Redding and Gridley are among the few California cities with their own electric utilities. Tuesday Butte County considers following suit; sort of.
Called Community Choice Aggregation, the proposal is far less revolutionary than replacing Pacific Gas & Electric Company with a publically-owned entity.
If approved, the monthly blue and white bills would still arrive. The crews maintaining power lines and reading meters wouldn’t change either.
What would change, potentially anyway, is where and how the power you use is generated. That’s because under Community Choice Aggregation the public, or in reality a person or body elected or appointed by the public or their representatives, would choose the electricity’s source rather than PG&E.
No final decision is expected. Supervisors will hear a report on the proposal detailing startup costs and potential savings. The report suggests that for the proposal to make sense financially local cities would have to join in.
CCA’s established elsewhere in California have prioritized buying so-called clean power, sometimes at a slight premium. Proponents say a local CCA could just as easily make lower-priced power a goal.
The board is also expected to accept more than $150,000 from Cal Fire for a jointly funded project to reduce fuel loads along certain roads in the foothills. Areas where work is planned include Cohasset, Forest Ranch, Stirling City, Magalia, Concow, Yankee Hill, Lumpkin, Swedes Flat and Forbestown.
In Shasta County Tuesday officials will consider new conflict of interest codes for three school districts and the Burney Water District, the widening of Gas Point Road and they'll make changes to the county zoning code to comply with terms of a legal settlement.
Both meetings get underway at 9 a.m.