In New York, community choice aggregation is an especially compelling prospect. It dovetails with a wider effort to reorient state energy policy around renewables, distributed generation, and energy efficiency called Reforming the Energy Vision. Expected to take a decade to fully iron out, the regulatory overhaul -- which stands to reconfigure the longstanding monopoly model -- is underway. But community choice aggregation is already available, and the number of cities opting in is on the rise.

John Farrell, who heads up the Energy Democracy initiative at ILSR, recently spoke with Glenn Weinberg, who helped launch Westchester Power, a community choice aggregation program for 20 communities just north of New York City.