Chair Rasmussen, Vice Chair Pyska, and Supervisors,
RE: Comments on the Draft Lake County Energy Strategy and the Geothermal and Hydrogen Siting Guide, and submission of a draft Energy Policy for the Board’s due consideration
LakeCAP applauds the work of your Board’s Ad Hoc Energy Policy Development Committee and of County staff. Several parts of the draft Energy Strategy are well reasoned, and its analysis of the legal and financial limits on County action is the most rigorous work the County has produced on the subject. The companion Geothermal and Hydrogen Siting Guide, while not in fact a siting guide, is a useful roadmap through a complicated permitting landscape and, with modest revision, could serve that purpose well.
A strategy should follow from policy. Your Board charged the Ad Hoc Committee with developing an Energy Policy. The document before you is, by its own description, a strategy — an account of the County’s legal posture and its participation practice. A strategy answers how. A policy answers what the County is trying to achieve, for whom, and by when. The draft is a capable answer to the first question and does not yet answer the second.
LakeCAP therefore respectfully recommends that the Board:
1. Receive the draft Energy Strategy as a useful work product, and direct that it be revised as described in the attached comments — but not adopt it as the County Energy Strategy, County Energy Policy, or County Energy Policy Framework;
2. Receive the Geothermal and Hydrogen Siting Guide and direct that it be retitled and corrected as described in Appendix B, and that a genuine siting guide be prepared separately;
3. Direct the Ad Hoc Committee to develop the County’s comprehensive Energy Policy, using the attached draft as one starting point among others; and
4. Establish a public forum adequate to the subject. Energy policy can shape the course of the County’s development for a generation. Meaningful deliberation cannot occur in three-minute increments. LakeCAP recommends a noticed workshop or study session that permits genuine exchange, including with members of the public who are subject-matter experts in energy, land use, and finance.
LakeCAP welcomes the opportunity to collaborate with the Ad Hoc Committee and with staff on the County’s Energy Policy. Other organizations and individuals have expressed the same willingness.
Attached for the Board’s consideration:
Document
1 Executive Summary — LakeCAP comments on the draft Energy Strategy
2 Energy Policy for Lake County — LakeCAP Draft, September 2026 (executable policy form)
3 Section-by-section response to the draft Lake County Energy Strategy (September 2026)
4 Section-by-section response to the Geothermal and Hydrogen Siting Guide
Attachment 2 (Energy Policy draft) is submitted for discussion. It is drafted to be adoptable: every policy in it is framed to operate within the legal and fiscal limits the County’s own Strategy identifies, to require no authority the County does not hold, and to carry a responsible department, a funding source, and a date.
Should you have questions or wish to discuss any of the foregoing, LakeCAP is eager to assist.
cc: Ad Hoc Energy Policy Development Committee; Ben Rickelman, Deputy County Administrative Officer; Susan Parker, Interim Community Development Department Director; County Counsel Lloyd Guintivano; Lake County Planning Commission; Lake County 2050 General Plan Advisory Committee; Assistant to the Clerk Johanna DeLong
P.S. Granicus does not allow for the upload of a fourth file; I will send that file (Section by Section Response on Geothermal & Hydrogen Siting Guide to your respective official email addresses.
This past weekend we made a historic commitment. The signing of the Clear Lake Watershed and Chi Co-Management Agreement was a powerful moment for Lake County. I was deeply moved by Tribal Chairman Moke Simon’s words and proud to watch Chair Rasmussen put pen to paper as part of this commitment among our Tribal governments, the State, County and local partners.
As Lake County develops its Energy Policy, I respectfully ask that this agreement be more than ceremonial. New energy projects should be evaluated with the understanding that Clear Lake is part of an interconnected watershed—from its forests, springs and headwaters to its tributaries and the lake itself. Please make protection of the Hitch (Chi), water, wildlife (especially bats and birds, cultural resources and meaningful Tribal participation fundamental parts of our energy policy. What we signed should help guide what we approve. Today is an opportunity to demonstrate that the commitment will guide the decisions we make about our watershed.
Chair Rasmussen, Vice Chair Pyska, and Supervisors,
RE: Comments on the Draft Lake County Energy Strategy and the Geothermal and Hydrogen Siting Guide, and submission of a draft Energy Policy for the Board’s due consideration
LakeCAP applauds the work of your Board’s Ad Hoc Energy Policy Development Committee and of County staff. Several parts of the draft Energy Strategy are well reasoned, and its analysis of the legal and financial limits on County action is the most rigorous work the County has produced on the subject. The companion Geothermal and Hydrogen Siting Guide, while not in fact a siting guide, is a useful roadmap through a complicated permitting landscape and, with modest revision, could serve that purpose well.
A strategy should follow from policy. Your Board charged the Ad Hoc Committee with developing an Energy Policy. The document before you is, by its own description, a strategy — an account of the County’s legal posture and its participation practice. A strategy answers how. A policy answers what the County is trying to achieve, for whom, and by when. The draft is a capable answer to the first question and does not yet answer the second.
LakeCAP therefore respectfully recommends that the Board:
1. Receive the draft Energy Strategy as a useful work product, and direct that it be revised as described in the attached comments — but not adopt it as the County Energy Strategy, County Energy Policy, or County Energy Policy Framework;
2. Receive the Geothermal and Hydrogen Siting Guide and direct that it be retitled and corrected as described in Appendix B, and that a genuine siting guide be prepared separately;
3. Direct the Ad Hoc Committee to develop the County’s comprehensive Energy Policy, using the attached draft as one starting point among others; and
4. Establish a public forum adequate to the subject. Energy policy can shape the course of the County’s development for a generation. Meaningful deliberation cannot occur in three-minute increments. LakeCAP recommends a noticed workshop or study session that permits genuine exchange, including with members of the public who are subject-matter experts in energy, land use, and finance.
LakeCAP welcomes the opportunity to collaborate with the Ad Hoc Committee and with staff on the County’s Energy Policy. Other organizations and individuals have expressed the same willingness.
Attached for the Board’s consideration:
Document
1 Executive Summary — LakeCAP comments on the draft Energy Strategy
2 Energy Policy for Lake County — LakeCAP Draft, September 2026 (executable policy form)
3 Section-by-section response to the draft Lake County Energy Strategy (September 2026)
4 Section-by-section response to the Geothermal and Hydrogen Siting Guide
Attachment 2 (Energy Policy draft) is submitted for discussion. It is drafted to be adoptable: every policy in it is framed to operate within the legal and fiscal limits the County’s own Strategy identifies, to require no authority the County does not hold, and to carry a responsible department, a funding source, and a date.
Should you have questions or wish to discuss any of the foregoing, LakeCAP is eager to assist.
Sincerely,
Peter Luchetti, President, LakeCAP
Tom Lajcik, Vice President, LakeCAP
Margaux Kambara, Secretary & Treasurer, LakeCAP
Jesse Cude, Board Member, LakeCAP
cc: Ad Hoc Energy Policy Development Committee; Ben Rickelman, Deputy County Administrative Officer; Susan Parker, Interim Community Development Department Director; County Counsel Lloyd Guintivano; Lake County Planning Commission; Lake County 2050 General Plan Advisory Committee; Assistant to the Clerk Johanna DeLong
P.S. Granicus does not allow for the upload of a fourth file; I will send that file (Section by Section Response on Geothermal & Hydrogen Siting Guide to your respective official email addresses.
This past weekend we made a historic commitment. The signing of the Clear Lake Watershed and Chi Co-Management Agreement was a powerful moment for Lake County. I was deeply moved by Tribal Chairman Moke Simon’s words and proud to watch Chair Rasmussen put pen to paper as part of this commitment among our Tribal governments, the State, County and local partners.
As Lake County develops its Energy Policy, I respectfully ask that this agreement be more than ceremonial. New energy projects should be evaluated with the understanding that Clear Lake is part of an interconnected watershed—from its forests, springs and headwaters to its tributaries and the lake itself. Please make protection of the Hitch (Chi), water, wildlife (especially bats and birds, cultural resources and meaningful Tribal participation fundamental parts of our energy policy. What we signed should help guide what we approve. Today is an opportunity to demonstrate that the commitment will guide the decisions we make about our watershed.