Carlsbad is the latest coastal North County city to join efforts in building community choice energy programs.

The City Council on Oct. 8 approved the creation of a Community Choice Aggregation program and establish a joint powers authority, called the Clean Energy Alliance, city officials announced in a news release.

The action continues a trend among local cities to build collectives where residents have options in choosing where their energy comes from. On Sept. 18, the Encinitas City Council approved such a move, joining a JPA called Community Choice Energy with cities San Diego, Chula Vista, Imperial Beach and La Mesa.

Del Mar voted to join Carlsbad in the Clean Energy Alliance on Oct. 7. The cities of Solana Beach and Santee, and San Diego County, are expected to discuss joining the JPA this month, according to Carlsbad.

Under the community choice energy model, a local government buys and manages a community’s electricity supply while the region’s utility distributes the energy to customers, Carlsbad explained in its announcement.

Encinitas, Carlsbad and other cities in the region have joined such collectives in an effort to support renewable energy sources as part of their Climate Action Plans.

“All of these partner cities have already adopted Climate Action Plans of their own with goals to achieve 100 percent clean energy through Community Choice Energy and other strategies,” Crystal Najera, Encinitas’ Climate Action Plan administrator, explained in a city news release Sept. 19. “Partnering in a large regional JPA gives us many more opportunities to develop large-scale projects aimed at reducing greenhouse gases in the region.”

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