CleanPowerSF has arrived

So says a brochure from the city Department of Water, Power, and Sewers. As far as I can make out, this means the city buys what a non-profit consumer protection outfit certifies is sustainably generated electricity which is delivered over the lines of our bankrupt private utility company, PG&E.

This upgrade is mostly automatic: without doing anything, we'll be signed up for 40% renewable energy through the city; if we want, we can pay a little more for 100%. (We wanted.)

What's really important here is the city is doing the work of getting most of us on sustainable power. They are not asking individual citizens to make personal choices to reduce our carbon footprint. It's affirming when we take individual action; it is even better when we reconfigure our social arrangements so we all make better choices together. (Am I a socialist?)

More on CleanPowerSF; more on how it works here. More on the principle of why collective action is healthier and far more effective than staunching our individual guilt over climate devastation here.