Regional smart grid leaders (including Hawaiian Electric's Rich Barone, pictured) discuss how the rollout of distributed generation, renewables, and electric and autonomous vehicles are shifting in relationships among energy customer, utilities, and municipalities.
This month, Automobility LA convened established and nascent industry leaders to elaborate on their vision of for an urban transportation future cultivated by public and private cooperation. VX News presents a discussion of this future among Ford Motors President and CEO Mark Fields, Los Angeles Chief Sustainability Officer Matt Petersen, and Chariot Co-founder and CEO Ali Vahabzadeh.
California State Senator Wieckowski opines on his SB 246's work to improve statewide resiliency coordination, as well as other accomplishments as Chair of the Senate Environmental Quality Committee.
Justin Trudeau remarks on the announcement that Canadian provinces have until 2018 to adopt a carbon-pricing scheme, or the federal government will step in and impose a price for them.
Seleta Reynolds joins VX News to discuss LADOT’s recently released Urban Mobility in the Digital Age report, which addresses the future of transportation in the city.
Clean energy champion Tom Steyer comments on the importance of the passage of CA Senate Bill 32 for cleantech investors and the low-carbon economy.
At the recently officially opened La Kretz Innovation Center (the home of the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator), leaders from the California Air Resources Board (CARB) co-hosted a valuable roundtable discussion event focusing on how state policies are driving technological innovation in California.
Dr. Gene Seroka of the Port of LA and Jeffrey Burgin of Pasha Stevedoring & Terminals share how the Green Omni Terminal demonstration proves zero-emission technologies can be integrated into our goods-movement system.
The City of Santa Monica has been awarded $1.5 million by the California Energy Commission to plan and permit a microgrid at their City Yards location, spurring a transformative upgrade to the enclave's energy infrastructure.
VX News checks in with Metropolitan Water District of Southern California General Manager Jeff Kightlinger on how water management continues to evolve in response to climate change and drought.
The California Air Resources Board’s most recent quarterly cap-and-trade auction was the first to result in only a fraction of available permits sold. Detractors used the weak auction results to highlight the program’s uncertain future, whereas advocates touted the state’s success in cutting carbon emissions quicker than expected. To CARB Chair Mary Nichols, who has overseen the leadership of the program since its inception, the auction showed that industries were keeping a lid on carbon emissions rather than buying permits to emit more. Nichols speaks to ongoing efforts to extend California’s carbon cap-and-trade system, and to expand the model to other states. Nichols also addresses the historic enforcement action and settlement with Volkswagen, which CARB led on negotiating.
Every day brings reports of urgent water shortages around the world; there’s no time to lose in the search for solutions. In 2008, Time Magazine named Gidon Bromberg, Nader Al-Khateeb, and Munqeth Mehyar “Heroes of the Environment” for their work as co-directors of EcoPeace Middle East, a unique organization that brings together Jordanians, Palestinians, and Israelis to cooperate on protecting and restoring their shared environmental heritage. Bromberg joins VX News to share EcoPeace’s success on watershed restoration in the Jordan River Valley, and its vision of sustainable regional development leading to lasting peace.
Pacific Gas & Electric’s recently announcement it would shut down the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant highlighted California’s rapidly shifting approach to the electric power grid. To California Energy Commission Chair Robert Weisenmiller, the decision was significant, but was just one of a multitude of tidal forces moving California towards a diverse, dynamic, and resilient renewable energy portfolio. In an exclusive interview with VX News, Weisenmiller explains the growth and importance of the regional Energy Imbalance Market, as well as the Energy Commission’s efforts to invest research dollars to advance community-scale microgrids and renewables.
Over the last decade, significant efforts by leaders in Sacramento, automobile manufacturers, and hydrogen-fueling station developers have laid the foundation for a statewide infrastructure to support hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. California now leads the nation in developing fueling stations, with 17 retail stations open now and more than 30 more in development. In April, leaders from the public and private sector showed off the readiness of this advanced technology by driving from Santa Monica to Sacramento in hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. VX News presents an excerpt of remarks from the event, featuring Tyson Eckerle (ZEV Infrastructure Deputy Director for the Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development), Mary Nichols (CARB Chair); Janea Scott (CEC Commissioner); Tony Vasquez (Mayor of Santa Monica); Dr. Clark Parker (South Coast AQMD Board Member); and Shane Stephens (True Zero co-founder).
Ontario finalized its cap-and-trade program in June, and will conduct the first auction in July. As a member of the Western Climate Initiative, the province has also signaled its intent to link its system to similar ones operating in Quebec and California. The Climate Change Mitigation and Low-Carbon Economy Act mandates that revenues from Ontario’s auctions go into the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Account to fund a number of diverse programs aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. But experts disagree on how the province can best recycle the cap-and-trade revenue. Before the program was finalized, the Canada EcoFiscal Commission hosted a roundtable of advocates from around the country representing priorities from social inequality to business development. VX News presents an excerpt of the debate with remarks by Chris Ragan, chair of the Canada EcoFiscal Commission; Rick Smith, executive director of the Broadbent Institute; Vicky Sharpe, senior fellow at the International Institute for Sustainable Development; Mike Moffat, chief economist at the Moet Center; and Mark Cameron, executive director of Canadians for Clean Prosperity.
Trailblazing New York City Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan joins TPR for an interview to highlight her new book StreetFight. Sadik-Khan transformed the Big Apple’s view on public spaces, bike sharing, mobility, and more. During her tenure between 2007-2013, Sadik-Khan implemented 400 miles of bikelanes, moved forward on 60 plazas, and started New York City’s first six rapid bus lines. She describes the trying process of implementing her vision of moving beyond taxis and endless congestion. As Los Angeles continues to deal with a fractured planning process, Sadik-Khan also offers some insights about trying innovative “complete street” pilot projects, incorporating stakeholder feedback, and carefully measuring the right data.
June marked the opening of the Electrical Training Institute, a cutting-edge sustainable facility in Commerce, CA that serves as a prototype for new green design guidelines known as Net Zero Plus. VX News spoke with Brett Moss, training director at the ETI; Warren Neilson, principal at design firm Stok; and Dan Cohee of PDE Energy, representing local unions IBEW/NECA, who developed the guidelines. They explained the state-of-the-art sustainable technologies incorporated into the microgrid facility, the high-performance controls afforded by data tracking, and how a Net Zero Plus building could be a model for community resilience in Los Angeles and beyond.
At the “Transit Oriented Los Angeles 2015” conference hosted by Urban Land Institute-LA in December, VerdeXchange Chairman David Abel moderated a discussion between California High-Speed Rail Authority CEO Jeff Morales and Metro CEO Phil Washington. Washington and Morales both emphasized their focus on the positive impacts transit build-out can produce for the communities it touches, if approached with care—and the steps they are taking to meet local needs and incorporate community feedback into plans that are expected to yield a transformative impact on the Southern California region as well as the entire state. They also discussed both the agency and authority’s efforts to protect and bolster local business as rail construction occurs.
The Coalition for Clean Air’s Port and Freight Solutions Symposium in October brought together over 100 port experts, environmental advocates, and government agencies concerned with improving air quality and efficiency through reducing greenhouse-gas emissions at the Port of Long Beach and Port of Los Angeles. Here, VX News presents edited excerpts from a number of panels that took place at the conference. Featured speakers include: California Air Resources Board Commissioner Hector De La Torre, Port of Long Beach Director of Environmental Planning Rick Cameron, ILWU’s Peter Peyton, and SoCalGas Director of Policy and Environment George Minter. These selections highlight promising new technology that could dramatically reduce truck emissions, as well as new initiatives underway at the ports.
In November, United States Vice President Joe Biden took part in a roundtable discussion at Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator’s newly opened LA Kretz Innovation Campus in Downtown LA’s Arts District. Biden spoke alongside Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and LACI CEO Fred Walti. The state-of-the-art facility, owned by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, supports and grows companies from the very beginning stages. Biden toured the campus, as well as hearing from investors and entrepreneurs launching companies within the incubator. Given the timing of the event, Biden also comments on global events and the need for optimism in the face of terror attacks.
