Iraheta, Alba
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John Odell<
Monday, January 31, 2022 11 :55 AM
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Today's item on Power IRP
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Dear Mayor Gordo and Council Members,
I am John Odell, Pasadena resident and member of the Power IRP Stakeholder Advisory Committee for the 2018 revision. I am grateful to you and Water and Power for the 2021 draft update to that plan. I think this draft improves on the 2018 plan in significant ways. It complies with new state minimum requirements. For the first time we set a date for retiring our Magnolia fossil-fueled plant, though that date is not until 2036. We dip our toe, at least, in planning to incorporate storage, and we acknowledge in a small way that demand conservation can cost less than purchasing more energy. The resulting rate increase is low.
This draft is disappointing, however, in failing even to ask what it would cost to reach zero carbon emissions by 2030. Several other cities have adopted this plan, to align with the urgent calls the world's scientists have been making for years to save us from the climate emergency that already engulfs us because we have moved too slowly.
This is also the time to give Water and Power guidance for the coming full IRP revision. Judging from 2018, PWP will probably hire consultants and give them their requirements, closing off some options, before they invite stakeholders to give advice. So our elected leaders, representing those stakeholders, should insist now that the next full revision include a scenario that will reach net zero carbon emissions by 2030, plus another scenario that will reach actual zero carbon emissions without any offsets by 2030. Why should you not even *ask* how much it would cost to move faster?
All scenarios should also be fair and apply a reasonable social cost of carbon to all fossil energy for which Pasadena is responsible as a consumer or producer, not just to the fraction of electricity we export to the state grid. The 2021 update is biased in favor of fossil energy in this respect.
Thank you for your kind attention and your generous service to our community.
Sincerely,
John Odell
1 01/31/2022
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