Third Act NV staffed many Voter Registration and Get Out the Vote events this season! (see below)

Coming up!

Rally with Bill McKibben!

Oct 25 6:-7:30 pm

Unitarian Fellowship

780 Del Monte Ln, Reno

COME meet TA founder Bill McKibben, writer Rebecca Solnit and

NV Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar!

THIRD ACT NEVADA ELECTION WORK!

August 22:  Job Corps Voter Reg! Third Act Nevada joined the Job Corps of Nevada, PLAN, and Rise (youth vote) to register Job Corps students and workers in Reno.

August 30:  Hungry Valley Powwow Voter Registration!

Sept 7: PRIDE! Third Actors marched and tabled at Reno Pride, celebrating diversity with 10,000 others!

Sept 10  First Time Voters watched the Presidential Debate!  Elvira Diaz threw a watch party where new voters were paired with experienced voter “godparents” to talk about voting, eat KAMALES, and cheer for Kamala and Climate!

Sept 17  Voter Registration Day at University of Nevada! Third Act, PLAN and Gen X tabled and registered YOUTH.

Sept 19  Kamala Harris and Oprah Winfrey Organizers’ rally!!  Kit Miller, TANV co-facilitator, was honored to represent Third Act Nevada at this fabulous online rally!

Sept 21 Pinenut Festival!  Third Activists joined Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar for a roll-out of early online voting for Native people living on Tribal land. We passed out QR codes to their ballots, and directed people to vote early at the Sec of State’s booth or at home!

Sept 28, 29: At Ruby Valley Treaty Days, a Shoshone and Intertribal gathering in Elko, NV; we gave out info and the QR code to vote online early!

August, September, and October:  Grace Potorti, of Reno, distributed 4,000 Voting Rights postcards to friends and family to write and send to voters. The postcards are images from quilts made in Washoe Valley, Nevada by the women of radical-threads.com. Radical threads has moved 60,000 cards out to voters to date.

Third Actors nationwide linked to our cards and sent thousands of postcards to swing state voters for Climate and Voting candidates.

October promises to be just as busy!! Please text Elvira Diaz if you can help with upcoming events. 775-203-5759

AND Don’t forget to come to our Oct 25 rally for the Climate! (see details above)

As a coalition, we’re sharing resources, expertise, and perspectives in organizing a unified front against NV Energy’s 2024 proposed rate restructuring and proposed new gas capacity as outlined in its next three-year Integrated Resource Plan. We’re also working toward advancing climate and community friendly energy legislation during the 2025 Nevada legislative session.

On June 13, members of Third Act Nevada provided public comment to the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada (PUCN) consumer session on the proposed rate changes. Many activists and citizens spoke out against the increase to the basic service charge and the Sierra Club hosted a rousing press conference outside.

In July, one of our coalition members noted that the rate increase was in opposition to a partnership agreement between the City of Reno and NV Energy that emphasized equity and sustainability, among others. We then met with Mayor Schieve who was very supportive, we provided public comment at the next Reno City Council meeting and Councilwoman Duerr proposed agendizing it for their August 31 meeting in order to meet the PUCN deadline of August 12. City staff drafted a resolution opposing the basic service charge increase and then arranged a call including a few of our member organizations, NV Energy and Schieve and Duerr to discuss it. Public comment at the August 31 city council meeting was fierce! NV Energy and several unions opposed the resolution while numerous activists rose in support of it. However, the resolution that was read for approval was a watered-down version that opposed nothing! NV Energy is in lock-step with the unions and won’t let anything get in the way of their revenue stream and business as usual.

August is turning out to be just as active!

One of our coalition member organizations, PLAN, put together an electronic sign-up form and helped to organize an action outside the PUCN headquarters in Carson City on August 12. Fifty of us showed up with signs and banners and attended part of the morning’s hearing on NV Energy’s proposed rate change.

Because this was a hearing, public comment was not allowed and only official interveners were asked to provide input. After listening to NV Energy explain this regressive rate change as a benefit to customers, we all got up and left chanting “Unjust, Unfair!” This was the first of 25 coordinated utility justice actions across 17 states.

Now, we’re planning to launch an electronic petition, hear from Western Resource Advocates about NV Energy’s latest Integrated Resource Plan, meet with Nevada’s Bureau of Consumer Protection office, and provide more public comment at the PUCN’s general consumer session on August 28 at 1pm and 6pm in Reno.

Watch for ways that you can participate. We need to convince NV Energy and the PUCN that we will no longer accept business as usual, that we want no increase to our basic service change, and we want a clean and livable planet and expect them to lead the way by supporting the buildout of rooftop and community solar.

Written by Cathy Fulkerson

The Third Act Nevada Power Up Communities initiative continues to meet to strategize how to keep putting NV Energy on notice, how to influence the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada (PUCN) decision making process, and how to put public pressure on our state legislators to do the right thing for Nevadans and our planet.

In the KOLO 8 news coverage leading up to the June 13 PUCN Consumer Session in Reno, George Cavros of Western Resource Advocates pushed back on NV Energy’s claims that their most recent rate restructuring proposal will not increase bills for low-income or average customers, but will instead stabilize them.  The notion that the increase in the fixed base rate is offset by lower kilowatt usage rates is disingenuous.  As Cavros points out, gas prices are lower now because of where the market is.  That doesn’t take into account the long term fluctuating price of methane  gas — something over which NV Energy has no control.

If you’re new to this issue we’ve detailed in other posts exactly what NV Energy is proposing and the consequences of that proposal.  AND In case you weren’t able to make it to the Consumer Session, click on these links and take a listen to what Third Act Nevada’s co-facilitators, Cathy Fulkerson and Kit Miller had to say.

Unfortunately, the rate restructuring is not the only thing on NV Energy’s mind.  They also have an Integrated Resource Plan proposal before the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada that includes the addition of over 400 MW of new gas capacity on top of the recent (just 3 months ago) approval to add 500 MW of gas to its portfolio by re-powering the North Valmy Generating Station with gas.

More Money. More Dirty Fuel. And once the fixed base rate is well over $40, how likely do you think it is that NV Energy will propose to lower it? Once the investment has been made in methane gas capacity how likely is it NV Energy will be motivated to make a significant shift to cleaner fuel sources?

We encourage everyone who is interested in helping NV Energy to “see the light” to participate in our Power Up Community meetings! The next one is June 25th.  Follow this link to register and keep your eyes on the Events section of our webpage for future meeting times.