City Leaders, LADWP Embrace RePowerLA’s Energy Efficiency Programs

ENVIRONMENT - On Monday, RePower LA was joined by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, City Council members, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power general manager Ron Nichols, and others at the site of a South LA home undergoing an energy efficiency upgrade.

City leaders are now touting the programs, initially proposed by the RePower LA coalition, which are upgrading small business facilities and the homes of those struggling in the current economy. The customers reduce their energy use and save money, LA reduces its reliance on dirty coal-fired power plants, and members of our hardest-hit communities are able to access good career path jobs through the Utility Pre-Craft Trainee program of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 18.

With such win-win-win potential, it is good to see LADWP and city leaders embracing energy efficiency as a central pillar of LA’s future.

Writing in a Daily News op-ed, Kristin Eberhard of the Natural Resources Defense Council and Evan Gillespie of the Sierra Club, both RePower LA partners, laid out a plan for LADWP to meet future demand with cleaner energy.

Their recommendations would move Los Angeles away from coal power and toward renewables. And Number One on their agenda is energy efficiency — “the cleanest, cheapest local energy resource available,” according to Eberhard and Gillespie.

(This article was posted first at fryingpannews.org)
-cw



CityWatch
Vol 10 Issue 75
Pub: Sept 18, 2012