Sustainable LA Grand Challenge

This report focuses on creating an equitable workforce development strategy that should accompany a "Justice Transition" to 100% renewable energy generation by the City of Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) in the context of the new emerging green jobs economy for L.A. City and L.A. County. The report has two major parts. The first presents a LA100 Public Access Data Analysis Platform and Calculator that allows for multiple community stakeholders (including ratepayers) to engage in environmental and energy justice planning. The second part presents a Community Case Study of Wilmington and a Community Engagement Approach to identify multiple pathways to community engagement and planning for energy, ecological, and environmental Justice Transitions with a primary focus on jobs and workforce development connected to LADWP investments, policies, and existing programs.

In Los Angeles (LA), addressing air pollution has been an ongoing challenge for many decades, with a particular focus on emissions from motor vehicles. Disadvantaged communities (DACs) in the city are confronted with a wide range of socio-economic challenges, including high levels of poverty, unemployment, and limited access to essential healthcare services. Furthermore, DAC residents are more likely to live near-roadway, which exposes them to higher levels of traffic-related air pollution, ultimately resulting in environmental inequities. Although previous studies have quantified the ambient air quality and health benefits linked to zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) adoption to some extent, there is a crucial knowledge gap in the literature on evaluating the distribution equity of air quality and health benefits during the transition to clean vehicles from an environmental justice perspective.

In this study, we build upon the previous LA100 study, which aimed for the transition to 100% renewable energy in LA City, and introduce a new focus on Equity Strategies. This new focus aims to ensure a just transition by investigating the potential environmental and public health benefits of replacing conventional vehicles with ZEVs in the city of LA, especially among DACs. We first utilize state-of-the-art methods to estimate future emission trends under different scenarios, with a focus on ZEVs disparity among DACs. A personal trip-level transportation model is used to generate precise spatial emission patterns for the on-road sector under different ZEVs distribution scenarios. We then simulate consequent changes in ambient particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter less than or equal to 2.5 micrometers (PM2.5) and ozone concentrations using a high-resolution chemical transport model at about 1 km x 1 km. Finally, we assess the related public health benefits and monetized economic benefits in the city of LA using racial and ethnic specific concentration-response data.

This new study emphasizes the importance of not only transitioning to cleaner energy sources but also ensuring that the benefits of this transition are equitably distributed among all communities, particularly those that have been historically underserved. By evaluating the potential health and economic impacts of increased ZEV adoption, this study provides valuable insights for policymakers, stakeholders, and communities as they work together to create a more sustainable and equitable future for the city of LA.

The City of Los Angeles has committed to transition to 100% renewable energy by 2035. In 2021, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP), in partnership with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), determined the technical feasibility and necessary investments to transition to 100% renewable energy. To ensure that the benefits of 100% renewable energy are equitably distributed, LADWP launched the LA 100 Equity Strategies Study in partnership withNREL and UCLA.

An integral part of that equity effort has been to better understand and document the challenges facing small ethnic-owned businesses (EOBs), which are a vital part of Los Angeles’ business sector and form the backbone of our economy, generating jobs and wealth. To better understand the challenges facing EOBs and to assist LADWP in developing equitable policies, programs, and practices, the UCLA Center for Neighborhood Knowledge (CNK) and the UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Institute (LPPI) embarked on a one-year community-informed research project to learn more about the hurdles facing small EOBs and entrepreneurs in the Los Angeles region regarding the effects of the pandemic, environmental sustainability, energy burden, the anticipated effects ofclimate change, and potential challenges to adapt to the transition to 100% renewable energy. The study included two major components: a survey of over 500 EOBs and qualitative insights provided by stakeholders, LADWP staff, and pilot workshops.

This chapter details the results of an analysis conducted by the California Center for Sustainable Communities at UCLA into the anticipated need for future electric service panel upgrades within the residential building sector to support future decarbonization targets introduced in the LA100 plan. All of the different transformation pathways explored in the original LA100 feasibility study assumed significant increases in the future adoption of electric vehicles as well as electrification of existing gas-powered end-uses. However, both of these technology transformations will potentially result in significant increases in the demand for electrical energy and power. One significant barrier to increasing the service capacity for LADWP customers in order to facilitate this transition is the rated capacity of their electrical service panels. These are pieces of customer owned hardware that function as the interface between the utility distribution network and the building’s internal energy system. Experience has shown that undersized service panels can be a significant barrier to customer efforts to electrify their existing gas loads or add major new ones, such as for electric vehicle (EV) charging.

In March 2021, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) released the Los Angeles 100% Renewable Energy Study (LA100), a milestone analysis laying out pathways for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP, or DWP) to transition to 100% renewable energy by 2045. Among the options presented by the study, the Board of Water and Power Commissioners (the Board) selected the most ambitious: a scenario in which the 100% clean energy goal is met ten years earlier, in 2035, without reliance on biofuels (the Early & No Biofuels scenario). Although a boon for the City of LA’s environmental goals, fulfilling this plan entails significant investments in infrastructure, renewable generating capacity, and cutting-edge technological solutions, all of which have cost and downstream affordability impacts.

Affordability refers to customers’ ability to pay their bills. The costs of the transition to 100% renewable electricity by 2035 are considerable, but necessary to combat climate change. Because home heating and transportation expenditures will be folded into electric bills as these services become electrified, increasing electricity costs are a particular equity concern for LADWP, as well as for LA residents and small businesses. Changing costs will directly influence energy burden and indirectly affect broader affordability for LADWP customers.  

Generally, public utilities, such as LADWP, must directly recover costs through revenue increases — including the cost of transitioning to renewable energy. This primarily means increasing rates and fees assessed on customers. Since many low- and moderate-income LA residents already struggle with the burden of their LADWP bills and general cost of living, cost and revenue increases at the utility scale have equity- and economic justice-related ramifications that must be directly addressed by policy. It is thus a delicate balancing act to complete the transition to 100% clean energy without creating untenable financial burdens on the Angelenos least able to absorb them, while also ensuring that the broader benefits of the transition are equitably distributed. This task is also made more challenging by the considerable uncertainty about the exact level and timing of costs associated with the utility’s 100% renewable investments. 

To that end, LADWP commissioned the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation (LCI) and School of Law to conduct an Energy Affordability and Policy Solutions analysis as part of the broader LA100 Equity Strategies effort. This work builds on LCI’s past work and ongoing engagement on utility affordability and broader equity issues in both Los Angeles and California. Our work on affordability in LA100 Equity Strategies complements NREL’s affordability-focused rate structure and on-bill financing modeling. Consequently, our research goes beyond rate (re)design to focus on implementable, robust, and long-term structural solutions. Specifically, this entails data, analysis, and strategy architecture that will comprehensively address affordability, building on ongoing efforts.  This work also complements the UCLA Center for Neighborhood Knowledge’s analysis of ethnic small business energy equity issues, including affordability.