Los Angeles Pulls out of Coal Plant Investment

The City of Los Angeles has withdrawn from a consortium building a coal-fueled power plant in Utah:

Los Angeles was negotiating to receive 15% to 20% of the power from the plant when it begins operations in 2009. Currently, the city receives 44% of the electricity generated by two other coal plants operated by Intermountain Power in Utah.

The agency is financed by 37 cities and utilities.

More than half of the electricity that the DWP provides to the city's 3.8 million residents comes from coal-fired plants.

The cost of coal has been 4 cents or less per kilowatt in recent months, or 10 times less expensive than the DWP's current investment in solar power.

The money will instead go to fund investment in renewable energy sources.