100% Renewable Energy

Culver City, CA

Population: 10,000 - 50,000 | Government type: City | Topic: Clean Energy

OVERVIEW

Culver City became a 100% renewable energy city in 2018 by joining the Clean Power Alliance alongside the Counties of Los Angeles, Ventura, and more than 30 cities. Together they formed a Joint Powers Authority (JPA) to procure clean, nuclear-free energy, creating and supporting local jobs in the green economy through project labor agreements and job training programs. This alliance provides local benefits to our communities and bypasses the investor-owned utility SoCal Edison (SCE).

Through the Clean Power Alliance, renewable energy rates are tiered, allowing customers the ability to choose the energy that best meets their needs and budget. The 2020 rates are as follow: 

• Lean Power: 36% renewable energy at a 1-2% overall bill savings as compared to SCE’s standard rates.

• Clean Power: 50% renewable energy at a 0-1% overall bill savings as compared to SCE’s standard rates.

• 100% Green Power: 100% renewable energy at a 7-9% overall bill premium to SCE’s standard rates.

In 2018, Culver City adopted 100% renewable energy for its community, which automatically enrolled customers at the 100% Green Power tier starting in 2019. The 100% renewable energy option includes a small bill premium which results in a 0.6% bill increase. This premium allows qualifying customers to participate in a financial assistance program, which means they receive clean energy at the rate they would have paid SCE. While 100% Green Power is the default tier, customers can still choose other rate options. 

California Assembly Bill 117 was passed in 2002, establishing the ability for local governments to form a non-profit Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) organization to purchase electricity from power producers for sale to their constituents. In addition to negotiating competitive, and often lower, electricity rates for their constituents, a CCA could also enable the transition to a cleaner, more efficient energy supply and increase consumer choice, consumer protection, and local control. Community choice aggregation becomes even more effective through JPAs, legally created entities that allow two or more public agencies to jointly exercise common powers. They allow multiple entities in a region to combine their joint purchasing power and negotiate rates collectively. As a result, JPAs provide a creative approach to providing public services in a cost-effective manner. 

In 2015, the Culver City Council adopted a resolution authorizing the city to participate in a CCA Technical Feasibility Study led by the county of Los Angeles. After evaluating various CCA options, the council adopted an ordinance to approve a JPA, to join the Los Angeles Community Choice Energy (LACCE) JPA, and to authorize the implementation of a CCA program to provide electricity citywide. Councilmember Meghan Sahli-Wells was appointed to serve on the LACCE Board. In 2018 LACCE changed its name to Clean Power Alliance (CPA).

Collaborative Governance

The move to Clean Power Alliance was driven by years of community work with environmental advocates. Those CPA community partners included the local chapter of the Sierra Club, 350 South Bay and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 11. In addition, many other stakeholders such as the United Steelworkers Local 675, California Nurses Association, Sierra Club, Food & Water Action, and Jobs to Move America, testified in favor of Culver City’s vote to phase out fossil fuels in the oil field.

The move to join the CPA lacked opposition for three primary reasons: no lobbyists, no job loss, and freedom of choice. Investor-Owned-Utility (SCE) cannot, by law, use rate-payer funding to lobby the City Council and were legally precluded from formally opposing the move. There were no job losses associated with the transition, so local labor unions were in support. Consumers were given the ability to opt-out of the program or opt for a less expensive option, saving money even from the SCE base rate, which made the decision non-controversial.

Michael Picker, former president of the California Public Utilities Commission, was concerned about the state's ability to guarantee reliable electricity service as consumers ditch investor-owned utility companies like SCE, Pacific Gas & Electric, and San Diego Gas & Electric.

Emphasis on equity

Community Choice Energy programs like CPA provide an alternative to investor-owned utilities beholden to stockholders and redirects the money that communities spend on electricity into a publicly run energy JPA that focuses on community benefits, like local jobs and training programs, instead of private profits. CPA’s criteria for energy procurement prioritize high-road union jobs that have a maximum benefit for both the environment and workers. The vast majority of their energy investments include Project Labor Agreements (PLAs), such as the Solar and Storage Estrella project, approved in November 2020. The Clean Power Alliance also has a robust Covid-19 relief program to help customers with bill payments. Families needing financial assistance can also apply for the CARE Program, the FERA program, or the Medical Baseline Program.

The Clean Power Alliance creates high quality jobs in the green economy and significantly reduces dependence on polluting energy sources. This makes it a key player in the “Just Transition.” Environmental justice groups like STAND-LA and the Sierra Club’s Beyond Dirty Fuels campaign, labor and frontline communities are working to end harmful oil drilling, which is mostly happening in communities of color. Liberty Hill, a social justice foundation in Los Angeles, conducted a report on drilling and found that thousands of active oil wells were located disturbingly close to homes, schools, hospitals, parks, and playgrounds, with 70 percent of its active oil wells located within 1500 feet of a home or school or hospital. It was also noted that a number of these wells are in neighborhoods that have a high percentage of Black and Latinx residents. 

While CPA itself is not directly working to eliminate fossil fuel extraction, CPA provides the jobs and energy which prove that cities don't have to choose between the environment and the economy—they can have both! Culver City can point to the CPA as a reason to phase out oil drilling because it can replace this polluting source of energy and jobs with a better one. Finally, a large portion of labor partners’ members (IBEW & sometimes Steelworkers) are people of color.

What’s Next

Culver City is also taking historic steps to address harmful oil extraction by creating a plan to phase out oil drilling in the city over the next five years.  Inglewood Oil Field (IOF), the largest urban oil field in the US, is a nearly 1,000-acre plot, 10% of which is in Culver City. Over one million people live within five miles of the IOF, which stretches across Culver City and the mostly-Black neighborhood of Baldwin Hills. Weaning communities off of fossil fuels while creating family-sustaining union jobs is essential to the fight for environmental justice in the community. The long-term goal is to replace the monstrous, polluting, GhG-emitting oil field with the “Central Park of the West,” transforming the country’s largest urban oil field into a 1,000-acre dynamic green space in the center of dense urban LA County. 

On October 26, 2020, the council adopted a resolution to declare the city’s council’s intent to evaluate the establishment of an approximate five year phase-out period for the amortization and removal of nonconforming oil and activities within the city. This commitment to continue the study is critical for elevating the visibility of ending oil drilling for future councils. The city is further interested in developing battery storage on the site to convert part of the field to clean energy once the fossil fuels are phased out.

Analysis

• Preemption: According to Drill Down, cities like Los Angeles are able to use their wide policing powers through zoning to achieve regulation around oil fields due to their impact on public harm.

• Local government dynamics: The Culver City Council has become increasingly progressive over the past decade and has strong environmental advocates on the board.

• Policy strength / impact: Community choice aggregation is a strong program example that supports clean energy, clean jobs, community empowerment and voice, and moves ownership of goods and services back into public hands.

Last updated: January 19, 2021

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