Los Angeles has officially broken up with coal. <\/p>\n
City officials on Thursday announced that the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power has stopped receiving coal-powered electricity from its last remaining coal source, the Intermountain generating station in Utah. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a defining moment for the City of Los Angeles,\u201d Mayor Karen Bass said at a news conference. \u201cL.A.\u2019s coal divestment is not just about discontinuing the use of coal to power our city \u2014 it\u2019s about building a clean energy economy that benefits every Angeleno. This milestone will further accelerate our transition to 100% clean energy by 2035.\u201d <\/p>\n
Electricity generation is one of biggest causes of climate change and burning coal is the most destructive way to generate power from a climate and environmental perspective. The city has committed to achieving carbon-free energy in the next decade through investments in cleaner technologies such as solar, wind, battery energy storage and hydrogen. <\/p>\n
California has been gradually moving away from coal, which supplied just 2.2% of the state\u2019s electricity in 2024, according to the California Energy Commission<\/a>. Nearly all of that was from the Intermountain Power Project, which provided 11% of L.A.\u2019s energy last year. The DWP divested from another large coal source, the Navajo Generating Station in Arizona, in 2016. <\/p>\n \u201cThis transition has been years in the making,\u201d DWP chief executive Janisse Qui\u00f1ones said in a statement. \u201cIt reflects the hard work of our employees, the support of our customers, and the leadership of our elected officials. Together, we are building a cleaner, more resilient energy future for Los Angeles.\u201d<\/p>\n More than 60% of the city\u2019s energy supply is now coming from renewable sources, Qui\u00f1ones said, including the newly completed Eland solar-plus-storage center<\/a> in Kern County, which began supplying L.A. and Glendale in August. The facility is one of the largest solar-plus-battery power plants in the nation.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a stark change from 20 years ago, when the city\u2019s energy composition was about 3% renewables and more than 50% coal, Bass said. <\/p>\n However, L.A. is not completely free of fossil fuels. The city will still draw from new natural gas-fired units at Intermountain. They can run on a fuel blend of natural gas and up to 30% green hydrogen, with plans to eventually transition to 100% green hydrogen in the future. (City officials said green hydrogen is expected to be added to the fuel mix next year). <\/p>\n