Views from Climate Action Campaign Orange County

Ayn Craciun is a policy manager at Climate Action Campaign Orange County, a local grassroots organization with a mission to stop the climate crisis through effective policy action.

How do you feel about where Orange County Power Authority is now that we’ve reached a one-year anniversary milestone of providing renewable energy to residential customers?

We are excited that this is all finally happening. Climate Action Campaign worked for five years to build the community will in order to create what is now the Orange County Power Authority. So, we’re incredibly invested in its success, and we know that it’s the only path to achieve 100 percent clean energy for Orange County.

Where is Orange County at when it comes to climate action?

I can say for certain that Orange County is not ready for climate impacts. Cities are not planning for it. Orange County is the largest county in the state of California without a climate action plan and the most populous. It leaves our residents very much at risk. There are only six cities of the 34 cities in the county that have climate action plans and only a small number of the cities are committed to offering their residents and businesses more clean energy through OCPA.

Because of our geography, and just like the rest of the world, we’re at risk from climate impacts. We find ourselves here with beaches that are low-lying and subject to erosion because of our sandstone geography. And, we have low-lying development. We face the risk of sea level rise, as well as a tremendous risk of wildfires.

How do we prevent these climate impacts from getting worse?

I think people really don’t know that the electricity that they use every day, a lot of it is sourced from fossil fuels, and that is certainly not going to help the climate crisis that is digging us into a deeper hole.

When you find yourself in a hole, what’s the first thing you have to do? You have to stop digging. We have to stop burning fossil fuels. That’s what’s going to stop making our problem worse. And that’s why OCPA is so important because we don’t have time at this point in the climate crisis for any new fossil fuel infrastructure. So that’s why we need all new solar, all new wind energy projects. We need wave power. We need more geothermal, all those things that the Orange County Power Authority is making possible by buying clean power and creating clean energy jobs. This is the path to the future. This is the green economy that we need.

What are the goals of Climate Action Campaign to move Orange County to a more climate-resilient future?

At Climate Action Campaign, our mission is to build a zero-carbon future through equitable and effective policy. By equitable, we mean policies that center on communities of concern, meaning our most vulnerable, our most at risk. And then when we say effective, we mean policies that are large-scale that meet the need because now we are at a place where recycling is not going to get it done. That means getting off of fossil fuels entirely. That means providing people with the kinds of protections that they’re going to need to be safe from climate impacts, starting with things like air conditioning and energy-efficient appliances, which is absolutely necessary. Roughly 25 percent of Orange County residents don’t have air conditioning.

How can OCPA and Climate Action Campaign work together to make sure we are equitably helping communities transition to clean energy?

One of the main policies that we work on for cities is something called a Climate Action plan, which is a comprehensive suite of policies that meets all of the needs of the community and reduces emissions in every sector, reduces pollution. Usually, half of emissions in a city come from transportation. And then with the other, about a third or so from residential and commercial buildings. So, providing programs that allow and help cities install charging stations in low-income communities multifamily housing rentals where people don’t have access to a charger, is the way to make it possible for them.

Funding and implementation are key, something that we always say. Orange County Power Authority has a tremendous ability to reinvest revenue and bring resources to address these challenges.

Orange County Power Authority Interim CEO Joe Mosca met up with Ayn Craciun near the coast to talk about the importance of climate action for our “Sustainably Speaking” video series. The full episode can be viewed on the OCPA YouTube channel.

About Orange County Power Authority

The Orange County Power Authority is a not-for-profit public agency that offers clean power at competitive rates, significantly reducing energy-related greenhouse emissions and enabling reinvestment in local energy programs. To learn more, visit www.ocpower.org.