LA100 Equity Strategies

Abstract

The City of Los Angeles (LA) set an ambitious goal to achieve 100% carbon-free energy by 2035. The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) is the nation's largest municipal water and power utility. LADWP was established more than 100 years ago to deliver reliable, safe water and electricity to LA and currently serves more than four million residents. To understand the pathways LA can take to achieve its 100% clean energy future-and how those pathways benefit Angelenos-LADWP partnered with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) on the Los Angeles 100% Renewable Energy Study (LA100), which found that LA can achieve reliable, 100% renewable power as early as 2035. LA100 revealed that all communities in LA will share in benefits of the clean energy transition, including but not limited to health benefits from improved air quality, new jobs, and resilience to climate change. LADWP plans to lead the way to a decarbonized future by 2035. LADWP further commits that as it works to achieve its clean energy future, it will leave no community behind-from affluent enclaves to working-class neighborhoods. LA100 Equity Strategies is the natural extension of the research findings in LA100. LA's clean energy future must be one where everyone benefits from cleaner air, good jobs, economic opportunity, wellbeing, and-equally importantan equitable household and small business energy cost structure. LADWP's objectives are to make its clean energy transition happen in a reliable, resilient, accessible, and affordable way for everyone. We know equity does not happen on its own, and actions must be proposed, adopted, and implemented. Addressing historical inequities requires intentional strategies and a long-term commitment to fairness that includes comprehending past actions and redressing them as well as any current actions that have perpetuated injustices, and meeting inequity with bold action. Said another way, it means ensuring that those Angelenos who have borne a disproportionate burden of the city's carbon past must benefit equally from its transition to a carbon-free future and should not bear a disproportionate burden of the costs associated with this historic transformation of the city's energy supply. In short, LADWP's clean energy future must be "Powered by Equity."An equitable transition to 100% clean energy has many challenges. There are many proposed solutions identified in this study. LADWP, NREL, and the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) partnered on the LA100 Equity Strategies project to develop effective strategies for engaging communities, funding equitable technology and infrastructure investments, expanding existing clean energy and energy assistance programs, and designing new proposed programs and policies to improve and enhance equity by incorporating what community leaders and neighborhood members themselves know is needed-and firmly stated would be needed-to achieve a more equitable energy future. This innovative community-informed approach integrated robust social science researc...