Wednesday, January 21, 2009

“Solar LA; Greener City: Greener Economy. The Los Angeles Solar Energy Plan”

On March 3, 2009  the "The Los Angeles Solar Energy Plan" will be on the ballot as Proposition LA-B. Green Energy and Good Jobs for Los Angeles Program -- City of Los Angeles (Charter Amendment - Majority Approval Required).  The Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce prepared the following OVERVIEW and suggested certain notable amendments, which I believe have been included in the updated proposition.  Essentially, the original plan was to develop the 400 megawatts using only labor-union contractors and LADWP-owned photovoltaic cells placed throughout the City on consignment, yet the updated plan would also include cost-competitive private-sector alternatives such as feed-in-tariffs and Power Purchase Agreements with private power producers.  Here is the LETTER the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce submitted along with BOMA, VICA and the California Apartment Association.

Another source of information that seems to be in support of the issue is a detailed analysis from THE POLICY REPORT.  However, I would question whether or not this is a neutral source of information.  It is rather difficult to tell.

Other resources include the rather-biased LA WEEKLY article and of course the VOTE NO ON PROP B website.

Clearly, this is a complicated issue and its a shame that renewable energy initiatives are so easily highjacked.

It is of my opinion that utility-scale solar plans require an over-abundance of transmission infrastructure and that a feed-in-tariff/ distributed power generation protocol matched with a net-zero energy building portfolio would not only be more sustainable to implement, develop and maintain - but would benefit the City with more design diversity, as well.

-Will Wright
Director, Gov't & Public Affairs
AIA Los Angeles

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