Schools
Novato Enviro Group Pushing School District to Go Solar
Sustainable Novato wants the Novato Unified School District to tap into Prop 39 funding that would help pay for solar panels.
A Novato environmentalist group is pushing the Novato Unified School District to go solar.
Sustainable Novato wants the district to tap into Proposition 39 funding on a project that could dramatically reduce its carbon footprint, the Pacific Sun reports.
Proposition 39, which passed with the support of 61.1 percent California voters in November, is expected to raise approximately $1 billion annually by closing corporate tax loopholes.
More than half of the revenues (approximately $550 million each year) will fund clean energy projects. Sustainable Novato wants the district to adopt a plan proposed by KyotoUSA, a Berkeley-based company that's developed similar solar designs for several East Bay districts, the Pacific Sun reports.
Sustainable Novato and KyotoUSA representatives pitched their proposal to district officials late last year, the Pacific Sun reports.
The district failed to take advantage of a similar opportunity last decade, declining interest-free federal bonds, according to the Pacific Sun, noting a plummeting economy at the end of President Bush's second term figured prominently in the decision.
Sustainable Novato's Ed Mainland told the Pacific Sun that district board members “lost their nerve" in deciding to walk away from a plan to install solar panels in Novato schools.
