City Council Committee Looks to Develop Green New Deal for LA

Efforts to take more aggressive local actions on climate change are set to be discussed by a City Council committee Tuesday, including the development of Green New Deal for Los Angeles and a new Climate Emergency Mobilization Department.

Council members Nury Martinez, Paul Koretz, Mike Bonin, Curren Price, Marqueece Harris-Dawson and Monica Rodriguez introduced a motion recently that would direct the Department of Water and Power and other city departments to prepare a report on the development of a local Green New Deal.

A national Green New Deal resolution sets a goal for the country to get 100 percent of its power through renewable energy by 2030. The council motion scheduled to be discussed by the Energy, Climate Change and Environmental Justice Committee would have the city draft a policy which mirrors the "principles and priorities" of the GND unveiled by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and backed by many of her party's leading candidates for president, including Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif.

In April of last year, the Los Angeles City Council advanced a proposal to develop a Climate Emergency Mobilization Department to oversee efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions citywide, and also cleared up $500,000 in funding in seed money for the project.

The motion seeking the establishment of the department was introduced in January 2018 by Koretz and Councilman Bob Blumenfield. Koretz's office has drafted a report set to be discussed by the committee which offers a number of

recommendations, including that the department be responsible for the development of metrics to measure and track the city's greenhouse gas emissions, and develop an annual climate budget of greenhouse gasses and criteria pollutants to determine the city's allowable annual emissions, similar to how the city's financial budget determines its monetary expenditures.

"We're out of time," Koretz said in April 2018 before the City Council approved the motion "We can't keep waiting around thinking, once it gets bad enough, we'll have enough time to do something. We're here today to tell you, it's bad enough now. We are out of time and need to act, quickly and boldly, like the very planet beneath our feet depends upon it. Like our home depends upon it. Because it does."