LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti signed an agreement to sell the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power's share in the Navajo Generating Station as part of plans to get the city off coal by 2025.
The agreement signed June 21 to sell LADWP's 21% share in the Arizona-based generating station will reduce the city's greenhouse gas emissions by the equivalent of 1 million cars over the next three and one-half years, according to the mayor's office.
The city's move to sell Navajo four years ahead of a state mandate reduces the risk to ratepayers of a costly exit from the plant in the future, Garcetti said.
Efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions combined with the decline in prices of cleaner forms of energy have caused the value of coal-fired assets to fall in recent years.
"This is an important step toward cleaner air, addressing climate change, and creating a clean energy future for Los Angeles," Garcetti said.
The agreement came after three years of negotiations led by LADWP staff.
The sale includes an agreement to buy renewable geothermal power as substitute source of power and a provision that will push the controlling owner of the plant, Salt River Project, to shut down of the plant's three operating units in 2019, improving air quality in the Grand Canyon while reducing the amount of worldwide climate pollution, according to city officials.
"It is very important to us that the environmental benefits of the agreement extend beyond the city of Los Angeles to the area in which the plant is located," said LADWP General Manager Marcie Edwards.
The sale of Navajo leaves LADWP with just one coal-fired power plant, Utah-based Intermountain Power Plant.
City officials are also working to transition IPP off coal and into a cleaner mix of fuel sources by 2025.
