L.A. DUMPS COAL

City of LA to quit coal at Utah's Intermountain Power Plant by 2025

Molly Petersen, March 19, 2013 (KPCC/NPR)

“LA's water and power commissioners have approved a plan to end the city's use of energy produced by coal within 12 years…[by voting] unanimously to modify a contract for power from the Intermountain Power Plant in Utah. New terms will enable the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power to stop relying on coal-fired power no later than 2025.

“The modifications to the contract with Intermountain require permitting and construction of a combined-cycle natural gas plant to begin no later than January 1, 2020. The new plant would send power to L.A. down existing transmission lines. Officials say there's no immediate plan to seek additional funding for such a project, and the plan provides flexibility: the DWP could choose an alternative technology, as long as it complies with state and federal law.”

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“The utility’s contract with a second plant – the Navajo Generating Station in Arizona – will end no later than 2019…DWP General Manager Ron Nichols says getting off of coal is a smart play economically and environmentally…Changing the contract with Intermountain was a complicated proposition, since DWP is only one of its customers. The utility had to build buy-in for eliminating coal among other California utilities and dozens of interested parties in Utah. Nichols says that took a lot of work…

“L.A. relies on coal more than other major American cities. Together the Navajo and IPP plants provide around 39 percent of the DWP’s energy. IPP alone provides more than one-fourth of LA's supplies…LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa initially set twin goals, to achieve 20 percent renewable energy in the city’s mix by 2010, and to get LA off of coal by 2020…The city has reached the 20 percent renewables goal. Villaraigosa recently moved the target to quit coal back to 2025. The DWP commissioners' decision moves the city one step closer to that goal...No other major U.S. city is reducing its carbon emissions as much or as quickly as Los Angeles…”

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