Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass on Dec. 4 announced a historic milestone in the city’s accelerated transition to 100 percent clean energy by 2035 -- the full divestment from coal in Los Angeles’ power supply.
“This achievement marks a pivotal step in the City’s decades-long commitment to environmental sustainability and climate leadership,” a news release from the mayor's office said.
“This is a defining moment for the City of Los Angeles. L.A.’s coal divestment is not just about discontinuing the use of coal to power our city — it’s about building a clean energy economy that benefits every Angeleno. This milestone will further accelerate our transition to 100 percent clean energy by 2035,” said Bass. “With major investments in solar, wind, and EV charging infrastructure, record amounts of stormwater captured, and bold initiatives in place to reduce carbon emissions citywide, we are taking action to build a cleaner, greener city that will benefit Angelenos for generations to come.”
“With today’s announcement, L.A. continues to take the lead in the fight against climate change,” said Councilmember Adrin Nazarian, Chair of the Council’s Energy and Environment Committee. “Eliminating the dirtiest form of greenhouse gases from our electrical system is a victory for our City, for our children, and for our planet. We, the people of Los Angeles, are able to strike this blow against climate change because we don’t depend on a corporate utility for our electricity. We own our power. And that’s why Los Angeles will continue to lead our country and the world on the march to 100 percent clean energy.”
“This transition has been years in the making,” said Los Angeles Department of Water and Power Chief Executive Officer and Chief Engineer Janisse Quiñones. “It reflects the hard work of our employees, the support of our customers, and the leadership of our elected officials. Together, we are building a cleaner, more resilient energy future for Los Angeles.”
“Retiring the coal units at the Intermountain Power Project is a major milestone for Los Angeles and one of the most significant clean-energy transitions in our nation’s history,” said Mary Leslie, President of the Los Angeles Business Council. “It proves that strong environmental leadership and economic growth go hand-in-hand as we work toward a fully carbon-free future.”
As of the week of Nov. 24, LADWP no longer receives coal-fueled energy from the Intermountain Power Project (IPP) facility in Utah, which had supplied the last remaining source of coal-fueled energy for the nation’s second-largest city.
This move follows LADWP’s earlier divestment from the Navajo Generating Station in 2016 and represents the fulfillment of a long-standing promise to eliminate coal from L.A.’s energy portfolio.
LADWP now utilizes energy from hydrogen-capable generating units that were recently constructed at the IPP facility, part of a modernization known as IPP Renewed. Those new units currently run on natural gas and are capable of running on a fuel blend of natural gas and up to 30 percent green hydrogen with a roadmap to eventually transition to 100 percent green hydrogen as a fuel source in the future. Green hydrogen is expected to be added to the fuel mix in 2026.
These changes at the IPP Renewed facility are instrumental to LADWP’s broader strategy for achieving 100 percent carbon-free energy by 2035, the public power utility said.
The city has made significant investments in solar, wind, battery storage, and other renewable technologies to replace fossil fuels and is working to expand local solar, energy efficiency, and demand response customer initiatives to further support this transition.
Los Angeles has achieved historic clean energy milestones in 2025. Over the summer, Bass celebrated the completion of the Eland Solar-plus-Storage Center, one of the largest solar and battery storage projects in the country and able to supply enough energy to power more than 260,000 L.A. households. Its commissioning helped LADWP’s power supply surpass 60 percent clean energy in 2025.
In 2013, then-Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced that Los Angeles would be coal-free in 2025. In 2016, under Mayor Eric Garcetti, LADWP divested from the coal-fueled Navajo Generating Station in Arizona. This left the Intermountain Power Project as the last remaining coal-fueled generating plant providing power to Los Angeles. Now, under Bass, the city has divested from coal entirely.
