Local Clean Energy Alliance Organizes Veto Effort in Response to Passage of AB 976

Submitted by admin on Mon, 09/17/2012 - 15:23

***UPDATE*** Veto Effort Succeeds !

On September 27, 2012, Governor Brown decided to return AB 976 without his signature. He noted in his letter to members of the Assembly that AB976 is not necessary to protect against conflict of interest and would impede development of community choice programs. Thanks to all who helped make this veto effort successful.
 

At the end of August, shortly after passage of AB 976 in the California legislature, the Local Clean Energy Alliance rallied 15 organizations to urge Governor Brown to veto the bill.

AB 976, the stealth anti-Community Choice energy bill, would undermine new Community Choice energy programs like the ones we are working to establish in San Francisco, Sonoma, and the East Bay. In response to the bill's passage, the Local Clean Energy Alliance drafted a letter urging Governor Brown to veto the legislation, and the Alliance reached out to other organizations to sign on to that effort. The Alliance is now calling on all individuals, as well, to contact the governor and ask him to veto AB 976.

AB 976 creates a huge impediment to the establishment of community choice energy programs. It does this by prohibiting these programs from procuring electricity or energy services from any entity that it utilized for analysis, advice, consultation, or other services prior to program launch. The bill would therefore prevent a Community Choice agency from signing a power purchase agreement with a supplier prior to the launch of the program. To begin serving customers, however, a Community Choice energy program needs to have a power supply agreement in place to guarantee power supply to its new customers. AB 976 prevents this essential step from taking place.

It takes only two minutes to send a comment form to the Governor!

Simply go to the Governor's website, click on the Contact menu, scroll down in the Choose Your Subject field and select AB00976/Public contracts...  and then register your message as opposing the bill.

You can read the Local Clean Energy Alliance letter urging the governor to veto AB 976 and see a partial list of other organization, agencies and local governments opposed to the bill.