Los Angeles May Cancel Rooftop Solar Plans

Update:  Rooftop solar prevails! The Los Angeles City Council denied the motion that would have jeopardized the rooftop solar incentives!

Come on, Los Angeles!  Earlier this month, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP - the utility company for the California metropolis), approved a feed-in-tariff that would have expanded its local solar generation capacity by 100 megawatts.  The cost would probably be pennies per month for most households.  The benefits -- clean energy generated in the city, replacing toxic fossil fuels, and more jobs.

Apparently some members of  the Los Angeles City Council are not on board, and have proposed a motion to send the feed-in-tariff back to "committee". Anybody familiar with politics knows that this is an early stage of death for the clean energy policy.  According to Run on Sun's blog, the L.A. City Council opponents of rooftop solar are members Jan Perry, Bernard Parks and Mitchell Englander.  Hopefully the other Los Angeles City Council members are able to recognize the opportunity bestowed upon them by the sun -- local independence and wealth.  Building that infrastructure is not free, but once it is in place, the city will break its bonds of the negative externalities and guilt that have financed the city's expansion over the past century.  Any ray of sunshine that falls on an empty rooftop or parking lot in the sun capital of the world is nothing more than a testament to the negligence of the city's civic and business leaders.


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