Thread by @Sammy_Roth

I’m at the @labctweets Sustainability Summit at the Getty, starting shortly. Lots of interesting folks on the agenda, including @ericgarcetti, @LynnJurich, @laurafriedman43, @8thGenCA and more. Planning to tweet a bit. labusinesscouncil.org/events/sustain… #LABCSummit19

I just spoke briefly backstage with @ChrisHoldenNews, chair of CA Assembly utilities/energy committee. Asked him about PG&E's CEO pick, Bill Johnson. Holden said he was hoping the nominee would be from California. However: "I don't know him. For me the jury's still out."

Some background on Johnson, who is outgoing chief of the Tennessee Valley Authority: sfchronicle.com/business/artic…

By the way, if you're at #LABCSummit19 and just heard SCE's @CarolineChoi mention a story in the LA Times today, that was me. Read it here: latimes.com/business/la-fi…

First panel getting started here. Folks from @AECOM, @SCE, @Sunrun, @californiapuc, @Siemens and the Legislature. #LABCSummit19

(By the way, I also spoke with @PickerCPUC briefly backstage. He told me he likes my tweets about the Dodgers because they're more positive than most of what's in his feed.)

Edison's Chris Thompson: “5 years ago, panels like this...we would have been talking about the worst drought in CA history. Now we’re talking about a wildfire crisis ... The climate is changing right before our eyes. We’re witnessing change. We have to react.” #LABCSummit19

Thompson mentions Skirball fire, which threatened Getty Center (setting for today's event). The fire also threatened Leo Baeck Temple across street. A few months ago, I heard the rabbi tell the story of racing to synagogue to remove the Torah scrolls, just in case. #LABCSummit19

Asked about PG&E and fires, Holden raises concerns Edison, SDG&E: "We are equally if not more concerned now about the creditworthiness of the other two investor-owned utilities. It’s very hard to feel confident that your (climate) goals are going to be met." #LABCSummit19

Holden calls out the credit rating agencies: “They need to stand down a little bit, because they’re scaring everybody with every headline that they write, with every downgrade that they propose…I guess it’s designed to put pressure on us to move sooner than later." #LABCSummit19

"I think we’re going to move smart, and not too fast," Holden says. Describes plan to create a wildfire insurance fund that utilities can tap (if not negligent). He calls it "the surest way to create stability with the utilities." (See: sfchronicle.com/business/artic…). #LABCSummit19

.@PickerCPUC estimates nearly $1 billion (!!) will be spent on lawyers' fees in PG&E bankruptcy. " This is sort of a titanic struggle being very high-powered, expensive law firms … Our job is to protect the ratepayers." #LABCSummit19

Picker also brings up idea of microgrids as a wildfire solution that reduces need for risky poewr lines, which I wrote about recently: latimes.com/business/la-fi…. Picker says the Tubbs fire was actual ignited by a "backyard microgrid." #LABCSummit19

More from Picker: "You’re just sometimes moving the point of ignition around. Resiliency in this era of extreme fire danger may not be a simple task easily solved by technology. We may be talking about larger questions of where it’s appropriate...to build homes.” #LABCSUmmit19

Picker also says clean electricity should be used to reduce emissions in other sectors -- including natural gas for heating and cooking in buildings, topic of my story yesterday: latimes.com/business/la-fi… #LABCSummit19

Picker: "How do we convince people that backyard pizza ovens with natural gas probably aren’t as good as an invection oven? People are going to have to go back to @rachaelray to get her to change those recipes. But it works, and it’s cost effective.” #LABCSummit19

.@Sunrun co-founder/CEO @LynnJurich now touting her company's proposal, released today, to replace L.A.'s three coastal gas-fired power plants with a "virtual power plant" of rooftop solar and batteries across tens of thousands of homes: sunrun.com/home-solar-blo… #LABCSummit19

I broke the story about Mayor @ericgarcetti's decision back in February to shut down those gas plants rather than re-power them: latimes.com/business/la-fi… #LABCSummit19

Jurich says L.A. could replace peak capacity of 1 gas plants with solar + batteries in 75,000 homes. She also notes San Diego has 5X greater solar penetration than L.A. “We can move quickly, we can put this up in a single day, a rooftop system and a battery.” #LABCSummit19

This is all super interesting, but I have my usual complaint about conference panels: There's near-zero actual discussion among panelists. It's just a series of back-to-back presentations. Let the panelists talk to each other! #LABCSummit19

Case in point: Chris King, chief policy officer for digital grid at @Siemens, is just now talking for the first time, more than an hour into this panel. #LABCSummit19

King says utilities generally know how to get to 80% carbon-free electricity, last 10-20% will be hard part. “We don’t need new technology to get there, but we need smarter application of technologies.” Mentions smart EV charging, electrification of home heating. #LABCSummit19

Eric Garcetti is talking now. I wonder if we'll see a nice Getty Center photo on his Instagram later. #LABCSummit19

Garcetti on the climate crisis. “We’ve paved more streets than any administration in L.A. history. But who cares about potholes if Venice is underwater?" #LABCSummit19

More Garcetti: "Imagine for a moment Los Angeles overwhelmed with 1 million climate refugees. I don’t think we’ll be talking much about planning the Olympics and the Paralympics." #LABCSummit19

Garcetti previews goals in upcoming release of L.A.'s 2nd sustainability plan: Every building emissions-free by 2050, entire transportation system carbon-free, zero waste sent to landfills, 100% of wastewater recycled by 2035, 100% zero-carbon electricity by 2035. #LABCSummit19

Garcetti, who is not running for president, has advice on climate change for those who are: "First, go big. Don’t worry about the naysayers and keep pushing forward…whatever seems like radical ideas one year, a year or two later seems timid.” #LABCSummit19

Garcetti also plugs scooters, with more advice to candidates: "Don't be afraid of making a mess ... The rollout of electric scooters in a city is messy, is complicated. But people are voting with their feet to get out of cars. Let’s find a way to embrace that.” #LABCSummit19

Another panel getting started. It is crowded, with folks from @CleanPowerInfo, @8minutenergy, @CalEnergy, @LADWP and @cejapower, plus @laurafriedman43. #LABCSummit19

Question for @laurafriedman43: What's next for Legislature on implementing 100% clean energy? She mentions barriers to home batteries, difficulty of getting offshore wind and big solar farms permitted, plus CA moving in "wrong direction" on transportation emissions. #LABCSummit19

Clean Power Alliance exec director @TedBardacke says ~275,000 of CPA's 900,000-plus customers are on the 100% renewable energy plan. Says low-income customers are getting the 100% renewables plan at no additional cost, a subsidy of $5 million. #LABCSummit19

Bardacke also says Clean Power Alliance will be first CCA to buy standalone energy storage. Says it will be located in Moorpark, a capacity-constrained area impacted by the Woolsey fire. Idea is to start providing backup power to high fire-risk areas. #LABCSummit19

8minutenergy CEO Tom Buttgenbach says his company is now developing solar farms with energy storage that will have 60-70% capacity factors. “We can offer that now at the same cost as a modern, high-efficiency combined cycle gas turbine." #LABCSummit19

Buttgenbach: "There’s no more reason from an economic perspective to build any more gas-fired power plants." #LABCSummit19

As long as everyone is paying attention: Please support my reporting by subscribing to @latimes! membership.latimes.com #LABCSummit19

LADWP general manager David Wright says he'll soon ask board to expand the fully subscribed feed-in tariff program that promotes commercial solar projects. Will ask for 50 MW per year over next 3 years, doubling size of program. #LABCSummit19

Gladys Limon from @cejapower talking environmental justice, mentions that 1 in 3 Hispanic residents and 1 in 4 African American residents of California live in 20% of polluted communities in the state, as opposed to 1 in 14 white residents. #LABCSummit19

Limon touts pollution benefits of converting gas appliances to electricity, but says key risk is that only wealthy communities will be able to afford it, stranding low-income areas with higher costs of maintaining gas grid. (See: latimes.com/business/la-fi…) #LABCSummit19

.@laurafriedman43 says she recently authored a bill with @PhilTing that would require all cars sold in California to be electric after a certain point, but the bill was held in transportation committee and isn't moving forward. #LABCSummit19

Friedman says she’d like to see bulk of money for cleaning up transporation going into public transit, not electric vehicles: “We’re not going to be a real city until I could have gotten here by subway.” #LABSummit19

I’m a bit behind, but there’s a water and energy panel now at #LABCSummit19.

Probably every water person knows this already, but eye-popping stat from @8thGenCA: Southern California gets two-thirds of its rainfall in 14 days. #LABCSummit19

Jeff Kightlinger also just cracked a joke about how the downsized Delta tunnel project will get a new CEQA review, but football stadiums don’t. #LABCSummit19