Mayor Bass Highlights Steps Towards Building Greener Los Angeles During First Year in Office

LOS ANGELES — Mayor Karen Bass Dec. 4 announced steps taken during her first year in office to build a greener Los Angeles and protect the environment. 

The mayor visit the Donald C. Tillman Water Reclamation Plant where she highlighted the results of efforts taken since she was sworn in to enhance water conservation, further electrify the transportation system, decarbonize power generation, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from commercial and residential buildings. The mayor also released a video highlighting progress on these important issues. Watch the video here.

Mayor Bass, in delivering resources to L.A., is working toward supporting frontline communities while making investments in energy efficiency and creating good-paying jobs in the process.

• Securing Resources To Confront This Crisis:

The City of Los Angeles played an integral role in securing $1.2 billion for California in federal funding to expedite the growth and implementation of clean renewable hydrogen, which is essential for reducing pollution and advancing the clean energy sector across the state. Much of this award will be given to Los Angeles to kickstart major decarbonization projects at the Port of Los Angeles and at LADWP’s Scattergood Generating Facility. 

Los Angeles secured $48 million from the U.S Department of Energy’s Grid Deployment Office to enhance Los Angeles’ grid flexibility, and improve its resilience against growing threats of extreme weather and climate change. 

Los Angeles secured $19 million in state funding to support climate resiliency and the Department of Water and Power’s turf replacement program. $15 million of this award will fund a free lawn replacement program for single-family homes in underserved communities that could save 77 million gallons of water each year. 

The city was awarded $1 million in state funding to support integrated regional water management for the Whitsett Fields Park North Stormwater Capture Project. The Project will install an underground infiltration gallery that will capture stormwater from a regional storm drain and infiltrate the stormwater at Whitsett Field Park North. It is projected that this Project will capture 60 million gallons of stormwater per year, enough to serve over 700 families.

Purifying Los Angeles Water: The city approved the “Donald Tillman Water Advanced Water Purification Facility” in the San Fernando Valley community of Van Nuys, home to one of the largest potable reuse projects in the country. With construction starting less than a year from now (October 2024), the project will provide benefits to all of Los Angeles by establishing a new, resilient and sustainable drought-proof supply of water for more than 250,000 Angelenos. 

Decreasing Waste: In July, LAX eliminated single-use plastic water bottle sales, becoming the second airport in the world to institute a ban.

Creating a More Equitable Los Angeles for All: 

LADWP released its LA100 Equity Strategies with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory or NREL and UCLA that provides community-guided, data-driven strategies for increasing equity in LA’s transition to clean energy. The centerpiece of the initiative is providing city-owned battery electric vehicle charging infrastructure in underserved communities where EV charging capacity currently lags behind that found in more affluent communities. 

Rain Capture: The wetter than average year allowed the city to capture 48.2 billion gallons of rainwater since Mayor Bass took office. The San Fernando Park Infiltration Project was recently completed and consists of a subsurface infiltration gallery situated beneath the open space and baseball field areas of the San Fernando Regional Park. This stormwater capture project will be ready to capture, treat, and infiltrate stormwater and dry-weather runoff to recharge the San Fernando Groundwater Basin by an average of 145 million gallons per year, enough to serve over 1,700 households. The park improvements above these stormwater capture facilities are almost complete.

Electrifying the Transportation System:

In August, Los Angeles launched the first 100% electric full-size street sweeper in the United States.

The City itself has installed nearly 100 Level 2 chargers and 12 Fast Chargers for electric vehicles throughout city facilities in Los Angeles. There are more than 27,000 electric vehicle chargers in Los Angeles.

The Los Angeles Department of Transportation or LADOT added 26 electric DASH buses across Los Angeles this year and is now up to 56. The fleet continues to grow. 

The city released a Request for Proposals to create a 100% public EV truck charging depot at the Port of Los Angeles, receiving significant interest from bidders. The site is expected to be in service by 2025.

The Bureau of Street Lighting secured a grant from the California Energy Commission to install 120 curbside EV chargers in the Lincoln Heights and Boyle Heights neighborhoods.

Increasing Energy Affordability with Energy Efficiency and Building in a Cleaner Way:

The Comprehensive Affordable Multifamily Retrofits or CAMR program, created to support low-income, multifamily property owners and residents who want to expand their energy efficiency and install local solar on their rooftops, has more than 100 projects and 9,500 housing units in the pipeline. 

The Zero by Design construction program was launched to encourage high efficiency buildings for commercial and high-rise residential projects.

Grant programs like the community emission reduction grant programs that fund installation of cool roofs, solar arrays, electric vehicles and charging stations in impacted communities, of which LADWP is providing $4.6 million are available to Angelenos. 

Progress Towards Running on 100% Clean Power:

LADWP became the first municipal utility to establish science-based targets for greenhouse gas or GHG reduction as work continues to limit climate change throughout the world. 

LADWP launched the Commercial Energy Storage 2 Grid or CES2G pilot, which allows for large energy storage battery systems and electric vehicle owners to return their energy back to the grid during electricity demand peaks.

LADWP continues to work on the Green Meadows project, which will serve as a resiliency hub for the community of Watts. The project will feature solar power generation, energy storage and EV chargers. It will provide grid resiliency and a cooling center during heat storm events. The estimated project completion is August 2024.

Just this year, Los Angeles added roughly 75 megawatts of solar power for businesses and residences, which now brings the city’s total to about 150,000 homes and businesses participating in LADWP solar programs.

Working Internationally to Confront Climate Change:  

Deputy Mayor of Energy and Sustainability Nancy Sutley participated in a California Trade Mission to Japan in March 2023 that led to the launch of Green Shipping Corridors with the Port of Tokyo and Port of Yokohama. Green Shipping Corridors are shipping routes on which zero-carbon ships and other emissions reductions are deployed, measured, and enabled through public and private actions and policies. 

The City announced the implementation plan outline for the first Trans-Pacific Green Shipping Corridor for both the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to accelerate emissions reductions in the busiest shipping container routes. The plan includes commitments from carrier partners to deploy reduced or zero lifecycle carbon capable ships on the corridor by 2025.  

Deputy Mayor Sutley also traveled to Jordan to conduct high level meetings with the Government of Jordan and the City of Amman regarding collaboration on climate change, and will continue to leverage these critical relationships while sharing best practices on water scarcity and greening of the environment. 

Deputy Mayor Sutley participated in an International Water Reuse Convention in Cape Town, South Africa to share Los Angeles’s achievements and future plans in water recycling with other nations.