Los Angeles, CA – Today, Mayor Eric Garcetti released Los Angeles’ Green New Deal—the 2019 Sustainable City Plan—which provides a set of visions, targets, milestones and initiatives aimed at making L.A. carbon neutral. Among many important targets, the plan proposes to work towards a sunset strategy for oil and gas productions; improving tracking for emissions from imported oil and gas; developing a roadmap for creating fossil-fuel-free zones by 2021; creating 300,000 green jobs by 2035; increasing zero emission vehicles in the city to 25% by 2025; and reaching 80% renewable energy by 2036 while prioritizing environmental justice and just transition strategies that uplift workforce development.
In response to today’s release of L.A.’s Green New Deal, Communities for a Better Environment released the following statement: “We truly appreciate that Mayor Garcetti has made it clear that a just transition away from fossil fuels and towards a strong clean renewable energy economy starts with protecting and benefiting frontline communities,” said Bahram Fazeli, Policy Director at Communities for a Better Environment. “As the City begins to implement this plan, we urge Mayor Garcetti and the City Council to prioritize environmental justice issues such as: putting in place a 2,500-foot health and safety buffer for new and existing oil drilling operations; mandating Valero refinery in Wilmington that uses extremely dangerous and deadly modified hydrofluoric acid in its refining process to switch to safer alternatives; and continuing to work with community-based organizations for aggressively reducing cumulative impacts of pollution in Clean UpGreen Up Communities such as Wilmington.”