A bill to limit community choice aggregation programs from spreading in California remains standing after the Senate Appropriations Committee amended it and sent it to the Senate floor on a 5-0 vote. In the face of massive opposition from municipal governments, environmental groups, renewable energy developers, and many others the panel Aug. 14 removed a provision to require choice programs to set power rates for at least five years before beginning to operate. Choice advocates opposed the provision as too restrictive compared to the fluidity of rate setting for investor-owned utilities, according to the Local Clean Energy Alliance, a coalition that supports moving from centralized to localized power. Originally the bill—AB 2145 by Assemblymember Steven Bradford (D-Gardena)—sought to require new choice programs to get potential customers to opt-into their service, rather than being automatically enrolled and then allowed to opt-out. Choice advocates argued they couldn’t negotiate power purchase agreements without a large customer base. What’s left of the watered down bill are three basic provisions. They would: • Restrict the expansion of choice programs to no more than three contiguous counties after Jan. 1, 2015; • Require choice program customer solicitations and communications to provide information comparing the cost of power for individual customers from both the choice program and local investor-owned utility; and • Provide an expedited complaint procedure for choice customers at the California Public Utilities Commission. Due to amendments, the bill must now pass the Senate, plus the Assembly again, before the end of August. Some utilities and their unions support the measure, which would immediately limit Marin Clean Energy, the state’s first choice program, from potentially expanding to four counties.