Other proposals in the mix include allowing industrial and commercial energy customers to cut the cord that binds them to major utilities, as well as a bid to help California reach its climate goals by fashioning a fully “clean” power supply by 2045.
California is at the forefront of the budding consumer choice movement—ratepayers leaving behind fortress-like utilities and grouping together to buy power from alternate providers. It’s caught on in more than a dozen California cities and counties, where local governments now determine their own power mix.
One bill the Legislature is considering would allow commercial and industrial power customers to join the “community choice” movement, unplugging from utilities.
The freedom of choice would encourage competition among power providers and drive down prices, said the bill’s author, Sen. Robert Hertzberg, a Democrat from Van Nuys. The highly technical proposal has flown somewhat under the radar, and its prospects for passage are unclear.
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