Environmental advocates and opponents of Assembly Bill 2145, a proposal that would make it more difficult for San Diego and other municipalities to provide alternative utility services, were pleased to see a controversial measure in the bill stripped out by the Senate’s Energy Committee on June 21.
Community choice aggregation permits cities and counties to purchase electricity for residents alternate from the energy provided by investor-owned utility companies. Under current California law, utility customers may be automatically enrolled in CCA programs, but the legislation approved by the Assembly in May would have required customers to actively register or “opt-in” in to CCAs.
The opt-in provision was fought by environmental groups and associations supporting clean-energy, claiming that the “opt-in” requirement would mean grass-root CCA efforts would have to organize major marketing campaigns against well-backed utility giants — an unwinnable fight claim environmental groups.
Proponents of the bill, on the other hand, argued the legislation would only provide a more transparent picture of the choices customers had. Indeed, the much of what remains in AB 2145 are more reporting requirements for CCAs, including where they get their energy from.
Opponents of the controversial bill made their voices heard in early June by protesting Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins (D-San Diego) vote in favor of AB 2145 and urging the San Diego City Council to pass a resolution against the legislation. SanDiego350, a group that protested at Akins’ office, released a statement that praised the senate committee’s decision to strip the “opt-in” component from AB 2145, but the group also said it will continue to oppose the bill regardless.
“The bill, which was introduced by powerful corporate forces with no other goal than to disable and destroy Community Choice energy (CCE), still contains substantial negative measures and nothing positive for consumers,” the SanDiego350 release stated.
The Council did vote in opposition of the bill, along with more than 40 other cities in California, including Chula Vista and Los Angeles, and the section of the bill considered most detrimental to clean energy programs was removed from the proposed legislation even prior to the Senate Committee’s vote.
While San Diego County is currently assessing potential CCA adoption, new language added to the bill would limit the size of a CCA agency to no more than three contiguous counties.
AB 2145 is now on to the Senate Appropriations Committee where a hearing date has not yet been scheduled.
Disclosure: Editor Hutton Marshall is a member of SanDiego350.
