Green Committee Meeting

MVCC Green Committee Meeting

Sunday, August 22nd, 2010 at 9:30 AM

Mar Vista Farmers’ Market (at tables near MVCC booth)

Corner of Venice and Grand View, Los Angeles, CA

Agenda

1. Call to order

2. Public Comment 

3. Special presentation by Chrissy Scarborough of the Sierra Club and potential motion supporting the movement to get off of coal and transform the largest publicly-owned utility from a dirty energy consumer to a clean energy consumer.

Administrative Motion: MVCC to submit a letter of support for the Sierra Club's LA Beyond Coal Campaign and encourages the LA City Council to support a plan to eliminate coal from the electricity supply of Los

Angeles. See Attachment #1

4. Administrative Motion: to submit a letter of support for Solar Feed-in Tariff Program for the City of Los Angeles.

Additional info: http://www.labusinesscouncil.org/sustainability.php    http://www.solarfit4la.com

What is a solar Feed-in Tariff (FiT)?   A solar Feed-in Tariff program allows businesses, public and non-profit organizations, and residents to install solar panels on their roofs and parking lots and sell the power generated back to the local utility. Participants receive a payment back from the utility for each Kilowatt-hour fed back into the power grid. FiT programs can generate a cost-effective source of renewable energy, create local jobs, and bring in revenue for businesses and ratepayers. Successful FiT programs have been put in place around the world. LABC has singled out programs in Germany and Gainesville, Florida as particularly effective models that Los Angeles should look to emulate.

5. Funding Motion: to allocate up to $1,500 for the purchase of reusable bags. This funding motion must meet all City of LA DONE-Empower LA funding guidelines and be paid in the fiscal year in which it is passed, or it expires June 30, 2011.

6. Discussion and possible motion to purchase a reusable water dispensing system for use at MVCC meetings and events instead of single-use disposable plastic water bottles.

7. Planning discussion: Wise Power Use Expo with new date of Wednesday, Nov. 3.

8. Update on EPA Green Power Program application.

9. LADWP Recycled Water Advisory Group report (Christopher McKinnon).

10. Guest presenters at MVCC Green Booth update

11. Public Comment

12. Adjourn

Attachment #1

Dear Council President Garcetti and Members of the Los Angeles City Council,

The Mar Vista Community Council supports eliminating coal from the electricity supply of Los Angeles by 2020 as well as providing 40% of our power from clean, renewable energy.  We ask that you embrace these goals, as our city’s leaders, by ensuring the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power adopt and execute these critical goals.

Coal is one of the dirtiest forms of energy and a major contributor to global climate change.  In 2008, over 36% of U.S. carbon dioxide emissions came from the combustion of this dirty fuel. The city of Los Angeles owns significant shares in two of the dirtiest coal plants in the nation: the Navajo Generating Station and the Intermountain Power Project. Our dependence on coal is responsible for significant pollution and human health impacts at every phase of its life cycle. In 2008, Navajo Generating Station and Intermountain Power Project released a combined total of 32, 468, 461 tons of CO₂ into the atmosphere. Additionally, each year the plant uses nearly 8 billion gallons of water from Lake Powell for cooling – a shocking number in water-starved Los Angeles.

Los Angeles has a responsibility to leave a legacy of leadership to our children and grandchildren.  We must rebuild Los Angeles in a way that will protect us from the true cost of coal: polluted rivers and fish, increased asthma rates, strokes, cancer, and other health related issues, waste of billions of gallons of fresh water to cool coal plants, and the destruction of eco-systems through strip-mining, coal-slurries, and mountain-top removal.

Furthermore, legal and regulatory uncertainty surrounding the coal industry is creating an increasingly uncertain future for the coal. This uncertainty is leading to increasing costs and price volatility for the LADWP. A well-planned transition from away from coal fired power will protect DWP bill payers. All the while, smart energy efficiency programs can help keep LADWP bills down, while creating jobs and providing upstream and downstream economic benefits.

We can address these ethical and moral concerns by doing our part and we want to help the timely and at-scale transition of Los Angeles to increased energy efficiency, demand response, and clean, renewable energy. In accomplishing this transition, Los Angeles will simultaneously create thousands of new family-wage jobs, while renewing our city’s infrastructure and rebuilding our city for the 21^st century.

The need for action to address global climate change, pollution, water resource protection and sustainability has never been more urgent.  There is no better opportunity for Los Angeles to demonstrate its leadership in the area of sustainability than to take action now:

·       Mandate the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power devise and execute a plan to end the city’s use of coal – fired power

·       Displace Los Angeles’ coal fired power through aggressive energy efficiency programs and a 40% renewable portfolio standard.

Los Angeles should be a leader in meeting the challenges of today.  There is quickly growing support for Los Angeles to seize the opportunity to build a clean and renewable energy future that will stabilize our electricity rates over the long haul because once the system is paid for, the sun and winds are free. By making progress now, the city of Los Angeles will make investments in our long-term economic future.

The Mar Vista Community Council looks forward to working with the city to achieve these goals together.  We appreciate your attention to this important matter and look forward to your response.