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The Los Angeles City Council took a step Friday toward developing a plan for how the city can move away from fossil fuel and toward getting all of its energy from renewable sources like wind and solar.
The council voted 12-0 to approve a motion asking the Department of Water and Power, which provides electricity to about 4 million residents, to begin assembling a team of experts, government regulators and stakeholders to research how and when the city could achieve the goal.
DWP currently gets about a fifth of its energy from renewable sources such as wind, solar, geothermal and biomass and waste, and nearly half its energy from natural gas, a fossil fuel that would be eliminated under the 100 percent “clean energy” goal entertained Friday.
DWP officials Friday indicated their support for the effort.
“LADWP looks forward to creating a plan for a fossil free future,” David Wright, the utility’s general manager, said during a news conference in which environmental groups and council members celebrated the approval of the motion.
“What I really appreciate about this motion is that it includes the people that have to implement the plan at the table when you develop the plan,” Wright said.
The motion, authored by councilmen Mike Bonin and Paul Krekorian, says the DWP is set to consider upgrades to its 100-year-old power system, making this a good time to explore setting up a renewable energy grid.
The council members also pointed to the dropping costs of renewable energy, which they expect will continue to drop, making moving to solar and similar technologies more feasible.
“Los Angeles can lead the way and show cities around the country — and around the world — that clean energy is here and ready to power thriving economies,” Bonin said. “This legislation will make sure that our transition to 100 percent clean energy happens as quickly and as strategically as possible and serves as a road map for other cities that want to join the clean energy future.”
Bonin said the research team will “make sure we have an actual road map” to get to the 100 percent goal, and to “identify all of the road blocks” that will need to be removed along the way.
Bonin said climate change and fossil fuel energy generation are especially pertinent to his coastal council district, which includes Venice.
“Parts of my district are going to be under water by the end of this century if we don’t move faster than the glaciers are melting, and we’re not moving that fast yet,” he said. “But we can’t rely on fossil fuels for our electricity and while we’re moving away from coal, we need to stop our reliance on natural gas.”
He said he is also concerned about natural gas storage facilities in the Playa del Rey and Playa Vista communities of his district, saying that the Aliso Canyon gas leak earlier this year showed that natural gas is “dangerous” source for the city’s energy needs.
Krekorian said the city has worked in recent years to get the city off a reliance on coal power, as well as committing to reduce its contributions to green house gases, but “the biggest boldest most important thing this city can do to improve local air quality and reduce our carbon footprint and eliminate our contribution to global warming throughout the world is to entirely eliminate fossil fuels as a source of electricity generation.”
Mayor Eric Garcetti, who has called for a goal of reaching 50 percent renewable energy by 2030, said the step taken by the City Council Friday will “will bring more progress toward the goals laid out” in his own sustainability plans and directives to the DWP after the gas leak at the Aliso Canyon natural gas storage facility.
“Environmental stewardship is a value we treasure in L.A., and I’m grateful to council members Bonin and Krekorian, and the entire City Council, for bringing us another step closer to cleaner air, healthier families and a stronger economy,” Garcetti said.
San Francisco and San Diego are among more than a dozen cities that have already adopted 100 percent clean energy goals in recent years.
— City News Service