The California Energy Commission on Wednesday imposed new rules that effectively forbid the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and all other municipal utilities in the state from signing new contracts with coal-fired power plants.
The move, together with identical regulations imposed on private utilities in January, is a significant step toward reducing the contribution of California, the world's sixth largest economy, to global warming.
"This will reduce greenhouse emissions throughout the Western states," said Claudia Chandler, a spokeswoman for the California Energy Commission. "People have long been critical of California for exporting its pollution.... Now we are holding ourselves accountable."
California, with the strictest pollution laws in the nation, has largely phased out coal-fired generators within its borders. But the state still buys about 20% of its electricity from coal-fueled power plants in other states.
The DWP buys 47% of its power from two massive coal-fired plants in Utah and Arizona that are major sources of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. Those contracts expire in 2017 and 2027. Now, under state law, they cannot be renewed unless those plants find a way to pump their emissions underground, but the technology to do so is unproven.
Nor can Pasadena, Burbank, Glendale and other cities that own their utilities forge any new contracts with coal-fired generators, or with gas-fired plants that lack modern pollution controls.
"We saw this legislation coming and we support it," said David Nahai, president of the DWP board. The board, with a mandate from Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, has hiked the agency's renewable energy supply from wind farms and other sources from 3% to 8% since October 2005, Nahai said. "This utility is turning itself around."
The state's action will help Villaraigosa carry out his recent pledge to increase the amount of renewable power to 35% of the city's energy portfolio by 2020, Nahai said. He said the city expects only a moderate increase in electricity rates as a result -- about 1.4% over the next five years for an average-sized business. "It is affordable, and the cost will be spread over a long period of time."
