's minimum targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. 

Also last week, the beginning of the biennial update to the Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) was begun. The IRP outlines a 20-year plan for energy contracts and where we will source them. The IRP creation will have a citizens' advisory group of about 12 people. The IRP planners have given a Venn diagram equally weighing cost, risk and environment as key factors in this planning.

In a recent meeting with Mandip Samra, the city's Power Resource Planning Manager, she revealed that several large institutions including Huntington Hospital, Art Center and Cal Tech already have seats reserved in the Stakeholders Technical Advisory Group, STAG.

We at Pasadena 100, a group of Transition Pasadena members and other Pasadena citizens concerned about Climate Change, advocate for 100 percent renewably-sourced energy for our city by 2035. Pasadena is blessed with a wealth of engineers and numbers wizards who are steering this effort. This is a reasonable, feasible and cost-effective plan which many cities across the US have already committed to.

We hope to ensure that concern for environment, specifically climate change, has a prominent place in this year-long process as the IRP takes shape. We feel that a city with an abundance of brilliant thinkers should be leading the conversion to 100 percent renewable energy. Apple and Google are 100 percent renewable energy powered. San Diego, Lancaster and dozens of other US cities are, too. All Saints Church is already carbon neutral, and Neighborhood Church and Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center are well on their way. Pasadena can do better than the 50 percent renewable energy by 2030 we are currently committed to!

Please contact your City Council member or Mandip Samra ([email protected]) to remind them that both the CAP and the IRP must ensure NO NEW CONTRACTS for fossil fuel energy beyond the late 2027, when solar energy plus storage is projected to be more cost effective than gas generation. The American natural gas system is leaky at extraction and storage, and therefore NOT a good "bridge" energy source.

Please get active by speaking your concern for climate at the Municipal Services Committee meetings on the second and fourth Tuesday of every month (4 p.m., Council Chambers, 100 N Garfield Ave). 

Or voice your opinion at the Environmental Advisory Commission which meets every second Tuesday (6 p.m., Permit Center Hearing Room, 175 N Garfield Ave). These volunteer commissioners make recommendations to City Council. Let them know your concern for bold action to stop climate change. 

The IRP will eventually hold public comment hearings. Don’t miss this opportunity to be heard!

— Therese Brummel

A huge van with bikes on the back arrived recently to visit Transition Pasadena. Inside were Laurent Metais and Audrey Broggini, our new French friends from Canada. Audrey and Laurent are a traveling Transition Town; their Transition initiative is called “Horizon Transition”. Horizon is understood as seeing the horizon, “seeing further in the future, there is always another way to go, an alternative, new ideas.”

Living in their van for months, Laurent and Audrey have already met with Transition groups in Berkeley, Port Townsend and other places. The plan was for them to stay in Pasadena for three weeks while they learned from us and documented our Transition ways and words to share with others on their website and maybe in a documentary. But first they wanted to get involved with our projects.

At our November Transition Pasadena Steering Committee meeting, we welcomed Laurent and Audrey with a potluck dinner. One member spoke about needing support with Transition Pasadena computer stuff. (HTML was mentioned!) Laurent said, “I can help you.” Another member, Michiko Lynch, asked if Laurent and Audrey could help with Green Circle on the first Wednesday in December; another, Ginko Lee, needed help with a Tiny House Party on December 10.  The answer was always, “Yes.”

Talk about getting involved immediately!

Audrey and Laurent kept their promises. They helped us with our website problem and with putting our newsletter on new feet. At Green Circle at the Altadena Farmers’ Market, they helped set up chairs and tables, and Audrey, who is a musician, played her accordion. They went to the Altadena Library because Transition Pasadena member Peter Kalmus was talking about his new book, “Being the Change.” And at the Tiny House Party, Laurent took pictures and filmed while Audrey staffed the selfie station.

Laurent and Audrey work in the summer in Canada. Audrey was a community organizer in France. For a while, she also worked with disabled people. Having decided to travel a little around Canada, she discovered Quebec City and stayed six years. Why? Because she joined the Time Bank where she found a new way of living and met Laurent.

Laurent traveled for two years in South America, worked for a bank in Quebec, quit his job and volunteered at the Time Bank, which he loved doing. He started a local currency and continued, as he says, “to work less, have way less money but much more life.” A crowd-funding campaign allowed them to buy a laptop computer and the “works” on the roof of the van: room for storage, a solar oven, a dehydrator and a garden on the roof for food.

“Horizon Transition” is a huge undertaking. What inspired them? According to Laurent they were lacking information and resources in Quebec. They decided to visit other groups, to learn from them and to share what they were learning through articles and videos. Eventually, they want to create an online resource tool on their website and, maybe, a bigger documentary film.
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We wish them bonne chance! 

— Sylvia Holmes