Claremont-Pomona Locally Grown Power (LGP) is a program of the Community Home Energy Retrofit Project, a 501c(3) environmental nonprofit based in the town of Claremont, CA, that is fighting for environmental and economic justice in Southern California and nationwide.

Currently, we're launching our most ambitious project yet: opening a solar panel assembly factory in nearby Pomona, which will employ local residents for a living wage. It will be the first such factory in the world run by a nonprofit. At the moment, solar panels are almost exclusively manufactured abroad –  we hope to change all that; to help bring back the middle class manufacturing jobs that have been disappearing for decades. Due to our exclusive rights to a patented technology that makes panels far more efficient (and therefore cheaper to produce), we also hope to provide solar power to local residents at a greatly reduced cost. 

As outlined below, the combination of affordable power and growth of living wage ($15 per hour) local jobs would provide a tremendous economic benefit to Pomona, where over 20% of residents live in poverty. This model could potentially be replicated statewide or nationwide in countless other low-income communities. Additionally, the growth of clean zero-emissions energy, especially solar, is crucial to fighting climate change and bringing relief to low-income areas disproportionately affected by fossil fuel pollution.

For years, we've been told that protecting the environment while ensuring the economic stability of our citizens is impossible. Well, whoever said that never met us. And now us includes you: because we need your help to open our factory this summer. Claremont's member of the California Assembly, Chris Holden, has introduced a request before Assembly Budget Committee Chair Phil Ting for a $2.1 million grant that we need to get started, under California policies that support renewable energy development in low-income communities. Before the Committee can grant us that request, they need to hear feedback, which you can give by adding your name to the letter below. 

We're not asking for your money. We're only asking for your voice. Every additional supporter, no matter who they are, makes us feel more hopeful of success.

So sign the letter below – and help us rebuild the communities we love.

RE: Claremont-Pomona Locally Grown Power Budget Funding Request - SUPPORT

Dear Honorable Phil Ting,

I’m writing to express my support of the Claremont-Pomona Locally Grown Power (LGP) $2.1 million budget funding request from Assemblymember Chris Holden.

The climate crisis is one of the most pressing issues humanity faces today, with a projected 11 years to make serious, large-scale societal changes if we are to avoid ecological collapse, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Adopting renewable energy technologies, creating self-sustaining local communities, and addressing our severe income inequality and environmental injustice issues are key parts of our focus.

The Claremont-Pomona LGP plan includes the world’s first non-profit solar panel assembly factory serving the 41st Assembly District and is a replicable prototype that will mitigate 27,000 metric tons of greenhouse gases per year, create over 500 direct and indirect living-wage jobs, address our lowest income households first, and within the first 5 years grow the local economy by $14 million. SCAG [Southern California Association of Governments] and the Pomona Consulting Group have calculated that in 15 years, for every $1 spent on LGP, the combined economies of Pomona and Claremont will grow by $7  – a 700% expansion on investment. This will significantly improve the quality of life for the residents of these cities and, by extension, the surrounding communities as well. The LGP prototype will be scaled and replicated across California and beyond, inciting national environmental, social, and economic transformation.

The LGP plan promotes sustainable energy, economic revitalization, and environmental social justice, and I urge you to support Assemblymember Holden’s budget funding request.