Amber Lin: Pianist, Golfer, STEM Enthusiast, and Humanitarian
When Amber Lin was in the third grade, her family left Taiwan. The family now lives in Irvine and...
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Month: November 2023
OCPA’s Survival Depends on Concealing Documents & Overcharging Electricity Customers
The Orange County Power Authority (OCPA) is in a race against time. On one hand, the agency is facing the public’s increasingly pointed questions about the legitimacy of OCPA’s supposedly clean energy products.
On the other hand, OCPA is stockpiling a massive self-survival reserve fund — growing toward $100 million — to insulate the agency from tens of thousands of electricity customers “opting-out” of OCPA.
The public has asked OCPA to release its CAISO (California Independent System Operator) settlement statements — which would show OCPA’s purchases; resales; and actual delivery of renewable products to the California electricity grid.
So far, OCPA refuses to provide these statements, which contain an accurate accounting of the granular charges incurred by OCPA when its electricity flows over the state’s power grid. CAISO settlement statements also identify much of OCPA’s purchases of system power (dirty brown power).
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OCPA’s “Clean Energy” Conceals Dirty Business
To the detriment of taxpayers and electricity ratepayers, Irvine’s representatives to the Orange County Power Authority (OCPA) — Councilmembers Tammy Kim and Kathleen Treseder — do little more than parrot agency talking points while the City of Irvine spends millions of dollars on questionable clean electricity. OCPA, like many Community Choice Aggregators (CCAs), is loaded with dirty “brown power” deliveries (generated by fossil fuels) that are concealed from the public to protect OCPA’s “green energy” claims.
The following illustrates the problem:
1. Councilmembers Treseder and Kim naively believe OCPA’s energy contracts reveal actual energy deliveries. They apparently do not know that power purchase agreements (PPAs) do not tell us what OCPA actually delivers to its customers.
2. Councilmembers Treseder and Kim also believe power content labels represent OCPA’s actual energy content. During an October 8th event, Treseder inaccurately stated that OCPA “has delivered to all four cities — all businesses and residents — 95.5% renewable energy.” And at a City Council meeting, Kim said the power content label “shows OCPA is producing renewable energy,” which is partially true, but not to the extent portrayed by the label.
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City Council Selects Citizen-Drawn District Map
The City Council has finalized a measure to be placed on the March 2024 ballot that, if approved by voters, would expand the Council to seven members — a Mayor elected by all Irvine voters; and six Councilmembers elected by voters in their geographical district.
As part of the process, the Council selected the final map that will be implemented if Irvine voters approve the City’s transition to district elections.
After months of citizen-drawn submissions, it came down to two maps: Map 151 and Map 163. The majority of public commenters endorsed Map 151, noting that its districts are more compact, the most contiguous in nature, and are walkable districts with villages kept intact.
Mayor Farrah Khan, along with Councilmembers Larry Agran and Mike Carroll agreed with residents that Map 151 was the most equitable choice. All three voted to support it.
Meanwhile, Councilmembers Tammy Kim and Kathleen Treseder voted against Map 151, saying that Map 163 was better for Asian and Pacific Islander (API) districts and renter-majority districts.
However, their arguments were contradicted by the facts. Map 163 would create API districts ranging from 29% to 44% while Map 151 creates API districts ranging from 27% to 50%. And, Kim & Treseder’s map would create only three renter-majority districts while Map 151 establishes four renter-majority districts.
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Longtime Irvine Resident Ed McNew to Be Honored by the City
This article was written by guest columnist, Alyssa Carle Recently, I met with longtime Turtle...
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