A second public hearing on community choice aggregation, a program that allows a local government to procure electricity and/or natural gas on behalf of its residents, businesses, and municipal accounts from a provider other than an area's traditional utility, will happen during the East Hampton Town Board's meeting next Thursday.
The hearing will follow a presentation on community choice aggregation, or C.C.A., at the board's virtual work session on Tuesday. Gordian Raacke, the executive director of Renewable Energy Long Island, is to discuss and answer questions about C.C.A. at the work session. The town board voted in June to engage that nonprofit to further the Energize East Hampton initiative, a multifaceted program to transition from fossil fuels to energy derived from renewable sources.
A town board vote on whether or not to adopt enabling legislation, a prerequisite to implementing a C.C.A. program, is expected to follow the hearing.
In such a program, a municipality enters into contracts with energy service companies for power supply purchase options within its jurisdiction. Options include power produced through 100-percent renewable sources, power produced through nonrenewable sources, or a blend. Thirty-eight of the 61 municipalities in C.C.A. programs at present receive 100-percent renewable energy as their default supply.
