Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on Monday appointed a five-member board for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power that is packed with environmental advocates who vowed to accelerate the agency's move toward cleaner sources of energy, including solar and wind power.
Villaraigosa said the appointments, announced at a Griffith Park nursery that provides free trees to DWP customers, reflect his commitment to a "cleaner and greener" city.
The appointees, who must be approved by the City Council, include Mary Nichols, director of the UCLA Institute of the Environment; David Nahai, a member of the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board; and William Burke, chairman of the South Coast Air Quality Management District.
Villaraigosa also appointed Nick Patsaouras, the owner of an engineering company, and Edith Ramirez, a business attorney, to the water and power board, which oversees the largest municipal utility in the nation.
"We can and must make the department more responsive to environmental concerns," Villaraigosa said. "We can and must transform the DWP from a municipal utility dependent upon burning coal into a leader in green power."
The appointees voiced support for Villaraigosa's goal of having 20% of the DWP's energy production come from renewable sources, including wind, geothermal and solar power, by the year 2010 -- up from 3% this year.
The 2010 deadline is an acceleration of the department's current plan to reach 20% by the year 2017, a goal that agency officials reluctantly agreed to under pressure from the City Council.
"Its performance with respect to renewables in the past hasn't been up to the potential that can be fulfilled," said Nahai, an attorney who also is vice chairman of the Santa Monica Bay Restoration Commission.
"I think it's doable," said Burke, who is president of the company that operates the L.A. Marathon, serves on the California Coastal Commission and is the husband of Los Angeles County Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke.
Nichols, who headed the California Resources Agency under Gov. Gray Davis, is expected to become board chairwoman. She said the department must boost its energy conservation efforts and described its current clean-energy efforts as "haphazard."
Patsaouras, a former member of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board, said he would require the DWP staff to provide quarterly reports on its effort to expand its renewable-energy portfolio.
