Submitted on October 24, 2023 - 11am
Following the announcement that California had been awarded 1.2 billion dollars in grant funding for hydrogen, Mayor Bass, members of the Los Angeles City Council, and POLA, hosted a conference at the Port of Los Angeles to celebrate and voice their intentions towards utilizing the grant to create a hydrogen hub, a major step forward for the region in terms of reaching zero emissions goals. The grant will help LADWP create one single platform where distributed energy resources like Electric Vehicles (EVs) and EV chargers, energy storage, solar photovoltaic systems (PV), and demand response infrastructure can be controlled, in response to grid needs. Doing so will enable LADWP to quickly rebalance the electrical system after an extreme climate event like wildfires, heatwaves or tropical storms. VX News brings you the complete transcript from the announcement, featuring comments from the Mayor, Gene Seroka, Councilmember Tim McOsker, Nancy Sutley, and Aram Benyamin.
Submitted on September 17, 2023 - 10pm
In this exclusive interview with VX News, Marty Adams, the General Manager & Chief Engineer of the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power, with his retirement on the horizon, reflects on his decades-long career in the public agency, including his efforts to pioneer the national hydrogen energy revolution, as well as developing new strategies for water recycling and stormwater capture.
Submitted on September 17, 2023 - 10pm
Just a day after announcing that the state of California is suing five of the biggest oil companies in the world for damages caused, and to be caused, for their ‘decades-long campaign of deception’ surrounding climate change, Governor Gavin Newsom also announced, via an interview with the New York Times at Climate Week NYC, his intention to sign two recently passed California climate bills, SB253 and 261. These two bills will require major companies to publicly disclose their greenhouse gas emissions, a move with national and global repercussions. The Governor also spoke at length on California’s continued commitment to a green low carbon future, as well as his view that California is where the future happens first.
Submitted on September 17, 2023 - 10pm
VerdeXchange News recently interviewed Jon Rawding, the CEO of Euro Mechanical - an Emirati company that for more than four decades has supported the growth of Abu Dhabi’s energy sector - to better understand the continuing evolution of UAE’s energy goals and investments. Rawding confirms not only continued investment by UAE in oil and gas growth, but also their conscious evolution to investment in renewables. Rawding explains the aforementioned is all taking place in the UAE through ADNOC, the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, as the result of the sovereign’s leadership commitment to generational pragmatism in a time of worldwide climate existentialism.
Submitted on September 17, 2023 - 10pm
As the process to begin pulling together the City of LA’s yearly budget moves forward this fall, LA’s City Council is also beginning efforts to seriously explore a Capital Infrastructure Plan (CIP), a document that provides a long-term, unified direction for investment in a city’s infrastructure. VerdeXchange News spoke with Investing in Place’ Executive Director, Jessica Meaney, on how the city’s budgeting could better address the needs of the city, improve equity and be more transparent. Meaney opines that the current way of doing things is failing to serve residents and why her organization’s work to push for a Capital Infrastructure Plan for the City of Los Angeles has been so important.
Submitted on August 18, 2023 - 3pm
VX News shares here a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), recently signed by Australian Consul General in Los Angeles Jane Duke (pictured) and California Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot, that outlines the areas of cooperation that California and Australia have committed to in the fight against climate change. In particular, the agreement outlines five years of collaboration on clean energy, clean transportation, clean technologies, nature-based solutions, climate adaptation, green finance and investment and circular economy.
Submitted on August 18, 2023 - 1pm
While the Port of Los Angeles’s Executive Director was in Asia and Australia this week to meet with various groups to promote trade in LA, Director Gene Seroka was interviewed by Bloomberg Asia’s Heslinda Amin and David Ingles to discuss where the Port stands at the midpoint of the year and just before its peak season. Based on the high inventory levels and the movement of some cargo to other ports around the country, Seroka anticipates a lower than usual peak season.
Submitted on August 18, 2023 - 1pm
In a landmark decision, brought on by a lawsuit filed against the state of Montana, Judge Kathy Seeley (pictured) has ruled in favor of a group of youth plaintiffs claiming the state violated their constitutional right to a 'clean and healthful environment' by prohibiting consideration under Montana's Environmental Protection Act (MEPA) of emissions and climate impacts when permitting fossil fuel projects. The lawsuit, which was filed three years ago by plaintiffs ranging in age from 5 to 22, could have nationwide impacts with the law firm that represented the youth due back in court next year against the state of Hawaii, which, like Montana, guarantees citizens a constitutional right to a quality environment.
Submitted on July 25, 2023 - 2pm
In this exclusive interview with VX News, former CA Senate Majority Leader and former Speaker of the State Assembly, Bob Hertzberg lays out five pieces of advice that he has learned throughout his impressive political career for a future generation of decision-makers, based on some of the mos
Submitted on July 24, 2023 - 5pm
TPR shares this op-ed by former member and board president of the Southern California Rapid Transportation District (RTD) and MTA board, Nick Patsaouras, who outlines the historic and political origins of LA Metro’s policing contracts in the 1990s and subsequent degradation of security on the system. Highlighting the work of former MTA Police Chief Sharon Papa, Patsaouras highlights the necessity of having consistent, dedicated personnel specifically hired, trained, and deployed to work in and address crime, security, and quality of life challenges on LA’s transit system.
Submitted on July 18, 2023 - 4pm
With California’s energy transition well underway with broad public--and now, federal-- support, how is the state transitioning from ambitious goal setting to the “Age of Implementation?” V
Submitted on July 18, 2023 - 3pm
With another $4 billion from the Biden administration & Congress on its way to electrify and cut emissions at our nation’s ports, the federal government is continuing to demonstrate the need for modernization and innovation of our maritime infrastructure.
Submitted on June 26, 2023 - 4pm
Liam Denning lays out how a $9.2 billion loan to Ford Motor Company is a large part of Biden Administration's foreign policy strategy aimed at taking on China's dominance in EV manufacturing.
Submitted on June 26, 2023 - 4pm
In April of the year, the EU adopted reforms and new targets for its Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) to expand the scope of the market-based program that is central to the EU’s decarbonization strategy and update targets aimed at achieving 62% reductions in carbon emissions by 2030. VX presents this timely point/counterpoint on emissions trading as a ‘tool in the toolbox’ for incentivizing carbon emissions reduction.
Submitted on April 23, 2023 - 9pm
As California faces the impacts of climate change—how to address the interconnected challenges facing the state's energy, water, and food systems remains a foremost challenge.
Submitted on April 23, 2023 - 5pm
With California High-Speed Rail updates putting its projected total cost at $128 billion, Brightline West’s new high speed rail connection between Southern California and Las Vegas plans to break ground sometime this year for a fraction of the cost.
Submitted on April 23, 2023 - 1pm
In alignment with the Biden administration’s government-wide commitment to combatting the climate crisis, Jake Levine serves as the first Chief Climate Officer of the US International Development Finance Corporation. As a global development finance institution, in this exclusive interview with VX News, he elaborates on the agency’s goal to drive a surge in climate finance in countries around the world focused on clean energy, ports, agriculture, the blue economy, and more.
Submitted on April 13, 2023 - 1pm
In this VX News interview, Jacot highlights some of the innovative rebates, pilots, and research through LADWP to increase adoption of solar resources in the City of Los Angeles.
Submitted on April 13, 2023 - 1pm
This Mono Lake team of water experts argue that the State Water Resources Control Board needs to update its rules that are supposed to raise Mono Lake to the mandated ecological protection level while enabling LADWP to obtain future water from Mono Lake.
