Community Choice Agencies Task Force
The California Alliance for Community Energy is a statewide network of activists, advocates, and grassroots organizations committed to supporting and defending locally controlled, community-determined renewable energy programs. Our task forces serve our shared mission to advance local clean energy for the environmental, economic, and social justice benefits of California’s communities.
Pursuing Energy Solutions for California Communities
This task force examines the role Community Choice Agencies (CCAs) play in advancing, or potentially limiting, community-centered energy solutions. The task force develops partnerships with CCAs that fulfill their promise of serving local communities and align with our distributed energy goals.
Community Choice Agencies Task Force Activities
- Examines how CCAs are operating across California
- Looks at where CCAs are aligning with distributed energy and community power goals, and where there are opportunities to improve
- Explores strategies for engagement, accountability, and partnership with CCAs so they fulfill their promise of serving communities first
Why This Work Matters
Community Choice Agencies (CCAs) were created to give local communities control over their energy procurement, prioritizing clean, local renewables over fossil fuels. However, CCAs are under constant threat from state regulators, utility exit fees (like the PCIA), and the temptation to drift away from their community-first mandates. This task force acts as the statewide watchdog and support network to ensure CCAs fulfill their original promise of energy democracy.
Task Force Participation
Task Forces are open to any member ready to engage more deeply in shaping and implementing our work. You do not need prior experience in utility regulation to hold an agency accountable. You only need to be interested, committed, and ready to collaborate to get involved.
The Community Choice Agencies Task Force relies on:
Community Watchdogs
Residents willing to keep an eye on their local CCA’s agendas and decisions.
Data Crunchers & Researchers
Individuals who enjoy digging into meeting minutes, procurement contracts, and budget allocations to find the real story.
Organizers & Connectors
Leaders who can rally their neighbors to show up at public meetings and demand transparent, equitable governance.
What You Could Do on This Task Force
We hold local power accountable. Working with this task force means you will:
- Monitor local CCA board meetings to track procurement decisions, rate changes, and community reinvestment programs.
- Develop accountability scorecards and best-practice benchmarks to evaluate how well CCAs are serving their communities.
- Organize and mobilize local residents to provide public comment at CCA board meetings and CPUC hearings.
- Share intelligence across jurisdictions so that a victory for local energy in one county can be replicated in another.
How to Get Involved
Your involvement could involve joining a local watchdog group to read monthly meeting agendas or drafting statewide policy recommendations for CCA governance. Your participation ensures that billions of public dollars remain invested in local resilience, job creation, and clean energy, rather than being siphoned off by corporate interests.