California Climate & Energy Collaborative

Community Choice Forum – Sept 7

Sarina Soor
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Six communities in San Diego County have committed to 100% clean energy by 2035, and all six have identified Community Choice as a tried-and-true pathway to succeed. Join an elite mix of state and local government officials, government staff, community choice practitioners, industry experts, business leaders, and community advocates to discuss the local and state…

The Growth in Community Choice Aggregation: Impacts to California’s Grid

Sarina Soor
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Communities across California are forming Community Choice Aggregators (CCAs) at a rapid rate since 2010, with over half of them starting within the last two years. County and city governments administer CCAs as local alternatives to investor-owned utilities (IOUs). The Growth of Community Choice Aggregation: Impacts to California’s Grid, finds that if current growth trends…

Opinion: Community energy programs are accountable in ways Investor-Owned Utilities are not

Sarina Soor
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“California has become a world leader on climate change, and local communities are joining in the call to create a carbon-free environment. One of the tools communities have to achieve our ambitious climate goals is creating locally run, greener electricity providers to offer an alternative to large investor-owned utilities. Communities across the state are jumping…

East Bay Community Energy wants to power the community

Sarina Soor
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“Last month, EBCE released a plan called “local development business plan” which details strategies for creating local jobs, providing pathways to good jobs for disadvantaged workers, providing the benefits of clean energy to people at all income levels, and reducing pollution in communities where it’s worst. Initially, EBCE will not have the capital for big…

Community Choice Energy at this year’s SEEC Forum June 20-21

Sarina Soor
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“The session, entitled “How Community Choice Agencies Can Advance Energy Efficiency Goals” will explore the challenges and opportunities for local governments advancing energy efficiency goals via Community Choice agencies (CCAs). CCAs can initiate self-funded demand side programs, and also have the statutory authority to receive public benefit funds in order to fund and administer efficiency…

A new type of public power is growing in California, and raising alarms

Sarina Soor
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“California’s top utility regulator argued this month that the state should plan what it would do were one of the new agencies to collapse, a possibility that community choice advocates consider remote. Utilities, regulators and the new agencies are still grappling with how community choice customers should compensate the utilities for long-term power purchase contracts…

Is California risking another energy crisis with community choice programs?

Sarina Soor
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“Rooftop solar and batteries have made it possible for homeowners and businesses to generate and store their own electricity. Community-led energy programs, which started in the Bay Area and are now rolling out in the Coachella Valley, have allowed cities to abandon their traditional electric utilities. And corporations looking for cheaper, cleaner energy are increasingly…

California energy regulators delve into threats and opportunities of ‘Customer Choice’

Sarina Soor
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“The CPUC explores potential pitfalls and solutions to utilities losing customers to distributed energy providers, community choice aggregators. As a regulator with the mission to keep energy affordable, reliable and decarbonized, the CPUC’s main concern was how these trends are taking market share and power away from the state’s investor-owned utilities, which it regulates, and…