Los Angeles Plan to Cut Coal Power Will Cost Ratepayers

City wants to transition away by 2025

Elimination of coal as a power source for Los Angeles by 2025 and replacing it with natural gas, solar, wind and geothermal power could cost customers $6 a month, the city's ratepayer advocate told a city panel on Wednesday.

As the Energy and Environment Committee supported the plan to get off coal by selling the city's interest in an Arizona coal plant and converting a Utah facility to use of natural gas, ratepayer advocate Fred Pickel said the city needed to also recognize state law requiring the city to get away from use of coal by 2027.

Pickel said he supports the Department of Water and Power plan to get off coal and believes some modifications can be made in the seven-year window it has to potentially reduce the costs to homeowners.