Marshall Steps Down from MEA Board

Mill Valley City Councilwoman Shawn Marshall stepped down from the board of the Marin Energy Authority (MEA) late last week, saying that while there was no conflict of interest between her board role and the energy industry nonprofit she co-founded in 2011, such a conflict could arise in the future.

Marshall, one of the founding MEA board members and a staunch advocate for community choice aggregation, a system that allows cities and counties to band together to secure alternative energy supply contracts, called her decision “bittersweet.” LEAN Energy US spawned out of her passion for community choice aggregation, an interest that was fostered by late Marin County shortly after LEAN launched.

“I love MEA and I will always be passionate about it or I wouldn’t have made it my career,” she said. “It was a decision I took very seriously.”

Marshall stepped down following the MEA boards Jan. 6 meeting, with Councilman Ken Wachtel taking her place as Mill Valley’s representative on the board.

Wachtel said the timing was right for a transition, as he vacates the mayoral seat and MEA adds new board reps from .

“There will be a group learning curve,” Wachtel said.

In early 2011, Marshall and Bolinas resident Megan Matson co-founded the Local Energy Aggregation Network, or LEAN, to support the advancement of local energy aggregation programs across the U.S. The organization initially focused on consulting, educating and assisting local governments in the process of banding together to take advantage of community choice aggregation.

But as the organization has grown, working with communities in Illinois, New York and throughout California, it’s become clear to Marshall and Matson that LEAN has opportunities to garner for-profit work in the space and likely will need to so in order to sustain itself.

“Knowing that those opportunities are coming around, I did not want to have to work with both hands tied behind my back,” Marshall said.

The largest potential area of growth for LEAN is in the formation of renewable assets, or helping local networks like Marin Clean Energy obtain their power from renewable sources.

“When this space gets to a place of market scale, why would we limit ourselves to educational services?” Marshall said.

Marshall was adamant that no conflict existed between LEAN and her representation of Mill Valley on the MEA board. She admitted, however, that her board role could limit LEAN’s ability to, for instance, raise funds from any organization affiliated with MEA.

“I just wanted to make sure that there was a clear line between what MEA was doing and what LEAN is doing,” Marshall said. “This makes it clear that the walls are defined.”

Marshall admits 2011 was a tough year as Marin lost McGlashan, the driving force behind MEA and a founding board member of LEAN.

“The spring was a very tough time for us,” she said. “We really had to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps. But we’ve spent the past six months figuring out where we want to be five years form now, and we’re excited at the opportunities in front of us.”