NEWS POSITIVE OUTLET Local powers come together as community choice energy moves forward
APRIL 12-18, 2017 | GOODTIMES.SC | SANTACRUZ.COM
BY ARDY RAGHIAN
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Nearly half of greenhouse gas emissions from Santa Cruz, San Benito, and Monterey counties come from energy production. In our western energy region, which includes pretty much all of California, 63 percent of electricity comes from gas-powered plants like the one in Moss Landing, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. A long-discussed solution—more than four years in the making—aims to create energy that’s cleaner, cheaper, and locally sourced. The reality is closer than ever. Monterey Bay Community Power (MBCP), a new group, aims to launch next spring as a green alternative to Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E). Both the Santa Cruz City Council and the county Board of Supervisors officially signed on to MBCP, the tricounty Community Choice Energy (CCE) partnership, in late February. The agreement brings together local governments with ones from San Benito and Monterey counties. “We understood that we have something in common, and that we can work together to solve our contribution to our greenhouse gas emissions and take control of our own energy,” says Virginia Johnson, the project manager for MBCP and analyst for County Supervisor Bruce McPherson, who also played a leading role in starting MBCP. Johnson says there is a financial benefit of having more partners, as it increases the CCE’s purchasing power. Although not everyone has signed on so far, MBCP has more than enough partners to start the agency and be successful economically and environmentally, Johnson says, creating a local grid that harvests energy from solar and other renewables. “CCE will allow us to do things more consistent with local values,” says Santa Cruz Mayor Cynthia Chase. Two committees, one for policy and another for operations, will run the energy group, a joint powers agency with 18 municipalities. Elected officials like Santa Cruz City Councilmember Sandy Brown will serve on the policy board, holding public meetings for input into deciding which types >16
FREQUENCY BIAS Artist Myra Eastman, part of a group that’s trying to buy rights to a spot on the local airwaves, has fond
memories of listening to community radio on KUSP. PHOTO: KEANA PARKER
Wait for the Signal KUSP fans launch one more effort to bring back community radio BY MAT WEIR
‘I
t was always there, and always something you could count on,” retired art teacher Myra Eastman says, the sound of long-lost love lingering in her voice. “We were friends.” Her late companion is defunct community radio station KUSP (88.9 FM). Although she never worked at the station, Eastman—a local resident for 46 years—says community radio played an integral part in her family’s life. It was the station she turned to for the latest in local politics, or to hear new and strange music hand-curated by passionate disc jockeys. She fondly remembers raising her children with programs
like “Castle Cottage,” and how it was “our only lifeline” for information after the devastating 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake. “It was a local jewel,” she says. “These were [voices] you knew, they were your neighbors.” So when she read about the financial trouble the station was going through two years ago, she became involved with Media Watch and KUSP Forward. Ex-KUSP programmers and community members in those groups did what they could to keep the station afloat, attending board meetings and even attempting several times to raise enough money to acquire
the station’s license. Their latest attempt was in October of last year, when they were outbid by the Educational Media Foundation—an adult contemporary Christian music conglomeration—which won the rights to the bankrupt station’s signal with a $605,000 offer. The new Bible-thumping rock station on 88.9 calls itself Aware FM. With KUSP gone, Eastman and others from Media Watch created a new coalition called Central Coast Community Radio (CCCR), with a new goal of purchasing an entirely different license, frequency and transmitter. Through its online crowdfunding campaign, >14