The Los Angeles Business Council (LABC) has announced that a coalition of labor, health, environmental and business groups have signed on to a letter endorsing the proposed CLEAN LA plan for establishing a feed-in tariff (FIT) in the city. The March 1, 2011 letter to Los Angeles Mayor Villaraigosa, members of the Los Angeles City Council and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP, Los Angeles, California, U.S.) requests that the program be funded in the LADWP's upcoming Integrated Resource Plan.

“Adopting this pioneering program will help Los Angeles distinguish ourselves as a true leader in the growing clean energy field,” said Bill Corcoran, Western region director for the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign. “Harnessing our abundant sunshine will help Los Angeles move away from dirty, dangerous and increasingly expensive coal-fired power.”

Among the signatories are the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, the Southwest Regional Council of Carpenters, the American Lung Association in California and the Sierra Club.

Five-year 150MW feed-in tariff proposed

The CLEAN LA plan is a five-year, 150MW FIT that the LABC proposes to start in July 2011, taking advantage of up to USD 300 million in federal tax credits to businesses and home owners to cover the costs of installing PV plants. LABC states that the CLEAN LA proposal is the result of two years of work with researchers from UCLA to design a model for an efficient and effective solar program.

The LABC estimates that the program would create USD 500 million in local investment and 900 high-paying jobs each year for the next five years. The organization states that it hopes to eventually expand the CLEAN LA plan to 600MW, with the balance being achieved by 2020.

U.S. lags in embracing FITs

Despite the overwhelming evidence to the success of FIT policies, very few European-style feed-in tariffs have been implemented in the United States. Instead, 29 states have established renewable portfolio standards, which require utilities to purchase or generate an increasing amount of their power from renewable energy sources or pay a fine.

When political jurisdictions in the U.S. have established policies described as feed-in tariffs, such policies are typically not based on best practices from successful European FITs and/or have caps that greatly limit the programs, resulting in very limited effectiveness.

A rare exception is the city of Gainesville, Florida, which established a highly successful European-style FIT in 2009. It remains to be seen if other cities, including Los Angeles, follow this example.

2011-03-04| Courtesy: Los Angeles Business Council; Image: Office of Los Angeles Mayor Anthony Villaraigosa | solarserver.com © Heindl Server GmbH

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