On the afternoon of Thursday, February 11th, the Poly Green Schools Campaign met with two critical Long Beach leaders: Long Beach’s Water Department’s General Manager, Chris Garner, and Tony Foster, the Operations Manager of the Energy Resources Department in Long Beach. We discussed the logistics of transitioning Long Beach to the Clean Power Alliance, a Community Choice Aggregation (CCA). The Clean Power Alliance (or the CPA) consists of dozens of cities in the LA and Ventura counties that are working to transition off of fossil fuels. The CPA offers customers three different plans: “lean”, “clean” and “green power.”
Lean Power: uses 36% renewable energy, saving customers about 1% on their bill compared to Southern California Edison rates.
Clean Power: uses 50% renewable energy, and it doesn’t change the pricing for customers.
Green Power: uses 100% renewable energy, but increases customers rates by nearly 8%.
In August of 2020, Mr. Garner and Mr. Foster presented the CCA plan to the City Council of Long Beach. During that meeting, John Gross, the director of financial management for the city, expressed concerns that would come with a transition to a CCA, including an increase in customer rates. The council has delayed the vote on the issue for a year in order to spread public awareness on the issue and to give time for the city of Long Beach to observe how other cities that are part of the CPA are doing. You can click here to learn more about the CCA City Council meeting.
Mr. Garner and Mr. Foster are supporters of the Poly Green Schools Campaign and we look forward to having their expertise!
Poly GSC