Central Coast Community Energy (3CE) celebrated the opening of a new office at 820 State Street, bringing the public agency closer to customers, communities, and local leaders at the southern end of its service territory.
Situated near the County Administration Building and key nonprofit partners in the heart of the regional jobs center, 3CE states the location underscores its push for direct engagement and local input on how clean energy is delivered across the region.
The office includes a conference room designed for meetings and working sessions, giving 3CE staff and partners a dedicated space to collaborate on energy challenges and opportunities unique to Santa Barbara County.
“Opening this office is about more than having a presence in Santa Barbara, it’s about showing up for our customers and partners in a meaningful way,” said 3CE Chief Communications Officer Catherine Stedman. “When we’re accessible, when we’re in the room, we can listen better, respond faster, and work together on solutions that actually fit the needs of this community. That’s exactly what this space is designed to do.”
3CE marked the opening with a May 18 open house that welcomed local elected officials, county leaders, business representatives, and staff for a reception and remarks. Featured speakers included U.S. Representative Salud Carbajal; Buellton Mayor and 3CE Policy Board Member David Silva; Santa Barbara South Coast Chamber of Commerce Chief Marketing Officer Mary Lynn Romero; and 3CE CEO Robert Shaw.
As a locally controlled public agency governed by elected and appointed officials from the cities and counties it serves, alongside a Community Advisory Council, 3CE said the Santa Barbara office would help it be more responsive to local needs, more accessible to residents and businesses, and more deeply embedded in partnerships that drive clean energy progress.
“3CE has been an important partner in Santa Barbara County’s efforts to meet our climate goals and deliver real benefits to our residents,” said 3CE Policy Board member and County Supervisor Joan Hartman. “Having them right here in the heart of our community makes that partnership even stronger.”
Attendees at the open house met with 3CE leadership, toured the space, and learned about the agency’s electrification programs and clean energy projects.
3CE serves more than 1.2 million people across Monterey, San Benito, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and Santa Cruz counties, sourcing competitively priced electricity from clean and renewable resources. Revenue generated by 3CE supports the transition to carbon-free power and is invested locally through programs aimed at lowering greenhouse gas emissions.
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Bravo!
“Revenue generated by 3CE…”
Hmm. Let’s see their books. What if any revenue do they generate? Donations? Taxpayer funded government grants? Looks like an expensive downtown lease for a lot of folks to sit in an office and throw emails back and forth, meetings all day everyday, and plenty of nearby coffee shops to hang out at.
And hey, there’s Das! Why didn’t they even mention him?
From someone sitting in an office, bored silly, BU Guy’s usual fantasy comment.
He has a comfortable sized cubicle with a USB rechargeable desk fan.
BasicIQ – Do you want to review the 3CE revenue model, or are you just going to cry over something you are clueless about like usual? The organization doesn’t utilize tax dollars. They do not accept donations. Your post is gaslighting drivel as usual. Smarmy conservative beta males waving their noodle arms make comments like that….
Basic – YOU WANT TO SEE THEIR BOOKS – HEAR THEY ARE (link below). Their financial statement is made public. Please review and get back to us with your deflection, gaslighting and misinformation that suits your narrow political agenda.
https://3cenergy.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Central-Coast-Community-Energy-9.30.2023-Financial-Statements.pdf
*here
When confronted with facts Basic always disappears.
If I spent as much time on this site as you do, I’d get nothing done.
Anyways, no they’re absolutely raking in the cash off their customers based on the data they provide in your nice link – thanks for sending that. How exactly is that helping their constituents again? Obviously they can afford to pay premium level rent in SB, so…
Basic, thank you for proving you have zero knowledge about the subject you are trying to discuss.
LOL are you freakin’ soft? Wait… don’t answer that.
Bro you are here every day of the week crying about things that don’t affect you and ridiculing others who express any concern about our nation.
You waste every minute you type here. Let’s not pretend you don’t, liar.
Why? 3CE DOES NOT serve the City of Santa Barbara. I wish they did. I have no idea how it came to be that SB City thought to fund their own Community Choice program when 3CE was already up and running with a great track record up north. Makes no sense. 3CE service area is the unincorporated Santa Barbara County, along with San Luis Obispo, Monterey, San Benito, Santa Cruz. Not the city of SB. They’ve had excellent programs and incentives for residences and businesses where SB Clean Energy has clearly lagged. It’s all about clean(er) electric energy delivered to your home. I wish them success (and that SB City gives up and joins them.)
The City of Santa Barbara specifically wanted direct, hyper-local control over its revenue. By creating SBCE rather than joining 3CE, city leadership ensured that every dollar of surplus revenue generated by city residents stayed strictly within city limits to fund local grid resilience, local solar incentives, and city-managed environmental programs and ‘other’ city programs.
Nice to know you’re in favor of creating extra bureaucracies.
That makes no sense. SBCE serves less than 30,000 (potential) residences compared over a million over at 3CE. How can that compare with generating “surplus revenue”? Not to mention as 3CE plowed ahead with a host of solar and EV/E-bike incentives, SBCE produced almost none. Starting up the operation from scratch when a functioning entity serving a million customers already exists makes no sense. Lastly, grid resilience has nothing to do with this. That is “managed’ by SCE and PG&E and we’ve all seen what a fine job they’ve done with that, right?
Notice Das William’s smiling face.
The 3CE’s appears to have become a ratepayer-funded holding pen for Democratic party loyalists.
3CE is governed by an Operations and Policy Board consisting of elected officials and local government administrators.
It serves over 1.2 million residents across Monterey, San Benito, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and Santa Cruz counties. Because these coastal California counties traditionally elect Democratic leadership, its board naturally reflects this political leaning. If you don’t like it, I suggest you find some electable candidates – and not some MAGA yo-yos or noodle armed whiney Republican beta males who cry all day or spout misinformation.
Obviously Das is not electable.
Neither was Larry Elder.
He got toasted in fair elections and now is trying very hard to cash in on people who don’t know any better. Get a real job Das.
You can’t seem to follow your own advice – find some electable officials that you like and vote for them. Otherwise stop whining. That seems to be your advice to everyone else.
We did. We did find a better person to replace Das. Remember? Cmon man…
BasicIQ – Your smarmy conservative beta male comments are sadly toxic. You are the one who brought up Das Williams and are riding his jock for some strange reason. I was referring to the 35 elected officials that make up the policy board of 3CE. From what I understand, Williams is an administrator. I didn’t see Roy Lee in the picture above – maybe you can call his office and ask where he is Otherwise, your comments (as always) are intellectually disingenuous, and something I’d expect from the noodle-armed conservative crowd.
I support the generic goals pushed by this sort of group but remain unclear what they do. When I checked my own choices it seemed better to stay with SCE and push the PUC and elected officials to keep a check on them as well as other public utilities. What I think this group does is move contracts from one producer to another with the idea that electricity is fungible and somehow a paper trail makes “our” electricity cleaner than “their” electricity. But their electricity is still being produced and consumed somewhere. Have we made any difference locally by spending money for green labels? I am honestly perplexed.