The Los Angeles Planning Commission on Thursday approved one of the most ambitious green building programs of any big city in the nation, requiring large new developments to be 15% more energy efficient.
The new rules, which also restrict water use, aim to cut the city's emissions of greenhouse gases that are responsible for global warming.
Cities have no power over vehicle tailpipe emissions, which are ultimately controlled by the federal government. And power plants, another major source of greenhouse gases, are mostly regulated by state government, except in the case of cities that own utilities, such as Los Angeles.
So building, which local government can regulate, is key to the efforts of more than 720 mayors nationwide who have pledged to meet the targets of the Kyoto Protocol, the international treaty to limit global warming. The Bush administration opposes the agreement.
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa applauded the Planning Commission's action. "In the city with the dirtiest air in America, reducing our carbon footprint is not a luxury but an absolute necessity," he said. "Green building may be the most significant thing we can do."
Villaraigosa has pledged to lower the city's greenhouse emissions 35% below 1990 levels by 2030. Statewide, California's landmark 2006 global warming law mandates a cut in carbon emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.
Under the L.A. rules, new buildings with more than 50 units or 50,000 square feet of floor area would be required to meet national standards established by the U.S. Green Building Council, a Washington-based nonprofit organization that is working with cities across the country. The measure is expected to come before the City Council early next year.
The standards -- known as Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED -- would reduce the amount of energy used in large developments to well below what is required by California's building code, the strictest in the nation.
The city receives about 200 permit requests for large residential, commercial and industrial buildings each year, amounting to about 9% of new construction in Los Angeles.
Nationwide, construction is the biggest manufacturing industry. Buildings account for 39% of U.S. energy use, 70% of electricity consumption and 12% of potable water use.
"Reducing our environmental footprint will make us a more livable city," said Planning Commission President Jane Ellison Usher in approving the new ordinance.
