Los Angeles to study 100% clean energy goals

Dive Brief:

Los Angeles last week joined a growing list of metro areas looking to ditch fossil fuels, setting the city on a course to run 100% on renewable power while reversing a years-long trend of greenhouse gas pollution.
For the third consecutive year, Los Angeles has been ranked the most polluted city in the country, a Los Angeles City Council member pointed out.
Sierra Club notes that Los Angeles would be the largest American city to commit to 100% clean energy, joining the likes of Salt Lake City, San Diego and Boulder, along with international names like Paris, Sydney and Vancouver, to examine the goal.

Dive Insight:

"They say the smog is the reason you have such beautiful sunsets," Dennis Farina says—far more colorfully—to John Travolta in the 1995 gangster comedy Get Shorty . That was more than two decades ago, and last year, the Wall Street Journal concluded the metro area still had the highest levels of ozone pollution in the country.

But city officials last week have taken a big step towards reversing that distinction, unanimously approving a measure that instructs the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) to study a transition away from fossil fuels to powering Los Angeles with 100% clean energy.

LADWP will now have 90 days to develop a timeline to deliver the study.

"Much of the gorgeous coastline of the district I represent will literally be underwater within decades if we do not take dramatic action," Councilmember Mike Bonin said in a statement. The legislation will accelerate the transition to cleaner energy sources, he said, "as quickly and as strategically as possible."

Bonin, along with Councilman Paul Krekorian, authored the legislation.

"This is an enormous step forward," Krekorian said. "For the third year running, Los Angeles was ranked as the most polluted city in the country, which is unacceptable and unhealthy for our families and neighborhoods. To reverse this trend we need big thinking and bold, smart action."

Los Angeles would join a growing roster of domestic and international cities looking to leave fossil fuels behind.

Last year, the San Diego City Council unanimously approved a plan to reach 100% renewables and a 50% reduction in its greenhouse gas emissions by 2035. The move made it one of the first major U.S. cities with a legally binding pledge.

Greensburg, Kansas, in 2010, was the first U.S. municipality to reach 100% green energy. Aspen, Colorado, Burlington, Vermont, Georgetown, Texas and Kodiak Island, Alaska, followed with their own 100% clean energy goals.