LAKEPORT >> The Lake County Board of Supervisors put the brakes on the proposed move toward Community Choice Aggregation at its regular meeting on Tuesday.
Due to high Valley Fire costs anticipated to put a dent in the next fiscal year, both the board and staff concluded that the government didn’t have enough staff or money to allocate to the alternative energy project.
They decided to delay the project at least until June 2017.
The program allows the county to collect demand for electricity over several local jurisdictions and use this to seek alternative energy supplies, all while maintaining the existing infrastructure and distribution supplier. It has worked successfully to bring consumer costs down in other counties. However, during earlier board debates, some doubt was expressed over the feasibility and long term cost for Lake County.
At issue, for many, was the completeness of the research necessary before accepting a proposal.
“To take on this project isn’t something we should step into at this time,” County Administrative Officer Carol Huchingson said.
There was some concern voiced over the delay. District 4 Supervisor Anthony Farrington — who has vocalized his support for the last year — feared that the project would ultimately be stifled if the project were put on hold.
“There’s been a lot of time and energy spent on this program,” Farrington said. “I think it would be a disservice to not move forward.”
District 5 Supervisor and BOS chair Rob Brown assured him that this was merely a delay and that the door would remain open in the future.
But for him and the rest of the board present (District 2 Supervisor Jeff Smith was absent), the focus is on the recovery.
Other arguments against the pursuit of Community Choice Aggregation were brought up by former supervisor Denise Rushing, who used to work for PG&E.
She informed the board that the region carries risk for power companies as demand cannot meet up with supply or vice versa. Businesses transfer that market risk onto consumers, she explained, by making prices higher.
With that idea in mind, she recommended that the county aggregate with “the best of the best” companies in the market at a later time.
But the delay itself isn’t solid.
According to Huchingson, the three proposals the county received are guaranteed to through September 30. Without appropriate staff and the approximately $40,000 available to hire a consultant to review the nearly 240 pages worth of documents, the project may just have to wait.
“I’d like to see an open door on this,” District 3 Supervisor Jim Steele said.
