Action Alerts

Support Community Choice Energy

Posted by · July 15, 2019 11:20 PM

For several years we and our local governments have been discussing how to implement Community Choice Energy in Santa Barbara County. Feasibility studies have suggested that going it alone as a county may not be the best option. Tuesday, July 16, the County Board of Supervisors will consider what to do next at its meeting at 105 E. Anapamu St. in Santa Barbara. The most promising possibility seems to be joining Monterey Bay Community Power.

Here is the link to the agenda item:

https://santabarbara.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=4060246&GUID=814440FB-87FB-462B-8253-F59A19B879B1&Options=&Search=

Please note the letter from the Community Environmental Council; it is succinct and makes a lot of sense. SBCAN staff plan to speak in support of the County joining with Monterey Bay Community Power. It is likely that there will be support for this course of action in South County. It would be good to have support in North County as well. Remote testimony can be made at the Betteravia Government Center, 511 E. Lakeside Parkway, in Santa Maria.

It is the last item, number six, and may come up late in the morning or early afternoon. The hearing starts at 9 a.m., but the best way to determine when this item will come up is to monitor the hearing on Comcast channel 20 or streaming live at: http://www.countyofsb.org/ceo/csbtv/media.sbc

If the County signs on with Monterey, we hope Santa Maria, Guadalupe and others will as well.

Lights for Liberty rallies July 12 and 13

Posted by · July 12, 2019 11:47 AM

Several Lights for Liberty rallies are happening locally tonight and tomorrow.

The following information about Lights for Liberty is from their website at https://www.lightsforliberty.org. Links to local events are also on that page.

Update on SBCAN Roundtables in north and south

Posted by · July 10, 2019 9:29 PM

North County Roundtable

The North County Roundtable meeting, which was scheduled for July 11 at 6 p.m., has been cancelled. Instead, we are encouraging our members to attend the public hearing on a proposed residential development known as The Neighborhoods of Willow Creek & Hidden Canyon. The project is a mile and more outside the urban area and would place 146 homes in the areas between the fairways of the Rancho Maria Golf Course on Highway 1 west of Santa Maria and Orcutt.

The hearing is Thursday, July 11 at 5:30 p.m. at the Betteravia Government Center, 511 E. Lakeside Parkway, Santa Maria before County planning staffand is intended to receive comments about the adequacy of the Draft Environmental Impact Report. There are Class 1 Significant Impacts that cannot be avoided. We have not reviewed the DEIR extensively and do not yet know if we will argue that there are inadequacies. The comment period ends on August 5, 2019, so this hearing represents a chance to learn what others have to say so SBCAN might produce a letter commenting on the DEIR.

Hearings on the merits of the project and consideration of approval or denial will be held at a date to be determined, when the Final EIR is available. Information is available on the County’s website at: https://www.countyofsb.org/plndev/projects/neighborhoodskeysite21.sbc

South County Roundtable

The South County Roundtable meeting, which was scheduled for July 12 at noon, has been postponed one week. It will meet at noon on July 19 at a new location: the Fund for Santa Barbara’s office, 26 W. Anapamu St., Santa Barbara.

First District County Supervisor Das Williams will be our featured guest, speaking on cannabis and other topics. We will send an agenda for the meeting in a few days.

SBCAN staff host open house for Food & Water Watch/Food & Water Action

Posted by · July 07, 2019 5:38 PM

Join us for
A Night of Envisioning
the Central Coast’s Clean Energy Future
with Food & Water Watch/Food & Water Action

Saturday, July 20, 2019
7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Hosted by Ken Hough and Jeanne Sparks in Orcutt

7 p.m. Meet and greet with light bites and drinks
7:30 p.m. Program led by Ana Rosa Rizo-Centino,
Food & Water Action Senior Organizer

Visionary movements begin at the grassroots.

Food & Water Watch/Food & Water Action believes in a future where families can have clean, affordable water; where workers enjoy safe, well-paying green jobs; and where our food and energy decisions benefit communities not corporate interests.

Join us to learn how you can protect California’s public lands from being leased to oil drilling. Learn about plans to stop oil infrastructure expansion in Santa Barbara County. There’s much to do to halt hundreds of proposed new oil wells and ExxonMobil’s proposal to truck oil. Find out about strategies you can implement to prevent those expansions.

To learn more and receive the event address, RSVP here: https://secure.foodandwateraction.org/act/night-envisioning-santa-barbaras-clean-energy-future.

Santa Barbara County Action Network partners with Food & Water Watch on many issues of concern to both organizations.

We hope to see you July 20.

Ken Hough & Jeanne Sparks

Support Grocery Workers!

Posted by · June 26, 2019 9:58 AM

Here is an important message from SBCAN's South County Co-President:

Dear Friends:

Right now 60,000 grocery workers at Ralphs and Vons/Albertsons from Mammoth to the Mexican Border are without a contract. The struggle is very real as workers fight for better wages, access to hours, protection of benefits, and community supported stores.

Workers have just voted to authorize negotiators to call a strike if necessary. To learn more, check out: https://foodfightus.com/.

Each of us can make significant contribution to helping them. Next Tuesday—July 2—there will be rally at Ralph’s in downtown Santa Barbara. I hope you’ll join us there—and spread the word! And of course let’s pledge not to cross the picket lines if a strike becomes necessary.

Check out the food fight website. See the attached flyers. Stand with grocery workers at Ralph’s at 100 W. Carrillo St. in Santa Barbara at 2 p.m. on July 2!

Onward!

Dick Flacks

Come to SBCAN's North County Awards Dinner June 23

Posted by · May 23, 2019 10:51 PM

Encourage City of SM to support clean and local power generation and lower energy costs

Posted by · May 20, 2019 11:46 AM

We hope you will join us at the City of Santa Maria's council meeting tomorrow (Tuesday, May 21) to support clean and local energy power generation and lower energy costs.

City staff is recommending the City join Monterey Bay Community Power (MBCP), a nonprofit agency.

MBCP was established to source clean energy while retaining PG&E’s role delivering power and maintaining infrastructure. MBCP supports economic vitality by providing cleaner energy at a lower cost, supporting low-income ratepayers, and funding local energy projects. MBCP’s power mix is carbon-free.

The main benefit for Santa Maria would be cost savings for customers (at least 4 percent by 2021 when customers are enrolled), funding for energy programs, choice and a voice to help shape re-investment in the community.

In 2018, MBCP delivered over $4.4 million dollars in customer rebates (i.e. bill savings) and they estimate that will be $8 million in 2019.

We are happy to see that city staff is recommending that the city join the agency. We would like to get community members to attend to support that recommendation.

The council meeting starts at 5:30 p.m. This item is number 6B. We don't know what time it will come up, but your speaker slip must be in before they start the item.

Click here for the city council agenda item.

Hope to see you Tuesday.

SBCAN Membership Appreciation Meeting

Posted by · May 10, 2019 9:17 PM

We hope to see you at our Membership Appreciation Meeting!

SBCAN
MEMBERSHIP APPRECIATION MEETING

1 p.m. Saturday, May 11, 2019

St. Marks-in-the-Valley Episcopal Church
2901 Nojoqui Avenue, Los Olivos

Santa Barbara County Action Network board members and staff hope you will join us for our annual Membership Appreciation Meeting with guest speaker Second District County Supervisor Gregg Hart on Saturday, May 11. Social time starts at 1 p.m. with refreshments and a chance to renew friendships. The program will start around 1:30 p.m.

Supervisor Hart, the newest county supervisor, will speak about his plans and priorities.

Please let us know you are coming by emailing membermeeting@sbcan.org or click "Going" on our Facebook Event page at https://www.facebook.com/events/386077588647680/ so we can get an idea of how many are coming. If you don't know yet, it's okay to just show up. We'll be happy to see you!

If you haven't paid your dues for 2019 yet, please do so soon.We appreciate the support you have shown us over the years that has made it possible for us to continue nurturing our strong local network of progressive folks and creating bridges between environmental and social justice activism.

If you haven't been a member before, now would be a good time to join, or you can join at the meeting!

For seventeen years Santa Barbara County Action Network (SBCAN) has been the preeminent nonprofit organization working on both sustainability and social justice issues throughout the county. We have many partner organizations, to be sure, but we always strive to be countywide and working on a wide range of progressive issues — especially looking for issues that might fall through the cracks otherwise. Please look at the attached Issues and Actions paper highlighting what we have been working on. We are especially proud of our leadership on several North County issues.

With increasing competition for foundation support, we are all the more reliant on our members, major donors, and fundraisers. Therefore, we hope that you will make a membership donation that suits your budget and helps SBCAN continue its educational and advocacy roles.

It is easy — as always — to contribute at: https://sbcan.nationbuilder.com/membership_annual_dues.

There is also an option for automatic monthly payments athttps://sbcan.nationbuilder.com/membership_monthly_dues.

If you prefer to mail a check, please send it payable to: SBCAN, P.O. Box 6174, Santa Maria, CA 93456.

We look forward to hearing from you and seeing you on Saturday, May 11 at our annual membership meeting.

Sincerely,

Janet Blevins and Dick Flacks, Co-Presidents

SBCAN Roundtables and Membership Meeting this week!

Posted by · May 07, 2019 11:08 PM

We hope you will join us at one of our Roundtable meetings and at our Membership Meeting this week.

The North County Roundtable is on Thursday. The South County Roundtable is on Friday. The Membership Meeting is Saturday.

Please read below for details on all three!

SBCAN North County Roundtable

Thursday, May 9, 2019, 6 PM to 7:30 PM

Giavanni’s Pizzeria, 1108 E. Clark Ave., south side of Bradley Road, Orcutt

AGENDA

Call to Order: SBCAN Co-President Janet Blevins. Introductions; agenda review. (5 min.)
Status of Onshore Oil Projects: ERG, Aera and PetroRock in Cat Canyon, and BLM Lease Proposal. (15 min.)
Debrief on May 6 County staff hearing on the ExxonMobil Trucking Proposal to Restart Offshore Wells and on related rally. (10 min.)
City of Santa Maria General Plan Update and Consideration of Annexations. (10 min.)
Debrief on Santa Maria Open Streets Event held on March 31. (5 min.)
SBCAN General Membership Meeting. May 11 in Los Olivos, 1 PM, Gregg Hart guest speaker. (5 min.)
SBCAN North County Awards Dinner. June 23, 2019 (5 min.)
Brief updates from participants. (2 to 5 min. each)
Open discussion about other items of interest. All. (10 min.)
Next meeting. Our next meeting is scheduled for June 13.

SBCAN South County Roundtable

Friday, May 10, 2019, Noon to 1:30 PM

Santa Barbara Foundation, 1111 Chapala Street, Suite 200, Santa Barbara

AGENDA

(times are approximate, and feel free to bring your lunch)

Call to Order: SBCAN Co-President Dick Flacks. Introductions; Agenda Review. (5 min.)
Affordable Workforce Housing in Santa Barbara. Rob Fredericks, Director of the Santa Barbara Housing Authority will discuss how his agency can help create affordable housing in the city of Santa Barbara. Santa Barbara's newest city council member has been invited to participate in this discussion. (45 min.)
Mobile Homeowners Project Update. Sharon Rose will report. (5 min.)
Update on Upcoming Oil Projects. (a) ExxonMobil’s trucking proposal, (b) Plains Pipeline’s proposal to rebuild, (c) the Cat Canyon onshore proposals, and (d) the BLM proposal to open federal lands for oil development, including fracking. (15 min.)
Brief updates from participants. (2 to 5 min. each)
Open discussion about other items of interest. All. (5 min.)
Our next meeting is scheduled for June 14, 2019, at this same location.

SBCAN 2019 Membership Meeting Saturday, May 11 - Meet Gregg Hart, 2nd District County Supervisor

Posted by · April 26, 2019 7:35 PM

Santa Barbara County Action Network board members and staff hope you will join us for our annual Membership Appreciation Meeting with guest speaker Second District County Supervisor Gregg Hart on Saturday, May 11 at St. Marks-in-the-Valley Episcopal Church, 2901 Nojoqui Ave. in Los Olivos. Social time starts at 1 p.m. with refreshments and a chance to renew friendships. The program will start around 1:30 p.m.

Supervisor Hart, the newest county supervisor, will speak about his plans and priorities for the new year.

If you know you're coming, let us know by emailing membermeeting@sbcan.org so we can get an idea of how many are coming. If you don't know now, that's okay. Just show up. We'll be happy to see you

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