Lake Forest, Buena Park Join Growing Community Energy Program
The cities of Lake Forest and Buena Park have joined Huntington Beach by voting to become part of a new community program that aims to lower energy costs for residents in Orange County, California.
City councils in Lake Forest and Buena Park both voted 4-1 on Dec. 15 to join the group, while the Huntington Beach City Council unanimously opted to join five days earlier.
The cities will join Irvine and Fullerton as founding members of the “Orange County Power Authority,” a community choice aggregation program that aims to reduce utility costs for member residents by banding together to buy and sell energy, instead of buying it directly from Southern California Edison (SCE). The community choice energy program allows customers to choose between a utility provider such as SCE or from the public option.
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Lake Forest officials will decide today on whether their city should join a regional renewable energy agency, along with a host of others in Orange County that either recently took action or will do so this week.
But advocates for such a program are raising concerns about the Lake Forest City Council’s upcoming vote specifically around the mayor’s employment with a prominent natural gas company that some see as a major force standing against these efforts.
Because of this relationship, they argue, Mayor Neeki Moatazedi should recuse herself.
Moatazedi, on the other hand, argues her employer, the Southern California Gas Company, isn’t relevant or affected by the current energy debate and that she’s keeping an open mind.