Bernadette Del Chiaro’s Biography

Ms. Del Chiaro directs Environment California’s Clean Energy Program and serves as the primary contact for energy issues. Since joining staff in 2002, Ms. Del Chiaro has been the lead advocate of the Million Solar Roofs campaign. She also helped lead the 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 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 MSNBC, NPR, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Associated Press, San Francisco Chronicle, San Diego Union Tribune, San Jose Mercury News and Bloomberg News.

In addition, Ms. Del Chiaro has authored numerous reports, including Solar Water Heating: Reducing California’s Dependence on Natural Gas, The Economics of Solar Homes in California, Bringing Solar to Scale: California’s Opportunities to Create a Thriving, Self-Sustaining Residential Solar Market and Clean and Affordable Power: How Los Angeles Can Get To 20% Renewable Energy by 2017, 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” coal-fired 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, and 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.