The Hermosa Beach City Council approved an implementation plan for a potential Community Choice Aggregation program at its Tuesday night meeting, overcoming resident concerns about the impact of a future program.
Tuesday night’s resolution fulfills a requirement under state law for cities interested in implementing the program, but does not require that the city operate one. The implementation plan will provide data for the city to use to make a final decision about whether to actually participate in an aggregation program, a decision likely to be made next year.
Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) is a program established by a 2002 state law, under which local governments purchase electricity generated from fossil fuel alternatives. The electricity is then delivered through the existing grid, maintained by Southern California Edison.
Hermosa has been exploring CCA since 2014, and has participated in two feasibility studies to examine the program, in particular the financial impact of purchasing power from someone other than Edison. The measure approved Tuesday night will enable the city to collect “interval data” from the utility, instead of the “aggregate data,” according to Kristy Morris, the city’s environmental analyst. The interval data is intended to provide enhanced information, such as time of power use, that would impact the decision on whether to move forward with a CCA.
Despite the tentative nature of Tuesday’s action — the council passed a second motion, added to the ordinance recommended by staff, to make clear its non-binding nature — opponents warned of dire consequences that revealed a fundamental skepticism of CCA and clean power policies.
Councilmember Carolyn Petty, the lone opposing vote on the implementation plan, used the time allotted for council members to ask questions of staff to deliver sharply worded inquiries that clearly revealed her opposition to the ordinance. At one point, she cited language in the draft implementation plan that seemed to commit the city to operating a CCA, despite assurances that Tuesday’s resolution was purely information-gathering, asking City Manager Tom Bakaly, “How is that not talking out of both sides of our mouth?”
Petty was also concerned about language in the plan that committed the city to educating residents about the measure, including a town hall meeting after the new Edison data is delivered. Morris, the environmental analyst, responded that the education effort was necessary because the city had been confronted with a slew of letters and social media comments containing significant misunderstandings about the program.
“When people say that CCA is building utility lines or building all of this infrastructure, clearly we haven’t done a good job explaining,” she said.
Petty disputed the existence of rumors about CCA requiring the city to build local power delivery infrastructure, saying that community opposition was rooted in reasoned evaluation of the program.
Public comment on the ordinance both undercut and supported this interpretation. Some speakers expressed extreme viewpoints, including associating CCA with a government plot to outlaw private automobiles. But others raised concerns that even an informational study moved Hermosa closer to a CCA program and that, with finite funds, there were far more pressing concerns confronting the city, including public safety facilities.
“Our fire department is now working out of a module trailer secured by a temporary chain-link fence…I just wanted to point that out” said Matt McCool, a member of the city’s Emergency Preparedness Advisory Committee.
