Did anybody but a DWP Committee solar energy maven pick up on this extraordinary statement Nahai (nahai-deal.mp3) made that he's got a dirty little deal with the IBEW guaranteeing union boss Brian D'Arcy the jobs he wants no matter what it costs ratepayers, no matter whether it achieves environmental goals?
Nahai's statement came under pressure from Commission President Lee Alpert who wanted an intelligible explanation of what was really going on as opposed to the phony plan Nahai promoted as part of the Measure B discussion.
I ask again: Does the environmental movement want jobs for the IBEW or does it want clean energy for LA?
That's the heart of the questions the DWP Committee will be asking if the mayor and City Council ever deliver on their public promises, made after Measure B's defeat, to revisit solar energy policy in an open and inclusive public discussion. Or are they already at work on another back room deal?
Meanwhile, the public is moving ahead with or without the politicians.
The Bay Area solar buyers' cooperative I've written about gets coverage in the NY Times Sunday Magazine with a story about how One Block Off The Grid has launched its effort in LA and New Orleans and is going to other cities as well.
Kanyi Maqubela, the former Obama campaign organize
r who is now 1BOG's field director talks about how the group is tapping into "latent activism" to bring potential buyers together, educating them about solar and negotiating group buys with up to 20 percent discounts.The economics depend on feed-in tariffs that pay homeowners with solar units a significant premium for the electricity they generate, federal tax credits and subsidies to make solar pencil out financially.
Third-party owners of rooftop solar and the use of property tax bonding allowed under AB811 are also proving popular to eliminate upfront costs for homeowners but LA's Department of Water and Power, of course, doesn't allow those.
So much for its commitment to solar energy as opposed to feathering the nest of its union, the IBEW.
You can see a mashup map of all the people in the LA area who already have signed up with 1BOG.at their site.
Demand would be even greater if federal, state and local policies are aligned around feed-in tariffs.
Toward that end, Marc Strassman is doing an incredible job promoting solar energy and feed-in tariffs at his Etopia News site. Here's the interview he did with me last week:
Here's Wikipedia's explanation of what a feed-in tariff is:
A Feed-in Tariff (FiT, Feed-in Law, FiL, solar premium[1], Renewable Tariff[2] or renewable energy payments [3]) is an incentive structure to encourage the adoption of renewable energy through government legislation. The regional or national electricity utilities are obligated to buy renewable electricity (electricity generated from renewable sources, such as solar photovoltaics, wind power, biomass, hydropower and geothermal power) at above-market rates set by the government.[4]
The higher price helps overcome the cost disadvantages of renewable energy sources. The rate may differ among various forms of power generation.
Ron Kaye
Ron, you ask if the Mayor and City Council are already at work on another back room deal? Looks like the voters be damned…
L.A. Times March 30: [Brian D’Arcy] vowed to persuade the DWP's five-member commission to do what voters would not: approve his solar plan, which would use the utility's workforce to add 400 megawatts of solar panels across L.A.
"He does not feel that he lost the election," said S. David Freeman, a harbor commissioner and a Measure B supporter who ran the DWP until 2001. "He put this issue out in the public in a way that it wasn't before, and the impression that I have is that he intends to continue to push for it."
And then the L.A. Times on April 1 (and this is no April Fool’s joke):
"David Nahai is aggressively advancing the mayor's bold environmental agenda at the Department of Water and Power, and he enjoys the mayor's full support," -- Villaraigosa spokesman Matt Szabo.
All this after Nahai’s admitting on March 17 DWP has a deal with IBEW that goes back to when Nahai was President of the DWP Board of Commissioners. Those agreements will make great reading for the ratepayers once they are pried loose by the press and those pesky fringe activists and neighborhood councils.
12:49 PM.....
They are not changing my mind and if I read public response, not many others either. If you try something illegal, we will justified
to haul you all into court. So you do not
frighten me. How about you? BOOOOOOOOO!
Did that scare you? Of course not, but my call
is sincere, I will be glad to put you and your cohorts in the pokey. (signed) Pesky Fringe
Activist.
Pesky Fringe Activist:
Your medication needs adjusting. Please call your doctor.
To me it looks like Nahai is saying DWP doesn't possess the renewable generating capacity (green generating stations like windfarms) to create enough renewable energy, so 60% of that 20% renewable energy would have to be bought from 3rd party generating stations. Power is bought and sold all the time. I don't see how that's evidence of a dirty deal.
It's not evidence of dirty deal. It's a smoking gun for an agreement with a union making management and policy decisions for a public agency just as D'Arcy tried to do with Measure B. Nahai's admission of such an agreement, going back at least two years, will force public records requests that will be eye opening not only for the public, but for the Commissioners as well. The video is just the tip of a massive iceberg that the union and management are complicit in keeping from public view. Our Mayor espouses openness and transparency. It's time we have it.
(signed) Another fringe activist.
As I've mentioned dozens of times before, the City already has the power to fund AB 811 so there will be NO UPFRONT EXPENSE to property owners who want to install large efficiency infrastructure (new HVAC, insulation roofing, etc.) or renewable generation (rooftop solar - PV or thermal, microwind, geothermal heat exchange, etc.).
Since the loans are risk-free, there is no reason for them not to fund this program immediately - they can use the $30 million they stole from ratepayers plus the 5.6 Billion or so they have in their back pockets for boondoggles like Measure B and Green Path. that first ~$6 Billion can cover 300,000 5 kW rooftop solar arrays which will produce 1500 MW of clean power, right here in LA, where the power is needed. No dead wilderness, no ratepayer ripoffs, no increased GHGs, no rural communities crushed.
If we added in a feed in tariff of 35 to 50 cents, as I keep saying, EVERYONE in LA could afford to install rooftop solar, because EVERYONE would break even or make a profit every year. It's a no-brainer, but DWP keeps dangling it as though they are "doing" it, but they aren't doing anything. they are just trying to hold off activists like me who demand RESULTS not propaganda.
LA needs to believe in itself a little more. It's humiliating that a municipal utility in Gainesville, Florida can do this but DWP won't. Generating power can no longer be somebody else's problem. WE need to take responsibility for the enormous harm DWP is doing to our ecosystems, our neighbors and our planet - not to mention our wallets - and set them on the right path NOW.
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