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Flores, Dora From:Jose Trinidad Castaneda <jose@climateactioncampaign.org> Sent:Tuesday, August 18, 2020 4:06 PM To:eComment Subject:General Public Comment: Support Community Choice Dear Mayor and Council, Please consider exploring joining the City of Irvine and agendize Community Choice Energy at your next council meeting. Santa Ana families want and need consumer choice when it comes to our energy provider. Already, we are witnessing the apocalyptic effects of climate change in California. From firenadoes to rolling black outs, Santa Ana is not yet resilient to the dramatic changes our draft General Plan Update has identified. Meanwhile, as the World Meteorological Organization verifies yesterday’s global record breaking temperatures of 130°F at Death Valley, we have a huge opportunity to join the City of Irvine and bring Community Choice Energy to Santa Ana families. Community Choice Aggregation, also known as Community Choice Energy (abbreviated CCA and CCE by various parties), is a local, not-for-profit governmental program that buys and may generate electrical power on behalf of its residents, businesses, and governmental entities. The agency administering the Community Choice program may also elect to administer energy efficiency programs and other greenhouse gas emission reducing activities. There are many reasons why a community might want to pursue Community Choice energy. Forget about climate and environment for one moment, look at the economic proposition. The City of Irvine paid $97,000 for two feasibility studies that confirm Community Choice Energy is financially viable, even during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as provides the freedom of consumer choice, cost savings, cleaner energy, local control, and direct community benefits. Both studies found that a reasonable to conservative estimate of a CCE’s local economic impacts would generate $85 million in new economic activity, and 85 new jobs. The Validation study affirms that CCE rate savings will range between 0.5-2% compared to current SCE rates, with a city-wide cost savings and municipal Utility Fund savings. Older CCE programs, such as Marin Clean Energy, now vastly outpace the rates offered by their incumbent utility. Rate savings are expected to increase starting 2026-2030 as SCE contracts expire, as well as due to greater load departure, and changes in wholesale power costs. CCE is a win-win-win for families, businesses, schools, and the city. A CCE can deliver Santa Ana families and businesses cleaner energy, competitive rates, lower bills, and a safety net for low-income and medical baseline customers. The real benefits of a CCE that Santa Ana voters have absolutely been craving for are transparency and local control. Santa Ana should have a choice in the kinds of programs and services that reflect our community wants and needs, but we cannot have that choice in our current relationship with SCE, and we will never have that choice without joining a JPA for a CCE program. Thank you for your leadership, Jose Trinidad Castaneda -- 1