LA Going Coal-Free

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Manuel Hernandez wants Los Angeles to end its reliance on coal power out of concern for his family's health.

"I have a sister who has respiratory problems," Hernandez said. "It's important for us to educate ourselves about these conditions and the environment."

Hernandez is a member of one community organization that attended this morning's news conference on ending LA's coal dependence. 

The City Council voted unanimously to approve a contract to make LA coal free by 2025, two years before California's state mandated deadline for eliminating the use of coal power in 2027.

"What we've created here today is a plan to get LA out of coal and to invest more of our money in local energy," said Evan Gillespie, a campaign representative for the Sierra Club.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the Department of Water and Power came together to announce the plan to go coal-free last month.

The DWP will end its contract two years early with a coal plant in Arizona and convert another in Utah to naural gas.

But getting rid of coal in LA is not going to be cheap. The DWP estimates it will cost $600 million.

But Lisa Camooso Miller, Vice President of Media Affairs with the American Coalition for Clean Coal, says if you're looking for an inexpensive energy source, look no further.

"Coal has consistently been the energy source in America that has remained steady and affordable," she said. "It's affordable, reliable and increasingly clean."

But it's not clean enough for LA, one of the most polluted cities in the United States. The Energy Information Administration reported earlier this month that carbon dioxide emissions have been decreasing since 2007 because of a shrinking reliance on coal power.