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# Does anyone understand their electricity bill ?
- URL: https://www.hermosareview.com/does-anyone-understand-their-electricity-bill-2/
- Published: 2026-10-27T17:21:35.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-27T17:21:35.000Z
- Description: Council to discuss 'green energy' rate premiums, and review the city policy that opts everyone in to the most expensive rates by default. One thing is clear - residents are confused.
- Author: Hermosa Review
- Tags: City Hall

*If you live in Hermosa Beach, you are probably paying for the most expensive electricity plan on offer. You never chose it. The City Council did.*

The council made that choice on Oct. 11, 2022, late at night with few residents watching, less than a month before an election that would change its makeup. It voted to join [Clean Power Alliance](https://www.hermosabeach.gov/our-government/city-departments/public-works/environmental-programs/clean-power-alliance?ref=hermosareview.com), a public agency that buys electricity for member cities, and picked its priciest plan, 100% Green Power, as Hermosa's default. In March 2024 every account that did nothing was switched over automatically. State law makes these programs opt-out, so silence counts as a yes.

Most people stay where they are put, and that's almost certainly because they don't ever realize that they were opted-in. In Monrovia, which joined on the same terms the same month, about nine in ten customers never changed plans, [according to a Clean Power Alliance report](https://monroviaca.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/34342/638519081708100000?ref=hermosareview.com). Hermosa's participation rate is right around the same level, at 91.6% according to staff.

The Review [first reported](https://www.hermosareview.com/hermosa-beachs-green-energy-switch-bill-increases-spark-resident-frustrations-2/) on residents' confusion and frustration over the switch a year ago. Since then, the premium has only grown.

Tonight, in a rather ironic repeat of the pre-election discussion of four years ago, the subject of the Clean Power Alliance is back on the City Council's agenda. Only this time, it's to question whether residents have had a fair say, and to debate whether the city should reverse 

## What's on your bill

Your Edison bill now has two parts. Edison still charges to deliver the power, and that part is the same whatever plan you are on. The power itself comes from Clean Power Alliance, listed in its own section with your plan's name: Lean Power, Clean Power or 100% Green Power. If you never changed it, it says 100% Green Power, which is about 22% more expensive based on current rates (for just that power generation piece of the bill).

## What it costs

A typical household on the default plan pays about a total of 7% more than Edison and about $212 a year more than on Clean Power Alliance's cheapest plan, according to the [joint Edison and Clean Power Alliance rate comparison](https://www.sce.com/customer-service-center/community-choice-aggregation/sce-joint-rate-comparison-hb-monr-sp?ref=hermosareview.com) for Hermosa Beach.

## What it means for City Hall

The city has a stake in the default too. Hermosa charges a [6% utility users tax](http://www.uutinfo.org/uutinfo%5Fcity%5Finfo/hermosa%5Fbeach/hermosa%5Fbeach%5Ford.htm?ref=hermosareview.com) on electricity, so a pricier plan means more tax. 

For a standard home, moving from 100% Green Power to Clean Power would cut the bill by about $165 a year and the city's tax from that home by about $10\. But that actually means that for every dollar of tax the city gives up, the household keeps almost $17 in total savings.

That is not money the city collected before 2024\. It exists only because the council chose the expensive plan for everyone. Clean Power tier would put bills back at roughly what Edison charges, where they were before the switch. Some seniors and low-income disabled residents are exempt from the tax, so the city's actual loss would be smaller still.

## The council debate

On Sept. 8, Councilmember Rob Saemann asked the council to consider making the cheapest or medium tier plan the default, with residents able opt in to the pricier ones if desired. Mayor Pro Tem Michael Keegan and Councilmember Dean Francois agreed to bring it back for discussion tonight.

Supporters of the current default say it is how Hermosa meets its self-imposed climate goals, that defaults only work because people keep them, and that most Clean Power Alliance cities, including Manhattan Beach and Redondo Beach, do the same. Critics say residents are paying a premium they never knowingly accepted, that City Hall should not balance its budget on that premium, and that cheaper tiers cost the same or less than Edison while leaving 100% renewable power open to anyone who wants it. Several cities in Orange County have voted to default to a cheaper tier in their version of the CPA, and just this year the city of San Leandro voted unanimously to move their default from the most expensive tier back to the cheapest. So there is precedent.

The city's report on the issue assumes that nobody would choose to opt back up to the priciest tier, which raises its own set of questions. Each time the subject gets raised in the local Facebook forums, the recurring theme is one of either confusion or frustration. Nobody seems to understand their billing, and very few people understand that they were opted in. Even fewer seem to know that they can opt-out.

**What do you think ? Do you even look at your utility bill, and if you do, can you understand it ? Should expensive 'green' energy tiers be opt-in or opt-out by default for residents ?**

[IN DEPTH : Hermosa Beach's Green Energy Switch: Cost and Confusion Spark Resident ConcernsQuestions of cost and transparency frustrate residents![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/6e/b0/6eb0c461-60b1-49cd-b904-5f02d7b5a05e/content/images/icon/R-c1d728ef-1e98-49b2-82e6-f123af15ab22.png)The Hermosa ReviewHermosa Review![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/6e/b0/6eb0c461-60b1-49cd-b904-5f02d7b5a05e/content/images/thumbnail/CPAlogo-79bd7e1b-0309-48aa-947f-e44a4c1077de.png)](https://www.hermosareview.com/hermosa-beachs-green-energy-switch-bill-increases-spark-resident-frustrations-2/)