Celebrities Seek Renewable Energy Panel but None Join

Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn has turned to the stars for guidance.

Earlier this week, Hahn invited a passel of Hollywood luminaries, including Alec Baldwin and Benicio Del Toro, to serve on a new Green Ribbon Commission on renewable energy.

The invitation came after they and more than a dozen other film and television figures wrote the mayor earlier this week, urging him to beef up the city’s commitment to renewable power resources.

In response, the mayor asked them all into the city’s bureaucratic fold, although Deputy Mayor Doane Liu did express one concern: “Think of the limo problem. Where would they all park? Or all those Priuses?”

But it may be too much to hope that bureaucratic meetings will get an infusion of sex appeal and star power anytime soon. So far, not one of the stars has signed on for the new role.

“I’m an actor,” said Clancy Brown, who appeared in “Shawshank Redemption” and is the voice of Mr. Krabs on “Spongebob Squarepants.”

“If he wants a little guidance in how to deliver a speech, I can help him out.”

But in terms of how the city Department of Water and Power should shift its operations to rely more on wind, solar and geothermal energy and less on sources such as coal and nuclear power, Brown said he saw little need for long debate.

“The answers are there,” he said. “It’s an obvious step to take, and it really becomes a question of leadership.”

Bernadette Del Chiaro, a clean-energy advocate for Environment California, the group that wrangled the stars into signing the letter, said she was concerned that while celebrities had been invited to join the commission, no environmental advocates had been asked.

But a more important issue, she said, is whether the Green Ribbon Commission, and ultimately the Department of Water and Power, would achieve the city’s stated goal of producing 20% of the city’s power supply from renewable sources by 2017.

Already, she said, some environmentalists are concerned that the city may count large hydroelectric dams as a “renewable source.”

Liu said that was one issue the new task force would consider.

He said invitations would be going out to environmentalists and members of consumer groups, and that the commission membership could be finalized by next week.

Only the stars who wrote the mayor have been asked so far, Liu said, because when Hahn received their letter, he made a quick decision to invite them.

But the commission also is likely to include at least one more high-wattage star: Edward Norton, who met with Hahn earlier this year to talk about solar power.