Media Release

Utilities Commission Affirms Community Choice in San Diego County
Renewable energy closer to reality for Chula Vista

(December 19, 2005) – In a show of support for renewable, reliable and affordable energy the CPUC approved on December 15 the rules for implementation of Community Choice Aggregation (CCA). Chula Vista has been moving steadily towards CCA, and with the rules in place for the implementation of this program, the reality of bringing energy choices to its residents is closer than ever.

Rebecca Pearl, energy policy advocate for Environmental Health Coalition’s (EHC) Clean Bay Campaign, stressed the importance of this program: “Implementation of a Community Choice Aggregation program in Chula Vista will be a critical avenue for energy security, expansion of the city’s renewable energy program, and job creation.” Chula Vista is one of two cities in the state, and the only City in the San Diego County region, that has passed an ordinance to implement CCA.

Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) is the legal framework by which a city or county may purchase electricity for its residents and deliver it over the transmission lines operated by the local private utility. Under CCA, any city or county can invest in its own generation capacity like solar panel installations or a wind farm, or can contract for power with a third-party provider. Consumers within the jurisdiction can also choose to stick with their current electricity provider or have their Community Choice Aggregator purchase electricity for them.

The California energy crisis of 2000-2001 made it clear to California communities that our energy supplies and rates are not secure. California still does not have adequately secure electricity supplies, and we are still at risk of electricity disruptions and price gouging. Residents of San Diego County are paying some of the highest electricity rates in the nation and the highest in California. With CCA, jurisdictions can use the combined buying power of their constituents to negotiate for more affordable power, to create a critical market for green power and to retain local control of their energy supply.

Implementation of CCA in Chula Vista will allow the City to move toward real renewable energy choices and away from the use of polluting sources of energy production such as the proposed Sunrise Powerlink transmission line which most likely will be used to transport energy produced in Mexico, or the current South Bay Power Plant, an outdated, old and polluting generation plant on Chula Vista’s Bayfront that contributes to the regional environmental impacts in the air and water in the San Diego region and specifically in South San Diego Bay.

The implementation of the CCA program in Chula Vista requires the acknowledgement by the current energy supplier, SDG&E, of the fact that Chula Vista wants to move ahead with CCA; Again Rebecca Pearl: “We urge San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) to heed Chula Vista’s very clear interest, and public record of interest, in becoming a CCA and the City’s direct requests to SDG&E to collaborate in this regard.”

The new rules allow SDG&E to continue to establish forecasts and procurement activities without taking Chula Vista’s CCA program into account until there is a binding agreement, which could create an excessive financial burden for the City and create a disincentive for entering into a binding agreement in the first place.

Commenting on the hearing proceedings of last week, Laura Hunter, Campaign Director for EHC’s Clean Bay Campaign concludes: “For the City of Chula Vista, there is a lot at stake in this; not only the ability to implement a CCA program, but the ability to move the City of Chula Vista and the region away from contributing to the disastrous effects of climate change and toward a sustainable energy future”.

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Environmental Health Coalition is part of the local San Diego Apollo Alliance. The San Diego Apollo Alliance is part of a national coalition of community groups, labor unions, businesses, and environmental organizations working toward a renewable energy future.  We are asking the United States to devote the scale of resources and vision it took to put a person on the moon to the important task of freeing our nation from overdependence on fossil fuels. Like JFK's Apollo Project, this project for renewable energy must be big, bold and fast. At a time when national legislators are divided on energy policy, state and local initiatives, like the local Apollo Alliance, are all the more important to achieving this critical goal.