Business View Magazine | February 2019

311 the cost of operating coal-fired power plants has been shown to increase. Altogether, the window of opportunity is perfect for this collaborative ap- proach to transitioning to a net 100% renewable electrical energy. Originally, Yoder says that the County considered the Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) model, an alternative to the investor-owned utility en- ergy supply system, in which local entities aggre- gate the buying power of individual customers within a defined jurisdiction in order to secure alternative energy supply contracts. Currently CCAS are possible in the states of Massachusetts, Ohio, California, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, and Rhode Island, and serve nearly 5 percent of Americans in over 1,300 municipalities. “Our early discussions explored Community Choice Aggregation, but the utility was opposed to that,” she says, “because it forces them to do all the paperwork for the customers who want 100 percent renewable, but aren’t buying it from the utility. So, they weren’t willing to play that game.” “We said we don’t want to fight the utility,” Yo- der continues. “So, how can we work with it? We could form our own public utility, but, as a mu-