City power department could be forced to make nation’s sharpest carbon emissions cut

The power department in Los Angeles could be required to implement the country’s most aggressive carbon emissions reduction program. A Los Angeles city councilman on Friday introduced a measure calling on the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) by 2030 to cut its carbon emissions 80 percent below 1990 levels, a move that the Sierra Club said would be the first of its kind in the nation for any utility. The language on the LADWP plan was part of a larger motion that would have the city — including Los Angeles International Airport and the Port of Los Angeles — shrink greenhouse gas pollution 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050. [ read more … ]

Outspoken 29-year-old Mont. utility commissioner calls it like he sees it

An audience gathered here earlier this month to hear the first bits of intelligence on new proposed federal limits on power plant emissions. Travis Kavulla was ready. He and Natural Resources Defense Council attorney Ralph Cavanagh stole the show on the second day of the Western Conference of Public Service Commissioners. Kavulla grabbing the spotlight with a spirited attack on U.S. EPA’s 1-day-old rule, which he called “infantilizing” to states in its emphasis on “building blocks” like improving efficiency at fossil-fueled power plants and switching to other less-emitting power sources.

“They get to be the children in this great game of federalism and put the building blocks together however they want,” he said. [ read more … ]

Interior to gauge turbines’ impacts on seaside tourism, recreation

The Interior Department plans to survey beachgoers from Massachusetts to South Carolina about how wind turbines in the Atlantic Ocean would affect their travel and recreation plans. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management has contracted with the University of Delaware to ask about 1,400 visitors to East Coast beaches whether turbines on the horizon would make them more or less likely to return. The results could aid BOEM as it auctions and develops federal waters for wind farms from New York to Virginia and beyond. [ read more … ]