Council Seeks to Switch Facilities to Green Power

In an effort to reduce pollution, the City Council moved to have all city facilities powered by more environmentally friendly sources of energy.

The council committed the city to use so-called green electricity to power all of its facilities, including Santa Monica Municipal Airport and City Hall. The term refers to sources of energy such as solar, wind and geothermal, which is derived from underground hot springs.

City officials said they would become the first U.S. city to be exclusively powered by renewably generated electricity.

Beginning this spring, Santa Monica will buy geothermal power from a generating facility in Northern California through Tustin-based Commonwealth Energy Corp.

Craig Perkins, director of the city’s Environmental and Public Works Management Department, said the city will eventually switch to geothermal power generation facilities being developed in the Salton Sea.

Susan Munves, conservation coordinator with the city’s Environmental Programs Division, said electrical generating plants are responsible for about one-third of all greenhouse gases emitted in the state. Santa Monica’s switch is expected to reduce emissions by more than 14,000 tons of the toxic substances annually, Munves said.

Perkins said the change is expected to cost the city up to $200,000 per year above its present average electricity bill of $2.3 million.