Beyond Coal Scores Major Victory in Los Angeles

After a three-year campaign by tens of thousands across the city, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa joined the Sierra Club's L.A. Beyond Coal activists Friday to publicly announce this blockbuster news: L.A. will stop using coal by 2025. (See video here.)

"The era of coal is over," said Villaraigosa, who was joined by former Vice President Al Gore, Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune, California businessman Tom Steyer, and allies from across the city front of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power building.

Villaraigosa said the Sierra Club deserves the credit for providing the blueprint by which the city took steps to make the change. "This would not have happened without the Sierra Club," Villaraigosa told a sea of supporters wearing bright yellow Beyond Coal T-shirts.

The groundbreaking decision is a historic victory that catapults L.A. and Villaraigosa to the front of the pack when it comes to clean energy and American innovation.

"I want to say in the strongest way I possibly can, this is a really big deal," Gore said during his turn at the podium. By going coal-free, Los Angeles shows the rest of the nation that it's possible to power a thriving, growing, major American city without relying on coal that threatens our the health of our families, and the future of our planet. Gore said L.A. is the only city in the nation committed to kicking coal completely, and joins London, Toronto, Copenhagen and Berlin on the global front.

By abandoning coal, the L.A. Department of Water and Power will slash its climate-disrupting carbon emissions 60% below 1990 levels by 2025, while L.A.'s carbon emissions will drop by 40%  -- an achievement unmatched in the nation.

Brune talked about the importance of seeing real change on the climate change front.  "Today's announcement in L.A. is an antidote to despair...," he said. "I can’t stress enough how powerful an example this is for those of us on the front lines confronting dirty fuel."

Read more about the Sierra Club's L.A. Beyond Coal campaign and about how you can help.

From top: Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune (in brown suit) with L.A. activists at the Friday press conference. Al Gore and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa talk climate change. Sierra Club's L.A. Beyond Coal campaign credited with blazing the path for L.A. to move away from coal-generated energy.
 

Photo credit: Mary Forgione