Who We Are
MarinCommunityEnergy.org, a project of the Waterplanet Alliance, was launched in July of 2008 as a powerful, interactive, education and action Website about Clean Renewable Energy in general, and Marin Clean Energy in particular, by two Marin County doctors who have deep commitments to our Renewable Energy Future. Both Michael Dietrick and Peter Joseph are graduates of Al Gore's Climate Project program, where Mr. Gore trained them to present his Inconvenient Truth slide show to the public.
MCE: 25% RENEWABLE ELECTRICITY AT LAUNCH
We've focused our Website on Marin Clean Energy, our County's pioneering initiative to bring renewably generated, and, in time, locally owned, electricity to our community. Launching with 25% renewable electricity (far greater than that delivered by our current service provider, PG&E), within several years Marin Clean Energy's portfolio will be at 51% renewable generation or greater-- at or below PG&E's prices! For customers interested in 100% renewable electricity, a "Deep Green" option will be available from the beginning, at a small additional premium. Over time, it is expected that Natural Gas prices, the mainstay of PG&E's generation portfolio, will far exceed the cost of Renewable Energy-- a win for local business, for our community, and a major win for the environment.
Michael Dietrick, MD is the founder and director of the Waterplanet Alliance and the LEAP Campaign (Local Energy And Power). Both Waterplanet and LEAP conduct education and outreach programs on Clean Energy and Climate Change. Waterplanet is funded by the County of Marin, the Marin Community Foundation, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, and Dr. Peter Joseph. Our chief mission is to provide accurate information and lively interaction about Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) of local electrical power to Marin, the Bay Area, and beyond. We also produce WEBS NEWS (Waterplanet Environmental Broadcast Service), a cutting-edge environmental news service.
During the 1980’s and ‘90’s Michael was a traveling editor for the scuba diving magazine, Undercurrent, and made more that 50 trips to locations in the Caribbean Sea and throughout the Pacific, where he observed early changes in tropical coral reefs now attributed to global warming resulting from greenhouse gas emissions. As a result, he began direct community organizing and produced a number of large public events on environmental issues. In 2004-5 Waterplanet hosted Ross Gelbspan (The Heat Is On and Boiling Point) and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. (Crimes Against Nature). He also produced a North Bay event for Marin Supervisor Charles McGlashan on organic agriculture, dubbed LOCAVORE, featuring leaders in all aspects of local organic food production and distribution.
Michael's passionate focus is to educate everyone he can on the urgent necessity to lower the planetary fever caused by Global Warming, through collective action via transformational government energy policy.
Peter Joseph, MD, a long-time Marin resident, has been an Emergency Physician for more than 30 years. He is the Co-founder of the San Francisco Bay Area Chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility, and was the Chair of the Emergency Department of Eden Medical Center for 15 years. He continues to practice Emergency Medicine, but spends an increasing portion of his time educating the public on the Climate and Energy Crisis-- he has developed a passion for Global Warming Solutions. In 2006, after seeing Al Gore's film An Inconvenient Truth Peter decided to expand his own environmental action portfolio, and was accepted as a trainee at Mr. Gore's headquarters in Tennessee to present the Inconvenient Truth slide show to the public. Peter has given more than 50 presentations so far, often presenting An Inconvenient Truth to high school students. He has been key to the creation of www.marincommunityenergy.org, and will remain a regular contributor to the site.
