There have been great advances in technology and data access in the last ten years, but local governments are still struggling to get the data they need for greenhouse gas (GHG) inventories and other climate action planning and implementation.  The City of Chula Vista has been trying to get data for our GHG inventories and experienced confusing roadblocks with little ability for anyone to explain to us what data restrictions are applicable to the data we are requesting.  Specifically, we are looking for annual, aggregated and anonymized electricity and natural gas data for our public GHG inventories.  We used our utility’s Energy Data Access website but the Termes of Service (TOS) we are required to sign prohibits us from sharing the data we receive with the public, as we do with our GHG inventories.  The utility from which we are requesting the data, San Diego Gas and Electric (SDG&E), said they were “not authorized to interpret the Terms of Service” and could not provide a California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) contact for someone who could answer questions about the TOS.  After months of engaging with SDG&E, the CPUC and the City’s legal team we will be moving forward with the data request based on the assurance that no utilities have taken action against local governments for publicly sharing the data we are requesting.  This confusion and additional step adds needless cost and time to the process of requesting data.  Data required for Community GHG inventories should be freely available for public reporting by local governments, like it is for zip codes, and the organizations providing the data should be able to answer questions about the requirements of accessing and using the data.

Since the CPUC data access discussion in 2014, there have been a lot of advancements in data access.  Like the state’s adoption of an “open data policy” in 2019 to “take full advantage of its information resources by promoting more accessible, discoverable and usable data to propel innovation, improve the delivery of public services and empower the people of California while protecting privacy”.  This state policy acknowledges the value of having public access to data and during a climate crisis this data is too important to be behind confusing barriers that restrict access to non-sensitive data.  Planners and program implementers are also looking for more detailed data that does have privacy concerns and solutions like the California Energy Commissions Energy Data Analysis program could improve data access.  But we should not treat all data requests the same and require local governments to contract with a consultant to receive simple data for GHG inventories.  This increases cost and time required for basic climate planning.

What we learn in our efforts to provide better data to local governments should also be used to increasing data access for others like Community Choice Aggregators, Regional Energy Networks and community-based organizations.  These organizations play an important role in advancing the clean energy transition and providing them with better data access will empower them to be more effective at what they do.  This will be a key issue in upcoming efforts to support targeted and zonal electrification, affordability, demand management and meeting the stat