Author: Franklin J. Lunding

While I typically wait until an election year before offering my personal opinion on the candidates running for elected offices here in Irvine, I feel compelled to speak out now regarding the 2024 Mayoral race. Current Councilmembers Larry Agran and Tammy Kim have already announced their candidacies to become the City’s next Mayor.

Unfortunately, Councilmember Tammy Kim does not value civil discourse. Since being elected in November 2020, Kim has displayed a disturbing pattern of bullying and attacking anyone who disagrees with her point of view — whether it’s her Council colleagues or even her own constituents.

OCPA was established by local politicians who wanted so badly to be seen by voters as “green” leaders that they created the agency — even though they had no understanding of the complex electricity market or the financial burden they were placing on our City’s taxpayers and electricity ratepayers.

Councilmembers Kim and Treseder also proclaim that OCPA is “2% cheaper than Southern California Edison (SCE),” even though they know that the cheaper rate applies only to the handful of electricity customers who have “opted-down” to OCPA’s lowest renewable tier (Basic Choice). Kim and Treseder never mention that Irvine households were forced into the highest tier (labeled “100% Renewable”) — which is on average $36 per month more than SCE’s 100% renewable plan.

Critics of the Orange County Power Authority (OCPA) are beginning to question whether the agency is engaged in ongoing consumer fraud, which involves misrepresentation and deceptive practices in connection with the sale or advertisement of goods and services.

Last year, Irvine residential households and businesses were automatically enrolled into the new OCPA electricity plan — without a vote of the people. Now, those ratepayers are being charged more for the same 100% renewable electricity that SCE provides its customers.

This past week, the City of Irvine lost one of our most beloved leaders, Mary Ann Gaido, who passed away on September 6th after a valiant battle with cancer.

Through her decades-long service to our City, Mary Ann’s leadership was key in transforming Irvine into America’s leading planned community. A fierce advocate for master-planning, Mary Ann was instrumental in shaping Irvine’s General Plan, creating our amazing Open Space Preserve, and establishing thousands of attractive affordable housing units. She never shied away from standing up to land developers for the better interests of Irvine residents.

For years, climate scientists have urged us to transition to greener, cleaner energy because it’s the right thing to do to protect the environment. And, clean energy has the added benefit of being cheaper. Sounds like a win-win, right?

According to the Southern California Edison (SCE) website, Irvine residential customers are being charged, on average, $30.52 more every month by the Orange County Power Authority (OCPA) for the same 100% renewable electricity that SCE provides. That means that, on average, Irvine families are now paying $366.24 more in electricity costs each year … and getting absolutely nothing for it.