Los Angeles is ditching a plan to rebuild several natural gas plants on the coast, Democratic Mayor Eric Garcetti said Monday night, but experts warn the decision to scuttle the plan will likely cause more blackouts across the city.
Staffers at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (DWP) argued in December that the aging Scattergood, Harbor and Haynes power plants are critical to keeping the lights on in the city.
They argue that eliminating plans to rebuild and refurbish the plants could seriously impact the grid.
Garcetti is unmoved. “It’s the right thing to do for our health. It’s the right thing to do for our Earth. It’s the right thing to do for our economy,” he said. “And now is the time to start the beginning of the end of natural gas.”
“This is the Green New Deal,” Garcetti added, referring to a new set of climate policies pushed by progressive lawmakers and several current presidential candidates. “Not in concept, not in the future, but now.”
The so-called Green New Deal would phase out all fossil fuels within the next decade and essentially remake the entire American economy.
Activists frequently argue that natural gas production creates high levels of pollution. Recent data compiled by the Environmental Protection Agency appear to complicate that narrative.
EPA found greenhouse gas emissions, mostly carbon dioxide, fell 2.7 percent from 2016 to 2017, based on data from more than 8,000 large facilities. Emissions from large power plants fell 4.5 percent from 2016 levels, according to EPA.
One of the major reasons for the cut in emissions is the availability of low-priced natural gas. In the last decade, drillers have been able to use hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling to unlock vast shale gas reserves.
Low-priced natural gas has replaced much U.S. coal-fired capacity in recent years, which has, in turn, lowered emissions. Additions of wind and solar energy have also played a smaller role in reducing emissions.
DWP management signaled in support in December for replacing some of the gas-fired generators with newer, more efficient machines equipped with dry-cooling units.
Utility officials believe batteries charged with solar or wind power are not reliable enough to replace gas plants without causing power outages.
Nearly a fifth of the city’s electricity in 2017 came from the Intermountain coal plant in Utah, which is scheduled to be decommissioned in six years.
The biggest share of LA’s mix – 31 percent – came from natural gas that year, most of which came from Scattergood, Harbor and Haynes power plants.
“We’re trying to maintain system reliability,” Reiko Kerr, senior assistant general manager for power system engineering, told reporters. “We could go to 100% renewables today if we want to accept more outages.”
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Sounds like a winning plan for the city. That is to see even more people to move elsewhere. I hope they see the foolishness of electing left-wing no-nothings to run their city and their state. But for some reason I doubt it.
The Green New Deal has spawned a new phenomenon…..
The Moronic Vortex. It’s destroying energy, feeding itself.
It’s like a Black Hole, for intelligence instead of light.
The Citizens of L.A. who voted this Nit-Wit into office follow the Dictates of the Green Deal just how stupid anyone be as to push some radical ideas from the Eco-Wackos this just shows how far out into Lunatic Land they have gone in Southern California
Dumping power generation is a good cost saving idea. Homeless and illegals have no need for electricity as they live in tents or cardboard shelters. They have no need of air-con or clean running water. No need for cooking facilities as the dumpsters already keep dinner warm. DUH.
Lost Angle Worms Next on the Eco-Nazis/Watermelons hit list the Private Motor Car force everyone into Mass Transit and crowded beehive apartments living in a underground city their lives Controled just like in the movie Logan’s Run
Go ahead shut the plants down . As an experiment (kind of like a focus group) shut those plants down for six months .One more nail in California’s decline .
Let’s see a bankrupt PNG and a massive cut in reliable power . What could go wrong ?