Los Angeles Mayor James Hahn has directed the
city’s Department of Water and Power to pull out of a deal to
expand a coal-fired power plant in Delta, Utah.
The funds
earmarked for the project — which would have provided 2
percent of the city’s power — will instead be used to
meet the mayor’s goals of providing more power from the sun,
wind and other renewable sources.
A 2002 California law
requires investor-owned utilities to purchase 20 percent of their
energy from renewable sources by the year 2017. Though the law
doesn’t apply to L.A. or to California’s 35 other
public utilities, most are voluntarily working toward increasing
the amount of clean, renewable power in their energy mix.
Los Angeles is currently reviewing dozens of renewable proposals
and has two in-state projects under development: a 120-megawatt
wind energy facility and a 40-megawatt biogas facility that
converts local yard clippings into methane.
Some
environmentalists and energy experts had questioned a proposal that
California municipalities count large hydroelectric power plants as
eligible renewable resources to meet their goals.
But the
Los Angeles City Council silenced those concerns when in October it
voted 12-to-2 to not include Hoover Dam on the Colorado River in
its renewable portfolio, even though the dam would have boosted the
city’s renewable investments from approximately 3 percent to
8 percent.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Los Angeles dumps coal deal.
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