At its August 9 meeting, Teaneck’s Council and its residents heard an update on the Township’s efforts to establish a Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) program from a representative of Gabel Associates, the consultant the Town had selected to guide its efforts to implement the program selected by Teaneck residents last November to secure more renewable energy sources for its electricity.
The news was not good. The Town had on Tuesday just opened the two bids it had received – and sadly their proposed costs to supply renewably sourced energy in the midst of the current inflation were significantly higher than those currently being charged by PSE&G, the Town’s utility. The subsequent 20-minute discussion among Council members, particularly those who had who actively opposed the ordinance which mandated the CCA initiative, was not unexpected. (Click Here and take your cursor to minute 20 of the video.). Council did unanimously take the option of trying again in 120 days to see if market conditions had changed. But the press release about CCA authored by Township Mayor Dunleavy and placed on the Township website certainly does not provide insight into the tortured history of this CCSA initiative in Teaneck And Click Here.
In order to provide our readers a more complete report, Teaneck Voices has turned to Paula Rogovin, the resident who has long-spearheaded climate change advocacy and this renewable energy effort, to describe the history of and prospects for this effort which had been so clearly supported by Teaneck voters.
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What’s happening with Teaneck’s Community Choice Aggregation Program? by Paula Rogovin
In November 2021, voters overwhelmingly approved a ballot question to give all residents access to aCCA Cannabis present Cannabis present 
clean energy option on their utility bills through the creation of a Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) program.
CCA programs empower municipal and county governments to “bulk purchase” electricity on behalf of their residents. This allows towns to choose cleaner forms of electricity like solar and wind at discounted “bulk” rates. They allow all residents to opt out of the program, if they so choose.
Unfortunately over the last 3 years the Teaneck Mayor and Council have consistently dragged their heels and obstructed the implementation of a strong CCA program.
CCA first came before the Township back in 2019. After learning how towns and cities across New Jersey were saving money on their electric bills while going green, the Teaneck Environmental Commission voted to support the program and began working with residents to present the idea to the Teaneck Council.
Regrettably, members of the Township Council, led by Keith Kaplan, systematically interfered with the efforts by residents and the Environmental Commission to have the Council consider the initiative. Kaplan as liaison to the Commission refused to even pass on the request for public discussion.
After nearly two years of obstructed advocacy, residents were forced to pursue a referendum to put the CCA program as a question to Teaneck voters.
Then, after collecting enough petition signatures last summer to qualify the program as a ballot question, referendum supporters saw the Teaneck administration attempt to reject the electronic petition signatures mandated by Governor Murphy to keep people safe during the covid pandemic.
The referendum supporters then sued the Township for its refusal to accept the petitions and won the right to put the referendum on the ballot.. And then Teaneck residents voted overwhelmingly to approve the CCA program last November. And for good reason – a recent wave of community choice programs launched in towns and cities across the state were saving residents money on their utility bills while helping protect public health and the environment by transitioning their communities onto 100% clean energy sources.
Since the Winter of 2021-2, however, global energy markets have been severely impacted by ongoing supply chain issues from the global COVID-19 crisis, and more recently by Russia’s brutal war in Ukraine. The current energy market volatility has made it much more difficult for CCA programs to find suppliers who can provide clean renewable electricity at a rate below that of the incumbent utility (in Teanecks’ case, it’s PSE&G). That’s in part because PSE&G and other monopoly utilities’ use their privileged position in the markets to hedge their energy market volatility over the long term.
When global energy markets stabilize, and as renewable energy costs, spurred by the massive investments within the Federal Inflation Reduction Act, are driven down below pre-pandemic levels, the CCA program will no doubt provide substantial cost savings to Teaneck residents while significantly cutting the Townships’ carbon footprint.
Unfortunately the foot dragging and obstructionism by the Teaneck Council means residents will have to wait some time before having access to a cost-effective clean energy option on their existing utility bill. As H. Jackson Brown wrote, “nothing is more expensive than a missed opportunity”. Fortunately, under the referendum’s ordinance, the Township has the authority to delay implementation of the CCA program until energy markets stabilize and a clean energy option can be provided to residents at a rate below the PSE&G default rate.
