Two More Cities Join Regional Renewable Energy Agency a Day Before New Board Meets

Voice Of OC

Lake Forest and Buena Park have signed on to a new Community Choice Energy program expected to lower costs for residents through investments in renewable energy. Irvine has offered to pay $2.7 million to create the new agency singlehandedly, and has committed to offering collateral for a loan ranging from $8 million to $17 million for the initial capital. Huntington Beach and Fullerton also voted to join the power authority recently, which now has five cities as members. Other cities in the county interested in joining next year include Santa Ana, Placentia, Stanton, Aliso Viejo and Villa Park. The cities that joined already will become the founding members of the Orange County Power Authority.

The community choice program is a public electric utility service that will give customers the option of getting their electrical power from a utility provider or a local government entity. Proponents of the program have praised its options that allow for greater investment in renewable energy sources and microgrids, and point out it allows greater local control over the source of the power supply. “We also need to reduce our production of greenhouse gases to avoid an environmental catastrophe. This means that our future source of energy needs to be renewables such as solar, wind, and possibly hydrogen,” said one resident during the Lake Forest City Council meeting Tuesday.

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