We encourage you to attend the City of Santa Maria's Council meeting tomorrow, Tuesday, Aug. 20 when the council will decide whether to join Monterey Bay Community Power Authority. The meeting starts at 5:30 p.m. at 110 E. Cook St. The item is number 4B.
There is some opposition to community choice energy, although city staff supports it, citing many good reasons to join MBCPA including a carbon-free electrical energy portfolio, rebates that result in rates 3 to 5 percent lower than PG&E’s, electric-vehicle incentive programs and encouragement of local clean energy generation.
The staff report estimates Santa Maria residents will save $12.5 million in electric costs from 2021 through 2025.
Santa Barbara County Action Network supports the proposal. SBCANExecutive Director wrote an editorial that was published in the Santa Maria Times on Aug. 16, 2019 urging adoption of the proposal. See that editorial here.
The County of Santa Barbara and City of Guadalupe recently signed up with MBCPA. We hope you will join us in urging the City of Santa Maria to do the same.