Santa Barbara Clean Energy (Community Choice Energy)

The rate votes, member by member

• May 11, 2021 — public hearing, 7-0. Resolution No. 21-032 set 100% Green = SCE base rate + $0.012/kWh (minutes).
• June 2022, then June 13, 2023 — 7-0. Council raised the adder to $0.016/kWh in adopting the FY23 budget, as both later resolutions recite — the budget is a venue where this rate moves — and Resolution No. 23-083 then confirmed $0.016, all seven members voting aye (resolution).
• February 25, 2025 — heard separately, six ayes. Resolution No. 25-021 raised the adder to $0.036/kWh, on a report that the increase "is needed to maintain revenue sufficiency." Motion Friedman/Harmon; ayes Friedman, O. Gutierrez, Harmon, Jordan, Santamaria, Mayor Rowse; abstaining Councilmember Sneddon, mover of both 2019 approvals. Mayor Rowse, who cast the 2019 no votes as a councilmember, voted aye. The only non-unanimous SBCE roll call since 2019 (minutes).

What it costs, what it delivers

• Schedule D, 424 kWh a month, at March 15, 2026 rates: $163.62 Edison, $163.62 Green Start, $178.88 100% Green — $15.26 a month, about $183 a year. That $15.26 is +$6.23 generation premium and +$11.54 CCA surcharges, less $2.51 for a lower Edison delivery rate. The surcharges ($0.02721/kWh here) recover stranded power-purchase commitments, are set through the CPUC not by Council, and are already inside the totals above — which is why Green Start's cheaper generation yields no bill savings.
• Every class carries the premium: D-CARE $96.79 to $112.06, where $15.27 is 15.8% of that bill; D-FERA $124.29 to $139.55; small business TOU-GS-1-A $266.66 to $298.56 (~$383/yr); TOU-GS-2-B $3,294.31 to $3,796.73 (~$6,029/yr); agriculture TOU-PA-2-A $1,304.63 to $1,518.65 (comparison).
• Emissions and credits. The 2024 labels show 0 lbs CO2e/MWh for 100% Green, 486 for Green Start and 515 for Edison's default rate. Retired unbundled renewable energy credits cover 0% of 100% Green's retail sales, 9% of Green Start's and 3% of Edison's (SBCE label; SCE label); the city's no-unbundled-credits policy is stated under the heading "100% Green" (Energy Sources).
• Ratepayers carry the startup cost: the plan's $2 million of start-up and working capital "would be recovered from customers through retail rates." The other direction: "If Santa Barbara Clean Energy realizes budget surpluses, Council will look at the best ways to reinvest those dollars into our community" (Ch. 4; About SBCE).

Enrollment, tiers, opting out

• Accounts are enrolled automatically: "most people will be enrolled in 100% Green," Edison CARE customers into Green Start "so their rates stay the same," and solar customers into Solar+, which the city pairs with 100% Green, the premium product (launch release; Rates & Billing). The city states that carve-out for existing Edison CARE customers only; the searched pages do not extend it to FERA or medical-baseline households, who on the D-FERA schedule carry the full premium (Financial Assistance).
• Changing tier or opting out is by phone, (805) 897-1979. The city's advice: "Before you opt out, consider opting down to Green Start; it is the exact same cost as Edison." Opting out means Edison's terms, no return "for one year," and ineligibility for SBCE incentives and programs (Change Service Level).
• The plan set the protections: four notices in total — two before automatic enrollment, the first about sixty days out, and at least two more in the first two billing cycles — plus a sixty-day penalty-free window, after which a departing customer is also "liable for the nominal reentry fees imposed by SCE." The City cannot order a shutoff, but "SCE has the right to shut off electricity ... for failure to pay electricity bills," and service returns to Edison after 45 days unpaid, absent other arrangements (Ch. 9).
• Council adopted SBCE's administrative policies on May 25, 2021 (Res. No. 21-034, consent, 7-0), the collections policy among them: unpaid charges of "$20.00 or more" go to a collections agency (less is written off), credit reporting follows at 180 days, legal action is authorized at $750 (minutes; policy).

Where the record stands

• The platform's extracted record runs July 23, 2019 to November 18, 2025, ending with the CalChoice services amendment (consent, 5-0; Jordan and Rowse absent, minutes). Treat the extraction as partial: this revision added fourteen items the first pass missed, and the June 13, 2023 rate confirmation sits in the city's resolutions index but not the extraction.
• That index carries no SBCE resolution after No. 25-021 through July 2026, and no scheduled Council decision was identified on 2026-07-28 — a statement about the searched record, not a guarantee nothing is pending; agendas post a week ahead on the agenda portal.
• No current participation figure is in these sources. The only numbers are the 2019 plan's projections: "approximately 80 percent" participation, 33,220 accounts at the May 2021 phase-in (Ch. 6).
• One vote is recorded two ways: for Ordinance No. 6073 the minutes read "Unanimous roll call vote" with no absences, while the extraction tallies it 6-0, Councilmember O. Gutierrez having arrived after the consent calendar.

How to be heard

• City Council meets 2:00 p.m. Tuesdays in the Council Chamber, 735 Anacapa Street; file a Request to Speak form before the item is taken up, 3 minutes a speaker. At the start of that session "any member of the public may address the City Council concerning any item not on the Council's agenda." A consent item is also "open for discussion ... upon request of a Councilmember, City staff, or member of the public": most SBCE votes here were on consent, and the one item ever pulled produced the 6-1 roll call above. Write to Mayor & City Council, P.O. Box 1990, Santa Barbara, CA 93102-1990; the same page has committee agendas and an agenda sign-up (City Council meetings).
• Sustainability & Resilience, which runs SBCE: Sustainability@SantaBarbaraCA.gov, (805) 564-5631. SBCE customer service, for tier changes and billing: Info@SBCleanEnergy.com, (805) 897-1979 (About SBCE).

DRAFT — machine-drafted from the cited records on 2026-07-28, revised after neutrality audit round 1; awaiting the gate. Corrections: every claim above must trace to its linked source; report anything that doesn't.