My latest column for the L.A. Times…hope you’ll give it a read and let me know what you think. Here’s how it starts:
>Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has just over a month to choose the city’s next clean-energy leader.
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>With the L.A. Department of Water and Power’s current general manager, Marty Adams, set to retire March 1, Bass is mulling her options. And a coalition of climate advocacy and environmental justice groups want to know who those options are.
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>In a letter addressed to Bass, 15 groups — including the California Environmental Justice Alliance, Heal the Bay and the Sierra Club — are urging the city to “publicly release a list of its top candidates, the metrics by which they were chosen, and ultimately the factors that were considered in choosing the future nominated general manager.”
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>“For the sake of transparency and public accountability, we ask that this process be open and fair,” the groups wrote.
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>The DWP’s next general manager will play a huge role in determining whether Los Angeles achieves its goal of 100% climate-friendly energy by 2035 — an ambitious target set by the previous mayor, Eric Garcetti. Bass’ office told me last month that she continues to support the 2035 goal, even as climate has been less of a public focus for her than it was for her predecessor.
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>The water and power agency’s next leader will probably face competing demands from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 18, the union that represents thousands of DWP workers. IBEW members staff the DWP’s gas-fired power plants and have fought to keep them open, even as they add to the climate crisis and pollute the air in surrounding neighborhoods.
1 Comment
My latest column for the L.A. Times…hope you’ll give it a read and let me know what you think. Here’s how it starts:
>Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has just over a month to choose the city’s next clean-energy leader.
>
>With the L.A. Department of Water and Power’s current general manager, Marty Adams, set to retire March 1, Bass is mulling her options. And a coalition of climate advocacy and environmental justice groups want to know who those options are.
>
>In a letter addressed to Bass, 15 groups — including the California Environmental Justice Alliance, Heal the Bay and the Sierra Club — are urging the city to “publicly release a list of its top candidates, the metrics by which they were chosen, and ultimately the factors that were considered in choosing the future nominated general manager.”
>
>“For the sake of transparency and public accountability, we ask that this process be open and fair,” the groups wrote.
>
>The DWP’s next general manager will play a huge role in determining whether Los Angeles achieves its goal of 100% climate-friendly energy by 2035 — an ambitious target set by the previous mayor, Eric Garcetti. Bass’ office told me last month that she continues to support the 2035 goal, even as climate has been less of a public focus for her than it was for her predecessor.
>
>The water and power agency’s next leader will probably face competing demands from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 18, the union that represents thousands of DWP workers. IBEW members staff the DWP’s gas-fired power plants and have fought to keep them open, even as they add to the climate crisis and pollute the air in surrounding neighborhoods.