Speaker 2: Yeah, we don't I don't think anybody wants 5 hours, but I'm happy to have brought this item along with my council colleagues. This item really it's the first time that this council I think it's had a presentation from Clean Power Alliance. Given the other presentation that we have on the feasibility study, we thought it would be imperative to hear this today. And so with that, I'll hand it over to Ted with clean power lines.
Speaker 3: Hi. Good. Good afternoon. Thank you, Mayor and city council for having me on. Are you able to hear me okay?
Speaker 2: We are.
Speaker 3: Okay. Thank you. I also, just before I started, I did want to also thank staff from numerous departments in Long Beach, including Chris Garner and Bob Dole and Tony Foster and all the folks in the Planning Department all working on the Climate Action.
Speaker 2: And Adaptation.
Speaker 3: Plan. As this issue started to discussion has started to percolate. There's been lots of good, honest, transparent information exchange. And again, when there's been sort of differences of perspectives, that it's been a real pleasure to work with them. So I just wanted to acknowledge that as well.
Speaker 2: Although I'm with second ton of city clerk, I mean, I'm getting texts that people at home now can't hear. Ted.
Speaker 4: We're working on the audio issue.
Speaker 0: Okay. Let's let me. Let's. Let's do this. I'm. Let's go. All right, now. Let's. Let's go ahead. Is. I'm just wondering.
Speaker 6: Mr. Mayor, if I can offer a suggestion because I believe in the chambers, we can actually. Project. And here everybody can hear. Can everybody hear us right now? Yes, I think so. So we can go ahead. And while we work on the the issue that has to do with WebEx, I believe we can go ahead and give our staff presentation and keep moving forward.
Speaker 0: Okay. Cosmo appears to be good with that.
Speaker 2: Sure.
Speaker 0: Okay. So let's go ahead. And so, I mean, essentially, we're going to essentially your thing is we're going to go to item ten. Is that right, Mr. Modica?
Speaker 2: Actually, I know I think we need to hear from CPA before we do ten.
Speaker 6: That's fine. I mean, we were planning to hear from CPA before we hear ten. I'm just.
Speaker 0: Well, I mean, we have to get the meeting moving. So let me let me do this. So we're going to go ahead. And Ted, can you go ahead and continue and let's see if we hear it. I can hear you. If we can't, we're going to move on and do number ten du Chien and then we'll come back to six. So if that works. Oh, can you go ahead and continue? Sure.
Speaker 3: I'm happy to accommodate whatever whatever needs to get done here. So. Can you hear me or can the folks on.
Speaker 2: If you're watching on a computer, you can hear if you're watching on your phone at home, you can't.
Speaker 3: Nothing. Okay. Welcome to Distance Learning. So I'm going to run through this relatively quickly. I know that there's a lot on campus, but I just want to provide an introduction to our alliance and offer some thoughts about, you know, a potential relationship with with Long Beach. And the first thing is to just start with our mission statement, where we talk about a clean energy future, which I believe is the the desire of most of the state of California. But it is local. And what I mean by local is there's local control, a local voice, but also local jobs and investment where communities are empowered. And this is really about using our electricity service providers to achieve local and state wide policy goals, which are very well set up to do. And then, of course, customer choice. It's important, we believe that competition makes everybody better. And in this space, we've already seen that as kids have started to proliferate. If we can go to the next slide, please. On the next slide. Thank you. I think you'll be hearing a lot more about this in agenda item ten. But I did want to highlight a couple of things. One is in that last bullet that by 2022, we expect that more than half the load.
Speaker 2: In.
Speaker 3: Eugenie and Ste. Jeannie Territory will be served by non I.O.U. providers and approximately a quarter in SC territory. This is a trend around the state growing every year. The other thing is that point in in bold there, that third bullet that is mostly our joint powers authorities although there are single jurisdiction enterprise funds which which I believe is was the focus of the of the Long Beach study. But I will note that today.
Speaker 2: Only.
Speaker 3: Two major cities have done this. San Francisco and San Jose, other big cities and counties, San Diego, Oakland, L.A. County, others decided to join or help form joint powers authorities to run their cases. And I'll talk a little bit about about why. Next slide, please. So under a Kia model, the KIA takes over the that top it. Box purchasing power, setting rates, providing customer programs at a in areas that it serves. For customers who don't want to be part of this thing is to do the same thing purchasing power, setting rates and providing customer programs. The one thing that I will note is that most customer programs that Edison offers still remain open to customers. While our programs are exclusively available to our customers. But you'll note that that AC e remains in SCCA model remains a crucial partner. We do with Edison coordinate on a daily basis. We consider customers to be mutual customers and that particularly in this area and Edison, we have some similar policy goals around decarbonization and electrification. But just we do believe that the competition among us around rates and power does get us to all sharpen our pencils and be better. Go to the next slide, please. These are some of the details in terms of what those potential benefits are. I want to focus on the last.
Speaker 2: One environmental.
Speaker 3: Impact, because the fact that cars are a default opt in tool, that means that when it's when a city or county joins a car or starts a car, all customers automatically become customers unless they opt out. It makes it a very, very, very strong policy tool.
Speaker 2: For.
Speaker 3: Cities in in a number of areas, but particularly around expanding renewables and THG reduction. If that is the policy goal of the city, which I understand is is more and more of the policy goal of the city of Long Beach. If you could go two slides down. No. X. A couple of quick factoids. We serve approximately 1 million customer accounts across two counties in 30 cities. We are the largest K in the state, professionally managed and clear on that last bullet point. We cover our costs. We do not receive any subsidies or tax dollars. We're fully covered by ratepayer rates, people that receive our service. Next slide, please. We are a.
Speaker 2: JPA.
Speaker 3: And.
Speaker 2: Were.
Speaker 3: Unique in some ways in a JPA where our governing document not only talks about, you know, how we're governed and processes and sort of the standard governance and legal stuff, but it also has a statement of of shared values. And when I think about any city thinking about joining Clean Power Alliance, I understand they're signing up for this legal entity. But I also really want to stress that folks are considering signing up to support these values. And that's that's unique. And I think these statements of values are really important in any consideration because they span the gamut of sustainability, not just environmental stuff, but clearly local economic development, equity considerations as well as environmental progress. Next slide, please. But just in our two and a half years of of actual operations, we've started to put some of these values into practice with some of the items listed listed here for folks in our customers in our 100% range default areas, they get the 100% green program, 100% green energy at no additional cost. And we're expanding those programs both to our broader residents, as well as through community solar programs. This fall, we are going to begin publicly providing incentives for publicly funded or sorry, publicly available electric vehicle chargers with a set aside for disadvantaged communities. Beginning next year, we have demand response available for commercial residential customers and are developing a resiliency program for clean backup power at member jurisdictions. Critical facilities where we will put clean. On essential facilities at no cost to our member agencies. We are rapidly expanding the supply of renewable energy and energy. Battery energy storage in the State of California having created or planned to create over 1500 approximately 1500 construction jobs using union labor and with most with formal project labor agreements will also be beginning a roll out a program, a $1 million workforce development program beginning in 2021. Next slide, please. But we also because our governing board is made up of local elected officials and we can be very nimble and quick to respond in. In the spring, we launched a $1 million COVID 19 bill relief program for residential small business customers to give them direct discounts on their electricity bills if they were facing reduced income, unemployment or otherwise. COVID 19 economic hardship. These are the kinds of things that we can as as you know. Social issues rise to the fore where we can respond rapidly and attend to a very wide and diverse economic group of customers. Next slide, please. Just a couple of nuts and bolts. We offer.
Speaker 2: Three rate.
Speaker 3: Options 36% renewables. That also offers a cost savings, a 50% renewable product that is at cost parity and a 100% renewable energy project that is at a premium. Although I would remind you that there's no upcharge for low income customers in most areas in that in that on that rate, as it's.
Speaker 2: Sorted out.
Speaker 3: Approximately 80% of our customers are on those two higher environmentally performing tiers. And we have found that to be quite a important development to show that many customers really want that kind of higher environmentally performing product. They often just don't know about it. Or if we tell them we're going to do something good for them, they say, okay, I would. But I will also note that residents and businesses have have the choice to opt up, opt down or opt out and return to service at any time.
Speaker 4: Mr. Bartlett.
Speaker 3: Last, last. Yes.
Speaker 4: Your time is up. You've had that kind of presentation time.
Speaker 3: Sure. Let me if you could just go to my last slide and I will summarize. That. That CPA sort of JPA structure is a lower risk option for cities. We are very focused on keeping our jobs and economic benefits to stay within the region. The strong relationship with labor. We target our programs that and incentives that communities need strong governance structure and focusing on a reliable and swift transition to a zero carbon footprint. So with that, I will stop at any point in any of the four items. I'm happy to answer any questions. Thank you.
Speaker 0: Thank you. Thank you for that. Let me go back to Councilmember Pearce.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for sharing with everyone today. I know that when we first started talking about CCS, you guys were just getting started. And so it's great to see the success that you've gotten so far. 30 cities is no small feat. If you could, I know that you weren't able to show that slide, but I'd like to ask just one question. There was one about opt outs. I think it was two slides back. You skipped over it. If. If the staff could slide. One more. There you go. Now go back to the graph. Thank you. Let's take a look at this since you didn't get a chance to mention it. What's the highest opt out rate that you have?
Speaker 3: Yeah. Our highest opt.
Speaker 2: Out rate.
Speaker 3: Is generally concentrated in Ventura County with very low opt out rate in Los Angeles. That's the first thing I will note for Los Angeles County. The second thing I'll note is that opt outs tend across the spectrum.
Speaker 2: To.
Speaker 3: Be driven more by either media attention.
Speaker 2: Or political.
Speaker 3: Leanings in the city and not so much by price. You know, if you look at our 100% green default cities in L.A. County at the residential level of a 4.7% opt out rates. Similarly, there's less than one percentage point higher than. And the clean power default rate. So what I think by the point I would make here is, is back to this point that this default is probably one of the major or is one of the major policy tools that we offer our member agencies. Every member agency gets to, if they join, gets to choose what the default is. And, you know, if you were to choose a 100% green power default, for example, yes, it would come at a cost premium. You'd also be pretty much overnight the largest city in the country to serve your residents with 100% renewable energy.
Speaker 2: All right. Thank you for that. And then I have one other question for you. How many do you have? 30 seats on the board because there's 30 cities.
Speaker 3: Oh, we have 32 seats on the board because we're 30 cities and two unincorporated county jurisdictions. So L.A. County.
Speaker 2: Ventura County.
Speaker 3: And 30 cities within those two counties.
Speaker 2: And what's the largest? How many ratepayers are there with L.A. County?
Speaker 3: Just around 250,000. Long Beach would be the second largest city and our second largest jurisdiction in our GTA. Currently the second largest is Castle.
Speaker 2: Right. And my last question before we hear from other council members is I know the the next item talks about the need if we went with the word to have hydro electricity. And that's something that CPA have.
Speaker 3: Yes. So we what we do is we tend to focus on renewables and new build renewables, because we're very much trying to exceed state mandates and put ratepayer dollars back into the development of new renewable energy in order to keep our carbon content low. And we have a mandate by our EPA to keep it lower than than Southern California Edison. We buy existing large hydro power resources in order to reduce our carbon footprint even further.
Speaker 2: Okay. I might I have one more question. I'm trying to talk really fast because we also only get 5 minutes. Which unions do you guys have project labor agreements with?
Speaker 3: So most of our projects have five trade agreements. So it's typically IBEW, ironworkers, carpenters, laborers, and I'm spacing on the fourth. I'm on the fifth. I apologize, but it's it's IBEW laborers, carpenters and our workers.
Speaker 2: And are those jobs all created in L.A. County, California or other states?
Speaker 3: The of the 1500 we have, about 1350 are in the state of California. And a smaller subset of that is in L.A. L.A. County is an expensive place to do business in general, and particularly for our large scale projects. We have two major projects in L.A. County, and the rest is in southern and central California.
Speaker 2: Okay, I have other questions, but I will see if my council calls, have thoughts. But I appreciate the effort and the presentation today is very insightful.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 4: Is there any of the other council members who'd like to speak on this item?
Speaker 2: Yes, madam, this is Councilman. And I did keep up, but I don't know what would happen. Anyway, I just wanted to say thank you. Thank you very much, Ted, for this. For then I think that, you know, having this in front, in front and sharing it with the community is very important. I know that this is new territory for us as a city, and the more that we are able to have it detailed and broken down into, you know, so to help the community also understand is is very important. So I just wanted to say that thank you. Thank you very much for your detailed presentation.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure if the system is up.
Speaker 2: But I don't think it is cute as well.
Speaker 4: Councilmember Richardson.
Speaker 1: Okay, great. Mr. Pataki, thanks for this presentation. If requested a copy of this, but if you're unable to get it, certainly a part of the program. It's a big decision. I'd love to learn a little bit more, certainly about what this means, particularly the screen we're looking at, opt out. Would you mind spending a little bit of time in the chair with me? What exactly they opted out of? And, you know, I think a big part of understanding, you know, if people want to stay with what they have with that, that would be walk me through this opt out piece.
Speaker 3: Sure. So the state legislation that enabled this case that was passed in 2022 made it what they call an automatic default program. That is when a city joins a SCCA or forms a SCCA. When that car starts service, the the assumption and the operating principle is that every every electricity customer would be defaulted into the.
Speaker 2: Into.
Speaker 3: Being a CCR customer. Now, in practice, what that means is that we send out we do a lot of public outreach, we send out notices before people are defaulted into the system as well as after. And they are given the ability to say, no, I'm not interested. I would like to go back and quote unquote go back, but I would like to remain a bundled customer, which is mean. I'm getting my electricity and my transmission and distribution from from SC in this case. So really what this is, is how you.
Speaker 2: And people can do that at any time.
Speaker 3: They could also change their rates if you defaulted in at 100% green power or clean power and people really wanted to save money, they could put a top down and to a money saving tier. So it is an opt in program.
Speaker 2: And then.
Speaker 3: We ask people, we inform.
Speaker 2: People.
Speaker 3: And then they need to affirmatively opt out. If they do nothing, they are automatically become our customers and they're automatically put on the.
Speaker 2: Rate that.
Speaker 3: The CB chose as its default. Right. That's why we're in this we're in this default. I'm going to say it's the number one sort of confusion at that at launch. But, you know, we we get through.
Speaker 1: Sure. And, you know, I have other questions that they'll be from staff later. And the question that I have for you is, given the fact that we'd be the largest if we opt to move forward with the largest, does that open up playbook, if you will, in terms of offering more creative programs that, you know, maybe maybe targeted to achieve our goals the city sets forward like what is great for us, does it us the ability to to change what is going here and present and that may be superior.
Speaker 3: Yeah. So there's you know, I'll say that formally, we are a one jurisdiction, one member agency, one vote, a governance structure. But in practice, you kind of you get what you give. And the cities that.
Speaker 2: Are active, that.
Speaker 3: Have some expertize, that have staff on the ground ready to propose and shape programs, get in practice, have a greater voice in the decision making because that's just who's putting the time and the energy into it. So while I will say that, you know, hopefully there's only a one vote per member and I don't see that changing any time soon, how that voice and vote gets exercised. Our larger agencies. So is that because they've got the time and the energy and resources to dedicate to it?
Speaker 0: Councilman, that concludes your questions.
Speaker 5: Now. Fine.
Speaker 0: Okay. Councilman Mongo.
Speaker 2: Yes. What is the amount of renewable energy we currently get through Southern California Edison, for comparison's sake?
Speaker 3: So if there's there's no coal, it's mostly natural gas. Large hydro and nuclear.
Speaker 6: And Councilmember, we'll get to that when we get to the staff presentation will be able to give a little bit of that comparison.
Speaker 2: Okay, great. And then then I have other questions for staff at that time. Thank you.
Speaker 0: Is there is there a public comment on this item?
Speaker 4: Yes. There is public comment on this item.
Speaker 0: It was going. Let's go.
Speaker 3: The.
Speaker 2: Yes. Can you hear me?
Speaker 3: Gabrielle is the pronunciation.
Speaker 2: Go ahead. Great height.
Speaker 3: Everything cool.
Speaker 2: Today? I made the comments online and.
Speaker 3: I want to reiterate, been following this issue since the late nineties. Community choice.
Speaker 2: Aggregates started in some other.
Speaker 3: States on the East Coast and Ohio.
Speaker 2: They've been doing it for quite a while up in California. Worked out by this and as detailed at the agenda report, the Clean Power Alliance establish itself and is a highly.
Speaker 3: Effective, successful ccaea to avoid missing another.
Speaker 2: User of opportunity to provide our residents with local choice, cleaner energy.
Speaker 3: And job creation. I hope the.
Speaker 2: City Council will direct staff to submit a letter.
Speaker 3: Of interest to the CPA and give you the flexibility to join it as soon as.
Speaker 2: Possible. It happened in. Hi. My name is Mallory Hurley and I am a student and president of the Long Beach Youth Climate Taskforce, a group of 15 movie stars dedicated to making the Long Beach a 100% renewable energy city. I'm here today to persuade Long Beach City Council to listen to the presentations and clean power lines in the hopes that they will use the information will join the EPA over the past few months. My team and I researched clean power lines extensively and come to the conclusion that doing the data would be the best option for Long Beach. We reached out to almost every single city that joined and each one expressed nothing but positive remarks about their experiences. The transition away from Southern California Edison, the head of the Office of Sustainability for the City of Santa monica, explained that it was one of the easiest climate initiatives to pass, with little to no pushback from constituents and a very low opt out rate in their city between four and 5%. It is abundantly clear that joining clean power lines when the easiest and most effective way to transition will be towards 100% renewable energy system as outlined in the DCC Usability Report. Joining clean power lines would have many benefits, such as increased negotiating and buying power for power purchases, access to better financing, tariffs and borrowing, and will distribute any potential cost or risk associated with creating a CCR among other participating cities. Joining Pintar Alliance means that Long Beach could provide competitive grants to Southern California Edison while providing clean, renewable energy to all of its citizens. As I've mentioned before, the Power Alliance offers a 36% renewable option, which is 1 to 2% cheaper than Edison, facing a 50% renewable option, which crosses James Edison and the 100% renewable energy option at a slightly higher price premium relative to Edison. It's a mean even if residents chose not to have 100% renewable energy, they would still be paying less or the same for cleaner energy. Many cities aligned to clean power lines also provide a subsidy for low income residents and ensure that people in marginalized communities won't pay more than Edison. Phase three, which is very important measure that may not be addressed at Long Beach, which create its own future. Only City Council must agree to use the information gained from clean power lines and will then be able to make informed decision to transition Long Beach away from Southern California Edison to clean, renewable energy systems. Thank you. I just thank you for that and thank you to the speaker just before me. That was an incredible summary and research that her group has done on China as the chair of the Sustainable City Commission. We've been looking at Community Choice Energy for quite a number of years now here in the city, at the commission side and with a working group that's been advocating on this issue. We heard here from Tyson and Clean Power Alliance that TPA is a viable community choice energy entity in the Los Angeles area and the largest operating with approximately 1 million customers. BP has shown that it's able to successfully accumulate financial reserves, build an energy portfolio that meets California's.
Speaker 3: Renewable.
Speaker 2: Energy mandates ten years ahead of schedule. Erica members. Sorry. And we're urging Long Beach to submit a letter of interest to CPA so that CPA can assess whether the addition of damage to electricity service is beneficial. In addition to being financially sound, they share that CPA is increasing energy storage, creating projects with 1500 union jobs and rolling out $1,000,000 workforce development program next year. These are all great benefits for the energy grid, for green jobs and for economic recovery. The city can consider other governance options, while CPA is completing this assessment and should do so in a timely manner in order to make a decision on whether to join CPA or file this invitation plan for stand alone program in Long Beach by December 31st of this year. Now is the time for Long Beach to take action on this issue and move our community into the clean energy future instead of waiting another two years before making any decisions or exploring next steps. Thank you.
Speaker 0: Thank you. I'm going to go ahead and move on to the next item connected to this. Do I need I guess I should take a I don't think I've received a follow on to.
Speaker 2: Confirm that you're not on any other item.
Speaker 0: Want to be. Take a reason to think on this item.
Speaker 4: District one. I'm District two. I'm District three. I district for.
Speaker 1: I.
Speaker 4: District five.
Speaker 2: I.
Speaker 4: District six.
Speaker 5: All right.
Speaker 4: District seven.
Speaker 3: I.
Speaker 4: District eight. District nine.
Speaker 5: All right.
Speaker 4: Motion carries.
Speaker 0: Thank you. Moving on to the staff presentation, please. Item.
Speaker 6: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So we do have a fairly robust presentation for you today. I think the council is starting to get into some of the questions. This is a very complex issue and you've asked us to study this for about two years now. So we have brought on some energy experts that really know this field, and they provided about 130 page report. We also have our three department directors who have substantial experience in this area and have provided a recommendation. So we want to make sure that you really understand this issue.
Recommendation to receive and file a presentation from Clean Power Alliance on Community Choice Aggregation.