Bernadette Del Chiaro

Environment California, Energy Advocate

“As an advocate for Environment California, I understand first-hand the political value of canvassing. The Fund’s huge canvassing presence, both door-to-door and on street corners, played a role in passing our Million Solar Roofs bill, which will make California a world-wide leader in solar power. It absolutely elevated the issue in terms of public awareness, which, in turn, made it clearer to decision-makers that they needed to act. I ALSO know that some of the skills that I learned from my OWN canvassing experience during the summers of 1998 and 1999 have enhanced my effectiveness as an advocate."  -Bernadette Del Chiaro

Bernadette directs Environment California’s Clean Energy Program and serves as the contact for state clean energy issues. Since 2003, Ms. Del Chiaro has been the lead advocate of the Million Solar Roofs campaign. She also directed Environment California’s Clean Energy L.A campaign, a successful coalition effort to establish a 20% by 2017 renewable energy standard at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. Ms. Del Chiaro advocates in the California state legislature, before the California Energy Commission and the California Public Utilities Commission, and before municipal agencies and governments on clean energy issues. She's been quoted and published in numerous media outlets including The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Associated Press, San Francisco Chronicle, San Diego Union Tribune, San Jose Mercury News, Bloomberg News, Sacramento Business Journal, Photon International, and Comstock’s Business Magazine and many more. Del Chiaro has been invited to testify before the Little Hoover Commission and various legislative committees and energy policy workshops.

In addition, Ms. Del Chiaro has authored numerous reports, including Clean and Affordable Power: How Los Angeles Can Get To 20% Renewable Energy by 2017, The Economics of Solar Homes in California, and Bringing Solar to Scale: California’s Opportunities to Create a Thriving, Self-Sustaining Residential Solar Market. She has peer reviewed several other reports including Making Sense of Hydrogen: The Potential Role of Hydrogen in Achieving a Clean, Sustainable Transportation System.

Prior to joining Environment California’s staff, Bernadette served as Organizing Director for the Toxics Action Center where she coordinated the successful campaign to clean up Connecticut's "Filthy Five" power plants. She remains on the Board of Directors for the Toxics Action Center and is a former Board Member of the New England Grassroots Environment Fund. In 1998, she graduated from Green Corps, the field school for environmental organizing.   As part of her tenure with Green Corps, Bernadette was a Fund canvass director in New Haven, CT during the summer of 1998 and in Newton, MA in summer of 1999. From 1995-1996, Ms. Del Chiaro staffed the local campaign office to stop the proposed Ward Valley nuclear waste dump in Needles, CA.  Del Chiaro holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Conservation and Resource Studies from the University of California at Berkeley.