March 6, 2013 SCOTTS VALLEY -- The idea of forming a new governmental agency to oversee a local energy supplier moved another step forward Wednesday as the Scotts Valley City Council voted 4-1 to sign on to a feasibility study.

The city joins the county and Capitola in backing a proposal to study the issue, and approval from Watsonville and Santa Cruz leaders is expected soon, Gine Johnson, an analyst for Fifth District Supervisor Bruce McPherson, told council members ahead of the vote. Representatives from Scotts Valley and other jurisdictions will be appointed to an advisory committee, whose members will track progress of the study, expected to be complete by the end of the year.

The study is the first step toward possibly forming a Community Choice Aggregation program similar to Marin County's Marin Clean Energy. The nonprofit energy supplier now serves 91,000 customers, with half its energy coming from such renewable resources as solar and wind, and at rates comparable to PG&E, Johnson said. The CCAs allow cities and counties to pool their electricity use and purchase power from independent sources or generate their own. Transmission, distribution and other functions, however, would remain with PG&E.

Only 17 percent of PG&E's energy comes from renewable resources, she said. But PG&E representative Tamon Norimoto, who also attended the meeting, said the figure now stands at 19.4 percent and that they're "on our way to meeting state-mandated