Environmental Coalition Calls City’s Proposal for Wind Power a Good Start

A coalition of seven leading environmental groups welcomed a wind-power project announced Monday by Los Angeles officials as a good first step, but called on city leaders to greatly expand Los Angeles’ portfolio of renewable energy.

The Pine Tree project would boost the city Department of Water and Power’s production of renewable energy to 3.7%, but that amount is less than one-third of what utilities statewide provide. About 12% of the electricity provided to California residents comes from renewable sources. Environmental activists want Los Angeles, which currently relies on green power for 2.2% of its power production, to increase that percentage to 20%.

“The proposed Pine Tree Wind Farm is an exciting first step in embarking on a path toward a smart, clean energy future, but far more remains to be done,” said the Los Angeles Clean Energy Campaign Coalition.

The group, which includes the organizations Environment California, Global Green, the Coalition for Clean Air and the Los Angeles Interfaith Environmental Council, said even with the new wind project, “the DWP will still lag far behind the rest of the state in terms of renewables in its portfolio.”

Some city officials are concerned that the DWP has failed to shift significantly from fossil fuel power plants to clean energy despite having promised a move toward renewable sources when it launched its Green Power program nearly four years ago.

In announcing the Pine Tree project Monday, Mayor James K. Hahn said he has prodded the DWP to do more and is confident the new wind farm is the start of a significant shift to clean power. “I am proud of the department’s quick response to my call last November for a stepped-up investment in renewable resources,” Hahn said during a news conference in front of DWP headquarters.

If approved today by the DWP Commission and later this month by the City Council, the agency will spend $162 million to erect 80 wind turbines spread over 22,000 acres 12 miles north of the town of Mojave. The project is scheduled to be completed in July 2004 and would provide 120 megawatts of electricity, enough to power up to 120,000 homes.

DWP General Manager David Wiggs said the plant is expected to operate at an average of 34% capacity during the year because there will be days when there is little or no wind. But he said that is an improvement over other private wind-power projects that have operated at 20% capacity.

The power produced by the wind turbines would allow the city to sometimes reduce power output from its gas-fired plants in the Los Angeles Basin, resulting in a reduction of 210,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually.

Councilman Eric Garcetti attended the news conference to praise the project, but also publicly called on the DWP to do more, and said the utility should pursue selling all of its interest in the coal-burning Mohave Generating Station in Nevada. The city decided last year to sell only half of its interest, even though the plant has been cited as a major polluter.

Wiggs said coal power has the advantage of costing only 3 to 4 cents per kilowatt-hour and the generators operate at up to 90% capacity, compared with 5 1/2 to 6 cents per kilowatt-hour for wind power, where the turbines operate at 34% capacity. Hahn said the investment would be justified to help pollute less air and gain other environmental benefits.

The DWP director promised the city leaders and environmentalists at Monday’s news conference that the wind project was “just the beginning.”

Environmentalists, including Martin Schlageter of the Coalition for Clean Air, said they will keep pressure on the city to expand its renewable portfolio. “We have been stuck in the past a little too long,” Schlageter said.