Actions For Change 

The Association of California Community and Energy Services (ACCES) comprise non-profit organizations, Community Action Agencies, and community-based organizations, which provide services to low income households throughout California.

Although climate change affects everyone, it has the potential to disproportionately impact low-income communities. In an effort to better the lives of low-income communities, ACCES members provide a variety of social service programs to California’s low-income communities aimed at decreasing California’s carbon foot-print and lowering the impact of high energy costs on working families.

ACCES is an active participant in state, regional, local and bi-national policy and planning arenas. Its members collectively monitor regulatory proceedings relative to: climate change, energy efficiency, green building, and renewable energy.

ACCES will promote development of renewable energy and policies that will expand markets and allow all Californians, specifically vulnerable populations, access to the green economy. To realize this goal for all low-income Californians ACCES supports policies aimed at achieving the following objectives: 

• A common understanding of what is meant by the “green economy” in order to understand what industries play a part in the world of green technologies, what entities might be able to access funding for green initiatives, and to ensure that a green divide is not inadvertently created.
• California should strive to achieve at least twenty-five percent of its total energy consumption in the form of renewable energy by 2020 with no net increase of total greenhouses gases released to the atmosphere.
• Elected officials must exercise leadership by making it a priority to ensure that the benefits of the green economy are available to all.
• Innovative policies that will bolster the potential of a “green economy” by promoting renewable energy sources, creating new manufacturing jobs and providing practical application that helps our communities and reduce home expenses.
• Engaging and educating communities on how to leave a smaller carbon footprint, while promoting a new and environmentally sustainable economy.