The Valley Clean Energy Board of Directors is very pleased to announce the appointment of Mitch Sears as VCE’s full-time Executive Officer. Sears has served as the agency’s Interim General Manager since its launch in 2018.
Sears has contributed his depth of experience to VCE gained through nearly 28 years with the City of Davis serving in various staff and management roles. Most recently he served as the City’s Sustainability Manager for over a decade, leading comprehensive efforts to address climate change, including implementation of community energy projects. Prior to that, he oversaw Davis’ Agricultural Land Conservation Program, helping permanently preserve over a thousand acres of Yolo County farmland.
“We couldn’t be happier to have Mitch accept this permanent appointment,” said Jesse Loren, VCE Board Chair and Winters City Council member. “His leadership and vision during VCE’s formation and launch have carried the agency through many complexities and have positioned VCE well as we step into the future.”
Tom Stallard, VCE Vice Chair and Woodland City Council Member added, “Mitch has excelled in this role through the past several years, through VCE’s launch, a global pandemic, and changes in energy markets requiring thoughtful leadership and flexibility. With the urgent effects of climate change, we need to take a more active role in managing those effects. There’s no one more qualified to lead VCE to its goals of sustainability, clean energy and community service.”
Sears has already seen his share of successes at VCE, helping the Board navigate through regulatory and power market volatility while charting a path to achieve a cost-competitive power portfolio of over 80% renewable energy by 2025 for VCE’s 120,000 customers. These efforts have included a focus on reducing the financial burden on VCE’s lowest-income customers, saving them hundreds of thousands of dollars since VCE’s launch. Under Sears’ leadership, the VCE team has also brought millions of dollars into Yolo County for energy efficiency, electric vehicle charging, and an innovative electricity rate system that is designed to help farmers save money on their power bills while making California’s electricity grid more resilient.
The career track followed by Sears has been one of pragmatic community service with future generations in mind. “Since electricity touches everyone’s lives every single day, it is the key to unlocking a more economically and environmentally sustainable future. The challenge of making it cleaner and work harder for our customers and communities while keeping it affordable is what I love about this work. I am humbled by the Board’s trust and invigorated by the great team at VCE who are working hard every day to make the future brighter.”
For more information about VCE, visit www.valleycleanenergy.org or call 855-699-8232.
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About VCE: Valley Clean Energy is a not-for-profit public agency formed to provide electrical generation service to customers in Woodland, Davis, Winters and the unincorporated areas of Yolo County. Our mission is to source cost-competitive clean electricity while providing product choice, price stability, energy efficiency, greenhouse gas emission reductions and reinvestment in the communities we serve.