There are a lot of movie star villains in Los Angeles, but one bad-guy just got one step closer to getting kicked out of the city: Big Coal. Check out the update below from our friends at the Sierra Club who led one of our signature USA events this weekend for the 10/10/10 Global Work Party:
Los Angeles City Council President Eric Garcetti declared that Los Angeles “can and will” move beyond the use of coal-fired power as he joined organizers for the Sierra Club’s Los Angeles Beyond Coal campaign at a “Rally to Kick Coal and Oil Out of LA” on Sunday afternoon. The “Rally to Kick Coal and Oil Out of LA,” which was co-organized by Greenpeace and the Sierra Club's Los Angeles Beyond Coal campaign, was one of the premiere events on 350.org’s “Global Work Party,” a day when more than 7,000 coordinated actions against climate change occurred worldwide.
At the LA rally, Sierra Club Beyond Coal campaign Western Director Bill Corcoran addressed the crowd, calling for Angelenos to take action to fight climate disruption by working with the Sierra Club to rid Los Angeles of the use of dirty and dangerous coal fired power. LA currently gets more power from coal than any other source, and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (DWP) is in the midst of a planning process that will dictate how Los Angeles will receive power in coming decades. As Corcoran addressed the crowd on Sunday, he called on City Council President Garcetti (who had stopped by the rally during his bike ride around Los Angeles to celebrate CicLAvia) to help lead Los Angeles beyond coal.
“[Council President Garcetti], we are gathered here to get LA off coal and I would like to put out a challenge- that we are going to get the city off coal, invest in our local economy and clean up our electricity supply,” Corcoran said to Garcetti during the rally.
“We can and we will,” the Council President responded.
With his commitment to help move LA beyond coal, Garcetti joins a groundswell of public support for the Sierra Club’s campaign. Neighborhood councils, business leaders, labor organizations, faith leaders have all expressed support for the Sierra Club campaign. More than 7,000 Angelenos have additionally signed a petition to the City Council, asking the City’s elected leaders to ensure the DWP approves a plan that will end the use of dirty and dangerous coal-fired power in Los Angeles by 2020.
“We are thrilled that Council President has committed to joining the Sierra Club as we work to bring jobs to Los Angeles through policies that will allow a clean energy economy to flourish in Los Angeles,” said LA Beyond Coal Regional Representative Evan Gillespie. “It is leadership like this that makes Eric Garcetti a champion, not only for the environment, but for working people in Los Angeles.”
Los Angeles’ two coal-fired power plants (located in Arizona and Utah) are among the worst stationary sources of pollution in the United States and are major contributors to the potentially catastrophic climate disruption that may already be intensifying the wildfires and droughts that directly affect families in Los Angeles. Continuing to chain Los Angeles to dirty and dangerous coal-fired power subjects LADWP customers to big price increases in the future. With the Obama Administration’s commitment to clean energy and reducing pollution, the United States Environmental Protection Agency is in the process of Garcetti Announces Support for Sierra Club Effort to Move Los Angeles Beyond Coal by 2020 Page 2 issuing federal regulations to crack down on dangerous pollutants emitted by coal-fired power plants. These new requirements, in combination with rising transportation and mining costs, underscore how Los Angeles’ overreliance on coal is threatening Angeleno’s pocketbooks.
“We will get off coal. The short term costs of living cheap are very expensive in the long term,” Garcetti said as he addressed the crowd at the rally. “I pledge to all of you to make sure that with all of your help, if you keep up this fight with us, we will get off coal in Los Angeles.”
By transitioning away from coal-fired power and investing in renewable energy and efficiency programs, LADWP can make Los Angeles the national leader in the fight against climate change while creating family-wage jobs and stimulating economic development in Los Angeles. The clean energy economy has the most promising potential in the California economy, with green jobs growing at ten times the rate of statewide average since 2005.