LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM—updated April 2025
Contents
Introduction .....................................................................................................................3 Ava Board of Directors.....................................................................................................4 Contact Information.........................................................................................................5 Mailing Address...........................................................................................................................................................5 Program Staff..............................................................................................................................................................5 Legislative Advocates.......................................................................................................6 State Legislative Advocate ..........................................................................................................................................6 Federal Legislative Advocate ......................................................................................................................................6 General Legislative Principles ..........................................................................................7 Making Electricity More Affordable............................................................................................................................7 Protecting Community Choice ....................................................................................................................................7 Accelerating Decarbonization.....................................................................................................................................7 Promoting Local Development ...................................................................................................................................7 Increasing Bill Transparency and Understanding .......................................................................................................8 Ava Public Policy Positions...............................................................................................9
1.1 Nonbypassable Charges........................................................................................................................................9
1.2 Disadvantaged Communities................................................................................................................................9
1.3 Environmental Sustainability ................................................................................................................................9
1.4 Finance ..................................................................................................................................................................9
1.5 Educational, Neighborhood, and Social Services................................................................................................10
1.6 Distributed Energy Resources.............................................................................................................................10
1.7 Clean Energy Tax Credits.....................................................................................................................................10
1.8 Streamlining Energy Permitting and Regulatory Compliance ............................................................................10 Legislative Program Coordination..................................................................................11 Attachment Staff Report Item 16D
LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM—updated April 2025
Introduction
The Ava Community Energy Legislative Program outlines the legislative priorities and stances of Ava Community Energy (“Ava”) with the intent to inform customers, representatives, and policymakers of Ava’s stances on the myriad public policies that intersect with Ava’s priorities, programs, and services. These priorities are applicable to legislation, statewide referenda, grant funding opportunities, and local ballot initiatives.
Ava has five major legislative priorities: Making Electricity More Affordable, Protecting Community Choice, Accelerating Decarbonization, Promoting Local Development, and Increasing Bill Transparency and Understanding.
Ava support of legislation will be contingent upon that legislation adhering to these priorities.
Moreover, Ava supports any and all policies that will preserve or enhance the ability of Ava to promote these priorities at the local level.
This document provides direction to Ava’s legislative advocates in Sacramento and Washington, DC. Additionally, this document serves as the foundation for any Ava Board action regarding Federal or State legislation or funding opportunity. Staff may draft letters, direct our legislative advocates, or speak on behalf of Ava regarding the legislative priorities this document outlines.
Any correspondence signifying Ava’s support or opposition of a given bill must be approved by the Ava Board of Directors, the Board’s Executive Committee, or the CEO in accordance with the delegation of authority provided by the Board to the CEO on time-sensitive matters.
Any questions regarding this Legislative Program can be directed to Sam Sadle, Principal Legislative Manager, at 510.753.5248 or [email protected].
Sincerely,
Howard Chang
Chief Executive Officer, Ava
Attachment Staff Report Item 16D
LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM—updated April 2025
Ava Board of Directors
Alameda County
Supervisor Elisa Márquez
Albany
Mayor Robin López
Berkeley
Councilmember Igor Tregub
Dublin
Councilmember John Morada
Emeryville
Vice Mayor Sukhdeep Kaur
Fremont
Councilmember Teresa Keng
Hayward
Councilmember Julie Roche
Lathrop
Councilmember Minnie Diallo
Livermore
Councilmember Ben Barrientos
Newark
Councilmember Julie Del Catancio
Oakland
Councilmember Rowena Brown
Piedmont
Mayor Betsy Andersen (Vice Chair)
Pleasanton
Mayor Jack Balch (Chair)
San Joaquin County
Supervisor Robert Rickman
San Leandro
Mayor Juan González III
Stockton
Mayor Christina Fugazi
Tracy
Councilmember Dotty Nygard
Union City
Vice Mayor Scott Sakakihara
Community Advisory Committee (non-voting)
Ed Hernandez, Chair
Attachment Staff Report Item 16D
LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM—updated April 2025
Contact Information
Mailing Address
1999 Harrison Street, Suite 2300
Oakland, CA 94612
Program Staff
Chief Executive Officer
Howard Chang
510.809.7458
[email protected]
Principal Legislative Manager
Sam Sadle
510.753.5248
[email protected]
Attachment Staff Report Item 16D
LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM—updated April 2025
Legislative Advocates
State Legislative Advocate
Omni Government Relations
Dan Chia
1121 L Street, Suite 408
Sacramento, CA 95814
916.425.8481
[email protected]
Federal Legislative Advocate
Townsend Public Affairs
Joseph Melo
600 Pennsylvania Avenue SE, Suite 207
Washington, DC, 20003
202.546.8696
[email protected]
Attachment Staff Report Item 16D
LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM—updated April 2025
General Legislative Principles
Ava has five general legislative principles. These priorities serve as the foundation for all actions Ava will take, including the lobbying for policies that promote those same guiding priorities.
Public policy encompasses a myriad of subject and topic areas. As these policies intersect at the local level, they have the ability to impact Ava revenues, programs, and/or administrative discretion and control. Ava will support policies that make electricity more affordable, protect community choice, accelerate decarbonatization, promote local development, increase bill transparency and understanding, or any combination thereof. If a given policy does not meet these criteria, Ava will oppose, support if amended, or in some cases take no stance on that policy or legislation.
The General Legislative Principles for Ava are:
Making Electricity More Affordable
• Support legislation, policies, referenda, and budgets that put downward pressure on current and future energy rates and decrease the amount customers pay for their electricity bills without jeopardizing reliability and emissions reductions goals.
• Oppose any legislation, policies, referenda, and budgets that increase customer costs without a clear and obvious justification for doing so, and unless there are no viable alternatives.
Protecting Community Choice
• Support any legislation, policies, referenda, and budgets that maintain or improve the stability of community choice energy providers by ensuring regulatory structure is equitable and enables Ava to meet its mission and goals.
• Oppose any legislation, policies, referenda, and budgets that undermine or circumvent community choice energy and impede the ability of the agency to achieve its mission and goals or its value proposition.
Accelerating Decarbonization
• Support the creation or expansion of federal, state, and local policies and programs that enable Ava to contribute to state and local community efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. • Oppose any legislation, policies, programs, referenda, unfunded mandates and budgets that would have an adverse impact on Ava’s ability to advance decarbonization through its procurement, programs, projects, and services.
Promoting Local Development
• Support any legislation, policy, referenda, and budgets that enhance community choice energy providers’ ability to invest in local clean energy, distributed energy resources, and zero-emission transportation, and promote equity in the communities that it serves.
• Oppose any legislation, policy, referenda, and budgets that limit or undermine Ava’s ability to invest in local clean energy, distributed energy resources, and zero-emission transportation, and promote equity in the communities that it serves.
Attachment Staff Report Item 16D
LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM—updated April 2025
Increasing Bill Transparency and Understanding
• Support any legislation, policies, referenda, and budgets that provide for a more transparent electricity ratemaking process and strengthen customer understanding of where charges come from. • Oppose any legislation, policies, referenda, and budgets that hinder ratemaking transparency and/or induce customer confusion related to energy bills and why they are being billed for certain charges.
Attachment Staff Report Item 16D
LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM—updated April 2025
Ava Public Policy Positions
The General Legislative Priorities help identify which public policy positions Ava will take.
The list of policy positions below is by no means exhaustive. In addition to the general legislative priorities, Ava takes the following more specific public policy positions:
1.1 Nonbypassable Charges
A. Oppose legislation that restricts or limits Ava’s ability to procure its own energy products to meet state policy goals.
B. Oppose legislation that increases or is likely to lead to an increase in nonbypassable charges.
C. Support legislation that promotes a level playing field between community choice aggregators and other market participants.
D. Support legislation that enhances the flexibility of community choice energy providers to meet statewide procurement policy and develop and expand programs, local options, and rate design to support Ava’s community and customers.
1.2 Disadvantaged Communities
A. Support legislation and initiatives that boost funding for and access to bill credits, energy projects, and electrification programs that serve disadvantaged communities and low-income customers within Ava’s service territory.
B. Support legislation and initiatives that reduce local air pollution, health outcome disparities, and other negative impacts associated with energy production and consumption.
C. Support legislation and policies that enhance the stability and impact of programs that reduce energy bills for low-income customers and assist them with paying their energy bills.
D. Oppose legislation and initiatives that have the potential to disproportionately and negatively impact disadvantaged communities and/or low-income customers within Ava’s service territory.
1.3 Environmental Sustainability
A. Support legislation and initiatives that increase and/or stabilize funding for the creation of sustainable energy supply infrastructure, innovative renewable energy sources, and resource efficiency programs.
B. Support legislation and initiatives that encourage efficient energy consumption and the overall conservation of energy resources.
C. Support legislation and initiatives that reduce and mitigate the effects of climate change and enhance local resiliency.
1.4 Finance
A. Support legislation that enhances the financial standing of community choice aggregators and their ability to receive a positive credit rating.
B. Oppose legislation that removes the tax-exempt status of municipal bonds or otherwise interferes with community choice aggregators’ ability to leverage bond markets to secure customer savings.
C. Oppose any legislation that would divert community choice energy revenues to the State or other governmental entities.
Attachment Staff Report Item 16D
LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM—updated April 2025
1.5 Educational, Neighborhood, and Social Services
A. Support legislation that aids or helps Ava to provide energy support services, electric bill and home electrification education, and opportunities for reducing energy costs to people who are low-income, seniors, veterans, and/or people with disabilities.
B. Support legislation and initiatives that increase funding for energy efficiency, demand response, solar plus storage, transportation electrification programs, and energy literacy services.
C. Support legislation and policies that enhance ratemaking transparency and customer energy bill transparency and understanding.
1.6 Distributed Energy Resources
A. Support legislation and policies that increase funding for and facilitate the adoption and deployment of distributed energy resources (DERs), including batteries, electric heat pump water heaters, thermostats, and electric vehicle charging.
B. Support legislation and initiatives that encourage the development of dynamic load-shifting capabilities and technology, including managed charging.
C. Oppose legislation that threatens community choice aggregator autonomy over DER program implementation and virtual power plant (VPP) configuration and cost-recovery.
1.7 Clean Energy Tax Credits
A. Support legislation that maintains and/or expands financial incentives for investing in and developing clean energy projects, including for renewable energy component manufacturing and electricity generation.
B. Support legislation that maintains and/or expands financial incentives for households and property owners to install clean energy technologies and invest in energy efficiency home upgrades.
C. Support legislation that maintains and/or expands financial incentives for consumers, businesses, and local governments to purchase new or used zero emission vehicles and charging infrastructure.
D. Oppose legislation and policies that reduce, repeal, or create barriers to accessing clean energy tax incentives.
1.8 Streamlining Energy Permitting and Regulatory Compliance A. Support legislation and policies that reduce administrative and regulatory barriers to developing renewable energy generation and transmission projects, including through implementing more efficient permitting processes, without jeopardizing environmental standards and local community and stakeholder input.
B. Support legislation and policies that reduce and/or streamline certification requirements and permitting processes necessary to install energy efficient electric appliances and home battery systems, making it easier and more affordable for Ava customers to electrify their homes.
C. Support legislation and policies that eliminate outdated and duplicative compliance reporting requirements that save administrative overhead costs and increase customer savings.
D. Oppose legislation and policies that unjustifiably increase burdensome regulatory requirements, including for energy project development and ongoing load serving entity (LSE) compliance.
Attachment Staff Report Item 16D
LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM—updated April 2025
Legislative Program Coordination
Legislation can be brought to the attention of Ava through a variety of channels:
• State and Federal Legislative Advocates
• Elected Representatives
• CalCCA
• LEAN Energy US
• Ava Board Members
• Ava Staff
• Ava Community Advisory Committee
• Ava Customers and Community Members
• Other Governmental Associations
All legislative requests for support or opposition will be directed toward Ava’s Public Policy department. Ava staff will then review the legislation in coordination with any relevant departments to analyze whether the legislation aligns with Ava’s general legislative priorities. Staff will then monitor and track the legislation, providing updates when necessary.
Concurrent with this evaluation, Ava’s Public Policy department will recommend a position and course of action.
Legislation Review Process and Timeline
The California state legislature routinely introduces thousands of bills during each legislative session, approximately half of which are passed by both chambers and sent to the governor’s desk. In 2024, for example, the legislature introduced 2,124 bills, 1,206 of which were acted on by the Governor. Although the exact number fluctuates year to year, typically a few hundred bills each session are related to energy, utilities, or local governance – the policy areas in which Ava takes a particular interest.
Bringing every energy or local government-related bill to the Board of Directors for a position vote each year would be unfeasible and inefficient. Ava’s Public Policy department, in partnership with Ava’s legislative advocates and trade associations, is therefore responsible for tracking this full suite of legislative activity, identifying bills that have or could have an impact on Ava’s operations, and ultimately selecting a smaller subset of bills to prioritize and bring to the Board of Directors for a position vote, based on the following general criteria:
1. Taking action (for, against, or neutral) on this legislation will align with Ava’s legislative principles;
2. Ava has a unique interest in this legislation;
3. Should Ava take no action, it is unlikely that other relevant stakeholders will lead the push for or against this legislation; and/or
4. The impacts of this legislation on Ava are substantial/existential.
Ava staff will typically spend the first few months of the legislative session (January-March) monitoring bill introductions and tracking all relevant legislation. As bills are amended in late March and into April, staff will conduct deeper bill analyses and determine the final slate of bills to introduce to committees and the full Board of Directors. Starting in May, staff will recommend the Board take a specific position on each bill included in the previously identified slate. (Support, Support if Amended, Oppose, Oppose Unless Amended, Neutral) Attachment Staff Report Item 16D
LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM—updated April 2025
Ava staff will follow a similar set of criteria when evaluating federal legislation. Because the Congressional legislative cycle is generally less predictable than California’s and the volume of bills passed each year by Congress is typically much smaller, federal bill position recommendations will be brought to the Board on an ad-hoc basis.
Legislative Action
There are six main levels of action, which may be taken independently or in combination, but all of which are coordinated by the Principal Legislative Manager of Public Policy or their designee:
1. Direction to lobbyists to advocate in support, support if amended, oppose unless amended, or opposition to legislation
a. Pursuant to direction from the Ava Board of Directors, the Board’s Executive Committee, or the CEO in accordance with the delegation of authority provided by the Board to the CEO on time-sensitive matters, Ava staff will notify lobbyists of Ava’s stance on legislation and direct them to take appropriate action with legislators. Ava may remain neutral on a given piece of legislation.
2. Ava correspondence with relevant legislators
a. In conjunction with providing direction to lobbyists once Ava has determined its stance on legislation, Ava staff will send a support or opposition letter to the appropriate legislators.
3. Ava Board-approved resolution
a. Ava staff will draft a staff report and resolution for consideration by the full Ava Board of Directors. Approved resolutions will be forwarded along with a letter signed by the Chief Executive Officer or his/her designee to the appropriate legislators.
4. Ava Board outreach
a. Ava staff will draft talking points and other relevant information for individual Board Members to personally contact appropriate legislators to advocate on behalf of Ava.
5. Travel to Sacramento or Washington, D.C
a. Ava staff and/or Board Members may decide to advocate in person. Staff will coordinate with the appropriate lobbyists to organize meetings or attendance at other lobbying events.
6. Draft or Sponsor Specific Legislation
a. Ava staff and legislative advocates will work with Ava’s legislative representatives to articulate Ava’s stance on a policy and to ensure said stance is codified in statute.
Attachment Staff Report Item 16D