IT'S TIME FOR A CLEAN AND AFFORDABLE ENERGY FUTURE.
IT'S TIME TO MOVE LOS ANGELES BEYOND COAL.
The Dirty Truth about LA's energy
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Moving Los Angeles Beyond Coal
Los Angeles gets more power from dirty and dangerous coal than any other source - roughly 40% of our electricity. Getting power from coal is damaging to public health, the environment and Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) customer’s pocketbooks. We import our coal from Arizona and Utah, where we buy power from two of the largest and dirtiest plants in the country. Combined, these plants emit nearly 36 million tons of climate-disrupting pollution every year - as much as roughly 6 million cars. These plants are also significant sources of mercury, ozone, and other hazardous air pollutants. In fact, the Navajo Generating Station in Arizona has ranked as high as third in the nation in ozone pollution in recent years.
As long as Los Angeles maintains its relationship with these two plants, not only will we continue to damage the climate and outsource a major public health threat, but we limit our city’s opportunity to grab hold of the burgeoning clean energy economy. In recent years, $9 billion dollars in green venture capital has poured into the state following the approval of California’s Global Warming Solutions Act (AB32). It is imperative that our City’s leaders adopt policies that direct this influx of investment towards Los Angeles. Clean energy policies like the proposed solar feed-in-tariff or efficiency programs like home weatherization are excellent examples of the local policies that can benefit the Los Angeles economy while supporting our environmental goals. However, so long as 39% of Los Angeles’ power comes from out-of-state coal plants, a structural barrier to a clean energy economy will block progress in LA.
As long as Los Angeles maintains its relationship with these two plants, not only will we continue to damage the climate and outsource a major public health threat, but we limit our city’s opportunity to grab hold of the burgeoning clean energy economy. In recent years, $9 billion dollars in green venture capital has poured into the state following the approval of California’s Global Warming Solutions Act (AB32). It is imperative that our City’s leaders adopt policies that direct this influx of investment towards Los Angeles. Clean energy policies like the proposed solar feed-in-tariff or efficiency programs like home weatherization are excellent examples of the local policies that can benefit the Los Angeles economy while supporting our environmental goals. However, so long as 39% of Los Angeles’ power comes from out-of-state coal plants, a structural barrier to a clean energy economy will block progress in LA.
LA Beyond Coal Policy Outcomes
Create a plan to stop burning coal at the Intermountain Power Project (IPP) in Utah by 2020 and embed it into the LADWP Integrated Resource Plan (IRP). The Integrated Resource Plan is a planning tool used by utilities to chart future energy procurement.
A key metric for this plan is how Los Angeles uses clean energy to replace our dirty coal. LADWP should prioritize the following policies to help support the coal to clean energy transition:
• Invest revenue from sale of NGS shares into the clean energy and efficiency programs at LADWP.
• Prioritize energy efficiency and green jobs by setting a 2% annual energy efficiency standard through 2020 at LADWP. Energy efficiency is the least cost energy resource and will help LADWP customers
• Develop a local 600 MW solar feed-in-tariff to help leverage job creation opportunities in the clean energy economy.
• Pursue more large scale renewable energy projects to help hedge against the rising cost of fossil fuels and meet the state’s 2020 33% renewable portfolio standard.
A key metric for this plan is how Los Angeles uses clean energy to replace our dirty coal. LADWP should prioritize the following policies to help support the coal to clean energy transition:
• Invest revenue from sale of NGS shares into the clean energy and efficiency programs at LADWP.
• Prioritize energy efficiency and green jobs by setting a 2% annual energy efficiency standard through 2020 at LADWP. Energy efficiency is the least cost energy resource and will help LADWP customers
• Develop a local 600 MW solar feed-in-tariff to help leverage job creation opportunities in the clean energy economy.
• Pursue more large scale renewable energy projects to help hedge against the rising cost of fossil fuels and meet the state’s 2020 33% renewable portfolio standard.
Read the Report
The Sierra Club recently contracted Synapse Energy Economics, Inc., a respected third-party energy consulting firm, to analyze the data available in the DWP’s 2010 Draft Integrated Resource Plan and determine which policy decisions available to the DWP Board and City Council will save LADWP customers the most money.
The report had interesting and important findings, including:
· Even under the most conservative scenarios, LADWP customers do not have to be penalized for shedding coal by 2020 (as opposed to 2027, as LADWP’s draft IRP recommends).
· If LADWP targets efficiency as a serious, preferred resource rather than a short-term requirement, the city can not only transition off of coal by 2020, but LADWP customers will be exposed to lower financial risk in the coming years, and could see a benefit in bills, compared to the recommended plan put forward by the utility.
· The scenario recommended by the 2010 DWP IRP (a slow 2027 phase-out of coal-fired power) may well result in higher bills for DWP customers than if the DWP were to invest aggressively in efficiency and renewable energy (the recommended IRP scenario would be approximately $1.30 more expensive for average residential consumers each month than the “green scenario” offered in the Syanpse report).
The report had interesting and important findings, including:
· Even under the most conservative scenarios, LADWP customers do not have to be penalized for shedding coal by 2020 (as opposed to 2027, as LADWP’s draft IRP recommends).
· If LADWP targets efficiency as a serious, preferred resource rather than a short-term requirement, the city can not only transition off of coal by 2020, but LADWP customers will be exposed to lower financial risk in the coming years, and could see a benefit in bills, compared to the recommended plan put forward by the utility.
· The scenario recommended by the 2010 DWP IRP (a slow 2027 phase-out of coal-fired power) may well result in higher bills for DWP customers than if the DWP were to invest aggressively in efficiency and renewable energy (the recommended IRP scenario would be approximately $1.30 more expensive for average residential consumers each month than the “green scenario” offered in the Syanpse report).
Download: "Phasing Out Coal in LA by 2020: A Green Future for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power"
Moving the United States Beyond Coal
Nationally, coal-fired power provides about half of our electricity and more than 30% of the nation’s global warming pollution.1 From the mine to the plant to the ash waste pond, coal is our dirtiest and most dangerous energy source. Coal causes four of the five leading causes of death in the United States, including heart disease, cancer, stroke and chronic lower respiratory diseases. Coal destroys mountains and releases toxic mercury into communities. Continuing our dependence on coal chains us to dirty energy and prevents us from making the changes we need to bring about a clean, secure energy future.
The Beyond Coal Campaign is designed to drastically reduce carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants, one of the largest sources of global warming pollution in the U.S. This Campaign aims to move our economy toward a clean energy future by stopping new coal-fired plants, phasing out existing plants, and keeping U.S. coal reserves in the ground and out of international markets. Thanks in part to the work of the Beyond Coal Campaign, plans for more than 152 new coal plants2 have been shelved in the last eight years, keeping well more than 570 million tons of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.3 For the first time since the Industrial Revolution, not a single coal plant broke ground for more than two years.
Though we have enjoyed success thus far, our work is far from done. As we continue to block new plants from being built, Los Angeles, the second largest city in the country, is at the forefront of the next fight: transition existing dirty coal plants to cleaner sources of energy.
The Beyond Coal Campaign is designed to drastically reduce carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants, one of the largest sources of global warming pollution in the U.S. This Campaign aims to move our economy toward a clean energy future by stopping new coal-fired plants, phasing out existing plants, and keeping U.S. coal reserves in the ground and out of international markets. Thanks in part to the work of the Beyond Coal Campaign, plans for more than 152 new coal plants2 have been shelved in the last eight years, keeping well more than 570 million tons of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.3 For the first time since the Industrial Revolution, not a single coal plant broke ground for more than two years.
Though we have enjoyed success thus far, our work is far from done. As we continue to block new plants from being built, Los Angeles, the second largest city in the country, is at the forefront of the next fight: transition existing dirty coal plants to cleaner sources of energy.
