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Rising Sun Energy Center is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization and
leading green workforce development and residential efficiency
services organization. With a focus on under-served populations,
Rising Sun provides youth and marginalized adults with meaningful
training and employment opportunities in the growing construction,
energy efficiency, and solar sectors, while delivering no-cost
energy upgrades to thousands of households each year. Rising Sun’s
mission is to empower individuals to achieve environmental and
economic sustainability for themselves and their communities.

	
Rising Sun agrees that significant investment is needed in
renewable energy and energy efficiency to achieve the state’s
energy use and carbon emissions reduction goals and that there is
significant opportunity for energy savings at the water-energy
nexus. It is also imperative that two additional strategies be
incorporated into the spending plan:

•	Investment in workforce development programs targeting jobs
created by support for energy efficiency and renewable energy
program and projects, with a particular focus on green career
pathways for residents of disadvantaged communities.

•	Investment in an innovation fund to support new ideas and
strategies that achieve broader community based impacts,
particularly in disadvantaged communities. This investment should
support projects that take an integrated approach to achieving
savings at the water-energy nexus while creating jobs locally.  

Given that the overall goal is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,
there is a growing need for a trained workforce to fill the skills
gap in the energy efficiency and clean energy industry sectors and
related occupations. To ensure that Cap-and-Trade investments help
create energy-related career pathways, it is very important to
include funding for community based workforce development
organizations offering vocational training for construction and
energy careers. Workforce development funds should particularly
target organizations that serve residents of low-income and
disadvantaged communities, and that provide strong case management
and job placement assistance. Such investments will ensure that
Cap-and-Trade funds support both environmental and economic
sustainability.

In order to reach the ambitious goals laid out in AB32,
Cap-and-Trade funds need to diversify beyond business as usual and
support new and innovative strategies. A competitive and
transparent process should be created to fund projects through
innovation grants.  The goal of this innovation fund should be
twofold: To support existing successful local projects with
potential for scale, as well as supporting new projects that take a
community based approach. The emphasis of the innovation fund
should be projects that embody true sustainability through the
integration of energy and water use reduction, renewable energy
generation, job creation, and community economic benefits.

An example of the type of project the innovation fund might support
and bring to scale is Rising Sun Energy Center’s California Youth
Energy Services (CYES) program.  CYES is a youth employment and
resource efficiency retrofit program that hires young people (15-22
years of age) and trains them to become Energy Specialists, serving
their communities with FREE Green House Calls. Energy Specialists
install free energy and water saving devices, and provide
personalized recommendations and education for further savings. 
CYES provides services to all community members regardless of
income. However, it focuses on hard-to-reach residents including
renters, multi-unit dwellings, non-English speaking households, and
low-moderate income households. CYES provides youth with
opportunities for training and meaningful employment while saving
residents money on their utility bills. 

We strongly urge you to integrate these two components into the
spending plan.

Original File Name: Rising Sun Comments on Draft of Cap-and-Trade Investment Plan 2.pdf

Date and Time Comment Was Submitted: 2015-08-13 17:30:14