Feb. 7--Meeting for the first time this week, the board of the newly formed Marin Energy Authority agreed to seek $63 million of the federal stimulus package working its way through Congress.

Dawn Weisz, the Marin County sustainability planner who was named the authority's interim director, will travel to Washington D.C. this month in an effort to lobby for funding.

The authority was formed in November to explore projects to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

"We propose to put into action a shovel-ready pilot project to implement solar, wind, hydroelectric and methane facilities, install smart grid technologies, retrofit buildings to increase energy efficiency and undertake studies to evaluate the cost effectiveness and feasibility of additional energy conservation and renewable energy generation projects," states a letter the authority will send to U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu.

Peter Luchetti of San Rafael, a financier who serves on the authority's volunteer advisory group, acknowledged at Thursday's board meeting, "our projects actually aren't quite shovel ready." But, Luchetti added, "What have we got to lose?"

The authority, which has two employees and a $330,000 budget provided by the county of Marin to cover its first six months of operation, consists of the county of Marin and every municipal jurisdiction in Marin except Novato, Larkspur and Corte Madera -- whose councils are stilling mulling over the idea.

Chief among the authority's projects would

be the Marin Clean Energy initiative, which calls for the authority to compete with Pacific Gas and Electric Co. as the retailer of electricity to Marin customers, in order to boost usage of renewable energy in the county. The idea is for Marin Clean Energy to match PG&E's rates while substantially reducing use of nonrenewable, "dirty" energy required to meet Marin County's energy needs.

Weisz has said that Marin residents who leave PG&E to join Marin Clean Energy will have a choice of using 100 percent renewable power, which she expects to cost 8 to 10 percent more than PG&E's electricity, or a "light green" option, which she said will maximize the percentage of renewable power used while matching PG&E's rate.

PG&E representatives say customers will have to spend far more for the cleaner energy: 20 percent more for the light green product and 30 to 40 percent more for 100 percent renewable energy.

Eventually, the Marin Energy Authority intends to build its own renewable energy generation projects.