FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 22, 2012
Contact: Evan Gillespie, evan.gillespie@sierraclub.org or (213) 387-6528 X 215
Refugio Mata, refugio.mata@sierraclub.org or (805) 428-4075
Billboards Urge Mayor to Keep on Creating Clean Energy Jobs and Businesses Opportunities
Los Angeles Business Council and Sierra Club Applaud City’s Recent Progress on Solar, Launch of Billboards Part of Campaign to Transition to Clean Energy
LOS ANGELES – Billboards [images below] were launched today at three major locations –on Wilshire Blvd just west of Wilton Pl., S. La Brea Avenue north of Wilshire Blvd, and Sepulveda Blvd north of La Tijera Blvd – thanking Mayor Villaraigosa for his ongoing leadership to transition Los Angeles to a clean energy economy. They city has been getting up to 39% of its power from two aging out-of-state coal plants – the Navajo Generating Station (NGS) in Arizona and the Intermountain Power Project (IPP) in Utah – that have become a financial liability for Angelenos as a result of the alarming pollution effects coal plants have on public health and air quality.
“As Los Angeles moves away from coal-fired power, we’re thrilled LADWP is using programs like the CLEAN LA solar rooftop program which creates businesses and jobs,” said Mary Leslie of the Los Angeles Business Council. “This program will create 150 MWs of fixed-priced, rooftop solar power by 2016, one of the biggest local renewable power commitments any American city has made. It will create more than 4,500 jobs in rooftop solar and create $500 million in economic development. LA is in prime position to boost its economy through local clean energy generation.”
“The LADWP, working under Mayor Villaraigosa’s goals to get our city off of coal by 2020, has taken major steps forward in just the past few weeks alone to prepare a switch to clean energy” said Evan Gillespie of the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign. “The expansion of renewable energy, which now includes a groundbreaking agreement with K Road Moapa Solar to build a solar project on the Moapa Band of Paiutes reservation – one of the first of its kind on Native American tribal land- represents a major tipping point for Los Angeles.”
The LADWP recently finalized a funding proposal that was approved by the City Council to put into place key components of the city’s clean energy transition. It included $260 million to double the budget for energy efficiency, funding to expand the CLEAN LA program that will create local jobs installing solar panels, and money to replace the city’s 21% share in the NGS coal plant with a mix of clean energy sources like local solar, wind, and geothermal by 2015. The LADWP has not yet announced a transition plan as it relates to the other coal plant it receives power from – the IPP plant. Clean energy supporters like the Sierra Club and the LA Business Council are urging for a speedy development of a transition plan.
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